iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Friends, it is a somber day. My New York Public Library card has finally expired. In lieu of flowers, I will accept everyone telling my what novels they’re enjoying right now. (yes, I have a library card for the city/county I live in now. I love my library. But I shall miss NYPL.)

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In my history of tech class, we’re learning about the “speed-up” of communications during industrialization. I made an animation where we pretend to send letters from NY to CA at different years in the 1840s-70s. Each second that passes in the animation is one day of real time.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One such “accusation” (not QTing because it’s a small account and this isn’t about him specifically) was like: “and my special interests, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, don’t make me interesting at parties?”

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“Don’t you want to understand how we ended up here?” I shouted* at like 30 students at my college’s Majors Fair on Thursday afternoon. *because it was in a big room and there was a lot of background noise

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Reposted by Dr. Blair Stein

Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I don't want to make civic arguments about history. I don't want to make instrumentalist arguments about history. I want engineers to understand my discipline is rigorous too and if not I want to be able to make fun of them forever because no historian ever built a bridge that broke in the wind.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I don’t know Mike, and this is not about him. BUT. At my previous college, the mech/aero engineering department came to ME (not the other way around!) and invited me to join their curriculum committee and design a specialized gen-ed elective. Eventually, I got a “courtesy” double-appointment.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Counterpoint: no they don’t. University administrators, academic advisors, faculty in STEM departments, boards of trustees, state funding bodies, employers, etc. are the ones who “need to do more.” “The Humanities” (whatever that means) is already doing the absolute most.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’ve been known to try to type “airplane” and “aircraft” simultaneously, which typically leads to “aircrap.”

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Yes, we were learning about the Encyclopédie and the Enlightenment today in my history of technology class, how can you tell?

A whiteboard where I have written phonetic pronunciation guides for “Diderot” and “d’Alembert” in purple marker.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Karen advised my MA at Queen’s 2010-11. I was fresh out of journalism and armed with more enthusiasm than skills or awareness of what “doing history” was. Although I didn’t continue at Queen’s, Karen shaped how I understood this profession—grounded in community, the “personal,” and the “political.”

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I do these too. I call them “Engagement Challenges” because I want to imply that “engaging” with course material matters. They’re not worth points on their own, but students get a “check” for meeting the requirements. (I also refer to “attendance and participation” as “engagement” for this reason.)

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Friends: academic undergrad-appropriate articles/essays/chapters about the Luddites and early industrialization? I casually used the colloquialism in class today and a student asked what it meant. I immediately sent them a couple of podcast eps, but I want to provide some reading material too.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

hey so I have a Log Driver’s Waltz sweatshirt and it goes so hard * I also had a Log Driver’s Waltz t-shirt from a NFB/Roots collab from like 2014 but I wore and washed it so much it’s falling apart. ** I also have a Telefrancais sweatshirt. (Both sweatshirts are from Retrokid.ca )

retrokid.ca

Retrokid™ - Show off your childhood

Exclusive collections of retro apparel celebrating your most fondest memories from your childhood. Officially licensed tees, hoodies, and sweats, designs and printed in Canada.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

EVERYBODY needs a history of science class …comp sci is collapsing. But history/philosophy/soc/anthro of computing? Thriving! Relevant expertise! Rich texts! Want to study Computer but can no longer Do Computer due to LLMs? Boy do I have a humanities discipline for you! (/s it’s all collapsing…)

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I’m teaching a 3h night class this semester and I look JUST LIKE THIS when I get home at like 9:30 pm.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Fascinated by all the Canadians in the replies. I’m from Ottawa, moved to Oklahoma in 2012 until 2019 for grad school ,and have since also lived in northern New York and now Michigan. This said OKC was my least likely city, and NYC was my most. I don’t even know what I sound like any more.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

me, but with a joke from like Anchorman or Zoolander or something

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

oh no. (my Madisons are mostly Aidens, Braydens, Jadens, and Caidens/Kaydens, also some Jaylens and the occasional Kailyn. I even taught a Braylon once.) p.s. not making fun of my students! I care deeply for all my Aidens. These are just the names they have!

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Reposted by Dr. Blair Stein

Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

She’s at it again! I like this one so much it just might be my new author photo. Really captures how I’m feeling about the new semester.

A scribbly toddler drawing, in red marker on a whiteboard. It’s a face with a squiggle of hair and giant glasses.

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Reposted by Dr. Blair Stein

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

[bullhorn] what do we want? [crowd] A SINGLE, EASY TO SUMMARIZE BUT NEVERTHELESS SLIGHTLY SURPRISING OR QUIRKY EXPLANATION OF “MODERNITY” [bullhorn] when do we want it? [crowd] EVERY TIME A BOOK GETS PUBLISHED

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

She’s at it again! I like this one so much it just might be my new author photo. Really captures how I’m feeling about the new semester.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This could be about Rocky Horror OR Clue OR Muppet Treasure Island. And that’s the beauty of it.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I’m watching an episode of Reacher with my dad and Reacher kills a bad guy by smushing him between compact shelving at an archive. “This is totally unrealistic,” I say. “No way Reacher would be allowed by himself in the stacks.” “I don’t think this happened in the book,” my dad responds.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

My niece (almost 3) drew this picture of me. She drew the whole family, but she said this one was me because of the hair on top and my phone. Touché, niece.

a green scribbly picture of a smiley face with a puff of hair on top and a rectangular squiggle on the left side

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Ages ago my dad gave me his microscope from the 1960s, locked in its case. We tried everything to unlock it, but didn’t want to damage the case and it seemed silly to call a locksmith. LAST YEAR on a whim he brought all his junk drawer “mystery keys” to my house and lo and behold! Microscope!

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I have taken the 2-3 lbs of copper that were in the camera which you were probably saving for surveillance Forgive me they were so accessible so valuable and so disruptive

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

hey so just imagine a gritty, Game of Thrones medieval-style film version of Peanut Butter Sandwich by Shel Silverstein A fickle king, his scheming royal court, some upstairs/downstairs class drama with the various townspeople. It takes place over 20 years, which I think classifies it as an epic.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

so I started thinking about my fall courses today (sorry!) and I have a question for #skystorians : What’s your favorite academic article (chapter, edited volume essay, etc) about non-European science in the early modern period? My 200-level “Scientific Revolution” survey could use a refresh.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

In 2018 I went to the archives hoping to find evidence for something that turns out wasn’t there. That’s how it goes sometimes! Today I’m writing about a tangentially related topic and realized I had photos and notes from that visit. USEFUL STUFF was in there. For this other thing! From 8 YEARS AGO.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Sometimes I think “no, I’m not one of **those** airplane nerds.” And sometimes with only the pilot’s name, a geographic location, and one misspelled mention of the manufacturer I can identify an airplane in some blurry film footage from 1948.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

that thing where you spend a whole afternoon hunting down the origins of a historical anecdote and ILL request some articles from like 1937 and a book that’s been out of print since 1974 because maybe just maybe it might be mentioned for like one sentence that will probably be edited out anyway

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

When I was a tween my grandma would take *just me* to her favorite Chinese restaurant in Montreal. We’d get Hunan dumplings and she would always ask for spoons at the end so we could finish every drop of the spicy peanut sauce. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, and I miss Grandma a lot.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I am also terrible EXCEPT when it’s a Benin bronze. I’ve been playing for a little while and rejoice when a Benin bronze appears because I can get it right on and compensate for my shitty scores on other rounds.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

A recent (low-stakes!) experience that I’d like to add to Today’s Discourse about archival work and “discovering” things. I’ve been working for years with an archival collection at a museum. It is not well catalogued. It’s not even in the database search. 1/

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

a 🔥 🔥 thread about the work of history my current book project “only” involves three archives in two cities. and even so.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

this is a Make Some Noise prompt and I won’t hear anything else about it

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Since it’s Canada Day, here’s one more: an early 1980s TTC advertising poster for the Globe and Mail science section. My parents needed to decorate their first apartment in Toronto and got this somehow. I’m a historian of Canadian science, tech, and media so I’m so happy they kept it.

A framed poster. It’s grey and features a line drawing of Isaac Newton, with that quote about him standing on the shoulders of giants. Underneath it says “It’s not just how you say it, it’s what you say. Globe Science says it.” with the Globe and Mail masthead.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

My Canada Day plans: - revising my book about Air Canada. - my Spotify playlists “canadian pop history” (from Paul Anka, to The Weeknd) “canada’s best gordons” (Lightfoot, Downey, that BNL album) and “cdn pop punk” (all my tween CanCon faves) - poutine with my strategic reserve of St Albert’s curds

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

I’m revising my book manuscript and MS Word keeps suggesting I “simplify” my word choices. It indicated that “purchase” and “acquire” were too challenging and I should try “buy” and “get” instead.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Douglas McCurdy, the first person to fly a plane in Canada (1909) inaugurated Air Canada’s first trans-continental jet route in 1960. The airline named the route after his plane, the Silver Dart.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

someone got his summer haircut yesterday

Slugger, a black and white miniature poodle, is sitting on the carpet. He’s wearing a colorful bandana around his neck. His hair has been recently shaved down pretty short except for his ears, which are fluffed out to maximum horizontality.

Slugger is lying on a round brown dog bed. He’s stolen my white sneaker and is cradling it possessively. From this angle you can really see how little hair he has left.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Now this, my friends, is an a finding aid that makes you want to see what the hell is in that box.

A screenshot of an archival finding aid. The folders listed are, in order, “Gold shipments”; “crank letters”; “sabotage.”

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Lazy Sunday mornings with Slugger: a story in three acts

Slugger, a black and white miniature poodle, is sitting on a navy floral bedspread. A person’s arm is at the bottom of the frame and he he has rested his paw on her hand as if to say “why aren’t you using this hand to pet me?”

Slugger has laid down and is facing away from the camera, but his paw is still on the person’s arm. This is as close as he gets to snuggling.

Slugger is fully relaxed now, lying on his back with his little paws up in the air. He’s nestled his head against the person’s arm.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Here are the two most Ottawa Experiences I’ve had in the one (1) week I’ve been home: 1. Sitting next to some Liberal party staffers at a coffee shop and overhearing their discussion about the differences between “Justin” and “Mark” 2. Running into two people I know on the bus. I love this city.

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I’m at the archives this week filling in some gaps in my book ms and you should see this ad showing all the kinds of asbestos they used in building the Dorval airport (Montreal Star, 11/26/1960)

An ad for the Atlas Asbestos company showing all the uses of asbestos in the Dorval airport. Best of all, the tagline is “BUILT FOR A MODERN AGE”

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Dr. Blair Stein @blairstein.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

I still have my Canadian Press Style Guide and my copy of Mary Vipond’s “The Mass Media in Canada,” which I’m pretty sure was our required first-year textbook. I was a journalism major but I was never really a working journalist, so idk if that counts.

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