This quote by @joshtpm.bsky.social of @talkingpointsmemo.com is 🔥 “has a feeling of drift, spectacle and fragmentation. Trump's ballroom epitomizes it —crass, stupid, vulgar, unacceptable and yet ultimately meaningless.” Via @hcrichardson.bsky.social Read here: open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Do yourself a favor, go see some art over the holidays! I finally got a chance to check out the new expansion of the Portland Art Museum and I feel lighter than when I went in. 1) Jeffery Gibson 2) Keith Haring 3) Amy Sherald (who painted Michelle Obama’s portrait) #artmuseum #museum #pdx

A Kia EV6 happily charging away in the parking lot next to Reed Canyon. They installed 6 EV charger handles spread around the Reed Campus this year and I’m happy to see them frequently in use when I walk my dog through here in the mornings. @reed.edu

Holiday zone.

A lot of friends ask me for advice on what EV to buy. I never recommend Toyota or Subaru for 2 reasons: 1) they are almost worst in class when it comes to charge speed, features, & range. 2) the CEO of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, supports Trump. He wears a MAGA hat. The 2 things are connected. #nokings

Finally some pushback on the narrative that EVs failed. No, they didn’t. The US failed. If there had been no additional tariffs on EVs then we would have inexpensive electric cars and US and Japanese brands would be forced to compete. But with no pressure they have just moved backwards.

Cappuccino at Exquisite Creatures Coffee today in the Central Eastside of Portland today. Got the Polestar 2 EV a spot right up front!

A few weeks ago I did a talk for Carnegie and Metropolis Magazine on sustainable design. In it I talk about my journey as an industrial designer from the later 90's to today and how I came to pushing my practice more towards sustainable projects. It just went public: youtu.be/wo_h-aKNwjM?...

Check out this story about how far ahead Uruguay is on renewable energy! Via @350pdx.bsky.social @biancagraulau.bsky.social

Vegan eats today in Portland. Started with an oat milk Cappuccino from La Lucha coffee inside of Enso winery on SE Stark and then a vegan Munster cheese, honey squash and pepper sandwich with a side of a simply amazing potato salad from V Topian #pdx #veganfood

Go see art in person. It will lift your soul & galleries like the foot traffic even if you aren’t in a position to buy. A little jaunt to galleries in NW Portland today in our Polestar 2 EV. Work by: Samantha Wall Heather Lee Birdsong Jaq Chartier samanthawall.com heatherleebirdsong.com jaqbox.com

Cappuccino from Heretic Coffee today in SE Portland. #pdx #pdxcoffee #butfirstcoffee

Are we done with this yet? #nokings @ezralevin.bsky.social @indivisible.org

Coffee this afternoon at the Bipartisan Cafe in the Montavilla neighborhood of Portland. I got a parking spot for the Ioniq right in front of the old Academy Theater… and I saw another Ford Th!nk EV while driving! Maybe this is the same one I saw the other day? Hard to tell but it’s the same color.

Lunch time walk through the Reed College Canyon. I’m lucky to live and work just a few blocks from this absolute natural space well within the city limits of Portland, just a few miles from downtown. I try to get over here for a walk once a day. #pdx #portland #reedcollege

Holidays, PNW style, with gothMAS at Holocene featuring 3 tribute bands: Constant Debauchery (Depeche Mode), Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (The Cure), and Precious Machinery (Siouxsie and the Banshees). I might have to go to this! www.holocene.org/event/gothma...

One of my favorite Nikes that I designed that never made it to production. The Nike E-Scape Trainer. #indsutrialdesign #footweardesign #sneakers

EV life: a cappuccino on a very rainy day with my friend @jamesowendesign.bsky.social at The Stacks, a bookstore/coffee shop in North Portland. Phew this atmospheric river is making things wet and dark, but that is what coffee is for I suppose! www.thestackscoffeehouse.com

Why is Chuck Schumer still the head of the senate democrats? He is polling as the least popular politician in the US & has shown that he is not up to the moment. Someone from the “Senate Fight Club” should be the Democtatic leader. I suggest @merkley.senate.gov www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...

EV life. The car is so quiet that the tires on wet road sound loud in comparison. They sound like studded tires on the video. In actuality it’s quiet. When a silly loud V8 burping through its gears failed to pass us I told my nephew “hey buddy, that’s what slow cars sound like” 😆 Quiet is better.

The Portland Water Bureau instagram account always makes me chuckle.😅

It seems like most times one of my apps updates I get a notification for an AI feature that I don’t want but will drain my battery. I always turn it off. It seems like we are at the Idiocracy Brawndo stage of circular marketing with AI. “It’s got electrolytes” What that? “What plants crave”

With the news that Ford is canceling the F150 Lightening a lot of folks might be reading the tea leaves wrong. This isn’t the end of EVs. 25% of all cars sold globally are an EV. But it doesn’t look good for the company that had to cancel the ICE Focus, Fiesta, Eco Sport, Fusion, & now Escape SUV.

The US is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Since 1960 it has studied Earth's atmosphere, meteorology, climate science, the Sun, and the impacts of weather and climate. Via @hcrichardson.bsky.social Read more here: heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-1...

That first time anything I designed was in the Apple Store! The BOOM Urchin Bluetooth speaker. #industrialdesign #tech

I just opened this holiday card from my neighbor. I love this cute summation of life in Portland with a 12 days of Christmas theme! ☺️🎄

Well, at least one of us is already on holiday break. 😆 #dogsofbluesky

A group of high school students in Georgia asked me to submit a drawing for a show they are putting together. Their school has a museum project and students determine a show, ask for submissions and curate it. How could I say no? I sketched up a weird little dog droid for them. #drawing #art #scifi

Courage and integrity on display. Mick Foley stepping away from WWE over the WWE’s connection to the current administration. In the words of Popeye the sailor “I stands all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more”

1 out of every 4 vehicles sold globally in 2025 was an EV. It seems like it will be very difficult for any global brand to survive past 2030 who is not going all in on EV development. Those celebrating the demise of the Ford F150 lightening, seems like a bad move. ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

Reporting on how Italian cooperative companies work from @moreperfectunion.bsky.social … this is a great one. @councilorgreen.bsky.social I thought you might like this. youtu.be/dQMZR64G_eM?...

Probably the fastest I've seen Cory Doctorow explaining his theory of "Enshittifaction" with Ronny Chieng on The Daily Show. A must watch: youtu.be/d2e-c9SF5nE?... #DailyShow #CoryDoctorow #enshittification

Early morning breakfast sketch. I’ve always had an affinity for attached dwellings in urban areas called townhomes, row homes, or brownstones. They always seemed like such a nice combination of density and having your own space. A little space age modern spin on the classic. #architecture #design

Someone on BlueSky asked “why don’t EVs just look like regular cars?” A lot of them do! You just don’t notice them because, well, they just look like regular cars. Our Polestar 2 EV after a good wash and wax: #ev

While Ford is regressing, cancelling EVs and hasn't launched their own EV ground up car in years, VW is taking the wraps off the I.D. Polo EV. Of course we won't get it in the US, but this car looks fantastic. youtu.be/NP635Rk3T3M?...

For those of us in the Venn diagram overlap of EVs and trains, this fully electric locomotive train deployment is awesome! Via @electrek.co via @zamafir.bsky.social electrek.co/2025/12/15/f...

My friend @zamafir.bsky.social sent this series of posts my way and my jaw hit the ground. I appreciate this person's willingness to be transparent in public. This is pretty wild. I really thought the future would be cooler than this. #ai #aibubble

Somewhere, over the rainbow, in Portland Oregon. Not only is it not burning down here, but there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! I snapped this photo this morning while walking Enzo and on the phone with @zamafir.bsky.social, just a couple of blocks north of @reed.edu #pdx #portland

As someone in R&D I agree with this take:

Are you deciding between a plug in hybrid gas car (PHEV) and an EV? Hybrids have a much higher fire risk. About 2x gas cars & 140x EVs! Not a typo! Gas cars: 1,530 fires per 100,000 vehicles Hybrids: 3,475 fires per 100,000 EVs: 25 fires per 100,000 www.evengineeringonline.com/did-you-know...

Every mile driven on electricity is a mile not emitting carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, or particulate matter. American Lung Association says a nationwide shift to EVs could prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths Read more @climatesolutions.org www.climatesolutions.org/article/2025...

I’m not really sure why anyone would buy a Subaru Crosstrek when they could get an Ioniq 5 XRT. Spotted this one today in Portland. Bonus points for the TSWIFT plate! EV AWD is always going to be better off-road and in bad weather than a gas burner.

My first sketch to final product. The Footdefender leg brace for people with diabetic foot ulcers. It took almost 4 years and countless prototypes, test runs, and iterations to get from that sketch to the final! #industrialdesign footdefender.com

I hear “there’s no infrastructure” from folks who push back on EVs… wherever there’s an outlet I can charge, but also if you live on the West Coast of the US there are A LOT of chargers. This Chevy Bolt quietly charging reminded me that EV chargers just aren’t giant eyesores like gas stations

A good little recap on 4 of the biggest redevelopment projects in the Portland area. In spite of all the doom & gloom in the media billions are being invested in Portland. We’re still the cheapest cool city on the west coast and we have a lot of water… kind of important. youtu.be/WZ-0TrIau0o

Thank you @wyden.senate.gov for pursuing this. Of course it’s all connected to a fossil fuel company. Fossil fuels are not only destroying our health they are connected to the worst people on the planet. Glad we cut our natural gas line to the house & got EVs. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Had to pop down to Milwaukie, Oregon today and stumbled on this cool dense housing development. We really need housing in Oregon, a trend I expect to continue to climate and political trends, so I’m happy to see developments like this get built. This one is right on the edge of Portland.

Real life > online. For the past few years my partner & I have helped organize a party for the neighborhood at Gigantic Brewing. We had a bout 50 folks last night, some lived here 30 years, some just 3 months! As I get older the more I feel that life is about connecting with people. #pdx #holidays

A beautiful walk to Keeper Coffee on SE Holgate and 42nd in Portland today. Amazing how Portland remains stubbornly beautiful no matter what the haters say. Also, this espresso was fantastic.

"WALK&TALK" walkie talkie concept from 2023. I always liked the simple soft forms of this little guy. #industrialdesign #tech