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Rob Virtue

@robvirtue.bsky.social

Hydrogeologist, geochemist, sailor, gardener, curator of architectural, automotive and marine antiquities. Science is neither left nor right. It’s just science.

created November 13, 2024

145 followers 268 following 153 posts

view profile on Bluesky

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Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

As ugly and over the top as it is, that’s pretty much peak Regency, right there. The furniture, however, probably would have made even the most garish Georgian throw up.

26/8/2025, 7:32:13 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

How many hats has Bruce Lehrmann got now?

23/8/2025, 9:55:04 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

A chance to get a way with picking on immigrants (well, anyone not pasty white)? Yeah, nah, they’d join up in a meth-accelerated heart beat.

23/8/2025, 9:28:27 AM | 1 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Apart from the obvious architectural/engineering issues (even the flagpole is shit) the boats and their wakes are extremely bad. Either that or they cruised at “Full Astern” on the harbour and some have just been partially dismasted.

18/8/2025, 10:36:52 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

What an extremely large rooster he is.

11/8/2025, 10:34:00 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Are there any that are not paid defence industry lobbyists?

7/8/2025, 10:11:48 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Yeah, nah. That’ not by Voltaire. It’s by Kevin Alfred Strom, an American neo-Nazi, from 1993.😬

7/8/2025, 10:04:22 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It can be both frightening and a repeat of history.

4/8/2025, 9:12:53 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Oh there’s still one I want to see.

4/8/2025, 9:06:58 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

You’d think she’d get the test before launching her coup d’état.

4/8/2025, 8:59:39 AM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Or this aluminium foil fancier.

image
4/8/2025, 8:56:51 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Imagined being so brain dead that you thought this comment was a good idea.

image
4/8/2025, 8:55:02 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

All of the above, I expect.

29/7/2025, 9:23:24 AM | 3 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Bloody wind farms made Barnacle shag his press secretary.

29/7/2025, 9:14:18 AM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Cat: That sounds like a you problem. (Stretches and yawns).

24/7/2025, 1:34:44 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I think she is some sort of wire-guided WMD.

24/7/2025, 1:27:07 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

What is the appropriate pairing for maugean skate sashimi?

12/7/2025, 7:52:12 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture louiseadler1.bsky.social (@louiseadler1.bsky.social) reposted

Let’s hope that the current government does not yield to this massive over reach . Even if you are so blinkered as to be only concerned with Jewish issues, exceptionalising Jews will foster antisemitism rather than defeat it . www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

11/7/2025, 7:14:40 PM | 177 62 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Now you’re talking. :-)

12/7/2025, 6:59:42 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Build a roof over the Queenstown oval, then give it a new layer of gravel.

11/7/2025, 10:34:43 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Godwin’s Law is now enforceable.

11/7/2025, 10:30:03 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Bloody hell, Godwin’s Law is now enforceable! www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

11/7/2025, 5:32:42 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I think it’s still too early to tell.

28/6/2025, 9:28:04 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Easy! Just ignore Scope 3. Maybe Scope 2 as well. And Scope 1.

19/6/2025, 12:52:01 PM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

The jacket is appropriately labelled, appropriately.

Photograph of puffer vest, labelled “Cat” (as in Caterpillar machinery) covered in cat hair, because a particularly fluffy cat has decided it is hers.
19/6/2025, 1:21:07 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

No thanks, on both counts.

5/5/2025, 12:55:37 PM | 3 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

The voices are telling him.

5/5/2025, 12:55:11 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I didn’t know Angus was also a numerologist.

5/5/2025, 11:52:03 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

So, Tim Wilson didn’t find his hat then?

3/5/2025, 11:47:57 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Why would Clive care? He never spends his own money. Usually taps into his worker’s super and wages, … er..allegedly.

3/5/2025, 11:45:58 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It’S sTiLl tOo eArLY.

3/5/2025, 11:24:42 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I don’t think the oil, gas and salmon industries will be overly worried.

3/5/2025, 11:19:40 AM | 12 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Mashed potato gif
3/5/2025, 11:18:53 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Found one!

image
3/5/2025, 11:17:03 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

There is a sad lack of mashed potato gifs on the internet.

3/5/2025, 11:15:30 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

So much mud.

3/5/2025, 11:08:41 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Smeared!! Smeared, I tells ya!

3/5/2025, 11:07:12 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

image
3/5/2025, 10:50:16 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Can someone get the Thorpe wanker off my TV before I break it!

3/5/2025, 10:44:30 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Ha! I just posted this to a family chat when that was announced

Oh dear. How sad. Never mind gif.
3/5/2025, 10:30:09 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It’s too early for that John.

3/5/2025, 10:21:21 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

“Somebody needs to ban James McGrath.” Fixed it for you:-)

3/5/2025, 10:20:12 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Who is this LNP dickhead on the ABC election panel screaming that “the greens are a nasty antisemitic party!!!” Really? FFS!

3/5/2025, 10:08:57 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m expecting Bob Katter to pipe in “But I ain't spending any time on it because in the meantime, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by an electric shark in a Norwegian fjord."

2/5/2025, 10:25:51 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

He was, as most other scientists are, perfectly aware of the impact of orbital and axis orientation changes, AKA Milankovitch Cycles. They are not responsible for the current temperature increase. science.nasa.gov/science-rese...

1/5/2025, 12:39:08 PM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

“We Used to Know”. The original and the best.

1/5/2025, 11:16:18 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m no law talking guy but I don’t think an organisation can be defamed, only individuals.

28/4/2025, 1:12:05 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

A bit like the TAB and The Golden Casket (QLD), back in the day.

28/4/2025, 10:30:19 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Is a Swiss railway organisation proposing it?

28/4/2025, 9:54:46 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

There are possibly worse places to place solar panels, but I’m struggling to think of any. A nightmare for installation and maintenance access- working inside a rail corridor has very high safety requirements and would significantly disrupt rail traffic. They would also get very dirty very quickly.

28/4/2025, 6:22:17 AM | 6 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Going back for her hat?

25/4/2025, 1:09:02 PM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

So, is Trumponomics a thing yet. Maybe Trumpematics, a branch of mathematics where there are no rational numbers that add up.

4/4/2025, 2:38:36 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

They are not the worst floods in 50 years. They have surpassed the floods from 50 years ago (1974). They are the worst recorded floods, i.e. since European settlement.

1/4/2025, 10:40:32 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Unfortunately, it’s the other way around. Australia had a contract to buy diesel French subs but got sucked into forking out the better part of a bil $ deposit on joint nuke subs from the US with the UK (AUKUS). Oh , & we had to pay the French contractors millions for breaking the contract.

23/3/2025, 11:19:01 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

They robably want to stop those pesky CO ₂ graphs. Shooting the messenger seems to have become one of their core policies. Obviously a long way behind pocketing lots of cash, but still core.

15/3/2025, 6:30:48 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Stanthorpe says “Hi!”. :-)

7/3/2025, 10:48:17 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Sean Sublette (@subletteweather.com) reposted

News is tearing across my professional circles this afternoon. For those not involved in the weather enterprise, I need you to understand something: seansublette.substack.com/p/bloodbath-...

27/2/2025, 10:17:10 PM | 161 80 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

That could explain the mass fish mortalities.

24/2/2025, 10:26:31 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture The Shovel (@theshovel.bsky.social) reposted

Government-Owned Steelworks in Whyalla Not Viable Says Guy Behind $600B Nukes Plan

21/2/2025, 5:56:29 AM | 337 103 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Apparently Dutton and the LNP are looking like taking a Aus federal election if held now. I’m beginning to think strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is, in fact, a basis for a system of government.

21/2/2025, 9:32:21 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It was terrible at lunchtime today. The temperature was far too mild and the sun too bright. People should stay away.

21/2/2025, 9:19:09 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Why did he change his name to Aussie Trump? Were Richard Cranium and Wayne Kerr taken?

20/2/2025, 9:43:30 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

🥁🥁 🥁

20/2/2025, 9:37:03 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Choice!

20/2/2025, 9:32:17 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Nice minerals you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to them.

16/2/2025, 6:57:29 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Surely JK could distil the tea towel down to one law, and sell it as a nice embroidery in a blackwood frame.

15/2/2025, 10:16:56 PM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Inverse Poe’s Law.

13/2/2025, 8:34:40 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Neville Chamberlain says “Hi!”

13/2/2025, 8:16:45 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Their previous dodgy CEO “retired” back in the 1940s. Just before a hostile takeover.

10/2/2025, 2:57:58 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Ok, how about “Ethnic Cleansing”?

5/2/2025, 3:48:41 AM | 5 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Well, at least we don’t have to worry about Russia nuking anyone for a while (except maybe Ukraine). Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake etc. Putin must be pissing himself laughing.

5/2/2025, 3:46:45 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Yep and it’s going to get worse. Yet they keep up the charade that the economy needs coal. Climate change is going to cost way more.

3/2/2025, 8:11:32 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It would be interesting to see QLD’s average annual disaster repair costs (private and public) compared to the fossil fuel royalties.

3/2/2025, 12:06:25 AM | 4 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Call them the “Musk Youth”, which, fittingly, sounds like a budget deodorant.

2/2/2025, 10:23:26 PM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Clem_OzGeo🇦🇺🦘🇸🇩🇺🇦💙 (@ozgeo.bsky.social) reposted

Please read the science... Yes, the earth's climate record does show 6°C+ higher temperatures and much higher atmosphere CO2 levels in the past. However the current rate of change is catastrophic and is almost all due to anthropogenic climate change... #climate #climatecrisis #auspol #environment

2/2/2025, 8:18:03 PM | 10 5 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Not to mention the fact that there wasn’t a lot of expensive fixed coastal infrastructure, complex agricultural systems and, well, humans around at the time.

2/2/2025, 10:13:58 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

1976 - “Burn Baby Burn” Disco Inferno 2025 - “Drill Baby Drill” Climate Inferno.

2/2/2025, 10:08:42 PM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It took a squirrel sighting to make it sink in I was not in Australia anymore. To be fare, I had been stuck in a conference hotel for 4 days.

2/2/2025, 9:20:48 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Just watch out for excess drag!

2/2/2025, 9:11:36 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Bradfield Scheme.

2/2/2025, 8:57:17 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Especially if you are a French aristocrat. (Boom tish).

2/2/2025, 8:56:44 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Also somewhat tainted by the laws of physics, not to mention economics. Head loss is not your friend.

2/2/2025, 8:54:17 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Send them to Ashley & Martin. (Sorry, dad joke)

2/2/2025, 8:37:26 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I’m more worried about the fascists than the facetious.

2/2/2025, 8:35:07 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

You will probably be disappointed.

31/1/2025, 9:45:32 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

That’s why they pay me the moderate bucks!

31/1/2025, 8:04:35 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I left Twitter back in 420 ppm.

31/1/2025, 8:03:21 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Or ejector seats for the passengers would also work.

31/1/2025, 7:56:30 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Hopefully the crew have ejector seats. Can you imagine having him as a passenger?

31/1/2025, 7:51:26 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

That’s unfairly harsh on pus-filled boils.

31/1/2025, 7:33:26 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Order jugs, so you don’t have to set the bar as often.

31/1/2025, 7:07:42 AM | 2 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

The Betoota Advocate covers it well. The last bastion of journalism in Australia. www.betootaadvocate.com/humans-of-be...

30/1/2025, 9:39:24 AM | 13 1 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

It’s pretty worrying who is using it as a template for Australia.

30/1/2025, 1:31:15 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

I just add little Baz to my block list, as he is truly inconsequential.

30/1/2025, 1:29:37 AM | 8 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Where does UTAS sit on the plot?

30/1/2025, 1:17:27 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

Time to get a beach shack to set up as headquarters for another multimillion dollar detention contract. Maybe some GBR funding. I wonder if I still have a rain cannon out in the back shed?

29/1/2025, 2:23:55 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

If you like, I can lift one of your posts and it will get zero reposts, to rebalance the post universe.

27/1/2025, 6:55:43 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social) reply parent

You are doing a great job of flushing out nutters to add to my block list. 👍

26/1/2025, 9:42:20 AM | 0 0 | View on Bluesky | view

Profile picture Rob Virtue (@robvirtue.bsky.social)

Since it is going to be hot tomorrow, I thought I’d better see what AI has to say about Dave’s Syndrome” apparently it is real.

Screen capture of an AI search for the fictional disease “Dave’s Syndrome” . AI provided a description as though it was a real medical condition. “Dave's syndrome is a rare disease that can refer to heat-induced psychosis or a rare genetic disorder called DAVID syndrome. Heat-induced psychosis Also known as Dave's syndrome, this rare disease occurs when someone is exposed to extreme heat. Symptoms include a desire to wear caveman-like clothing and perform rituals on car roofs.”
26/1/2025, 8:32:51 AM | 1 0 | View on Bluesky | view