Kevin Castro, MA
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kevincastror.bsky.social
Kevin Castro, MA
@kevincastror.bsky.social
330 followers 570 following 520 posts
aspiring historian of science and technology, interested in aviation, aerospace, and space exploration technologies; he/him
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kevincastror.bsky.social
Can't wait for the explanation on how this is the most appropriate type of toilet for the Lincoln era
Gold toilet next to a headline saying, "This Fully Functioning Toilet Made From Solid Gold Could Sell for More Than $10 Million at Auction"
November 3, 2025 at 10:54 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
A far side cartoon depicting a student trying to push against a door that says "pull" on it. To their right, there is a sign that reads, "Midvale School for the Gifted."
August 25, 2025 at 10:42 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
Criterion Correction haul!

@isanchezprado.bsky.social @bfastallday.bsky.social
The Blu-rays of the Soviet adaptation of War and Peace, Solaris, Amores Perros, The Extermination Angel, and Belle de Jour
July 17, 2025 at 10:08 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
I took this picture and sent it to a friend, unwittingly blowing her mind because she hadn't realized roadrunners are real birds. I later shared the picture and story with my coworkers, and one of them said she also hadn't realized they are real.
A reddish, light brown roadrunner perched on top of a gas tank.
July 3, 2025 at 7:00 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
A ferocious panther after a long day of vanquishing nemeses
A green-eyed tuxedo cat lying on his back so that the white fur on his belly is visible. He is lying on a brown couch whose seats are covered in a grey and brown blanket with snowflakes on it. A mouse toy colored like a strawberry is visible over the cat's head.
April 27, 2025 at 3:34 AM
kevincastror.bsky.social
Au contraire, messieurs Literalist-Mormons.
Screenshot of a headline and lede from Libération that read, "Échappée belle : 'J'ai cru qu'on m'avait mangé' : au Chili, un jeune kayakiste survit après avoir été recraché par une baleine. Adrian Simancas, 24 ans, a été avalé puis recraché par une baleine à bosse samedi 8 février alors qu'il effectuait une virée en kayak avec son père dans les eaux du sud du Chili. Lire plus." English summary: dude in Chile got swallowed by a whale and spit out again while kayaking.
March 2, 2025 at 10:25 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
Libération is one of the few publications I’ve seen not mince words about the salute.
Screenshot of a portion of a Libération email. The text says, “Bras de déshonneur : Euphorique, Elon Musk fait deux saluts nazis en s’adressant à la foule. “Au début d’un discours tenu ce lundi 20 janvier sur la scène de la Capitol One Arena de Washington, le proche du président élu a manifestement réalisé deux saluts nazis. Lire plus” Next to the text is a picture of Musk in a suit looking up.
January 22, 2025 at 3:13 AM
kevincastror.bsky.social
I'm titling this "Peeping Tom."
A black cat stands on his hind legs atop a cat tree to peer out a window. The bare branches of a tree are visible through the window while another tree with yellow leaves is visible further back. Dishes and part of a water cooler can be seen along the bottom and right side of the image.
December 15, 2024 at 12:51 AM
kevincastror.bsky.social
I was today years old when I confessed to my parents that more than two decades ago, I was disappointed with the costume for my birthday party because I wanted to be the blue ranger from Power Rangers in Space and they got me a costume from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers.
A young boy in a blue Power Rangers costume
December 11, 2024 at 11:27 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
September 30, 2024 at 4:17 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
Reading Adolphe Sax's Wikipedia article convinced me that God *wanted* the saxophone to exist.
"Sax faced many brushes with death. As a child, he once fell from a height of three floors, hit his head on a stone and was believed dead. At the age of three, he drank a bowl full of acidic water, mistaking it for milk, and later swallowed a pin. He received serious burns from a gunpowder explosion and once fell onto a hot cast-iron frying pan, burning his side. Several times he avoided accidental poisoning and asphyxiation from sleeping in a room where varnished furnisher was drying. Another time young Sax was struck on the head by a cobblestone and fell into a river, almost dying. "His mother once said that 'he's a child condemned to misfortune; he won't live'. His neighbors called him 'little Sax, the ghost'."
September 27, 2024 at 7:09 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
A Wikipedia editor somewhere took advise on how to write a good hook a little too much to heart.
A screenshot of a portion of the Wikipedia article on school uniforms in England. The first sentence in the Cost of school uniforms section reads "Some parents have been turning off the heat in their building, or going into debt to afford uniforms."
August 28, 2024 at 7:50 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
For the first time since I started voting, my county got I Voted stickers that aren't totally boring.
A sticker on a red shirt. The sticker says "I voted early in Santa Cruz County" against a US flag background.
July 30, 2024 at 4:34 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
March 18, 2024 at 4:53 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
I've been having not the best weekend, but one thing that has significantly brightened it is the arrival of these Polish space stamps.
Ten postage stamps on a brown background. The stamps are various shades of blue, green, purple, and orange, and they commemorate Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and space missions like like Sputnik 1, Vostok 1, Vostoks 3 and 4, Explorer 1, and Friendship 7. The stamps depict drawings of the spacecraft and the rocket equation.
February 18, 2024 at 7:12 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
@ French historians
It seems impossible, at first, that he can ever hope to sort them out. All those various kings and princes—they all seem to have been christened by the same name, or a name chosen out of a most unenterprising handful of names. They all seem to have been each other's uncles, nephews, cousins, sons-in-law, brothers-in-law, or sometimes merely fathers and sons. The difficulty one found as a child in arranging one's own relations, who at least were living people with recognisable features, personal characteristics, and known homes, is as nothing compared with the difficulty of distinguishing between these remote figures of history, whose faces are unknown and whose names for the most part are meaningless labels plus a Roman numeral. It is absurdly difficult to differentiate, without a conscious effort, between a Charles V, a Charles VI, and a Charles VII. How greatly do the victims of this system of nomenclature suffer from its levelling impersonality! Alt text continued: Immediate and instinctive recognition refuses to leap into mind.
January 17, 2024 at 2:50 AM
kevincastror.bsky.social
Today I began preparing to defect (or to better study the ISS—who's to say?)
Handwritten notes about the Russian alphabet
December 12, 2023 at 3:58 AM
kevincastror.bsky.social
If I'd started four days earlier, I could have started Fred Haise's book on his ninetieth birthday.
First page of Fred Haise's book Never Panic Early. "Chapter 1: My Beginnings" "Dr. Burnett had to use forceps to drag me into the world, on Tuesday, November 14, 1933. This results in a slightly misshapen head with lots of bruising. My own mother thought I was an ugly baby. She told me that I ate and chewed on everything as a tot—things like rubber bathroom mats, car tires, dirt, and even a pink, infant mouse. Mom wouldn't kiss me for a while following the latter event. My family thought I had a mineral deficiency."
November 18, 2023 at 10:04 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
Anyone else remember reports that Donald Trump doesn't like exercising because he thinks hearts are like batteries and have a predetermined number of beats after which they'll stop? Well, according to Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong (potentially) had a similar belief.
Part of a page from Buzz Aldrin's memoir Return to Earth. "He [Neil Armstrong] shot us [Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins] a glance, a communication which we understood without his speaking. He was giving us Neil Armstrong's rumored philosophy about exercise: 'I am allotted just so many heartbeats in a lifetime and I'm not going to use any more than necessary at any time.' Since Mike and I were frequent and enthusiastic exercisers, Neil was advising us that we were using up valuable heartbeats."
October 31, 2023 at 11:33 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
In about a week, it'll have been two years since Cosmos showed up in the backyard.
A tuxedo cat wearing a green bow tie lying on a desk next to a laptop, some books, a keyboard, and a stack of old phone boxes.
October 30, 2023 at 2:41 PM
kevincastror.bsky.social
My sister signed me up for something where I'll get a historical letter each week until December. The first one was a letter to Mary Todd Lincoln informing her citizens in France had raised money for a gold medal honoring Abe's republican virtues.
To unfolded pieces of paper. The paper on the left contains a typescript of a letter to Mary Todd Lincoln, while the paper on the right contains an image of the original, handwritten letter.
October 17, 2023 at 11:08 PM