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Michael Cruickshank

@cruickshank.bsky.social

Geospatial analyst, OSINT investigator, and journalist. Investigating the intersection of climate resilience and human systems, and sometimes writing fiction. From 🇦🇺, now in 🇪🇺. 📍Berlin, Germany https://www.michaelcruickshank.me/

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Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 6h ago

German Bundespolizei have discovered a drone carrying a possible explosive on the runway at Leipzig/Halle Airport, according to SZ. The drone was found in the vicinity of a Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft and is being treated as a possible sabotage attempt. www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/flug...

Flughafen Leipzig: Mögliche Sprengstoff-Drohne legt Luftverkehr zwischenzeitlich lahm

Am Flughafen Leipzig wird neben einem ukrainischen Transportflieger eine Drohne mit einem Zünder gefunden. Die Bundespolizei schließt einen gezielten Sabotageakt nicht aus.

sueddeutsche.de

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 5d ago

On one hand, this feature is a blatantly evil play to monetise the creation of disinformation, and a net loss for humanity as a whole. On the other hand, it is really really bad at understanding scale, and it's outputs are comically deranged.

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Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 5d ago

Google Earth, a tool often used as a source of satellite imagery to verify photos and videos, has added a feature that allows you to alter satellite imagery with AI, for reasons. blog.google/products-and...

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · last wk.

Hilariously, to actually believe this position in good faith, you'd need to accept the veracity of climatological analysis (which is inherently complex), while refusing to accept economic and energy data (which is relatively straightforward). As far as bullshit narratives go, I doubt this has legs.

Ian Hall@ianhall.bsky.social · last wk.

A growing narrative now accepts climate change is happening…but uses that acceptance to argue against solutions. Acknowledging the problem while dismissing the tools to address it is not realism; it’s a way to preserve the status quo. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07...

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · last wk.

In my opinion, the expression "you can't fight fire with fire" is possibly the dumbest in our entire language, as it is both objectively and metaphorically false. The *primary* firefighting tool that volunteer firefighters use in the bush in Australia literally creates more fires.

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Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

Finally got around to adapting this into a full-length psychological horror novel about OSINT, paranoia, synesthesia and hungry ghosts. Just finished Part 1 of 4 entitled 'Desaturation'. If you want to give it a read, let me know, and I'll send you the text. Blurb in the image below:

On the frontline in Ukraine, soldiers are whispering about the cold. Storms that arrive out of clear summer skies. Fog that swallows sound. A place, they say - not a metaphor - where the missing outnumber the dead. Half a world away, Kaleigh Vale watches the war through satellites and intercepts, one of the anonymous obsessives who map its every atrocity from their screens. She has learned not to feel what she counts. But the numbers have begun to break their own patterns, and in the data's negative space something is taking shape: a new word in the soldiers' vocabulary, a place they mention alongside the front line but never instead of it. In Kyiv, intelligence officer Maksym Sirko is ordered to investigate what the army will not name. He has spent his whole life performing for an Audience only he can perceive - and the closer he gets to the anomalies, the more certain he becomes that something is finally watching back. Where enough people die, the boundary thins. And a war that has filled the earth with the dead is about to learn where they go.
Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 3y ago

Wrote a horror short story called 'The Grey Zone', set in a grim future version of the war in Ukraine. Might continue it into a larger novella if people like it, so tell me what you think. www.michaelcruickshank.me/the-grey-zone

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · last wk.

Holidays in 200 years: New New Years Day (Jan 3) Sprang Festival (late Jan) Valentime Day (Feb 14) Claudesday (Mar 8) April Fools (Apr 2) Intl. Twerkers Day (May 1) EOFYS (Jun 31) Reunification Day (Aug 8) Nineeleven (Nov 9) Alibaba Singles Day (Nov 11) Jesus Day (Dec 24) Nyeday (Dec 31)

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

Looks like the major wildfire west of Bordeaux has expanded in size considerably in the last 24 hours, now moving east towards the city.

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Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

The bushfire situation around Bordeaux is looking incredibly grim. The larger fire to the west of the city has expanded into the rural-urban interface around Lège-Cap-Ferret/Arès and has completely cut off the Cap Ferret headland. A second smaller bushfire is also raging to the south of Bordeaux.

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

The bushfire situation around Bordeaux is looking incredibly grim. The larger fire to the west of the city has expanded into the rural-urban interface around Lège-Cap-Ferret/Arès and has completely cut off the Cap Ferret headland. A second smaller bushfire is also raging to the south of Bordeaux.

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Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

It's worth remembering that our package distribution centres in the West are equally vulnerable to the same kind of attack, and, in the event of a serious war, would likely being going up like volcanoes as well. Especially now that everyone knows how well they burn.

Mike Eckel@mikeeckel.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ukrainian drones hit THREE more Wildberries facilities/warehouses overnight: in the St. Petersburg region and in occupied Crimea. Eight facilities in total have been hit over the past week. t.me/rwb_press_se... (St. Petersburg region 👇)

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

Finally got around to adapting this into a full-length psychological horror novel about OSINT, paranoia, synesthesia and hungry ghosts. Just finished Part 1 of 4 entitled 'Desaturation'. If you want to give it a read, let me know, and I'll send you the text. Blurb in the image below:

On the frontline in Ukraine, soldiers are whispering about the cold. Storms that arrive out of clear summer skies. Fog that swallows sound. A place, they say - not a metaphor - where the missing outnumber the dead. Half a world away, Kaleigh Vale watches the war through satellites and intercepts, one of the anonymous obsessives who map its every atrocity from their screens. She has learned not to feel what she counts. But the numbers have begun to break their own patterns, and in the data's negative space something is taking shape: a new word in the soldiers' vocabulary, a place they mention alongside the front line but never instead of it. In Kyiv, intelligence officer Maksym Sirko is ordered to investigate what the army will not name. He has spent his whole life performing for an Audience only he can perceive - and the closer he gets to the anomalies, the more certain he becomes that something is finally watching back. Where enough people die, the boundary thins. And a war that has filled the earth with the dead is about to learn where they go.
Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 3y ago

Wrote a horror short story called 'The Grey Zone', set in a grim future version of the war in Ukraine. Might continue it into a larger novella if people like it, so tell me what you think. www.michaelcruickshank.me/the-grey-zone

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

New Sentinel-2 imagery of the Al-Zour South Power Plant and Water Distillation facility in Kuwait reveals repeated Iranian strikes targeting almost exactly the same area. My guess is these are drone strikes, and they are trying to destroy something very specific. (1/2)

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 2w ago

The Al Zour South desalination plant was hit again today. While the thermal signature is larger than the previous strike, it will be impossible to assess damage until the next Sentinel-2 overpass.

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Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 3w ago

While there is little public information regarding which desalination plants in Kuwait have been hit by Iranian strikes, both FIRMS and Sentinel-2 appear to show the location of a strike at the Al-Zour South Power Plant and Water Distillation, the largest by capacity in the country. (1/5)

Michael Cruickshank@cruickshank.bsky.social · 3w ago

While there is little public information regarding which desalination plants in Kuwait have been hit by Iranian strikes, both FIRMS and Sentinel-2 appear to show the location of a strike at the Al-Zour South Power Plant and Water Distillation, the largest by capacity in the country. (1/5)

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