Mike O'Brien
LightNews LightNews
banner
obrien.page
Mike O'Brien
@obrien.page
1K followers 770 following 1.4K posts
Full-stack fish ecologist. Richmond, VA culture leech living in Eastern Henrico. Small farm dabbler.

https://obrien.page
https://github.com/mhpob
Posts Replies Media Videos
obrien.page
Seems the DeFlock app supports quickly adding Flock Ravens, the gunshot detectors all over the East End of RVA that are leaking west into the downtown wards.

deflock.me/app
A screenshot of the DeFlock mobile app showing OpenStreetMap tags that are pre-programmed for Flock Ravens, the company's gunshot detector.
November 25, 2025 at 12:17 AM
obrien.page
Strangely post-apocalyptic Streetview photo of the day:

A fallen banner that says "building a brighter future" above the entrance to a permanently closed shopping mall... Next to an old castle-looking building.
Google Streetview of 6th and Marshall St in Richmond, VA. Partly unfurled "Building a brighter future" banner above boarded up entrance to a permanently closed shopping mall next to a castle (defunct armory).
November 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
obrien.page
We also mapped it pretty well on OpenStreetMap, so if you use Strava, etc., your Fall Line Trail map will be getting better.

open.trailsta.sh#12.3/37.7170...
Screenshot of the Fall Line Trail on Open Trail Stash
November 12, 2025 at 12:46 AM
obrien.page
Click the layer, then "query", sorry.
Arrow showing the layer.
November 8, 2025 at 10:47 PM
obrien.page
This is more or less what I do when faced with a featureserver/map server. Look for the Query operation, set where=1=1 and format you want, then copy the URL and drop all of the empty API arguments. I'm sure there's a better way, but it works.
Find the URL to the server Scroll to the bottom, look for "Query". You may (likely will) need to select a layer first. Set the query to 1=1 to return everything, or a real query to return a subset. Change to geojson for JS-esque endpoints, or CSV for more R-y endpoints.
November 8, 2025 at 10:35 PM
obrien.page
Apparently if you misspecify k in mgcv::te, it falls to the default number of knots without warning or error. #rstats
Screenshot of a terminal showing the results of R code: > mgcv::gam(y~te(v,w,u, k=c(1e9,1e9))) |> mgcv::gam.check() Method: GCV Optimizer: magic Smoothing parameter selection converged after 5 iterations. The RMS GCV score gradient at convergence was 4.916294e-07 . The Hessian was positive definite. Model rank = 125 / 125 Basis dimension (k) checking results. Low p-value (k-index<1) may indicate that k is too low, especially if edf is close to k'. k' edf k-index p-value te(v,w,u) 124.0 72.7 1.15 1
November 7, 2025 at 3:22 PM
obrien.page
I threw together a hacky first blush at creating package for the Allmaps MapLibre plugin (allmaps.org/docs/package...), now I can peruse georeferenced maps in #Rstats!

github.com/mhpob/allmaps
I'm a complete JS novice and using this as a foil to learn, so I will greedily accept any suggestions.
November 4, 2025 at 10:55 PM
obrien.page
A handful of North Atlantic Right Whales blew through Maryland this past Sunday, slightly earlier than normal. 🐋🔊

dcs.whoi.edu/mdoc2505/mdo...
robots4whales.whoi.edu
tailwinds.umces.edu/rtwb/
Highlighted North Atlantic Right Whale pitch track, classified by a machine learning algorithm onboard a "real time whale buoy"
October 30, 2025 at 3:04 PM
obrien.page
This Apple? Either that or my pixel has said "fuck your icon".
Screenshot of the Bluesky icon on a Google Pixel
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
obrien.page
Give me your pumpkins for my pigs. #rva
Three pigs
October 29, 2025 at 1:19 AM
obrien.page
Got it. Thank you!

www.openstreetmap.org/node/1326599...
Screenshot of the MapRVA map of surveillance devices in Richmond, VA, showing the newly-mapped ALPR at Forest Hill and Chocktaw
October 28, 2025 at 11:50 PM
obrien.page
This Wednesday, Beth Zizzamia of @urichmondsal.bsky.social will talk to us about their cemetery mapping programs! Stop by!
🪦⚰️🪦

cemeterycollaboratory.org/mapping-and-...
Screenshot of drone imagery of East End Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Locations of graves are shown, with burial dates shown with different colors.
October 27, 2025 at 11:55 PM
obrien.page
My biggest "Well, Actually" pet peeve, esp. in government reports and scientific literature:

JULIAN DAY
_is not_
DAY OF YEAR

But we've spouted it as so for so long that I guess it just is.

Today's Julian Day is somewhere over 2 million, not 294.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_...
Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech"
October 21, 2025 at 9:24 PM
obrien.page
I learned the other day that plastic bags and film dropped off in these things _are actually_ recycled.

In the Richmond, VA area they are shipped to Warrenton and turned into Trex decking.
Two plastic film and bag recycling cans against the wall of a Food Lion grocery.
October 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
obrien.page
No note, for example, that data centers will be the dominant driver of energy demand, and thus electric and industry-sourced greenhouse gases, in the Commonwealth and metro Richmond.

jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2024...
Figure from JLARC showing that no new data center demand means an increase in energy demand within Virginia of 15%. Adding data centers creates an increase from 99-183% of current demand.
October 20, 2025 at 1:28 PM
obrien.page
Three domestic pigs staring at the camera.
October 20, 2025 at 11:12 AM
obrien.page
New balcony at the Byrd is looking good! Time for Nosferatu. #rva
View from the newly refurbished balcony of the Byrd theater in Richmond, VA View of the seats in the newly refurbished balcony of the Byrd theater in Richmond, VA
October 17, 2025 at 11:05 PM
obrien.page
Is the cure to (~male~) any loneliness looking at neat maps?
October 13, 2025 at 11:05 PM
obrien.page
Henrico to take more cautious approach and spending, focus on redevelopment. October 9th 2025
October 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
obrien.page
Henrico plans to replace bridges on Kanawha Canal with recent purchase Sept 29, 2025 All 65 acres of the area are privately owned, with about five riverfront properties sitting along the canal on an area known as Westham Island which connects to the rest of Henrico County through the 75-ft Kanawha Canal Bridge Cost for the bridge replacements were previously estimated by Henrico officials to be $4 million, but the county is currently in the process of updating cost projections Several days later
October 12, 2025 at 2:40 PM
obrien.page
Epic handshake meme
October 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM
obrien.page
Some pictures from Charlottesville have leaked into the @maprva.org tool, and I absolutely LOVE that some anonymous users are having a crack at placing late 19th century pictures of the University of Virginia's campus.
georeference.maprva.org/16166/
Picture of a class of UVA's medical school overlain on a map from the MapRVA georeferencing tool. Picture of a class of UVA's medical school, some time between 1880 and 1920
October 11, 2025 at 5:57 PM
obrien.page
Image/site referenced: www.loc.gov/item/2018666...
[Richmond, Va. Ruins of the Gallego Flour Mill] from the Library of Congress.
October 9, 2025 at 4:15 PM
obrien.page
Super easy to use the mapgl package and @oldinsurancemaps.net to compare 1886 Richmond, VA to today in #rstats. The site of Gallego Mills, the ruins of which became an iconic photo after the fall of Richmond in the American Civil War, is now an office building and freeway.
October 9, 2025 at 4:14 PM
obrien.page
The @maprva.org surveillance map, ported to #Rstats using mapgl, osmdata, sf, and dplyr.

gist.github.com/mhpob/17782b...

Not 1:1 in terms of Ultra/Mapbox GL JS -> R, but pretty close!
Original query: overpass-ultra.us#query=url%3A...

cc @mackaszechno.bsky.social @kylewalker.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM