Kevin Pluck

From $817m to $2.1b in five years – one road’s cost blowout 'It was basically costed on the back of an envelope.'

bUdGEt bLoWoUTs oN tHe FErRiEs
#nzpol

YouTube video by Mattias Krantz Secret channel I’m giving up teaching my octopus piano

Summoning @theoctopuslady.bsky.social !!!

Mattias needs your help to teach his octopus to play the piano!!!

YouTube video by New Scientist Scientists race to predict Antarctica’s next big ice crack

Fantastic video on ice shelves in Antarctica

Time series graph showing the duration of longest heatwave event in Sodankylä Tähtelä. The values range generally between 0 and 14, but in 2025 the heatwave has now lasted for 26 days.

The heatwave in Sodankylä has now lasted for 26 days.

This is probably not only the longest heatwave in Lapland, but also the longest heatwave ever observed in Finland.

Note that here a heatwave is defined with 3 consecutive days above 90th percentile, which is scientifically robust definition.

Global temperature departure from normal in July 2025. Overall this was the 3rd warmest July on record (2023, 2024).

NASA's carbon tracking satellites are on Trump's chopping block The satellites targeted for removal are the only ones monitoring Earth's greenhouse gases.

If CO₂ is plant food and so essential to life on Earth as this administration claims, why are they destroying the satellites that track CO₂?

<plots maximum annual area>

<zooms out>

The lesser thinkers will be crowing ANTARCTIC SEA ICE AREA THE SAME AS 1985!!!

Global map showing sea surface temperature anomalies in July 2025 relative to 1982 to 2010. Most areas are warmer than average. Red is shown for warmer sea surface temperatures, and blue is shown for colder sea surface temperatures. Data is from NOAA OISSTv2.1.

Woah, the hot spot across the northern Pacific is even more prominent in last month's sea surface temperature map. This is really quite striking! Though the extratropics in both hemispheres are warmer than average too.

Data from @noaa.gov OISSTv2.1 at www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/opt...

This morning’s sunrise #OceanDevotion — I just painted it.

A relatively quick sketch, but a nice way to start and end the day.

Sorry about that, the copy function for iPhones is very finicky 😔

Can I confirm with you that it used to work on your iPhone? - I don't have an iphone so not able to test easily.

YouTube video by Jesse Welles Starve Away!

my congressman's
got a heavy load on his back
it's full of money and blood
str8 outa a pack

My brand spanking new passport from Aotearoa New Zealand.

I’m not planning on travelling anywhere, but I thought it was as good a time as any to get my first NZ passport.

Māori on the top line, ngā mihi!

I applied online last Tuesday, it was sent just three days later (!!!) on Friday. And that was the standard service!

Agreed

YouTube video by Jesse Welles Starve Away!

my congressman's
got a heavy load on his back
it's full of money and blood
str8 outa a pack

They did use metric.

They only displayed imperial on screens because that's what the astronauts understood.

It was very correct.

YouTube video by RobWords The curious origins of imperial and metric units

This video solves so many mysteries!

Still stupid though.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM3c...

This is a pretty cool map of bike commuters percentages.

If I’m reading this correctly; Dunedin doing a better job than Auckland. Not as good as Christchurch or Wellington though.

As someone with a PhD focused on Traffic Safety I can confirm that indeed this is a feature of this kind of infrastructure, not a bug AND that it makes everyone safer!

The increasing intermittency of….nuclear power stations:

Source: Financial Times | “Heatwaves test Europe’s electricity system as air conditioning use soars” on.ft.com/4fsSclS

YouTube video by Beau Miles Using YouTube to plant a forest

330k views so far means planting 12,000 trees!

MORE!

Urgh.

There's no such thing as left and right politics - can we stop it already?

Kamchatka tsunami still bouncing around the Pacific 4 days later!

I'm not able to generate a full chart as it's reached the maximum (!)

Any, the Pacific is still ringing strong!

The Octopus Lady Just your friendly neighborhood octopus lady telling you all the reasons why we shouldn't be spending so much time trying to find aliens in space. ...it's cuz they're all in the ocean.

May I also recommend @theoctopuslady.bsky.social?

People with cancer are such a drain on the economy - best to let them perish.

Hope you haven't got cancer, Americans,
Trump has just added 50% more to the price of your meds made in Switzerland (La Roche)

"Fine," said Arthur, "when can I go home?" "You can't," said Ford Prefect

Orange Monday. Acrylic on canvas. 🍊