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Mike O'Brien

@obrien.page
1.1K followers 803 following 1.7K posts

Full-stack fish ecologist. Richmond, VA culture leech living in Eastern Henrico. Small farm dabbler. obrien.page github.com/mhpob

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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 12/09/2026
The year is 1866. You're scavenging a battleground for resources. You find a human foot. Obviously, the next step is to say it's Bigfoot and start slapping it around area news desks.
MARCH 27, 1866.

PETRIFIED HUMAN FOOT.-Mr. Joseph Merryman, of this city, has placed upon our table a petrified human foot. It was thrown from the clayey earth in the vicinity of the memorable "Crater" by a party engaged in digging for leaden balls, where, probably, it had lain for untold years. It is of a large size, fully ten inches in length, and weighs several pounds, but retains a striking resemblance to the human foot, and doubtless, were the stony incrustation stricken away, the representation would be yet more perfect. The foot was evidently originally enclosed in some soft covering. The upper surface indicates this much, though the instep and toes are well formed. The heel and the under surface are exact.

That this petrification was once flesh and bone, the general appearances and character admit of little doubt; but it must have belonged to one of the men of the forest, whose grave was dug by uncivilized hands. Petersburg Express
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Nathan Yau @flowingdata.com · 03/08/2026
Datatype, a variable font that turns text to charts > franktisellano.github.io/datatype/ Maybe useful for small charts inline with text and tables?
franktisellano.github.io
Datatype — variable font that turns text into charts
An OpenType variable font that turns simple text expressions into inline charts. No JavaScript, no images — just type.
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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I just saw a meme that said “get in losers, we’re reclaiming the emdash”. People. PEOPLE. Where are your STANDARDS? It CLEARLY should be “get in, losers — we’re reclaiming the em dash.”
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
If Odysseus had just given his sailors testosterone injections, it wouldn’t have taken him 10 years to get home.
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Skittle me timbers 🏳️‍⚧️ @adatedreference.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Yo what the fuck is up with outside right now
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 17/07/2026
Smoke has officially hit Richmond, VA
Graph of air quality through time with a very rapid spike at the end.
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Tony Damiano @tonydamiano.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
[news story 6 months from now] HEARTWARMING: Elementary school hold bakesale to raise money to pay heating bill, data center owner donates half box of Nilla Wafers 🥰
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404 Media @404media.co · 30/06/2026
Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers to make up for it.
404media.co
County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’
Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers...
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 02/06/2026
yesterdays.maprva.org/1207/
yesterdays.maprva.org
Hardgrove House – Yesterdays
Image from The Valentine, Mary Wingfield Scott Photograph Collection.
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 31/05/2026
Charles City Rd landfill is on fire. How fun. #rva
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 23/05/2026
The #RVA combined sewer overflow is ̶p̶o̶o̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ popping off today.
Map of Richmond, VA combined sewer overflow locations. Active overflows shown by a poo emoji. No overflows shown by a thumbs up emoji
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 21/05/2026
@subletteweather.com what would be the best place to find climatology info? Specifically average # days >90F over the past 10/20/30/50/100 yrs in Richmond/Virginia as a whole?
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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
There’s no graceful way to get into or out of a kayak.
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Hildur Knútsdóttir @hildur.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Icelandic authorities just rerouted a planned hot water pipeline so as not to disturb an elf hill.
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 09/05/2026
What's the point in paying for fast internet if every site needs to check if you're a robot first?
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Shannon Heckt @shannonheckt.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
A menhaden management board is considering implementing quota periods for VA’s reduction fishery in the Bay. Conservation groups say the fleet is scooping up the forage fish before they get further up the Bay, the fishery says they’re not. #valeg #vagov virginiamercury.com/2026/05/06/m...
virginiamercury.com
Menhaden board punts vote to increase Virginia reduction fishery quota restrictions • Virginia Mercury
The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission Menhaden Management Board on Tuesday put off a vote on new potential restrictions for Virginia’s only reduction fishery in the Chesapeake Bay.
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
You can have dinner with anyone alive or dead. Pretty much limits your choice to having dinner with Schrödinger’s cat
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MapRVA @maprva.org · 04/05/2026
Interested in the different technologies surveilling you? Join us Thursday, May 7 in Shockoe Bottom #RVA; we'll survey and map all of the different surveillance types in the area: at least two different types of ALPRs and two different types of gunshot detectors! maprva.org/events
maprva.org
Events · MapRVA
We are geospatial enthusiasts in Richmond, VA who make our city better one map at a time.
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 02/05/2026
methinks the danny doth protest too much
11:12
4 Messages
dannyavula
Follow
•..
FIRE STALEN NO. 19
37
Liked by ever.leaning and others
dannyavula My administration is pro-labor, my... more 8 hours ago11:13
• Messages
TRUCTION CAREEN
RTUNIES
• HUNA!
District Cor
LUNA!
MID ALANTIC BEGON
MARORERS
Liked by ever.leaning and others
dannyavula My administration is pro-labor, my record at the City is pro-labor, my proposed budget is pro-labor, and the future of this city is pro-labor.
Today we honor the work and the people who make organized labor possible.
8 hours ago
New posts for you
n
Y
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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Buffalo Hunt, by John Dare Howland, 1868
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Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 29/04/2026
In a DARPA program I just proposed to, they asked for a short abstract, then invited our team for an oral presentation and Q&A instead of a long full proposal. Presumably because everyone's writing proposals with AI (and contrary to some opinions here, frontier models can write great proposals) 1/
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 28/04/2026
The release of the Wii is now closer to the fall of the Berlin Wall than to today
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/04/2026
Henrico PD's own budget overview shows Flock's gunshot-detection devices produced ~2700 alerts in 2025, with ~740 "tied to" actual gunfire. Rough math puts the accuracy rate at about 27.4%.
Employing Crime-Fighting Technology

RAVEN (gunshot detection technology) • Between Feb. 2025 - Dec. 2025,
more than 2,700 alerts from Raven;
740+ tied to gunshots
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The Onion @theonion.com · 25/04/2026
Report: Every Place On Earth Has Wrong Amount Of Water theonion.com/report-every-place-on-…
Report: Every Place On Earth Has Wrong Amount Of Water
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inlandempire.place @inlandempire.place · 21/04/2026
To celebrate the launch of Yesterdays of the Inland Empire, five cities have been added to @oldinsurancemaps.net: Redlands, Ontario, Corona, Colton, and San Jacinto. All are circa 1907-8. There are many other cities around that time to be added. Let me know if you want one in particular!
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Charlie Gao @shikokuchuo.net · 23/04/2026
Just released mori 0.1.0 on CRAN — a new R package for shared memory across processes. Parallel R no longer has to mean duplicating your dataset in every worker's RAM. opensource.posit.co/blog/2026-04... 🧵 1/3
opensource.posit.co
mori: Shared memory for R objects
mori is a new R package for sharing R objects across processes via OS-level shared memory. Parallel workers get zero-copy, lazy ALTREP access to the same physical pages — share once, read anywhere.
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Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
(possibly hot) take: public libraries are the most consistently innovative and progressive institutions in the western world. Definitely beating out universities or tech companies
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 18/04/2026
TIL that the producer of No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom wrote the soundtrack to Mulan.
en.wikipedia.org
Matthew Wilder - Wikipedia
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 10/04/2026
Not to put too fine a point on it here, but I'm an independent journalist with no budget who *doesn't even cover Richmond as my actual beat.* I started asking basic, critical questions about the RPD's surveillance system, and instead of sitting for an interview, the mayor convened a spin room.
richmond.com
Texts show Richmond officials planning to 'saturate the public narrative' with positive Flock camera stories
In text messages, Mayor Avula, police Chief Rick Edwards and others discuss how to turn the tide of public opinion in favor of controversial automatic license plate readers.
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 09/04/2026
remember, doing this for voting or w2s would be communism
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 08/04/2026
What up, Riverbend Roastery? #rva
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Matthijs Hollanders @matthollanders.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
New pre-print! I cover a range of open capture-recapture models (single survey/robust design, multistate/multievent, in (Cormack-)Jolly-Seber variants) in Stan, and provide efficient log likelihood functions. I also introduce a method to account for unequal survey intervals in the entry process.
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MapRVA @maprva.org · 06/04/2026
Join us as we map Shockoe Hill Cemetery tomorrow! We'll be there from 6:30-7:30, mapping some famous "residents", and taking street-level imagery to allow people to take in the historic space from their own home. osmcal.org/event/4680
osmcal.org
Shockoe Hill Cemetery mapping with MapRVA
Shockoe Hill Cemetery mapping with MapRVA, 7th April 18:30 – 19:30 at Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, United States. Meet any time after 6PM. We plan to take some street-level imagery, place some photos…
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 04/04/2026
MS DOOM
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OldInsuranceMaps @oldinsurancemaps.net · 03/04/2026
Last month I presented at #Code4Lib: www.youtube.com/live/6nBJ… While preparing the slides, 10 minutes was feeling really short (especially for a new audience) but I reworked some things and I think it’s actually the best introductory talk about the project I’ve given!
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Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 03/04/2026
#rstats gets a new 'R FAQ 7.31' illustration thanks to @xkcd.com . Excellent alt-text / hover too, as usual: "It has been −2,147,483,648 days since our last integer overflow." xkcd.com/3228/
xkcd.com
Day Counter
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 03/04/2026
I wonder if the MadTV writers thought this skit would be completely applicable 20 years later.
youtu.be
Apple presents the iRack
YouTube video by MadtvOnFox
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Yannis Papastamatiou @dr-yannis.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
New paper out today! Using accelerometers to generate thermal performance curves in great hammerhead sharks. Their low activation energies may explain why they can perform well across seasons.
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Mike O'Brien @obrien.page · 02/04/2026
So... Just learned today that Connecticut is currently sitting in the front yard of a house in Fulton. #rva
yesterdays.maprva.org
Connecticut – Yesterdays
sculpture by Paul DiPasquale
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Pete Volk @petevolk.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
another banner day for "if you didn't know sports were real, ESPN headlines would be crazy"
Top headlines: Tiger arrested on suspicion of DUI after crash. Sources: Sun sold, will relocate to Houston in '27
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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 28/03/2026
"I’m not surprised that the city is proud to have published a payment register that omits the names of the payees, but frankly — it’s embarrassing,' [3rd District Councilmember Kenya] Gibson said. 'The Richmonders I know won’t be fooled to believe that this is what being transparent looks like.'"
richmonder.org
Richmond officials charge $5.7K FOIA fee for financial info city is required to publish
The city said it would cost at least $5.7K for a copy of its payment register that's supposed to be available online.
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Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Great reporting by Graham Moomaw: he filed a FOIA request for the financial data Richmond, Virginia was supposed to be publishing online, by law. City officials claimed it would cost $5.7K+, & only released a scrubbed payees & procurements. The kicker: Richmond stopped publishing the data… in 2019.
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UWA Oceans Institute @uwaoceans.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
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The Yesterdays Bot @yesterdaysbot.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
That's a lot of random images. How about poking through the 78 images tagged of "mural"? yesterdays.maprva.org/subjects/mural www.wikidata.org/entity/Q219423
http://www.rvastreetart.com/
2012-04-13 21:17:40
Marc Schmidt
FlickrGeoreferences as of 2026-03-26. Picture shows a field of blue dots in the center of a map representing georeferences of the subject.
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Virginia Mercury @virginiamercury.com · 24/03/2026
Dominion Energy says its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project has generated its first power, marking a major milestone for what’s set to become the nation’s largest offshore wind farm once completed. virginiamercury.com/briefs/domin...
virginiamercury.com
Dominion produces first power from Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project • Virginia Mercury
Dominion Energy’s major Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project is now sending power to the grid, after its first commercial turbine was switched on Monday
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Jan-Ole Fischer @olemole.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
New preprint 📑 Fast inference in HMMs with latent Gaussian fields (via SPDE approach + RTMB) ⚡️ 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2603.17469 We modify the forward algorithm to recover a sparse Hessian ➡️ Fast automatic Laplace approximation Case studies: 1) Detecting stellar flares 2) Lion movement w spatial field
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Rob Knell @robknell.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
I'm writing a talk on the current problems with scientific publishing. It's getting harder and harder to avoid just screaming at the computer. Here's a typical slide 🧪
A screenshot of a slide. The title is "Open access: death of a dream". On the left hand side is the title and abstract of a paper published in 2021 estimating the actual costs of publishing an academic paper as between $200 and $1000 dollars, with high-profile journals with high rejection rates being towards the upper end and $400 being the cost for an "average" paper. On the right is a table of glamour mags and their APCs: $11400 for Cell, $12850 for Nature and all the hybrid Nature XX journals, $7350 for Nature communications, $7170 for the Lancet and $7030 for Current Biology.
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Valentine Collection Bot @thevalentinebot.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
ID: /-#V.74.83.98 The Old Sport Date: Late 19th century - Early 20th century Artist: Liebler and Maass valentine.rediscoverysoftware.com/M…
Lithographic print of tobacco label showing a dog dressed in a jacket, shirt and cravat sitting at a table; drink with straw, a newspaper and pouch of tobacco sit in front of him; text "The Old Sport" along bottom.
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
if you build the LEGO container ship in the US is it technically Jones Act compliant?
A picture of a LEGO Maersk cargo ship A picture of an assembled LEGO Maersk cargo ship
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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 21/03/2026
Gulls may facilitate landscape connectivity via nutrient and pathogen transport and deposition. Using GPS tracking, this #RSOS study analysed the foraging movement networks of breeding American #herring and great black-backed #gulls from two colonies: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
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