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Nat Lash

@natlash

News Apps at ProPublica, based in D.C. Remote sensing, FOIA, other nonsense. Hit me with your climate/ag/H2O/H5N1-related thoughts & tips.

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Latest posts by Nat Lash @natlash

Béla Fleck - Whitewater (Official Audio)
Béla Fleck - Whitewater (Official Audio) YouTube video by Béla Fleck

Day 212 of trying to convince the toddler that Whitewater from Bela's 1988 album Drive is, in fact, his favorite song.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfqn...

10.03.2026 14:27 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

oof, aaaaand discourse 🧟

09.03.2026 13:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Been trying to write more music lately and hard to shake a sense that so much of music can be described thematically as a version of "Things ( are | aren't ) changing and I (do | don't) like it."

09.03.2026 13:16 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

cannot emphasize what a relief it is to have new reference sequences for the newly detected segments this fall, particularly NA protein

06.03.2026 17:25 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
a streamgraph of HPAI detections in the U.S. among wild birds, cattle and poultry. D1.1 (yellow) has dominated cases lately

a streamgraph of HPAI detections in the U.S. among wild birds, cattle and poultry. D1.1 (yellow) has dominated cases lately

I missed this the other day: USDA NVSL finally updated GenoFlu 🎉

Confirms that D1.1 continues to reign supreme, though there are new EA3 reassortants out there that emerged this fall

github.com/USDA-VS/Geno...

06.03.2026 17:21 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Unfortunately, “Yo brother, legal team confirmed we can’t work with minors rn” is an instant classic

06.03.2026 13:38 👍 9602 🔁 2180 💬 90 📌 35

We did use lists of names from the excellent PLUM website (woo PLUM Act!), so doing something like this now is much easier than it was 10 years ago, but yes, we need legislation to finish the job.

06.03.2026 13:52 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

But this Claude incident highlights another problem with AI:

My story and the Post's work are carefully written and reported.

We deliberately choose what we can and can't say. Editors review our language and challenge us on facts.

AI summaries throw all that work into a copy blender.🫠

05.03.2026 17:41 👍 247 🔁 50 💬 2 📌 6

@grok is this true?

05.03.2026 15:40 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Polymarket still outdoing everyone making the case that extraterrestrial Polymarkets resolves the Fermi Paradox

04.03.2026 17:10 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Is Chunky Chimp in the Bluey universe cel animated, that unhinged Disney lifelike computer animation, or live action (suggesting another civilization of anthropomorphic chimpanzees that engage in cultural exchange with anthropomorphic dog civilization)
Sincerely,
the bazillionth snow day of 2026

23.02.2026 13:45 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
table of 17 recent lancaster, pa hpai cases

table of 17 recent lancaster, pa hpai cases

Situation in Lancaster is ugly.

7.25M birds at 17 premises hit by HPAI in just 30 days

20.02.2026 18:51 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
google suggested result "did you mean: propublica [emph] natural [end emph] lash"

google suggested result "did you mean: propublica [emph] natural [end emph] lash"

Did you?

17.02.2026 15:17 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
a bald man in a white shirt and black tie is sitting in a chair holding a hammer . ALT: a bald man in a white shirt and black tie is sitting in a chair holding a hammer .

...

11.02.2026 14:21 👍 503 🔁 63 💬 12 📌 2

is 50 first dates a rougelike

07.02.2026 03:55 👍 511 🔁 83 💬 15 📌 3
Post image

Dara, I’d like to buy your administrative elephant

06.02.2026 01:16 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Hand-made signs with cut-out letters. One says "We [heart] Post Reporters". The other uses the print newspaper section heds to write: "METRO,  SPORTS, STYLE, THE WORLD PROTECT THE WASHINGTON POST"

Hand-made signs with cut-out letters. One says "We [heart] Post Reporters". The other uses the print newspaper section heds to write: "METRO, SPORTS, STYLE, THE WORLD PROTECT THE WASHINGTON POST"

A large crowd rallies in front of a building. A sign reads "Democracy cries in darkness".

A large crowd rallies in front of a building. A sign reads "Democracy cries in darkness".

Our members joined the #SaveThePost rally in D.C. today to protest the mass layoffs at the Washington Post. We stand in solidarity with @postguild.bsky.social. Support laid off workers: www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t... + www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo... ✊

05.02.2026 20:40 👍 50 🔁 18 💬 0 📌 2

one thing i have noticed is a lot of folks do not seem to understand the difference between a presidential election and 435+ legislative elections. i have seen any number of people say that you could subvert the outcome this november by targeting “swing states,” which does not make any sense.

05.02.2026 13:26 👍 5708 🔁 715 💬 178 📌 95

Amid the hundreds of colleagues we’ve lost today, I wanted to highlight the BRILLIANT data/graphics folks who any newsroom should be fighting to hire right now—threading here:

04.02.2026 20:59 👍 212 🔁 87 💬 3 📌 5

I expected the cuts would be bad but I'm honestly stunned and sickened seeing how many great journalists the Washington Post just lost. People who nailed huge investigations, documented war zones, exposed horrific crimes, dropped all at once for failures they did not cause.

04.02.2026 16:29 👍 5502 🔁 1208 💬 174 📌 68
Post image Post image

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

04.02.2026 14:34 👍 7502 🔁 2658 💬 236 📌 228

Two more Lancaster farms had confirmations of HPAI yesterday, including a 0.7M layer facility.

04.02.2026 14:42 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Avian flu hits another Weld County egg farm, Colorado declares disaster State officials are confirming a suspected outbreak of avian flu among chickens at a large commercial egg farm in Weld County, with the governor’s office declaring a disaster after a year of relative ...

Egg layers hit by HPAI in Weld CO, 1.3M birds.

Two Weld County farms above 1M layers have been hit at least twice since 2.3.4.4b arrived in 2022.

Weld 04 (2022-11) / Weld 12 (2024-08)
Weld 02 (2022-07) / Weld 06 (2022-12) / Weld 11 (2024-08)

A quiet streak in egg layers seems to be over.

02.02.2026 14:29 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

1/ BREAKING: Government documents reviewed by ProPublica identify Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez, 35, as the two who fired their weapons during the deadly encounter with Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

01.02.2026 21:12 👍 1801 🔁 748 💬 85 📌 99
USDA dashboard of new Lancaster County HPAI case in an egg layer facility.

USDA dashboard of new Lancaster County HPAI case in an egg layer facility.

Table of HPAI cases phylogenetically linked to Lancaster 01 in 2022

Table of HPAI cases phylogenetically linked to Lancaster 01 in 2022

An egg layer flock in Lancaster County, PA hit with HPAI this week.

One to keep an eye on: In 2022, when an egg-laying flock in Lancaster around that size had an outbreak, the infection spread to other flocks in Lancaster and Berks, taking out over 4 million birds, mostly layers.

30.01.2026 17:03 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

i don't wanna be overdramatic but we need to unplug the internet

29.01.2026 17:47 👍 202 🔁 16 💬 5 📌 1

Really appreciate this work from @malar0ne.bsky.social et al, making the case that assortativity of vaccine coverage is vital to understanding (and modeling) measles outbreaks / breakthrough infections

28.01.2026 13:11 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
GitHub - propublica/rx-inspector-data: Public release of Rx Inspector data linking generic drugs to the factories that made them Public release of Rx Inspector data linking generic drugs to the factories that made them - propublica/rx-inspector-data

People have been asking, so we published it: The data linking generic drugs to the facilities that make them! You can download the data on GitHub.
👇👇
github.com/propublica/r...

23.01.2026 17:45 👍 19 🔁 10 💬 2 📌 0

saw someone in line with two gallon sized tubs of hummus. like, what?

23.01.2026 22:05 👍 1422 🔁 37 💬 70 📌 15
A man's suit lapel with two pins on it. One is the DOJ seal, the other is in the shape of a thumbs-up and says "Trump" on it.

A man's suit lapel with two pins on it. One is the DOJ seal, the other is in the shape of a thumbs-up and says "Trump" on it.

A billionaire known as “Bitcoin Jesus” was under indictment for massive criminal tax fraud and very likely going to prison.

Then, he hired a “Friend of Trump” and the criminal charges disappeared.

How did they do it? Avi Asher-Schapiro and I spent months getting the inside story.

22.01.2026 15:58 👍 1411 🔁 599 💬 18 📌 34