Lauren
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obrlsoil.bsky.social
Lauren
@obrlsoil.bsky.social
110 followers 170 following 57 posts
Soil nerd.
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obrlsoil.bsky.social
I'm really liking the Trimble catalyst hardware so far, but the software can absolutely get in the bin. The whole interface and workflow pattern appears to have been designed as a form of mass revenge by someone who was treated cruelly by a GIS tech in the past.
A screen cap of the Trimble map viewer refusing to accept a shape file upload while claiming to support the format. Nope! It's KML only. This is actually the least of this interface's problems...
November 2, 2025 at 5:09 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Speaking of which, look what just arrived from my library today. 1979 babey
The delightful 4-colour cover art of 'our land resources', the info report that accompanied the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory, a national scale map of soils and landscapes produced in the 1970s
September 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
I'm sure this won't have me shrieking in alarm when I wake up for a 4am doomscroll.
An Art. Orange gradient background highlights an entirely black, turtlenecked figure with perfectly spherical head and...a checkerboard halo? Is it the shade of Steve Jobs? Who knows. Both soulless and unsettling in the context of a mid range hotel room. I don't care for it.
June 23, 2025 at 8:21 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Soil stamps alert! collectables.nzpost.co.nz/soil?page=1 #soilscience #philately
Image of NZ Post's upcoming release of soil themed stamps. The four stamps highlight key ecosystem services and are super cute.
May 22, 2025 at 3:26 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
One for the perennial
Classic tweet from @notabigjerk, now on Bluesky! "I'm not falling for that hot take. that's clearly someone with a fetish for being yelled at. i refuse to participate in that kind of perversion."
March 23, 2025 at 10:18 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
I get that things are unsettling rn but that's a fund with a minimum 7 year suggested timeframe, this seems like really irresponsible posting.
March 13, 2025 at 10:34 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Sickos.jpg, etc
A successfully assembled and tastefully backlit standing desk. Ignore the cables, I sure will
March 12, 2025 at 6:48 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
This'll have to do until we finally get an NZ Ikea
The disassembled parts of a standing desk in an empty office. A Project!
March 12, 2025 at 4:49 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
I should start referring to more terms I don't like as 'singularly infelicitous'. Its got a good ring to it.
The introductory paragraph to a 1952 article about soil nodules, in which the author despairs of the contemporary lack of regard shown to the >2mm particle size fraction.
February 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Every so often I end the workday by scanning through an old issue of New Zealand Soil News, a grey-literature publication, because I'm interested in the history of my discipline. Occasionally, I hit gold. This is from April, 1956.

I'll never complain about #gis software again. #soilscience

✂️⚖️🗺️📊🤓
A screencap of an article from N.Z. Soil News, April 1956, as follows: AREAS OF SOIL SETS IN NORTH ISLAND K.G. Hogan and Audrey &. McSherry, Animal Research Station Department of Agriculture, Wallaceville. In the course of the investigation of copper and molybdenum content of pasture in relation to soils, information was required on the areas of the soil sets in the North Island. This was arrived at in the following way - 2 pieces exactly 5 inches square were cut at random from the coloured portion of a soil map from Soil Bureau Bulletin 5, 1954, and weighed on an analytical balance to the third decimal place. There was a difference of approximately one per cent. in the weights of the two squares. The weights were averaged and from the average weight 1 gm. of map was found equivalent to 145,000 acres. The soil maps were dissected into individual soil types which were weighed and the areas calculated. The figures were rounded off to the nearest hundred and expressed in thousands of acres. The work was checked as far as possible in the time available, but some errors may have been made as time would not permit (it took 2 1/2 months to cut up the maps) the cutting up of a second set of maps. As the results may be of interest to others working with soils they are given in the following table.
January 29, 2025 at 5:26 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Mmm. Rubble-ey #officecakeclub
An example of @smittenkitchen.bsky.social's New York Crumb Cake in the wild. It is not long for this world.
January 27, 2025 at 9:15 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
It seems that I missed one essential item on my pre- #fieldwork checklist 😬
A sadly neglected and thirsty hen-and-chicken fern, languishing on my bathroom bench. I'm a terrible Indoor Plant Millennial 😭
November 22, 2024 at 7:54 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Light, fluffy volaaanic ash over older, firmer silty stuff over welded andesite from a debris avalanche flow. #soilscience #WRB_Andosols
Soil exposure on a debris avalanche mound near Rahotu, southwest Taranaki. The wind is 🥶
November 21, 2024 at 2:31 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Particle size analysis.
On farm gravel quarry
November 19, 2024 at 11:07 PM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Mmmm. Layers.
Tephras and debris-avalanche layers, distal ringplain, south Taranaki
November 19, 2024 at 6:27 AM
obrlsoil.bsky.social
Pro tip, y'all: don't work for LinkedIn for free 🙄
A screenshot of my LinkedIn notifications feed, where the site is trying to convince me to generate content for no compensation and not even a clear guarantee of author credit.
August 23, 2023 at 7:59 AM