iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ok, final point of this thread. Another of Powell’s fixations is Burlington’s 2020 decision to defund its police department, cutting it by 30%. Powell insinuates this was bc of harm reduction activism. In fact, it was successful racial justice advocacy in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

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To read the piece, you’d think there are no playgrounds left for children in Burlington or Seattle. Luckily I have a pal in Seattle with a toddler and a baby who could help me with my fact check. I asked if she finds playgrounds unsafe. She laughed & said “we go to like 500000 playgrounds a day.”

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A lot of the piece is misleading but technically accuraye. For example, he talks about seeing more people using drugs than children at some parks in Seattle’s International District. But, as my friend who lives there pointed out, this is a commuter neighborhood w/o many kids in the first place.

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Which is where we get into actual misinformation. Powell writes: "When BC banned illicit-drug use within 50 feet of a...playground...the provincial supreme court blocked the law." But possession near a playground was already illegal. It was right wing politicians who claimed otherwise.

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Powell attacks harm reduction while all but ignoring some of its most successful interventions—like using services (ex handing out sleeping bags) to connect people to treatment, and community naloxone. Instead, he rotates between a few personal fixations. One is people using drugs on playgrounds.

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Hannah Harris Green @whatsitlike.me · 30/09/2026

Not only that, but shortly after the overdose prevention center in Red Deer, Alberta closed, the president of the local firefighter's union complained that overdose related emergency calls skyrocketed in the area. The same thing just happened after another Alberta OPC shut down in Calgary.

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In order to support his conclusion that closing OPCs is good policy, Powell vaguely points to a study about a closed OPC in Alberta, without naming the authors or journal. Maybe that’s because a quick search immediately reveals the study’s authors were the same ppl who advocated for the closure.

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Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

He also mocks cities like New York, Providence and Burlington for pointing to Vancouver’s overdose prevention centers as evidence of their effectiveness. Which makes no sense, because they were extremely effective! Even Powell begrudgingly admits this in places.

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Reposted by Hannah Harris Green

Another gorgeous (and mysterious!) globular seen by Hubble, and a mea culpa by me about yesterday's article on the very weird Gabriel's Horn. badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-globular... 🧪 🔭

badastronomy.beehiiv.com

A globular mystery, a Virgo triple, and an infinite mistake by me

A little something for everyone today

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But one by one, Canadian OPCs are being shut down. This is not because they didn't successfully save lives. It's because Canada is moving to the right politically and away from harm reduction—something that is happening around the globe. Powell thinks these closures are a good thing.

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This is my beat, but fact checking this piece taught me a lot. I learned abt the extraordinary success of Canadian overdose prevention centers (OPCs)— where people can inject drugs w supervision to avoid overdose & infection. 2 decades in operation, millions of injections overseen, only 1 death.

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A great way to help counter this trend is to support independent progressive journalists (like me!) 😇

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Did the store owner give testimony saying he’d lost $400k to shoplifting? Yes. Did he say it was all because people were stealing to buy drugs? No. Did he even mention drugs or addiction in the testimony? NO!!!! And if ever the word “addict” had the flavor of a slur, it’s in this piece…

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bjkeefe @bjkeefe.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There are also lots of bits like this, where Powell adds a nasty little flourish to the truth: "In testimony before the state legislature, the owner of Outdoor Gear Exchange reported that in 2024, the business lost an estimated $400,000 to shoplifting, as addicts stole to support their habit."

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Reposted by Hannah Harris Green

I can only hope people from @theatlantic.com see this.

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The most infuriating bits, in my opinion, were all the "gotcha" passages explaining that overdoses were higher in the post-pandemic years than they were in 2014—in the cities that "embraced harm reduction." THIS WAS TRUE NATIONALLY. And this was absolutely true in red states and cities, too

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I'll admit that I only read it sporadically but am very aware this isn't their first bad take. But I still think there's genuine value in fact checking articles like this that generate a lot of discussion and could be used as justification for bad policy. Powell is getting a lot of interviews rn

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Hannah Harris Green @whatsitlike.me · 28/09/2026

The math errors are far from the biggest problem with the piece—but they are telling about how author Michael Powell thinks. A symptom of bigotry is considering your feelings about a group more important than facts. Powell didn't seem to think accuracy was important for his argument..

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When I set out to fact check “The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs” which argues that harm reduction may increase overdoses, I expected some cherry picking and misdirection. But not to find basic math errors and debunked right wing talking points asserted as fact in the Atlantic’s print edition.

whatsitlike.me

Atlantic's anti-harm reduction screed riddled with errors

A close read of "The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs" found errors in basic arithmetic as well as more deliberately misleading elements

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Hannah Harris Green @whatsitlike.me · 27/09/2026

I did it, I thought of the ultimate quiz to figure out if you have ADHD or not. Only one question needed: Which sounds easier? A. Training your dog to tell you not to forget your keys and phone (wallets are over, thank god.) B. Training yourself not to forget your keys and phone.

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Reposted by Hannah Harris Green

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This story and the story of the Collins corruption allegations broke the same day, and in one instance the administration is alleging fraud to remove access to healthcare, and in the other they are stopping anti-corruption investigations of political allies.

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I don’t disagree with you but there are a lot of situations (like public spaces or your own property) where you actually legally need consent to record audio but not video. Depending on the state etc.

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Have to admit it's nice to hear about a pivot to audio, for once. But Zuckerberg suggesting that Meta glasses that just record audio all the time instead of video will be less creepy and problematic is so funny. So many people will unknowingly break two party consent laws. It's gonna be a mess.

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I meant heightened overdose risk after abstinence, shoot. Or course I make a typo while complimenting someone else’s accuracy. 🧪

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Hayden Panettiere's death highlights risk of overdose death after stopping and resuming drug use

Unusually good drug reporting by AP (about a less unusual tragedy) There are a bunch of clear, useful and accurate medical talking points. Including: *Full list of implicated substances *List of evidence based medical treatments for opioid addiction *Heightened detox risk after abstinence

apnews.com

A coroner’s report notes that actor Hayden Panettiere had been in rehabilitation just weeks before she died from an accidental drug overdose.

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Reposted by Hannah Harris Green

NPR @npr.org · 24/09/2026

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s annual financial disclosure revealed he has received two lucrative book advances and free flights from a friend while in office. n.pr/47iXxbW

n.pr

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Hannah Harris Green @whatsitlike.me · 24/09/2026

“It is leveraged as leverage.” (Phrase written by an LLM) Sometimes I just am maybe not as worried as I should be about these silly bots.

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The way this administration brags about taking healthcare away from people…

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He headed the syringe exchange committee at ACT UP. He is one of the reasons clean syringe programs are a widely accepted public health intervention. When he was alive, clean syringes were considered illegal drug paraphernalia.

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There’s this false binary in the most visible accounts of HIV activism that pretends gay men & ppl who use IV drug were entirely separate groups, and that the former were more capable organizers than the latter. People like Rod Sorge tear this narrative apart. He was gay. And he injected drugs.

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