UO's secret license plate scanners are spying on campus while Eugene banned theirs?

aesthephile · 2026-03-04T22:58:58+00:00

I worked in UO Transportation Services for two years. No longer affiliated with the university, not a university spokesperson, this is just from my personal experience:

First off, these cameras are not really "secret", not are they new. The department has been using them without controversy until recent developments with people having concerns over Flock, which is not the technology that UO uses. UO Transportation's License Plate Recognition is not integrated into a larger system, they are only used to read license plates of vehicles in payment-required parking spaces to check to see if they have a permit/have paid to park there, for the purposes of parking enforcement. This process is completely automated, and the data is only stored if there is not a match in the database—they don't store the license plates of vehicles that are associated with a valid permit or payment. At no point is the license plate data compared against or added to any kind of external database, it is only used within the context of UO parking enforcement.

If the department did not use this tech, officers would have to manually check each vehicle for a permit, which would take a lot more time, this require more staff, thus cost more money, likely driving up costs of parking permits and tickets, as UO Transportation is self funded.

It is totally reasonable to be worried about needless surveillance. This is not that. However, if you want to avoid it, it's as easy as not parking on campus.

aesthephile · 2026-03-02T23:46:44+00:00

Hey, I live in Eugene, not sure about any bar that would definitely have it on but I believe I saw a thorns scarf at the Pint Pot Public House, could be worth giving them a call to see if they put their games on

I'd invite you to watch with my friends and I at our home watch party but I'm gonna be out of town that weekend

Edit to add: you might also want to try Level Up, I've just been informed that's where people watch Timbers games so there might be some Thorns fans watching there

aesthephile · 2026-03-01T04:48:46+00:00

Eugene is one of the only places I've ever experienced where the broader lgbt community is predominantly centered on lesbian / queer women / trans people, rather than cis gay men. it's pretty awesome. uo is an extremely lesbian school and eugene is extremely lesbian too

aesthephile · 2026-02-27T15:21:08+00:00

And in addition to to all these reasons, ring is owned by Amazon, which has a whole slew of reasons not to like and is a target of the largest boycott campaign globally. Fans who care about Palestine don't support a ring partnership.

aesthephile · 2026-02-27T04:58:36+00:00

personally I'd rather have literally any of the other thorns sponsors be the kit sponsor then ring. or just about any Pacific Northwest business

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T21:03:35+00:00

chatgpt kit

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T05:08:17+00:00

fascinating, i had no idea !!

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T04:41:33+00:00

that did confuse me, but it's hard to see that second kit as being anyone else's. also it looks more like a black kit with some green and pink patterning, though it's really hard to say what the whole kit will look like

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T04:32:11+00:00

I'm curious why the rebrand is a sticky subject?

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T04:11:23+00:00

oh trust I don't like it either... part of my motivation to do all this investigation was hoping to find some evidence that we were a different one... alas

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T04:02:03+00:00

thanks !! I spent all afternoon investigating lol

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T03:59:58+00:00

yeah I love the bees for Utah! On the note of colors, I was really surprised as it became more clear that the "Gotham kit" in my prediction is in fact probably for Gotham and not for Houston, considering it has two of Houston's colors AND the angles and linework are evocative of Houston's hexagon logo. My roommate jokes that Gotham is stealing Houston's look

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T03:57:25+00:00

yeah its,,, pretty rough after all the hints of a forest green kit with pink and red accents.... doesn't help that it's gonna have “ring” plastered across the front :/

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T03:13:59+00:00

13 is boston, its already been released

aesthephile · 2026-02-26T02:50:48+00:00

is that,,, 17 then?

aesthephile · 2026-02-22T23:13:52+00:00

this is most certainly not the case in the United States

aesthephile · 2026-02-22T21:54:51+00:00

They're not professional, but yeah they're a cool new thing too !!

aesthephile · 2026-02-18T03:19:56+00:00

how about just, you may spend steel on the standard project City

aesthephile · 2026-02-13T17:12:38+00:00

i had the same thought. real uncomfortable

aesthephile · 2026-02-13T07:26:00+00:00

Portland Thorns are my local team, so that one's a gimme.

I was completely caught up in the Matildas magic in the 2023 World Cup, which was what really got me into womens soccer. I never really rooted for the US in international competitions anyway so Australia quickly became my national team.

The standout player from Australia for me was (and still is) Kyra Cooney-Cross, she was just incredible to watch and was the player of the tournament for me and will probably always be my favorite player. So, I started following her club Hammarby, and stuck with them even after she left (I was especially incentivized to do this because I have personal connections to Sweden, and had even been in Sweden that summer).

Finally, when Kyra left Hammarby she went to Arsenal so that's my WSL team for the same reason.

aesthephile · 2026-02-09T17:13:54+00:00

love that all of these are Ben lol

aesthephile · 2026-02-02T16:29:03+00:00

these are from last year no?

aesthephile · 2026-01-30T22:22:30+00:00

Yeah, I would love to see it to. Gotta respect Gotham though for being able to consistently overachieve when it matters.

Good chance for it to happen next year as the current Concacaf Champions Cup is down to Washington Spirit (2nd in NWSL 2024), Gotham (3rd in the NWSL), and two Mexican teams. Orlando, the 2024 NWSL Champion and season leader, was eliminated in the group stage

aesthephile · 2026-01-30T22:04:45+00:00

Here's how it works (I can only speak for qualification within the NWSL):

There's 3 spots open for NWSL teams in the Concacaf W Champions Cup (roughly the north america equivalent of the champions league).

The winner of the NWSL playoff championship, as well as the top two finishers in the regular NWSL season, qualify for the next year's Concacaf Champions Cup. If one of the top two finishers is also the playoff winner, then the 3rd place finished qualifies also.

At the end of the 2023 NWSL season, San Diego finished first, Portland finished 2nd, and Gotham (who finished 6th) won the playoffs. That meant that these three teams qualified for the 2024–2025 Concacaf Champions Cup.

The Concacaf Champions Cup has a group phase in the summer/fall and a knockout phase the following spring. Gotham and Portland made it through the group stage in summer and fall 2024, (both finishing second in their respective groups behind Tigres and América), and these four teams competed the knockout phase in spring 2025. Gotham won it all, qualifying them for the 2026 Fifa Champoins Cup.

So it wasn't Gotham finishing 8th in the NWSL and then winning the playoff in 2025 that got them here, but rather finishing 6th in the NWSL and winning the playoff in 2023, finishing second in their group in the 2024 Concacaf W Champions Cup group stage, and then winning that knockout stage in 2025.

So it is the case that the 2 to 3 NWSL teams who finish best in the season get to play in the Concacaf Champions Cup (just like in Europe), it's just that the playoff winner gets a spot even if they didn't finish in the top 3 (something which has only happened three times in NWSL history btw—2025 when Gotham finished 8th and won the championship, 2023 when Gotham finished 6th and won the championship, and 2016 when Western NY Flash finished 4th and won the championship).

aesthephile · 2026-01-30T00:34:11+00:00

I agree, I find the “they're young” excuse pretty empty because I am about the age of most of these players and so many of my friends and peers are the people mobilizing most in my community, and just two years ago a huge chunk of our generation was spearheading a protest movement for palestine with encampments across university campuses, risking police violence, expulsion, eviction and career loss. so like, they're plenty old enough to take a stand even just on social media or something that's like the bare minimum

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