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...

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

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.

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...

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.

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:

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...

and a third on the other side of Liege:

and 20 minutes away there's another, similarly-sized site (we'll take you there next time):

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:

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

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...

AFAIK no African-American & possibly no Indigenous names on that particular monument, but they died on or near those beaches as well 4/x

he died alongside 1st-/2nd-/nth-generation Americans w/ Syrian, Polish, Ukranian, Askenazi, Swedish, Spanish/Latinx, Scottish, English, etc. last names. 3/x

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