“What the heck is that banana car doing here?”

Steve Braithwaite built this custom hot rod after watching “Top Gear” and is pursuing his dream of bringing it all over the world for folks to enjoy. He’s giving rides today at the Power Plant in #MossLanding.

https://www.ksbw.com/article/banana-car-spotted-monterey-county-heres-why/70521414

#BananaCar

Our other target was the Sunflower Star laboratory.

95% of California's kelp forests are gone. over a decade ago, starfish wasting disease wiped out the sunflower star, so sea urchin populations exploded, and they wiped out the kelp. So many other species depend on the kelp forests; it's been devestating. This Lab is one of several around the world finding out how to control the disease and maybe one day repopulate the star.

https://www.sunflowerstarlab.org/

#MossLanding

Yesterday had a quick stop in Moss Landing, where I was hoping to see a couple of things I've followed online for a long time. One being the Western Flyer, the newly rebuilt boat the Steinbeck and Doc Ricketts took to the Sea of Cortez. No one was around this day unfortunately.

I was a patreon supporter during the rebuild and feel like I know every plank in the boat. Cool to see her in person at least.

https://www.westernflyer.org/

#WesternFlyer #MossLanding

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), our sister org, built a new imaging system to study deep sea octopus

https://www.mbari.org/news/mbari-researchers-deploy-new-imaging-system-to-study-the-movement-of-deep-sea-octopus/

#Marine #MBARI #Monterey #MossLanding #Octopus #Science

Hmm, do they just have the Moss Landing battery facility perpetually now in evacuation advisory? 🤔

#MontereyCounty #MossLanding

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/e61041e94a4d4b9a99178ff36a244bed/page/Viewer

Ah, the defective Moss Landing batteries are Tesla, that explains a LOT.

https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2025-06-04/pge-tried-to-restart-a-battery-plant-over-monterey-county-officials-objections

#powergrid #tesla #MossLanding

"The Vistra fire in Moss Landing caught everyone by surprise. What we can learn from it?” —David Schmalz, #MontereyCountyWeekly cover story

"On Feb. 13, 2022, a similar incident occurred at Vistra’s Moss 100 facility, and this time, both #Vistra facilities were taken offline.

"Meanwhile, PG&E’s 182.5-megawatt Elkhorn facility came online in April 2022. Unlike both Vistra facilities, the Elkhorn’s batteries were not in buildings – they were in an array of 256 Tesla Megapacks on 33 concrete slabs.

In the early morning of Sept. 20 of that year, just over five months later, a fire broke out in one of #Tesla Megapacks at the facility, prompting the closure of Highway 1 and a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents. Though the fire only burned for six hours, the orders remained in effect until just before 7pm due to the risk of toxic smoke inhalation.”

https://www.montereycountynow.com/news/cover/the-vistra-fire-in-moss-landing-caught-everyone-by-surprise-what-we-can-learn-from/article_7c3112af-73d0-4ca5-a599-05e77d09963b.html

#MontereyCounty #MossLanding #BatteryFire #MontereyCountyNow #PGE #PacificGasAndElectric

"I think all of us appreciate that we need to reduce our carbon footprint. Listen, #ClimateChange is already here.

"But get your infrastructure in place first. Understand the nuances that are causing these #lithium battery fires. They’re not just happening in California. I’m getting reports from all over the United States.

…
"I encourage young people, when they feel something’s wrong, to be able to step in front of it and say, ‘Something’s not right, we need to look at this.’ And oftentimes we won’t because we assume that some agency knows what’s going on, and they’re gonna fix it. I just don’t think we can make those assumptions anymore."—Erin Brockovich on #MossLanding battery fire

https://www.montereyherald.com/2025/03/09/erin-brockovich-on-moss-landing-battery-fire-the-truths-not-coming-out/