iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

robotgirl but its soft robotics. awkward gangly air-muscular arms and chunky hydraulically actuated silicone fingers. highly deformable girl

A photograph of the Octarm Continuum Manipulator, a flexible tentacle using McKibben air muscles and inspired by natural muscular hydrostats, particularly, as the name implies, the arms of the octopus. It is in three segments, each thinner than the preceding one; it is sheathed in a shiny black fabric. It is gripping a white cylinder.

A robotic hand, 5 fingers, hard clear plastic palm but the fingers are segmented rectangular sticks of silicone. Visible leading into the hand and then into each finger are clear tubes, used to deliver the air pressure which bends the fingers.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

thinking abt. getting programmed

the Beauty Micrometer, a cosmetological device from the 1930s intended to identify how best to apply makeup

A picture of a Hansen Writing Ball, an early typewriter with the paper fed through the bottom and the keys arranged on a partial hemisphere on top

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

control drums are like nuclear rocket chastity cages

a cutaway diagram of a nuclear thermal rocket with control drums highlighted in blue and green.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

developing a piece and every path leads to the objective best possible next move in the great sign-dance being for me to get devoured bodily just completely fucked up digested

A 3-D map of the hunting paths of 20 humboldt squids in a pack. They form a bundle of rough rectilinear helices

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

collecting quietly ominous passages from innocuous academic texts

A photo of a passage in Chapter 8 of Book 3 of Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences. It reads: " . . . many succeeding geologists. The forces which have raised into the clouds the vast chains of the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Ande,s must have been, it was deemed, something very different from any agencies now operating."

A screenshot of a NASA technical report. It reads "The NASA space sciences program encompasses the total national effort to explore the solar system and beyond with unmanned instrumented spacecraft. There is nothing esoteric about it. It is an explo-"

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

i love burt rutan both bc hes maintaining the immortal spirit of bizarre airplanes and bc he looks exactly the way a wacky but genius inventor should look

a photo of burt rutan staring into the camera with piercing blue eyes. he's absolutely rocking out salt and pepper sideburns and a leather jacket

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

why are they like that

A tree kangaroo standing, holding a stalk of celery. The joey's face is poking out of the pouch

A tree kangaroo standing on a branch, sticking its tongue out. It looks rather pleased with itself

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

The Fifth Royal Motor Yard's Bd.70 Rue Sastruga (what's black and white and over budget?) here seen tentatively entering a pillar forest on this chassis's first actual combat-expeditionary fielding. It's quite a warm day, only seven below.

A 3D model of a small cylindrical diorama/vignette depicting a tank, painted with black and white stripes, riding on large Archimedean screws, moving down a snowy slope, "peering" around a large dark gray monolith.

The same vignette, from a different angle; the barrel is facing towards the camera, and both of the tank's eye roundels are visible.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

thinking about balloon war

USS Valley Forge launching a stratospheric balloon for Project Skyhook. It is traveling in perfect pace with the wind; both the balloon's fungal stalk and the carrier's smoke are perfectly vertical

cutaway of a Dreyf antiballoon laser mounted on an A-60

Four images.
Top left: a C-130 approaches a floating parachute, striped red and white. it is perhaps half as wide as the C-130 is wide. The C-130 trails a delicate arrangement of curving metal rods behind it.
Top right: the C-130 is right on top. Its shadow is visible on the parachute.
Bottom left: the C-130 has made contact; the parachute is snagged on the metal scaffold behind it.
Bottom right: capture is complete. The limp parachute drags behind the C-130; the crew is at this point presumably beginning preparations for payload retrieval.

Launch of a Project MOBY DICK balloon at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. A translucent pupal ghost emerging from a truck-bed cage.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

why are male ducks like that

a photograph of a male mallard. he is staring knowingly into the camera with a penetrating and disquieting gaze. is his beak curled in a slight smile? we may never learn

a photo of a male mandarin duck floating on the water. It looks like a duck colored by an enthusiastic second grader, with several species of marine sponge grown all over it (the duck, not the second grader)

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

never totally finished this one but. accelerates by catching fuel packets with its big magscoop mouth before transitioning into a ram-assisted interstellar stage. Screams state songs in flight. Too many kilometers long; probably really beautiful to watch get snapped in half by some horrible accident

A "rocket-" imagine a bright yellow deep sea animal with a conical birdcage at each end, on a black field.

A front view of the rocket's magscoop. Dizzying rings of whipple shields protecting fine superconducting hoops.

An orthographic front view of the rocket. Rings and rings and rings, and fine yellow lines linking them

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

the minuteman transporter-erector trucks had a really unique kind of swag

A minuteman transporter-erector. A long truck, with a large white container trailer attached; on the side of the container are the words U.S. AIR FORCE. It is sitting still on a patch of concrete in a field of short grass. Chevrons adorn the front of both the container and the cab.

A minuteman transporter-erector, front out of shot. The container is elevated at perhaps 50 degrees

A similarly elevated transporter-erector. It sits behind a barbed wire fence.

A transporter-erector seen from the read. The door for loading and unloading the missile and part of the inside of the missile container are visible.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

holy shit sixteen blade coax rotors (various models of helicopters by Raúl Pateras Pescara)

Two helicopters facing each other in an empty field. They look like if you stapled two windmills, or perhaps many small wright flyers, to the top of a fossil airplane. They are beautiful. Their hollow flanks reveal fine organs. Their rotors- two coaxial, each with eight blades, configured as sets of four stacked one on top of the other- are cumbersome and laced together with fine wire.

A similar helicopter, seemingly in the air. A small crowd rings it. This one has less graceful lines. A man is seated inside.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I WELCOME THIS OPPORTUNITY TO TALK TO YOU AND USE SOME CHARTS FOR ILLUSTRATION. I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT ASAT FIRST, ANTISATELLITE WEAPONS.

A screenshot of the first page of a congressional seminar presentation. It reads:
GENERAL JOHN L. PIOTROWSKI, USAF
AAAS CONGRESSIONAL SEMINAR
ON
STRATEGIC DEFENSE AND ASAT WEAPONS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
27 SEPTEMBER 1989

I WELCOME THIS OPPORTUNITY TO TALK TO YOU AND USE SOME CHARTS FOR ILLUSTRATION. I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT ASAT FIRST, ANTISATELLITE WEAPONS.

(the seal of the United States Space Command. It is somewhat faded)
(a little down, and to the left) 19980302 075

- PRESENTATION TO -
AAAS CONGRESSIONAL SEMINAR
ON
STRATEGIC DEFENSE AND ASAT WEAPONS
27 SEPTEMBER 1989

DTIC QUALITY INSPECTED (this is fading on the right end)
PLEASE RETURN TO:
SDI TECHNICAL INFORMATION CENTER
BMDOTIC

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A
Approved for public release; Distribution Unlimited
42935

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

really adore how freaky pterosaur skulls got

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

"im coming over you better not be raymond loewry plesiosaur" my streamlined ass:

a photograph of "Flip," Kings College's robotic plesiosaur model. It might be described as a miniature plesiosaur which had been judiciously sanded down and plated with stainless steel until it resembled in some way an esoteric kitchen utensil

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

impossibly unbelievably enamored with the Jerome-de Bothezat Flying Octopus (it actually had More than 4 props!) (it's difficult to see in the photos, but its arms are braced with fine piano wire, which is kinda scary but also extremely attractive to my aesthetic sense)

A photograph of the Flying Octopus, rotors blurry with motion. The pilot can be seen hunched over in one of the girders.

Two pictures- on the left, a photograph of the Flying Octopus, showing the end of one of its girders in great detail; on the right, a blueprint of the Flying Octopus, making clear the structural piano wire and the six broad blades on each propeller

A photograph of the Flying Octopus over a grassy plain. Visible is a rope, used to measure height above the ground. Scrawled text says "De Bothezat helicopter / April 6, 1923"

A photograph of the Flying Octopus low over the ground. Its props are seemingly still. Scrawled text reads "[unintelligible] with my highest regards and admiration from the inventor: Dr. J. deBothezat / Cook Field, Dayton, Ohio. / Flight made by the "de Bothezat Helicopter" February 21, 1923 in which the helicopter stayed in the air for 2min 45sec at a height of almost 15 feet. Picture taken during the descent of the helicopter. The rope hanging under the helicopter is for the purpose of checking its height above the ground. The total length of the rope of 23 feet. The distance between the marks is 10 feet.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

sometimes i really really wish we lived in the timeline where magnus effect heavy lift balloons really took off but ultimately . i think in the swooping alien lines, the anachronism operation, they fundamentally thrive as creatures of what was not

A magazine cover depicting a Magnus effect balloon, seen from slightly below.

An illustration of Magnus-effect balloons, seen from below, lifting bundles of logs. The caption reads "Rendering of a Magnus-type spherical airship conducting logging operations. Source: imgur.com"

An illustration of a Magnus-effect balloon, seen from the front, flying over a forest, a bundle of logs hanging below it. The caption reads "Rendering of an LTA-20-1 conducting logging operations. Source: Magnus Aerospace Corp. promotional brochure"

An illustration of a Magnus-effect balloon, seen from the side, carrying a tank beneath it. The caption reads "Rendering of an LTA 20-1 transporting a military armored vehicle on a cargo "shelf" behind the crew cabin. Source: EIR Science & Technology, 1986"

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

esoteric buddhist theory in the misbegotten crevice im livin it up

The space beneath the last flight of stairs. A smooth concrete floor. A laptop sits on the ground; text is visible on its screen

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Don't forget the DoT M60

An M60 tank on a snowy mountain landscape. A figure in high-vis gear is sitting atop it.

An M60 tank, turret locked, in a snowy mountain landscape. A road is visible in the distance.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

There is nothing esoteric about it.

An excerpt from an old NASA paper. It reads "The NASA space sciences program encompasses the total national effort to explore the solar system and beyond with unmanned instrumented spacecraft. There is nothing esoteric about it. It is an explo-" (screenshot cuts off)

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

the Garinko-Go icebreakers use a pair of large Archimedean screws at the front to assist with icebreaking- the screws grip onto oncoming ice and help the propellers force the ship up onto the ice, breaking the ice with the ship's weight.

Garinko-Go icebreaker, bright red against a plain of white, floating, ice.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

HABITAT PROTECTED BY EKRANOPLAN

A grainy black-and-white photo of a small, open-topped, ekranoplan, skimming low across a placid lake. "Rybnadzor" is written across its flank in cyrillic. The caption reads "Above: Poachers beware! ...or what? The SM-9 experimental WIG vehicle bore *Rybnadzor* (Fisheries Control Agency) titles. Too bad the agency still does not have fast craft of this kind in its inventory."

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

discussions of grand canyon geography never bring up how absolutely sick nasty badass the term "Zoroaster Plutonic Complex" is

A stratigraphic column of the grand canyon. Visible at the bottom, appearing in cross-section like some kind of beautiful granitey shoggoth, is the Zoroaster Plutonic Complex

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

im writing 130 word sentences and you cant stop me

A screenshot of microsoft notepad. The text reads:

"Yesterday, he had run out of wood; for quite some time, now, the ship's skin had more and more become very carefully lighter, carved away into whatsoever came to mind for Lester: lots of horses around the prow, mostly early drafts, sessile and slightly deformed- working from a reference was, of course, impossible- and it was really almost all of them because once he had mastered horses, he had moved on, so there was only one perfect horse, about three inches up from the very front of the gunwale, slightly larger than a man's hand, and somehow Lester had sliced away only the dead, still, wood and left only the horse, gleaming in the salt sun, prancing in place, proud and real, blood and foam pumping through its splintery veins."
"We looked at that horse for days. Lester was busy on the very top of the mast."

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

old work. A balloon-assisted orbit harassment missile, high above Venusian jungle, apparently oblivious to the counter-battery beams frying the air around it. It costs the equivalent of three hundred thousand dollars and weighs twenty kilograms. It doesn't know it yet, but it will kill a god tonight

Mostly dark, empty, sky. Fine white beams slice vertically along it. On the right, a small missile, dangling from an ephemeral balloon

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

forest grid cemetery parade ground. eyes up

Rows and rows of S-25 Berkut missiles, upright, facing the sky. the sky is grey and the missiles are grey.

azimuth air surveillance antenna of the B-200 station. two blunt hexagonal plates, each the size of a house, finely radially lined, lying on an incline, one rotated contrary to the other

Portable terminal, detachable plug. Heavy metal boxes in a dusty plain and a bright sky

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

decal work bc otherwise the tank is gonna be entirely greyscale lmao

A sheet of various decals, of the sort which might be painted on a tank, or perhaps another species of armored vehicle

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

Colombian Halland-class destroyer ARC 20 de Julio (D-05) displaying its Bofors 120mm automatic guns

black-and-white photograph of a destroyer. "05" in white on the bow. Two two-barreled turrets are visible elevated on the front deck. Skeletal radars jut into the sky.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 05/11/2024

just so beautiful on the ground and in flight.. its grounded camouflage shape blooming out into incredible feathery wings is just so absolutely lovely and even on the ground its splayed legs play so visually nicely with the unique form of its body and wings

a plume moth in flight, feathery wings spread wide

3 high-speed camera photos of a plume moth in flight

a plume moth on the ground. its body looks rather like a T overlaid on an X

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 05/11/2024

ily plume moth please stay literally me

a headline: "Bugging the Northwest: The T-moth's bizarre shape is only one of its unique traits"

Emmelina monodactyla, with its feathery wings unrolled

A similar moth, with its wings rolled up to create narrow lateral bars

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

assembly ships were generally bombers deemed somehow unfit for real bombing missions- they were stripped of guns and carried just enough fuel to finish their brief mission, and their crews were reduced to 2 pilots, a radio operator, a navigator, and 1-2 flare dischargers

Assembly ship "Spotted Ass Ape," nose painted with white polka-dots and a toothy face

Assembly ship "Little Gramper," painted yellow with red polka dots

Assembly shape "Tubarao," painted with yellow and black stripes about its midsection and the worlds cuntiest face on its nose

"Spotted Ass Ape" in flight with two other bombers

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

various assembly ships, brightly and distinctively painted bombers used to, with the aid of flares indicate gathering points for other bombers to form up at before setting off on a mission

Assembly ship "You Cawn't Miss It," painted with an all-over checkerboard pattern

Assembly ship "Ball of Fire," painted with red, white, and yellow stripes. Photo colorized

Assembly ship "Silver Streak," painted with red zigzags over a silver body. Photo colorized

Assembly ship "Minerva," painted to look like several bombers in relief

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

wrote more benthic shrimp yuri instead of seeing to my responsibilities. sorry mom

a block of text. it reads
"Issa was right; she needed rest. There was a small dent in her shell, on the left side, only barely visible but it hurt, it hurt, and she was only lucky that the killing claw had not punctured her. Her mind drifted in the pain and the warm, and along her hard skin ran stray thoughts of the cold outside, here striding back towards the rib in triumph and Issa at her side, there limp and loose, shrouded in her own viscera, invisible in a foul cloud of her spilt life.
Clonia shifted. Felt the pain like a hot stone beneath her skin, settled back against the soft wall. Almost like meat to her famished mind, and something in her found much mirth in the idea of butchering and slicing and gulping down the walls of their absent host's castle. "

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

also ive been 3d modeling a tank spawned of my sickly mind- this is the BD.70 Rue Sastruga, a 29.6 ton amphibious motor chariot designed for use in the cold and marshy twilit regions of an Alderson disk currently texturing it (fighting substance painter)

a tank on a black field, viewed from above. it lacks any textures

a tank, on a reflective black surface. in place of tracks are large screws. it lacks textures

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 09/10/2024

flower from an empty vodka bottle, a spam can, and some metal wire. modeled on the bloodroot, a plant native to the midwest, named for its distinct vivid red-orange sap

A metal flower in sand in one of those funny tiny vodka bottles. 8 white petals, upturned, slightly concave.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 22/09/2024

kinda forgot abt this account but heres a spaceship i built a while ago

A spaceship shaped like an elongated pyramid with a triangular base, painted blhe and beige with white and red stripes. It stands on a black base, against a white background.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 07/04/2024

i ♥️ ground handling vehicles

former oiler USS Patoka modified to be a mobile airship support platform, carrying everything an airship would need, including a supply of hydrogen via onboard generator. A US Navy zeppelin is docked to a short docking tower near the prow.

female Mark IV tank modified for towing airships. It is made visually unique by a pyramidal truss mounted on its back. A zeppelin floats nearby, ready to be connected and towed.

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octo @cirrina.bsky.social · 02/04/2024

obsessed with airship hangers

B&W picture of what i think is a semirigid blimp leaving its hanger

B&W photograph of the blimp Norge, exiting its hanger

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