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tagishsimon.bsky.social
@tagishsimon.bsky.social
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ccooijmans.bsky.social
Trouble with Reviewer 2? Why not carve your alternative theory into the side of your house instead?

(seen on a facade on New Street, Scalloway, Shetland)
A series of worn inscriptions carved into the facade of a house on New Street, Scalloway. The inscription reads: 'This diagram illustrates the cause of the so called Earth Tides. Also each alternate Ocean Flood, the cause of which has never yet been understood. [Text below ridge mostly illegible] [Lower stone:] The water flows back when att[ractio]n over & forms a heap on opposite side of E[arth] to balance att[ractio]n flood. There is no [... illegible]. White stone inset in a facade of a house in Scalloway, reading 'Section at Equator of Earth. German theories controverted. Germans Are Not The Favoured of Heaven.'
February 9, 2026 at 5:52 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
tfw a huge Grade B listed country house is just not big enough for you, your family and your helicopter.

Balgray House, East Renfrewshire; the original house is the top of the C-section complex. What looks like the courtyard is the roof of a structure, so 3x size?

* www.nvdc.co.uk/balgray-house
Front elevation photo of a three-bay, seven-window wide, two+ story country house, seem from below its terrace, which is reached by two sets of long stairs Plan view architectural drawing showing the country house now extended to roughly 3 times its original size with two new wings and a courtyard which is the roof of yet more rooms; and with an additional huge outbuilding. Unclear exactly where the helicopter is parked but...
February 13, 2026 at 12:23 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Cricket ground - top left - mimicing an Iron Age scooped settlement (bottom right). Easy mistake to make.

Balgray Cleuchheads, Dumfries and Galloway.

* maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...
LIDAR image of countryside, including (top right) a cricket ground showing as a round area bounded by an embankment, and, bottom left, an Iron Age scooped settlement showing as an ovaloid area bounded by an embankment. Aerial photo of countryside, including (top right) a cricket ground showing as a round area bounded by an embankment, and, bottom left, an Iron Age scooped settlement showing as an ovaloid area bounded by an embankment.
February 13, 2026 at 10:32 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
In which the famer had some fun.

Hetlandhill, Carrutherstown, Dumfries and Galloway.
Aerial image of a circular mowing pattern around a small circular coppice of trees, to one side of a much larger field.
February 12, 2026 at 9:46 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Nice Iron Age scooped settlement you have there. Shame if it was completely obscured by a spruce plantation of negligible value. (Part #837 in an endless series of wholly avoidable shit.)

Shiel Burn in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

* maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...

* www.trove.scot/place/67307
Ordnance Survey map of the bank and ditch contours of an Iron Age scooped settlement, now mostly obscured by a spruce plantation Aerial image of a spruce plantation, beneath which are the completely obscured bans and ditch contours of an Iron Age scooped settlement. 50 or 100 cm LIDAR image of the bank and ditch contours of an Iron Age scooped settlement.
February 11, 2026 at 8:10 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Was wondering why & on what authority Quholme (Rackwick, Hoy, Orkneys) had been renamed Bunnertoon by Ordnance Survey (as you do). Seems to be that Peter Maxwell Davies ascribed that name to the cottage when he restored & lived in it.

* maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...
Screengrab of a 1900s 6" OS map showing a cottage labelled Quholme Screengrab of an OS Maps API map of the same cottage, now called Bunnertoon.
February 9, 2026 at 9:36 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Corn drying kiln, it being rather wet much of the time on Hoy, Orkney, Scotland. Probably owned by a clergyman, built on glebe land.

Post-medieval, Canmore says. A nearby manse, they say, is 18th-century.

* www.google.com/maps/place/H...
Long single story barn with slate or stone roof, having a large conical kiln chimney structure attached to one end of it. IN a field; a hill in the distance shrouded in clouds.
February 1, 2026 at 12:24 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Cropmarks ftw.

The Grange Bronze age Class I henge in Balmerino, Fife, Scotland, doesn't care about your ploughing. 2,700 or more years old.

* www.bing.com/maps/search?...
Aerial image of a planted field, showing two tractor wheelings (path taken by tractors) between which is a C shape crop mark of a much darker green than its surroundings. This is the remains of a Class I henge, entrance on the east.
January 25, 2026 at 1:19 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Shite cartography, OpenStreetMaps.

Huge slurry tank at Dalwinton Roads, Dumfries and Galloway, represented by a tiny icon.

* www.openstreetmap.org#map=19/55.14...
Aerial image of a large slurry tank (and other farm buildings, a farm yard &c) delineated in the OpenStreetMap editor Farmyard and farm buildings on an OpenStreetMaps map rendering, showing the huge slurry tank as a small icon
January 25, 2026 at 12:14 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
BBC News website actively preferring and promoting Kristi Noem's version of the Pretti killing, by omitting a key paragraph in his parents' note and inserting Noem's falsehoods.
'Please get the truth out about our son'published at 02:35 02:35 Alex Pretti's parents Michael and Susan have called for "the truth" to be told about their son who was shot dead in a confrontation with federal immigration officers in Minneapolis. "We are heartbroken but also very angry," they said in a statement, according to several US outlets. "Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. "Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. "Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said agents fired "defensive shots" after Alex Pretti "reacted violently". Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.
January 25, 2026 at 3:25 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Manny Shinwell's racism not featured in his Wikipedia article. Whitewash, as it were.
workingclasshistory.com Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 27d
#OtD 23 Jan 1919 Sierra Leonean sailors fought a racist mob during a dock riot in Glasgow. A union leader and later Labour politician had rallied white workers demanding action against workers of colour. Police intervened and arrested the Black workers stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9562...
January 24, 2026 at 5:48 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Nice Neolithic class II henge you have there. Shame if anyone were to fill in parts of the ditch to construct golf bunkers, and place a putting green in its centre.

Castle Hill Henge, now hole 13 of the Muir of Ord Golf Club, Highland, Scotland.

* maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/...
Aerial image of a henge - a man-made circular ditch enclosing a central flat area - on which has been placed a golf putting green with to the west and north, four golf bunkers on filled-in sections of the ditch.
January 22, 2026 at 5:20 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Ofcom, the parliament that passed the Online Safety Act, and Starmer's cabinet all busy brushing this under the carpet as if industrial-scale CSAM and revenge porn was not happening. Regulation and government by quislings.
kateconger.com kate conger @kateconger.com · 29d
Musk’s participation in the bikini trend opened the floodgates. Grok went from making 300k images a week to 4.4 million. Read more from me, @dylanfreedman.nytimes.com and @stuartathompson.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...
January 22, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Reposted
jdportes.bsky.social
In the UK, we have Robert Jenrick, the Telegraph and Matt Goodwin doing exactly the same thing..
edburmila.bsky.social Ed Burmila @edburmila.bsky.social · 29d
Hung a guy at Nuremburg for doing this, FYI. Not "a thing like this" but literally this, exactly.
January 21, 2026 at 11:01 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Not Thunderbirds, but you could be forgiven. The Ryan X-13 Vertijet (aka Model 69; nice.)
machinepix.bsky.social MachinePix @machinepix.bsky.social · 29d
Ryan Model 69 Vertijet.
January 21, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Reposted
paulbernal.bsky.social
For those of you unclear why some of us are distinctly concerned about a digital ID system in the UK, this is what our Home Secretary is currently thinking about. www.thenational.scot/news/2578000...
Labour want 'Panopticon' to have 'eyes of the state on you at all times'
THE Home Secretary has said she wants to create a “Panopticon” system of state surveillance.
www.thenational.scot
January 20, 2026 at 5:07 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Patrick O’Donovan needs to resign. Man's not fit for purpose.
January 8, 2026 at 4:40 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Don't even know where to begin. The Saltire Society Civil Engineering Award for, I think, Paisley's 1993 St James Motorway Interchange (but also its 1832 cholera pandemic?).

File under wtf, or civic pride, or idk, what were you thinking?
Squat round concrete pillar memorial, maybe 1.75m diameter and much the same height, with an oblique top face inset in which are three round tablets with unreadable faded text, and on the front of which is a Saltire Society Civil Engineering Award plaque. Ten or more cobbles around the memorial are missing and the cobbled pavement is overgrown with weeds. So, yes. Civil engineering at its best. From a distance, the same squat round concrete pillar memorial, maybe 1.75m diameter and much the same height, with an oblique top face inset in which are three round tablets with unreadable faded text, and on the front of which is a Saltire Society Civil Engineering Award plaque. Ten or more cobbles around the memorial are missing and the cobbled pavement is overgrown with weeds, a curb stone seems to be misplaced, and bushes are encroaching the path from the left. So, yes. Civil engineering at its best.
January 6, 2026 at 11:04 PM
Reposted
katieturnerphd.com
Do you know of a museum, library, or archive that offers images from their collection for publication or presenting, for free?
Please use the form below to help crowd-source a list of these magical places!
May 19, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted
threadinburgh.scot
📆 It's now 2026, which means it is over 50 years since 2025. Hats off to the @natlibscot.bsky.social Map Library for getting the latest batch of out-of-copyright large scale OS maps online already! maps.nls.uk/additions/#191 🗺️🎉
Screenshot - "Ordnance Survey large-scale maps published in 1975 Ordnance Survey National Grid maps published in 1975 graphic We have put online 9,851 maps at scales of 1:1,250 to 1:10,560 which were published in 1975, and which have therefore just come out-of-copyright from 1 January 2026. These maps cover areas in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and include 2,872 more detailed maps at scales of 1:1,250, 6,281 maps at 1:2,500, and 699 less detailed maps at scales of 1:10,000/1:10,560 . Our graphic index showing the maps highlights the new maps published in 1975 in orange. These are usually the most detailed, basic scales of Ordnance Survey maps for these areas."
January 1, 2026 at 1:21 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
This sailed under my radar; apparently 1,000 memorial beacons placed around the UK as part of a nationwide remembrance project to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. Who knew?
memorial beacon in the form of a substantial post about 4 metres high, with a large iron basket above it (and in this case, a sign hanging from an arm extending to the side), in a park with a view of two trees, a high-rise building and the sea behind it. memorial beacon in the form of a substantial post about 4 metres high, with a large iron basket above it (and in this case an arm extending to the side, but missing a sign which presumably once hung from it), on a grassed coastal spit of land with park benches sheltered by a wall behind which are three detached houses and what may be a pub.
December 20, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted
sasooli.bsky.social
Oh beautiful bridge on the river Moray!
You have fallen down, and I'm sorry to say
That our public finances are in such disarray
It seems (as of the date I write this rhyme)
You will remain down for a very long time
December 17, 2025 at 11:35 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Bad news for Firefox users; Mozilla's new CEO, Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, doesn't understand or doesn't care about the browser's USP.

Modern AI browser my arse, @mozilla.org.
cyberciti.biz nixCraft @cyberciti.biz · Dec 16
Mozilla has a new CEO and he just announced that Firefox will evolve into a modern AI browser. This is a good example of how management doesn’t understand its own user base and why they go out of their way to install Firefox on Windows, Android, iOS and other devices blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/l...
A screenshot from the official Mozilla blog that reads: Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
December 16, 2025 at 11:02 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Regret to report a fair amount of McGonagalling on Bluesky rueing this bridge failure.
walkhighlands.co.uk walkhighlands @walkhighlands.co.uk · Dec 14
Sad news today as the historic former railway bridge over the River Spey at Garmouth has partly collapsed into the river. It can no longer be crossed, which means that the Moray Coast Trail cannot now be completed in full.

Thanks to Rachael Millar for providing the photos.

//contd
Collapsed section of box bridge
December 14, 2025 at 8:28 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Scottish mining memorials, 127 of.

* overpass-turbo.eu/s/2gSk
OpenStreetMap map of central & southern Scotland, with 127 red dots mainly in a wide band running from Ayrshire (left side, below Glasgow) east north east up to West Lothian and southern Fife, below & above Edinburgh.
December 7, 2025 at 8:54 PM