Concierge medicine for your hoo-ha! (Paywalled)
The Billionaires’ Vagina Club
With her motto, “Sexual health is health,” Dr. Sally Greenwald aims to optimize orgasms for the women of Silicon Valley.
newyorker.com
Curious reader — 75 sources in 90 days
Also a writer — 5 original pieces this quarter
Concierge medicine for your hoo-ha! (Paywalled)
The Billionaires’ Vagina Club
With her motto, “Sexual health is health,” Dr. Sally Greenwald aims to optimize orgasms for the women of Silicon Valley.
newyorker.com
Some (well-informed) speculation on the president's next moves could be in the "election fraud" skirmishes, especially as the SAVE Act continues to be dead on arrival.
What Trump May Say During His Thursday Address on Election Integrity
Really, who knows what Trump will say?
michaelmcdonald.substack.com
Glad this story got the New Yorker treatment it deserved.
Did a Climber Leave His Girlfriend to Die at the Top of a Mountain?
An Austrian court pieces together the mysterious circumstances of a couple’s disastrous hike.
newyorker.com
This is quite the line: "if Trump is 'a poor person’s idea of a rich person,' Platner is basically the opposite — a rich person’s idea of a working-class person." (The rest of the piece is good too.)
I have never been working class
Unlike some American elites, I actually understand this fact.
open.substack.com
As a (admittedly latent/dormant) Orioles fan, knowing how this tradition started delights me.
How Yelling “O!” During the National Anthem Became a Statement of Baltimore Pride
Unsurprisingly, the hometown tradition started during the Orioles’ rowdy, it’s-not-over-until-it’s-over summer of 1979.
baltimoremagazine.com
Is this clickbait? It might be clickbait. But it's a wild story and takes 2 minutes to read.
Student pilot, 22, is forced to land her plane alone after instructor leaps to his death from cockpit mid-flight in Argentina | Daily Mail Online
The 22-year-old had been training with her instructor, Leandro Bertazzo (pictured), 42, in a Cessna C-150 when he evacuated the aircraft.
dailymail.com
The Argument dropping a #slatepitch that has some merit to it.
Should DayQuil be legal?
The combo drug grift is dangerous
theargumentmag.com
Mind your coffee grounds and pet pee! Keep PDX green!
oregonlive.com
ESPN writer has accident, loses arm, posts a GoFundMe and... Gets milkshake duck'd?
Matt Miller's charitable efforts face scrutiny amid life-threatening car crash
As ESPN NFL Draft analyst Matt Miller recovers from a near-fatal accident, questions have emerged about his charitable efforts.
awfulannouncing.com
Rare is it that a 10 year anniversary reprint makes me audibly chortle but this one did it for me. I may have even guffawed.
Opioid of the Masses (From 2016)
To many, Donald Trump feels good, but he can’t fix America’s growing social and cultural crisis, and the eventual comedown will be harsh.
theatlantic.com
RICE is out for the standard of care?
Column | There’s a new way to treat sprains and strains. Hint: Ice is out.
If you think you need rest, ice and ibuprofen, think again.
washingtonpost.com
A whole site of slightly off kilter, meditative game-like experiences.
screen toys
screen.toys
A look at how transit-oriented development could impact Portland. (With maps and a fun little tool.)
Why Oregon Needs Transit Oriented Upzoning
2025 was a big year for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) on the US West Coast. Washington and California both passed major bills that set statewide standards for zoning around transit stations: * SB 79 in California required cities to legalize 6-9 story buildings near transit, with different standards for higher
urbanpdx.blog
We're returning logs to the river in Washington. I hope they are taking salmon counts in the years before and after, both in the Toutle, and other similar rivers, to understand the impact.
Salmon habitat restoration: Group uses helicopters to carry logs to South Fork Toutle River
TOUTLE — The whomp-whomp-whomp of helicopter blades carried for miles across the South Fork Toutle River valley Thursday as crews from Oregon-based Columbia Helicopters carried logs from a timber harv
columbian.com
Somewhat ironically, Wham-O discs were always considered irregular and we only used Discraft discs for Ultimate.
Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees | January 23, 1957 | HISTORY
The first Frisbees—originally known as "flying saucers"—are produced in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
history.com
Florida.
Florida Has Sentenced Some Alligators to a Terrible Fate. No One Realizes Exactly How Horrifying It Is. I Went There to Find Out.
In the manicured suburbs of Florida, the American alligator is facing a strange existential crisis.
slate.com
Folks in Portland aren't the only ones fighting the good and holy war against trees of heaven.
denverite.com
A legitimately decent deep dive on futbol tactics in advance of Japan v. Brazil today.
How Japan’s strategy for overcoming 100 schoolkids might help to eliminate Brazil
Hotaru Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Kiyotake and Yosuke Ideguchi taking on 100 schoolchildren on a full-sized football pitch may be in evidence today
nytimes.com
The repo man cometh.
The Repo Man Coming for Your Ride
As America’s auto debt nears $1.7 trillion, repossessions are reaching levels not seen since the Great Recession. Inside an industry at the front line of the country’s affordability crisis.
newyorker.com
It never occurred to me that as part of a content backlash libraries might move YA books to the adult section. Ultimately I'm not sure how much it matters. The kids who read are the kids who will seek these out regardless, no?
Are Public Libraries Becoming Children’s Libraries?
Books written for younger audiences are being relocated to adult sections at alarming rates. We asked experts to predict what that means for the rest of us.
404media.co
Half a billion dollars towards the broad-based elimination of respiratory infections seems like a smart use of money.
Ending respiratory infections
Introducing Intercept, a $500M bet to make respiratory infections like colds and flu a thing of the past.
open.substack.com
I had assumed the incentives of the 48 team field was the primary cause for the scoring boom. I didn't know about deep seams for in flight stability!
Goals are being scored at a record pace at the World Cup. The ball is one reason for the surge
It’s been goals galore so far at the World Cup. The tournament in the U.S., Mexico and Canada has been one of the highest-scoring in history.
apnews.com
I feel like I hear pika more frequently than I see them. Also, obligatory: <pickachu-face.jpg>
Do you like tiny, furry, squeaky animals? Cascades Pika Watch wants your help
Cascades Pika Watch already has over 400 trained volunteers out looking for pikas this summer. But the group is still looking for more. Participants can train online for free.
opb.org
Yglesias on urban planning and why we should abandon it entirely. There are obviously positives to urban planning but it is one of those things where the pros are legible to folks and the cons aren't, so the actual trade-offs happening in practice are poorly understood by most everyone...
Against urban planning
What I didn’t learn from playing SimCity with a former mayor
open.substack.com
On color. Not going to spoil it any more than the headline.
Where to Find the Colors Your Screen Can’t Show You
An atlas of the vibrance of the real world
moultano.wordpress.com
Don't trust what the government says, sheeple. Do your own research! These folks are out here, asking the right questions.
Mount Saint Helens WAS an Inside Job
I know it. You know it.
mountsainthelens.info
I hadn't realized the scope of incoming philanthropic money. I agree with the author that most existing orgs aren't a great fit for the folks who will have this cash. It seems too optimistic to say "hey, we're about to have billions of dollars to spend on thousands of new philanthropy startups" so I'm skeptical but sometimes a little optimism is good. We'll see!
The third wave of American philanthropy
AI is about to generate hundreds of billions in new philanthropic funding. We have real work to do to make the most of it.
open.substack.com
Today in "everything is a trade-off": accuracy vs. privacy in economic data... and if you release it at all.
A New Threat to Economic Data
A Commerce Department policy risks damaging the public’s understanding of the economy.
agglomerations.eig.org
When they say it's better to burn out than fade away, pretty sure this is what they're talking about.
I Went to One of the Last-Ever Shows of a Beloved Rock Band. What I Saw Was Haunting and Strange.
His desiccated performance and chintzy stage show eerily reflected his dark
slate.com
Setting aside the politics and the optics of the thing, I legitimately wanted to know about more about the algeafication process of the reflecting pool and this Newsweek article was capable enough to help me out.
American flag blue to pipes: 4 theories why Lincoln Memorial Pool is now green
Reflecting Pool turns green days after $14M revamp—here’s why algae blooms may be linked to heat, design changes, and long-standing infrastructure issues.
newsweek.com
I find this author's theory of the mind for LLMs pretty shallow but I love their conception of feedback, on its purpose and how to (try to) make it valuable. Way back when, when I was a writing tutor, I was often struck by how useless my advice seemed to be and I think this piece captures a lot of why that was. Which is to say, I was treating their writing as a problem to be solved rather than their person as a thing to be fostered.
Feedback: Human and Not
Acts of community.
open.substack.com
As someone who was in violation of this permit this weekend, I support this protest. It's also basically completely unenforced so it feels like it's just punishment for folks that *aren't* scofflaws, which isn't great.
Hundreds Take To The Clackamas River In Protest Of Paddle Permit Signed By Tina Kotek
Hundreds of Oregonians hit the Clackamas River this weekend for a "Float for Freedom" event aimed at pushing back against what many (including ourselves) see as yet another unnecessary fee
thatoregonlife.com
I dunno y'all. If the problem is housework, if you're rich and successful, have you considered marrying for love and then just getting an au pair or other live-in help? Or is it still to scary to marry your equal (or, God forbid, someone smarter/more talented than you)?
Matchmakers Are Being Paid $25K to Find Trad Wives for Rich Men
Even in blue states, nonreligious tech entrepreneurs and CEOs are increasingly asking for “traditional” and “conservative” women, matchmakers tell WIRED.
wired.com
"As Jeremy Gordon writes, “everything is ‘cringe’ from the right perspective.” 2010 is thus a perfect reference point: the year Instagram launched, with smartphone adoption rapidly growing but still far from the saturation point—the twilight of unself-consciousness. Older millennials were caught on the wrong side of this divide, living their formative years in a time that was increasingly documented for social media without thinking to posture for it."
An Obituary for Edward Sharpe, the Magnetic Zeros, and Earnestness
As its latest menacing wave of virality peters out, we celebrate the most cringe artifact from the most cringe period in human history.
vice.com
In the last 17 years, 30 states have raised their minimum wage, 20 of them haven't. What can we learn about employment effects from that?
A Minimum Wage Natural Experiment Has Been Running for Over a Decade
When 30 States Raised Minimum Wages, What Happened to Pay and Jobs?
open.substack.com
Understanding the Riemann hypothesis.
The Riemann Hypothesis — A Visual Journey
An interactive journey from 'what is a prime number?' to a genuine understanding of the most important unsolved problem in mathematics.
riemann.adilmoujahid.com
As someone who has been in PDX for two decades, I still love learning about these delightful "old Portland" spots. Adding this one to the list to check out.
For 132 Years, Rich’s Cigar Store Has Been Purveyor to Portland’s Nicotine Habit
Talking to tobacconist Bill Shindler about tobacco is like chatting with Miles Davis about jazz.
wweek.com
Did you know the government (through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) give yelp-style star ratings for hospitals and other medical providers? And it's all publicly accessible? I didn't know until this last month.
Find Healthcare Providers: Compare Care Near You | Medicare
Find Medicare-approved providers near you & compare care quality for nursing homes, doctors, hospitals, hospice centers, more. Official Medicare site.
medicare.gov
A rousing defense of...healthcare insurers? I still think there's a huge element of kludge / pain introduced by (primarily employer-based) private healthcare insurance but I do think they are unfairly maligned.
Insurers aren't the main villain of the U.S. health care system
A repost from the Noahpinion archive.
open.substack.com
Yglesias giving voice to one of my biggest pet peeves in AI debates. It's not that people's theory of the mind for the AI is wrong, it's that their theory of the mind for *humans* is wrong (or non-existent).
Nobody knows what they’re talking about on A.I. consciousness
Your hot takes won’t solve the major riddles of Western philosophy.
open.substack.com
It's been 13 years since Seabird User @conorpwilliams wrote this and I still think about it now and again.
Thus Blogged Zarathustra
Zarathustra came upon a video on the edge of a website. Below it, he found a roiling sinkhole of ceaseless snark, for the bouncing baby on the screen wore a ...
mcsweeneys.net
Shots fired at Portland, Oregon luminary Ted Kaye
The flag stranglers - Works in Progress Magazine
Most flags used to be ugly. They were probably better that way.
worksinprogress.co
For my Oregon parents out there, see how many kids are getting opted out of vaccines in your school.
oregonlive.com
I don't know anything about the author (and I found the throat clearing in this piece a bit exhausting) but I found it a compelling tale of what it's like to Be Cancelled. I always found the anonymous pitchfork thing unbecoming and super problematic, even when many of the folks totally deserved it. I'm glad we've (mostly) moved past this period of excess.
On being canceled before it was cool
I got better, but being a newt actually did kind of suck
open.substack.com
In my philosophy career / epistemology classes, we would occasionally discuss the color "grue" Perhaps we should have been using "magenta" all along.
The colour magenta does not exist anywhere in the spectrum of visible light, and your brain manufactures it on the spot whenever red and blue cones fire together, inventing a hue to fill a gap that ph
Stare at a rainbow and try to find magenta. It will not be there. The visible spectrum runs from roughly 700 nanometre red at one end to about 380
maketecheasier.com
I find this a fascinating cultural artifact.
I Didn’t Want Weight Loss to Be the Thing That Cured Me. It Did Anyway
Do I owe anyone an explanation about how or why I got on GLP-1s?
vogue.com
This is a very silly but enjoyable vibe coded app.
CANCELLED? — Cancel Culture Checker
Find out if your fave is cancelled. AI-powered cancel culture checker from a Gen Z progressive perspective.
whoiscancelled.netlify.app
We are spending money to...remove perfectly good buoys that passively record data? What are we even doing here?
Trump Administration Invests in Removing Ocean Research Buoys
Moving the objectives of Project 2025 one step closer to completion, the National Science Foundation is removing 900 ocean data collecting buoys that...
maritime-executive.com
On one human cost of living/working in the tech industry. (An aside: I appreciate something that takes less than one minute to read in today's attention economy.)
1, #185 - Grief in the Valley
Estimated Read Time: 58 seconds.
jwby.substack.com
Wild ramp poaching
It’s the Most Obsessed-Over Vegetable in America. You’re Probably Looking For It. You Might Help Kill It All.
This unassuming allium is a victim of its own success.
slate.com