Rob Cruickshank
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robcruickshank.bsky.social
Rob Cruickshank
@robcruickshank.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.7K following 20K posts
Technician/artist. Googly-eye enthusiast. Several kinds of nerd. Unusual skill set. Toronto, Ontario. he/him.
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Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
derfbackderf.bsky.social
Yeah, I always win this game.
williamadler78.bsky.social William Adler @williamadler78.bsky.social · 13h
Who's the most famous alum of your high school?

I'll go first: David Draiman of Disturbed
marisakabas.bsky.social Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 2d
guys i just found out i went to the same high school as howard lutnick. please respect my privacy at this time.
February 12, 2026 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
design-law.bsky.social
D889,561 - issued in 2020 for a design for a balloon. #DesignPatents
balloon shaped like the word "party"
February 12, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
ellipticalnight.bsky.social
as a resident of this city I make better nachos than I have found anywhere and the crimes are multitude, go for poutine
seismatters.bsky.social Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 14h
I’ve just arrived in Montréal and I really, really I want to know why my “Loaded Nachos” look like this:
A pile of nacho chips covered sparsely in white cheese, lots of black olives and a. Few bits of red onion
February 12, 2026 at 2:28 AM
robcruickshank.bsky.social
I can't help thinking these skis are called Atomic Shit Tiger. Is that just me?
Skis made by Atomic called Ski Tiger, but the K in "ski" looks like an H
February 11, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
70sscifiart.bsky.social
Here are more of his covers. I could really keep posting dozens of them!
It's winter, and a small indoor stove is actually made out of a black desktop computer for some reason. Byte magazine cover featuring gloves, pearls, and a wine glass next to a desktop with text reading "madam, dinner is served." Byte magazine cover featuring a toy train running along a computer circuit board rather than a track. Byte magazine cover featuring a guy on a desktop, looking at a screen depicting himself looking at a desktop screen depicting himself looking at another screen, ad neausem.
February 11, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
70sscifiart.bsky.social
RIP Robert Tinney (November 22, 1947 – February 1, 2026), the artist famous for his playful covers for Byte magazine, a hobbist magazine that ushered in the microcomputing age from the mid-70s through the 90s. I'm honored to have included his work in my own art collection.
Byte magazine cover featuring a desktop with a screen showing a green landscape, next to a window showing the real-life version, which is ugly, industrialized, and smoky. The original Star Trek crew are at a holographic museum of "ancient technology," watching a guy scratch his head while reading a retro computer manual. A painting, a window, and a desktop computer are all lined up to complete the same view, a scene of a blue mountain range. A white-bearded Robert Tinney stands near an easel with a famous Tinney illustration of a smartwatch that runs on a micro-floppy disk.
February 11, 2026 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
ichnologist.bsky.social
Just yesterday in my Environmental Geology class—after asking a student what type of slope failure was exemplified in an onscreen photo, & she hesitated, I sat in a front-row chair & slowly slid down to the floor. "Slump!" she said. Can AI do that?! (P.S. The slump was also a rotational slide.) 🧪🪨⚒️
ceaubin.com C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.com · 23h
AI simply cannot stand in front of a classroom, gesticulating wildly and writing semi-illegibly on chalkboards, both of which are key to building rapport and convincing your students you are worth learning from
anthonymkreis.bsky.social Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 23h
If people think AI can replace historians and political scientists, I have a bridge on the Thames to sell you.
February 11, 2026 at 8:17 PM
robcruickshank.bsky.social
We have a few swans here. This sounded like free improv jazz
a whole mess of trumpeter Swans, with some miscellaneous ducks scattered in there, on open water with a snow in the foreground.
February 11, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
naisasoundart.bsky.social
In “Sandpaper hammock” Aliyah Aziz uses custom-made gloves to draw out the sounds of #electromagnetic frequencies from CRT monitors and other electric devices. She performs online/in-person show on Feb 21, 7 pm EST at NAISA. #soundart #radioart #transmissionart
Tickets at naisa.ca/purchase-tic...
Aliyah Aziz wearing rainbow coloured gloves holds them over a CRT monitor and audio gear.
February 11, 2026 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
cyclefunmontreal.bsky.social
Winter: what is it good for?
Forest skating trails!

"Patinoires et sentiers glacés extérieurs Des suggestions d’endroits où patiner au Québec"
www.lapresse.ca/voyage/plein...
Patinoires et sentiers glacés extérieurs | Des suggestions d’endroits où patiner au Québec
S’il y a une raison de se réjouir du froid qui sévit sur le Québec depuis janvier, c’est bien le fait que les patinoires ont rarement été aussi belles dans les dernières années. Tour d’horizon d’endro...
www.lapresse.ca
February 11, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
bsakat.bsky.social
Loooooooooooool. I have a buddy who's a trained falconer, and had a big as owl he got from a bird rescue. She was the only bird he couldn't train to hunt. They had to feed her frozen mice. Very, very pretty but very, very dumb.
zaratustra.bsky.social zaratustra @zaratustra.bsky.social · 1d
finally found this tumblr post expounding on how stupid owls are piraticoctopus.tumblr.com/post/6741867...
elodieunderglass I can confirm that most birds have a detectable amount of wiring behind the eyes - blinking lights and buttons and sliders and frizzy things that spark and chirp and beep. They also have a lot of soul that can communicate with ours because the programming is fairly compatible. Vultures are clever and curious, swans are clear and lawful, chickens have a lot of personality, caged parrots are dissociated and disinherited and frankly worrying, falconry-trained birds of prey are tremendously businesslike. And owls are absolutely lovely beasts with their own irreplaceable validity. but they are basically stuffed with polyester fiberfill. They have one button, like a child’s toy dinosaur that opens and closes its mouth when you press the back of its head. And it isn’t even a sophisticated electronic button it’s just a lever that rocks back and forth to make the claws open and close. I think they may have actually evolved independently from sponges. Their skulls simply exist to create holes that funnel sound and light, and as a place to hang a giant hinged beak. An owl is just an empty tube like a windchime that the wind whistles through, and you can drop meat down it. They use the meat to generate feathers, and then emit the bones in pressed little packages like those machines that flatten a penny and stamp it with the logo of a theme park. I think that’s the gist of it - most birds are electronics of varying levels of sophistication, but owls are just a system of levers and pulleys. No elevator music in those skulls, just the wind echoing through empty caverns of slightly irritating design. Absolutely fantastic.
February 11, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
cbthorburn.bsky.social
Fuck your ChatGPT, if I want to see a caricature of myself I will make the effort to go to the seaside and pay £15 for a cruel man to give me body dysmorphia like we’ve always done.
February 11, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
pookleblinky.bsky.social
It's funny that "inception" used to mean the beginning of something, and that shitty movie has made it now mean "recursion" among people who don't read good.

Kind of like how for millennia, the name "Nimrod" invoked a powerful hunter until Bugs Bunny put the lipstick on.
February 11, 2026 at 4:46 PM
robcruickshank.bsky.social
We once had the next best thing in Toronto. Had a friend who worked there back in the day.
www.blogto.com/city/2017/09...
February 11, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
nome.bsky.social
It's really instructive when you replace "Millennials" with "middle-aged adults" in headlines.

'"Middle-aged adults" are swimming in student debt and may never own homes.'
February 11, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
mcnees.bsky.social
Banting, Best, Collip, et al announced initial results on the use of insulin to treat diabetes #OTD in 1922.

They later sold their patent to the University of Toronto for $1 each, hoping this would keep the lifesaving medication cheap and accessible. 🧪
The title an author info reads: PANCREATIC EXTRACTS IN THE TREATMENT OF DIABETES MELLITUS PRELIMINARY RePoRT By F. G. BANTING AND C. H. BisT, Depl. of Physiology J. B. COLLIP, Dept. of Path. Chemistry W. R. CAMPELL AND A. A. FLETCHER, Dept. of Medicine, Unisersity of Toronto, and Toronto General Hospital
February 11, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
biodiversitypix.bsky.social
🦄 Monograph of the bombycine moths of North America
Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1895-1914

[Source]
Historical scientific illustration showing various larval stages of the Schizura unicornis moth, also known as the unicorn caterpillar. The image depicts multiple detailed, colored drawings of the caterpillars in different positions and developmental phases, ranging from early to mature instars. Some larvae are shown on a green leaf, highlighting their natural habitat. Additional close-up sketches focus on distinct anatomical features such as head structures and spines. The illustration is labeled "Plate XXVIII" and includes scale bars for size reference. The overall style is precise and naturalistic, typical of late 19th to early 20th-century entomological studies.
February 11, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
jefstec.bsky.social
Pet carrier disguised as a guitar case, patented yesterday.
US 12543699
Patent drawing of a guitar case with a silhouette of a dog inside.
February 11, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
alpineinstitute.bsky.social
Military artillery has long played a part in avalanche mitigation in North America. But that is changing rapidly.

www.alpineinstitute.com?p=137156&pre...
February 11, 2026 at 3:30 PM
robcruickshank.bsky.social
Stereoviewer appears to be this one, or something very similar:
stereosite.com/museum/museu...
robcruickshank.bsky.social Rob Cruickshank @robcruickshank.bsky.social · 1d
Good thread, although that is a stereocard viewer, not a microscope. (Error is from the Wikipedia caption)
nlireland.bsky.social National Library of Ireland @nlireland.bsky.social · 1d
For #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience, we’re highlighting #MaryKingWard (27 April 1827 – 31 August 1869), an Irish naturalist, microscopist, author, artist and astronomer from Co. Offaly.

📷 : Mary Ward with her #microscope, c.1860 (public domain)
February 11, 2026 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
phillewis.bsky.social
A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years
February 11, 2026 at 3:43 AM
robcruickshank.bsky.social
Good thread, although that is a stereocard viewer, not a microscope. (Error is from the Wikipedia caption)
nlireland.bsky.social National Library of Ireland @nlireland.bsky.social · 1d
For #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience, we’re highlighting #MaryKingWard (27 April 1827 – 31 August 1869), an Irish naturalist, microscopist, author, artist and astronomer from Co. Offaly.

📷 : Mary Ward with her #microscope, c.1860 (public domain)
Mary Ward portrait
February 11, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
thetechknight.bsky.social
This has to be the worst packing and shipping job I've ever seen thus far. They shipped this exactly like this
February 10, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
vintagecomputer.ca
At least you got bubble wrap. I always show this picture noting bad "packing". This went from USA to Canada via USPS and Canada Post. If you guessed it is an Osborne 1 with a single layer of paper and tape as packing material, you would be correct. Made it without a scratch, though.
February 11, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Rob Cruickshank
cheatlines.co
incidentally, r/aviation's special procedure for managing newsworthy aviation events is called "seatbelts fastened"
The moderators have turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. In order to comment, you must have a bit of karma in this subreddit, if you don't it will automatically delete your comment. If you participate here regularly, you should be fine. We are not releasing that exact number because of bots. We have a post from the mods that should be at the top of the sub explaining how seatbelts fastened works, and our rules on politics. Please read before commenting.
February 11, 2026 at 1:24 PM