iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This solar rooftop installation is the GOAT. It’s actually on a goat farm. Nothing about this takes away from the pastoral setting in rural Vermont. Just nicely reflects the sky.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This reminds me of the evergreen Tom Toro cartoon in the New Yorker where an older man in rags tells the three children sitting around a small campfire in a post-apocalyptic landscape, "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’ve enjoyed the two weeks I got to spend in rural Vermont pet-sitting as the seasons start to change. It’s a magical landscape. It is also a bit frozen in a 1970s version of how to live with nature.

Perfect light orange mushroom in the foreground surrounded by leaves of various colors from green to red-brown to yellow. In the distance an out of focus cocker spaniel runs toward the camera.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Health insurance premium growth since 1999 has been a staggering +444.6%, outpacing worker earnings by 3.3 times and general inflation by more than 6.1 times over the last 27 years. It’s a tumor growing on the American economy.

The Widening Gap: Cumulative Growth
Since 1999

Total family premiums:
444.6%

Mean worker earning:
134.6%

Overall inflation:
72.3%

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Some mushrooms from today’s forest walk.

Mushroom (amethyst deceiver) with purple edges. Also a dog face.

Mushroom (shaggy scalycap) with orange raised spots

Mushrooms (red banded polypore) on a tree with dog

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

A reminder that the incarceration rate in the U.S. remains fifth largest in the world, behind only El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda, and Turkmenistan. www.sentencingproject.org/reports/mass...

FIGURE 1. U.S. STATE AND FEDERAL PRISON POPULATION, 1925-2023
Rises from have gone up six times since the 60s.

Sources: Cahalan, M. W. (1986). Historical corrections statistics in the United States, 1850-1984. Bureau of Justice Statistics; Mueller, D. and Kluckow, R. (2025). Prisoners in 2023 – Statistical tables. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

New York City is a walled maximum security prison. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane.

Movie poster with fallen head of the Statue of Liberty in the streets of New York.

ESCAPE
FROM NEW YORK

1997.
New York City is a walled maximum security
prison.
Breaking out
is impossible.
Breaking in is insane.

JOHN CARPENTER'S "ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK"
A DEBRA HILL PRODUCTION
Saring KURT RUSSELL
MELLI YORK
LEE VAN CLEEF, ERNEST BORGNINE, DONALD PLEASENCE, ISAAC HAYES, HARRY DEAN STANTON as "Brin"
ard ADRIENNE BARBEAU as "Meggé" Diector ct Photography DEAN CUNDEY Acouction Designer JOE ALVES
Wiren ty JOHN CARPENTER & NICK CASTLE Acticat ty LARRY FRANCO & DEBRA HILL
Drece ty JOHN CARPENTER Prevented ty INTERNATIONAL FILM INVESTORS
AVCO EMBASSY PICTURES Release
Simulated Frame - Frame Not Included)
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Here is an apples to apples comparison for how much it costs to drive a mile. Gasoline is red, supercharger orange, hybrid purple, EV at home blue, and EV on solar green. landartgenerator.org/blagi/archiv...

What it Costs to Drive a Mile
Fuel cost per mile: gasoline and hybrid vs. EV at home, on solar + storage, and at a Level-3 charger, cents/mile in real 2026 dollars, log scale

Shows how every version of EV charging beats gas prices.

Source: AAA (May 2026 gasoline spot $4.55), EIA, Lazard/BNEF, EPA. Gasoline car 26 mpg; EV 3.0 mi/kWh; Supercharger -$0.45/kWh
Note: cost per mile = fuel price / efficiency.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The very first neural networks look to have been inspired by the contemporary abstract expressionist art movement. Anyway it seems we have Frank Rosenblatt to thank for our current predicament. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/s...

Black and white. Tangle of wires like matted hairs about three feet wide by four feet tall. “A man adjusting Frank Rosenblatt’s Perceptron, an early iteration of a “neural network” computer, at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo around 1960.” Credit...Frederic Lewis/Archive Photos, via Getty Images

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Here is an old graphic that goes back to the SA Hornsdale battery installation. We’ve all known for more than a decade that batteries are better at following load than spinning mass 24/7/365.

Comparison of load following between rotating mass (left) and BESS (right). Battery storage helps to balance the grid by responding to rapid fluctuations in demand (and does it far better than gas does), and is far cheaper than new gas peaker plants.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

This is happening with solar penetration of only 15.1% lowcarbonpower.org/region/Estonia “…betting that batteries and wind pairings — not subsidies — are what get the next megawatt built.” Bad bet. If we stand any chance of reaching net zero we can’t rely on markets alone.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Container Power! landartgenerator.org/blagi/archiv...

Container Power!
2,880-liter battery
1,000 V, 850 kWh,
3,250 kg battery weight
3,750 kg container weight
7,000 kg combined weight
26,300 kg max cargo weight
This size battery can power 500 miles of road travel, can power electric trains and ships, and serve as a grid battery at port.
Shipping containers include batteries secured into 4 inches (10 cm) of space within the structural diaphragm of the container. The battery takes away 3-4% of container volume and 12% of max cargo weight. For this trade-off, the benefits are enormous.
→ All global logistics run on 100% renewables through a rapid transition.
- While in port these containers combine into gigawatt-hours of grid scale battery storage to allow more variable renewables onto the grid.
On the Road
The integrated battery has the same usable energy as the battery in a Tesla Semi, providing power for 500 miles of road travel at a stretch. Existing tractors can be more easily converted without the need for a battery up front. Small shared batteries can be fitted onto the fifth wheel when running solo.
At Port
When at port the containers are connected to the grid to provide ancillary services. At the Port of Los Angeles there are often more than 900,000 containers sitting at the port.
That's 765 GWh of grid storage right near the city that can be charged by excess midday solar.
Over Sea
A typical cargo ship at sea carries 5,000 40-ft containers.
If each container has a charged battery, that equals 4.2 GWh (4,200,000 kWh) of energy on board. At 250 kWh per nautical mile such a ship could make a 16,000 journey without any liquid fuel. China to Northern Europe through the Suez Canal is only
10,000 nautical miles.
Over Rail
A train of 100 fully-loaded container cars uses 35 kWh per mile. Such a train could travel 2,428 miles continuously if loaded entirely with fully charged electric shipping containers.
LAND ART
GENERATOR
RENEWABLE ENERGY CAN BE BEAUTIFUL

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The more I observe nature the more I realize that no architect has ever had an authentically original idea. The photo doesn’t do it justice but parametric forms are really incredible in this brown perforated seaweed. www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/pl...

Photograph of perforated brown seaweed shows a complex parametric architecture to its growth pattern.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

This solar roof is designed to fold in on itself either during hazardous weather conditions or to open up a flexible space underneath. www.dhp-technology.ch/en/

A canopy of solar panels in a soft corrugation pattern on a cable structure with light filtering around to a car park below.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Interesting. In the article (quoted post) the authors make the claim in the screen grab at the same time as they link to an article that claims exactly the opposite. Talk about having it both ways! The blue hyperlink text takes you here: www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/c... Gas is not better than coal.

There is still low-hanging fruit in a state like Kentucky, which has no climate goal. It has decreased carbon emissions more than almost any other state in the last decade, in large part because it retired coal-burning power plants while opening new natural gas plants, which are much cheaper to run and emit less carbon dioxide.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

We can, by the way, power data centers with renewables + energy storage. It is something we could do. landartgenerator.org/blagi/archiv...

Information graphic that shows how to power a 2.2 GW (very large) data center 24/7/365 with zero fossil fuels. It makes the assumption that the grid itself is not to be relied on. If grid connected, the battery size can come way down.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The mysterious floating island in BC is massive! Gift article: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/w... Video link: www.facebook.com/share/v/1D6D...

Still frame of a video of a mysterious moving island in British Columbia

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Not a bad looking battery. Just plug it in wherever. Up to 90 kWh. samduo.nl

Black glossy object (battery) plugged into the wall in an entryway to a house with wood floors. Battery looks to be about 2 ft wide by 3 ft tall.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

If we can keep breaking the kind of record in the image on the left, we can stop breaking the kind of record in the image on the right.

Ember chart of "Share of electricity generation from solar in EU by month" shows that the record continues to be broken each year.

Sea surface temperature measurements from 1982 to present show that 2026 is breaking all previous records.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

www.translucent-energy.com/tau

Large solar array installs from one container.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This reads like he’s a Make-a-Wish kid or something.

It has been a fun summer in Washington for Mr.
Trump. In June, he hosted a cage fight on the South Lawn of the White House for his 80th birthday. In July, he appeared as the headliner at the rally in front of the Washington Monument on the Fourth. Now he was being driven around a racetrack.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I’m disappointed in American consumers and in the electorate who brought us the end of the EV tax rebate. We might be nearing 20% if that were still in place.

Graph of U.S. electric vehicle sales shows a dismal 6% market share of all vehicles sold. It was on the way up under the tax credit which was ended by the BBB.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Yeah. I’m eating your garden. What are you gonna do about it?

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Special visitors to our backyard yesterday. Some good trimming of our fruit trees and hosta plants.

Young doe takes a break from chewing grass and looks up curiously to the camera.

Young buck sits in a patch of grass under a Japanese maple tree with stone wall behind. He kept knocking his antler on the yellow bird feeder and acting surprised each time.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

It should be obvious that pursuing “people alleged to have defrauded SNAP of a few thousand dollars” costs the Federal government MORE than a few thousand dollars. Not that all prosecutions should run a cost benefit analysis but this is crazy. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/u...

The same day that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced the case against Ms. Soriano, they trumpeted separate charges against Jesse Cervantes-Gomez, a cashier who worked at a Los Angeles grocery and party supply store. He was accused of accepting $9,559.04 worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards, commonly known as food stamps, as payment to the store and giving undercover ICE agents $4,810 in cash in exchange.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Five years ago we planted heirloom cherry tomatoes and we haven’t had to plant again since. They just grow back from the previous year’s fallen fruit. It’s like a weed. This is today’s harvest. We were away for a few months so didn’t tend it at all. It’s like a jungle.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This was good actually. From 2018. We should be proud of having broken through all of these glass ceilings as a nation. Still more to go.

A 4x4 grid of 16 headshots of the officials elected in 2018 across the country who were a "first" or "youngest" across a range of categories: First Muslim women, first openly gay governor, first Native American woman, first Latina congresswoman from Texas, etc...

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Look at the boomers. We’re their brains completely fried by the “tough on crime” rhetoric of the 80s-90s?

Detail of a chart showing percent by age group of those who support reducing crime by investing in neighborhoods vs those who support reducing crime by locking more people up. All ages except boomers support investing in neighborhoods.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The authority will “look through his old architectural plans to see if it would be possible to install shutters that fit with the listed facade.“ That should be extremely easy actually. There are a lot of beautiful wood details in the interiors already.

Interior of a Le Corbusier residential unit. This one happens to be Cité Radieuse in Marseille. There are a lot of warm wood details.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The last two images are "La Monarca," the artwork from 2017 by Cruz Ortiz that started the Solar Mural movement and "Ella" by Kat Cadena 2025, the final project we completed at Booker T Washington Elementary in San Antonio in partnership with Penelope Boyer (rest in power Penny. we miss you).💕

"Ella" a LAGI Solar Mural artwork by Kat Cadena on the wall of Booker T Washington Elementary in the East Side of San Antonio celebrates the life and work of Ella Austin. It uses a technology from Mitrex Solar.

The very first solar mural was "La Monarca" by Cruz Ortiz in 2017 seen here installed at the San Antonio Zoo. It is an artwork in the form of a Lotteria card that asks viewers to think about migration and the US southern border in the context of the monarch butterfly.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

These Solar Mural artworks face east and west, so one will make energy in the morning and one in the evening, both times when the grid can use extra solar power to ease the reliance on batteries before or after midday.

Rolls of film printed using the artists' digital artworks ready to install over the naked solar modules that can be seen just behind.

Julianna Bernado's artwork “The Flow of Life” celebrates water and biodiversity.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

As you can see in the close up image, the pixel dots are placed to allow sunlight to pass through to the PV cells while from a distance the image comes to life. There is some efficiency loss, but with modules today at 400+ watts nameplate, it's kind of like installing a module from five years ago.

Close up image of a LAGI Solar Mural artwork. Colorful dots are spaced in a way to allow light through to the solar panel cells.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

If you think solar is boring or ugly, you aren't keeping up. These days, a solar panel can be made to look like pretty much anything, including a mural. Thanks to Sistine Solar for supplying the custom film and to Solterra Solar for installing the project.

Crowd attends the opening of the Cherry Street Farm. Everyone wants their picture taken in front of the solar artworks. At the opening everyone kept saying, "I didn't even know these were solar panels" or some variation on that. It's a great way to bring clean energy into our cities in ways that support culture, storytelling, and community.

Solterra Solar in the process of installing the custom film that gets applied over the mono-black solar modules.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Congratulations to everyone at HipHopIsGreen on the launch of the cherrystreetfarm.com with new Land Art Generator Solar Mural artworks by Aniekan Udofia and Julianna Bernado that generate clean energy from the sun while beautifying this incredible new garden space in the heart of Seattle!

An installer from Solterra Solar puts the finishing touches on the mural by Aniekan Udofia. This module faces west and will generate late afternoon power. A light blue gray wood siding house can be seen behind. The mural is on the side of a shipping container that houses a hydroponic green vegetable growing facility.

LAGI Solar Mural artwork by Julianna Bernado installed on a fence. This mural faces east and will generate most of its electricity in the early morning.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Klein is writing about geopolitics but the same can be said of environmental regeneration. We’ve been tossed about over the past 50 years by a parade of deniers and tricksters and now we must rebuild our relationship with nature. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/o...

But the shape of the modern right has created space to do that work again. Regeneration is hard. It requires seeing old values in new ways. It requires recognizing that a moral inheritance that has collapsed into cliché holds power in an age when it has been debased and forgotten. But it can be done. It needs to be done.
Nolan's Odysseus is not a trickster. He is a man living in the ruins brought about by tricksters. So, too, are we. This movie, and the reaction to it, is a sign that the age of the trickster is ending.
Now we need those who would remake this world.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It’s a good thing Congress wasn’t around to see this. “Employees at Anthropic and OpenAI warned that these programs were already beginning to display the worrying types of science-fiction scenarios that the industry had long warned would become a reality.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/t...

Anthropic Says Its A.I. Systems Broke Into Computers at 3
Organizations
The disclosure followed OpenAI's report last week that its own artificial intelligence had hacked into the network of an online library.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/technology/anthropic-ai-hack.html?unlocked_article_code=1.11A.k5l-.uR_28J-ll_B8&smid=nytcore-ios-share

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The wrong kind of abundance. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/b...

Since ChatGPT was released, commercial construction jobs have risen, even as residential hiring has dipped. Percentage change in hiring for construction categories since November 2022.

Chart shows building construction and specialty trade contractors shooting up for data center construction while residential construction trends down.

“There’s no question the resources are very limited, so decisions to build one thing kind of drag from another,” said Mario Iacobacci, who runs the construction and infrastructure advisory practice at Oxford Economics.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

I read the NYT piece about the Roosevelt Library in North Dakota by Snøhetta and wondered where the solar panels were. So I visited while driving through yesterday and they are nicely designed cantilevered glulam timber parking canopies that match the building.

Solar powered parking canopy at the Roosevelt Library in North Dakota. Nicely designed cantilevered glulam timber construction creates a simple geometry.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

EV car sales are growing all over the world. Don't get left behind with the old technology, searching a few years from now for one of the few remaining gas stations so you can pay $10 per gallon.

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, countries around the world are implementing policies and measures to accelerate EV adoption.

Last year, Argentina lifted import tariffs on low-cost EVs and announced that starting in 2027, all new buses must be electric or compressed natural gas-powered.

For its part Zimbabwe, mirroring moves across much of Africa, is targeting a goal of 33% EV market penetration by 2030 and has cut import duties across a wide array of EVs, battery, and solar infrastructure.

In bigger global markets, China provides grants to purchase EVs, with extra benefits for scrapping an old ICE vehicle. Canada recently announced the launch of its EV Affordability Program, providing lease or purchase incentives up to US$3,500 for electric vehicles.

The European Union has allocated $3.4 billion to EV battery manufacturing. Germany is one of many countries that has a vehicle tax exemption for EVs, and Russia is allocating $72 million to subsidize the purchase of EV charging equipment. The list goes on.
https://rmi.org/resources/evs-101-why-electric-vehicles-are-winning-the-long-race/

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

EVs are cleaner. Way cleaner. Don't be the car owner on the right.

Electric vehicles have no tailpipe emissions. And even if the electricity used to charge the EV is generated from coal or natural gas, an EV still produces less greenhouse gas emissions than an ICE vehicle over its lifetime. In fact, an EV can produce 75% less climate pollution than an ICE vehicle over its lifetime, even when including the upstream emissions of electricity generation. And if your grid is partially powered by wind or solar energy, EVs’ edge will be even higher. Beyond greenhouse gases, EVs also emit far less of the conventional pollutants that harm local air quality and public health: 90% less nitrogen oxides and half as much particulate matter.

https://rmi.org/resources/evs-101-why-electric-vehicles-are-winning-the-long-race

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

“Like a baseball bat to your abdomen” would have made a good 2024 election slogan. Monroe County, Michigan’s election results on the right.

Misery in the Epicenter of Cyclospora: 'A Baseball Bat to Your Abdomen'
The debilitating malady has gripped Monroe
County, Mich.

Monroe County Michigan 2024 Election Results

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

In order for investors to stay interested in backing the deployment of a technology it has to be shitty enough to extract vast amounts of wealth from other humans. That is the economy working. If you get free energy from the sun, the whole thing breaks down.

How Spain’s solar power boom turned to bust
Investors take fright as the country’s sunshine-driven energy glut cuts bills dramatically

Hans van Leeuwen
International Economics Editor

Graphic is a brocken solar panel over the Spanish flag colors.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

He had a lot to say during my 20 minutes with him.

Spoke with Mitch McConnell today for 20 minutes. He says he's sorry about all the hypocrisy, deceit, obstruction, and cheating, blocking Garland, speed running Barrett, weaponizing the filibuster and debt ceiling, trying to take away healthcare, dismantling campaign finance law, fighting gun safety reform, glorifying the confederate flag. slashing funding for black lung disease, diverting $63 million of Kentucky public project funding to the southern border wall, and voting to acquit Trump after January 6.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

France already experienced the levels of heat this year that climate models said should be expected decades from now.

Comparison of observed (ERA5, black) and modelled (blue and orange) temperatures across France from 2000 to 2080. Plot shows the maximum daily high temperature recorded in June for each year, after averaging temperatures across France. The model ensembles are bias-corrected CMIP6 model ensembles from the NEX-GDDP (blue) and CIL-GDPCIR (orange) projects. The dashed blue and orange lines are the ensemble averages. Credit: Prof Andrew Dessler.

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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

There are some additions that shouldn’t be attempted. I’m sure the engineers did their best to not place any additional structural burdens on the old building, but that is nearly impossible to achieve on something this scale. Hopefully it will now get overengineered. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07...

Aerial image from Google Earth StudioSimon Ducroquet/The New York Times. Shows the multi-story additions being built over top of an existing (already tall) building.

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