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Mike Ross

@eruptionchaser.bsky.social

Mike Ross (he/him) Red Team Leader | PSA Delegate National Geohazards Monitoring Centre | Te Puna Mōrearea i te Rū Geologist, firefighter, hacker, dad. Tolerance for intolerance zero. Toitū Te Tiriti.

3,709 Followers  |  484 Following  |  830 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2023
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Posts by Mike Ross (@eruptionchaser.bsky.social)

...in addition to what we already knew; don't trust Russia or China.

Slightly speculative prediction: Taiwan, South Korea, and Canada will quietly develop nukes, and do so more quickly than most people would believe possible. Only domestic political unthinkability will prevent Japan doing the same.

28.02.2026 23:31 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Thinking of...

- The people of Iran, who mostly hate their government
- The people of Israel, who mostly hate their government
- The people of Palestine, who mostly hate their government
- The people of the USA, who mostly hate their government

28.02.2026 10:24 — 👍 248    🔁 71    💬 5    📌 3

You missed a golden opportunity to deploy "Long time no sea"...

20.02.2026 12:19 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Preview
Tephra seismites—Understanding seismic hazard of hidden faults by analyzing liquefied tephra layers in lakes CT images of lacustrine volcanic-ash layers ≤8 cm thick provide a key liquefaction database for seismic hazard assessments.

One of my GNS Red Team colleagues has been busy doing some paleoseismology!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

20.02.2026 09:40 — 👍 7    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Screenshot of dashboard for the NZ Post 'YouShop' service, with the tracker for 'number of destroyed parcels' highlighted.

Screenshot of dashboard for the NZ Post 'YouShop' service, with the tracker for 'number of destroyed parcels' highlighted.

A post office where the service dashboard allows you track your current number of 'destroyed parcels'?!

I don't know if I should be terrified, or awestruck by the honesty in marketing here! 😆

20.02.2026 01:21 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Where do you put a seismo-tectonophysicist? Asking for a friend.

19.02.2026 08:25 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Unsurprised. I was there - in Manhattan on 9/11.

There was nothing recognisable in hardware from the towers - not a desk, a chair, a phone - everything pulverised.

But there was paper *everywhere* - the streets covered in it. Dense stuff pulverised, paper floated and blew away.

18.02.2026 22:51 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I refer you Larry Niven's "Intent to Deceive".

16.02.2026 09:11 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I am Pentium of Borg
Division is futile
You will be approximated

16.02.2026 07:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Let me just make a few little adjustments to that title…

“How a scientist with a PhD in Geology and 25 years of experience is helping lead California’s earthquake work”

Way to devalue my experience.

15.02.2026 15:08 — 👍 4181    🔁 1043    💬 96    📌 19

I think FinDer has been on the magic mushrooms.

IYKYK.

15.02.2026 09:07 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Get into retrocomputing.

Try running and learning TOPS-20; a great improvement on its successors!

15.02.2026 03:38 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Where I Work, we have occasional test fire evacuation drills; everyone should respond as if the alarm is real (they don't know it's a test).

Facilities are supposed to inform us prior to such tests, so I can judge, as team leader, if it's safe for my team to participate in the drill. They never do😞

15.02.2026 02:04 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Oh sure - but not relevant to my point about tipping, we're not about to import that cultural feature!

(And taxis are one of the few types of business I would say *deserve* to be obliterated! Across the world it seems to be a shitty business model; I have little sympathy there)

14.02.2026 22:42 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

*offer may not apply in Aotearoa New Zealand, where tipping does not exist because we expect all workers to be paid a fair wage.

14.02.2026 12:13 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Yep. Huge chain of recycled/secondhand goods shops all over Japan. They've opened a few stores in Hawaii and West Coast USA AFAIK - the branding there is 'EcoTown'.

Other related brands in Japan - 'Book Off' & 'Off House' etc. Google them.

12.02.2026 09:22 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
Post image

First time I've seen anything priced over one million Yen at a Hard Off store!

12.02.2026 08:05 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0
View of train tracks in Aomori, Japan showing deep snowdrifts.

View of train tracks in Aomori, Japan showing deep snowdrifts.

Daddy & daughter holiday in Japan and encountering some *serious* snow!

10.02.2026 00:22 — 👍 8    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A clear view of Fuji

A clear view of Fuji

A rare clear view of Fuji today - you can practically *feel* the geohazards!

03.02.2026 08:15 — 👍 12    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0
Mamiya RB67 camera in great condition for sale in Hard Off store. 38,500 Yen / $248USD

Mamiya RB67 camera in great condition for sale in Hard Off store. 38,500 Yen / $248USD

Multiple original Playstations on sale in Hard Off store, plus a Nintendo Super Famicon

Multiple original Playstations on sale in Hard Off store, plus a Nintendo Super Famicon

Assorted thermionic valves for sale in Hard Off store.

Assorted thermionic valves for sale in Hard Off store.

I'll be there on Monday!

Dammit they have drawers full of *valves*! And some pretty great pricing... how many original Playstations would you like?

31.01.2026 01:27 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Exterior of Hard Off secondhand store

Exterior of Hard Off secondhand store

Interior of Hard Off store

Interior of Hard Off store

There are many great things about Japan, and you have listed a few of them - but missed the greatest: Hard Off stores. Lots of them, everywhere, with aisle after aisle after aisle of pre-loved electronics, games, musical instruments, cameras... amazing. I fill a suitcase every trip!

31.01.2026 01:16 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

"'cause that's the problem with plutonium, Craven; it's limited in its application..."

30.01.2026 06:33 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Beautiful! I was lucky enough to get a batch of similar NOS I/O Selectrics - military variety, used shipboard apparently.

30.01.2026 06:22 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

It's NEVER too late; I gave up being a full-time dad and got back into geoscience - geohazards, no less! - at 56! Five years later and I'm happy as a pig in sh!t, one of the leaders of a team of geohazard analysts at the sharp pointy end of Aotearoa New Zealand's geohazards response.

28.01.2026 10:51 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

IBM i: everything is an object

28.01.2026 10:04 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I live in Welly but I've never been to Weta Workshop - maybe I now have a reason to change that!

(But not soon - I'm off to Japan in 5 days!)

28.01.2026 07:43 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Do you want to learn about the impacts of the M9 Cascadia subduction #earthquake that struck at 9 p.m. on this night, 326 years ago? Strong shaking, a tsunami and landslides as described in Indigenous oral traditions from #VancouverIsland to #California. ⚒️🧪
hakaimagazine.com/features/gre...

27.01.2026 00:53 — 👍 35    🔁 12    💬 3    📌 2
A photo of a Japanese fan, bearing the logo of 'IAVCEI 2013 Kagoshima', taken on the Sakurajima ferry, with the Sakurajima volcano (part of the logo) in the background

A photo of a Japanese fan, bearing the logo of 'IAVCEI 2013 Kagoshima', taken on the Sakurajima ferry, with the Sakurajima volcano (part of the logo) in the background

Ahhh memories!

26.01.2026 07:49 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The guy is a twat and I don't agree with him at all, but we're a LONG way from faultless here.

The current government of Iran is largely the result of a coup, backed by the USA & UK, overthrowing the democratic government of Iran and installing the Shah as dictator. This led to Islamic revolution.

23.01.2026 02:21 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I hate to do it but I'm going to have to be fair here - if I was on a military helicopter, and they didn't give me an actual helmet, I'd want a pair of sunnies too at minimum, to give me some eye protection from any crap that might be flying around.

23.01.2026 02:11 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0