Cyrus Mody
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ccmmody.bsky.social
Cyrus Mody
@ccmmody.bsky.social
historian of sci/tech/energy/enviro @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social; http://nanobubbles.hypotheses.org; http://managingscarcity.com; The Squares https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262543613/the-squares/. Call me Cyrus or Cy or "hey, mister" but not Cirrus or Moody.
uh, maybe? at any rate, I'd be interested in contributing an article to such a special issue. I've proposed a panel on histories of STS for HSS; one of my co-panelists, Fri Cain, wants to do some kind of follow-on, tho his timeline would be longer than 50 years:

www.torrossa.com/en/resources...
A New Organon : Science Studies in Interwar Poland - Kleeberg, Bernhard - Cain, Friedrich - Mohr Siebeck - Torrossa
Purchase online the PDF of A New Organon, Kleeberg, Bernhard,Cain, Friedrich - Mohr Siebeck - E-book
www.torrossa.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:33 AM
the story about businesses adapting their operations because the oil shocks of the '70s priced them out of their raw materials is reminiscent of the origins of Playmobil:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playmobil
Playmobil - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 17, 2025 at 3:31 PM
I'm a little surprised the current administration isn't pushing to exploit the Baltimore Canyon and Georges Trough. Seems like the kind of FU to blue states that they would be into.
November 14, 2025 at 2:58 PM
most quite sad, but one darkly funny at the site of the Mechelen Incident, where an incompetent pilot crashlanded carrying a load of laundry, a fellow officer & the plans for invasion of the Low Countries:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechele...
November 12, 2025 at 7:30 AM
also plenty of small, easy-to-miss memorials: a British plane crashed here, a US soldier crossed the river there, stolpersteine by the residences of Jews and other deportees, a sculpture in the woods where partisans were executed.
November 12, 2025 at 7:10 AM
the "fading landscapes" of battle near us are mainly various Belgian fortresses taken quickly at the start of both WW1&2. otherwise, postwar reconstruction left only dim traces of violence, such as this lovely square in Antwerp where a V-1 fell:
November 12, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Bizarre BTW that the NYT would draw so much attention to the Margraten cemetery & not mention the removal of panels honoring African-American soldiers. It's national news here!

eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/artikelen/ve...
Verdriet om verdwenen panelen zwarte bevrijders op begraafplaats Margraten: 'Geschiedenis wordt deels uitgewist'
Verdriet én boosheid in Limburg nadat twee informatieborden over zwarte Amerikaanse bevrijders zijn weggehaald bij de Amerikaanse begraafplaats in Margraten....
eenvandaag.avrotros.nl
November 11, 2025 at 7:49 PM
and a third on the other side of Liege:
November 11, 2025 at 2:08 PM
and 20 minutes away there's another, similarly-sized site (we'll take you there next time):
November 11, 2025 at 2:04 PM
indeed. as I think I mentioned on the former microblog site, there are four Isbells buried or memorialized in the Margraten cemetery, alongside comrades from just as diverse backgrounds as those who landed at Omaha:
November 11, 2025 at 1:58 PM
anyway, for historians of technology on a similar trek, I highly recommend the Landing Museum in Arromanches. a piece of the PLUTO (PipeLine Under The Ocean)! beautiful models from the 1950s w/ the tools used to make them! charming schoolchildren's drawing also from the '50s! well worth it. 6/6
November 11, 2025 at 12:25 PM
all of which makes this 👇 (the removal, apparently at the behest of the Heritage Foundation) of acknowledgements of the role of African-Americans in liberating Limburg & burying the US war dead) extra infuriating: 5/x

www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/call...
Calls for permanent memorial in Limburg to black US liberators - DutchNews.nl
Provincial councillors in Limburg have called for a permanent memorial to black American servicemen to be erected next to the US war cemetery in Margraten after it emerged that panels commemorating th...
www.dutchnews.nl
November 11, 2025 at 12:15 PM
AFAIK no African-American & possibly no Indigenous names on that particular monument, but they died on or near those beaches as well 4/x
November 11, 2025 at 12:12 PM
he died alongside 1st-/2nd-/nth-generation Americans w/ Syrian, Polish, Ukranian, Askenazi, Swedish, Spanish/Latinx, Scottish, English, etc. last names. 3/x
November 11, 2025 at 12:06 PM
I was struck (as also when visiting the 3 US WW2 cemeteries near Maastricht) by how multi-ethnic the force landing at Normandy was. take this monument to the 5th Engineer Special Brigade that includes the name of a (probable) distant relative, James Isbell of Texas: 2/x
November 11, 2025 at 12:01 PM