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tagishsimon.bsky.social
@tagishsimon.bsky.social
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tagishsimon.bsky.social
Remembrance Sunday. 🧵
chriso-wiki.bsky.social ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 2d
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 12:12 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
tfw it's 1877, you're the Laird of Glen Tanar, and you manage to down an elusive stag at 267 yards.

"the gentleman, not known for his modesty, had two memorials erected to himself: one where he stood and one where the poor beast fell."

* www.openstreetmap.org/node/1328601...
A stone pyramidal pillar with an inscribed stone ball on top, on moorland with the gentle peak of Baudy Meg in the background. A second pillar & stone is in the distance.
November 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Why yes, I am the author of green ink email missives to @diggermann.bsky.social's people in Aberdeenshire on discovering rifts in the HER spacetime continuum.

* online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/maste...
* online.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/smrpub/maste...
Aberdeenshire HER record for a Memorial stone, erected by Alexander Gordons Esq of Ellon Castle in 1862, and shown on the OS 1st and 2nd edition maps. It was uncovered in the early 1980s and re-erected on a concrete slab near where it was found. It is inscribed ''In Memoria the Brothers and Sisters meet again at home advent 1862. Deo Gratias'.' surrounded by what may be a serpent and with incised cross symbol above. Aberdeenshire HER record for a Standing stone/memorial dug up whilst the site was being developed. It was moved a short distance from its place of discovery and placed on a concrete base, The date on stone is surmounted by two ornate crosses. Inscription reads 'In memoria of the brothers and sisters meet again at home advent'. At the base there is a carved serpent or dragon.
November 4, 2025 at 7:26 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
A rather fine 1961 teak & copper memorial shelter topped by a Rod of Asclepius weather-vane, in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire; remembering one Dr T. K. Buchan, who served the local community as a doctor from 1916 to 1958.

* www.google.com/maps/place/L...
An open-sided park shelter, designed in 1961 by Allister Sturrock, as a memorial to medical doctor Dr T. K. Buchan, who served the local community as a doctor from 1916 to 1958, the majority of which time was prior to the establishment of the NHS in 1948. Dr Buchan did not charge patients who he believed could not afford his fee and, in some cases, would only tender a bill after a person’s death (information provided by the proposer). The shelter was built by the local community to commemorate Buchan four years after his death. The design is a simple structural plan form with a tall hexagonal roof and a three-sided circular bench suited for its purpose to provide shelter in an exposed position in the Square. It is built of teak and copper which were both high quality materials for a small structure at the time. The most distinctive design element is the hexagonal copper-clad roof which is a similar style to ecclesiastical church spires of post war churches, with a decorative metal weather-vane in the shape of a serpent, which is a traditional symbol of medical care.
November 4, 2025 at 5:37 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Just the most barking mad scheme, which seemed to boil down to "oh, so you have a public park / common do you? ... we'll be putting a dual carriageway across that".

Sabre's new map: www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/index.p...
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk SABRE Maps @maps.sabre-roads.org.uk · 7d
London's Ringways are a whole network of unbuilt urban motorways threaded through the capital. There's never been a complete map of them,not even one made by their designers, until now. Today we're publishing the Ringways Map from @roads.org.uk to let you see in the city that London nearly became.
#Map of the M11 - M12 - M15 interchange in NE London from the Ringways Map, with the 1971 Greater London One Inch map faded in via the Map Fader functionality
November 3, 2025 at 7:47 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
In which it's suggested that the not very good Trove website may have cost £2M.
November 1, 2025 at 12:39 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
One of two Congregational Church Memorial Halls on Baltic Street, Montrose - motto "All were others, All will be others" - arising from now difficult to understand schisms amongst independent-minded Scottish believers; this group part of the 1843 Evangelical Union splinter afaics.
Two story, three bay ashlar hall with stone carved signage - Congregational Hall - Father - Memorial Hall; and All Were Others - All Will Be Others, erected 1895
October 29, 2025 at 8:51 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
tfw Streetview captures your wedding.

June 2016, Ardwell Church, Wigtown, Dumfries And Galloway.

* www.google.com/maps/place/5...
Wedding party assembled outside a church building, presumably shortly after the wedding ceremony.
October 22, 2025 at 11:06 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
@thisismyglasgow.bsky.social l Might you know, does this plaque still exist? Canmore puts it immediately to the west of the George Square Cenotaph, but I cannot see it on Streetview & need an exact position to map it. thx.

* www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/lifestyle/13...

* www.trove.scot/place/331713
Eye Spy Glasgow: George Square's memorial to one of the most horrific wartime events of the 20th century
Millions of photographs have been taken of the impressive City Chambers, and of the statues dotted around the square.
www.glasgowtimes.co.uk
October 21, 2025 at 10:35 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
I fear I have exhausted the resources of the Imperial War Museum's War Memorials Register :(

It's been on the blink for the last 24 hours or so, with a welcome slight recovery over the last four hours, before this collapse. Oh wells.
Cloudfare notice specifying that www.iwm.org.uk is kaput
October 17, 2025 at 8:58 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Heathrow seems to be having its instrument landing system calibrated again tonight.
Map centred on Heathrow Airport, showing the route of a plane making repeated passes across one of its runways (09R/27L), but also arcs at a distance from the ends of the runway. The east west route runs from Reading through to Woolwich.
October 17, 2025 at 12:39 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Canmore/Trove/Historic Environment Scotland not exactly beating the 'asleep on the job' rap. 301 outdoor war memorials known to the IWM register, but not recorded by Canmore. Represents an 18% shortfall, based on 1674 IWM memorials checked.

* overpass-turbo.eu/s/2dMS
OpenStreetMaps map of Scotland, with 301 dots showing locations of war memorials known to the Imperial War Museum's War Memorials Register, but not recorded by Canmore. (Blue dots: double-checked as not recorded; red dots: mainly war memorial benches)
October 16, 2025 at 1:48 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Proper obelisk. Good job, Inverkip (and photographer Gregory Beecroft).

www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/it...
White granite obelisk photographed on the oblique with one face lit, the other in shadow, on a square pedestal set in a circular cobbled area surrounded by grass, behind which is the Firth of Clyde, and beyond that, hills of the Cowal Peninsula and Bute in the background.
October 11, 2025 at 8:58 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
@bandrdt.bsky.social do you have any clue where in Blairgowrie the Scottish Veterans Garden City cottages are? IWM claims Emma Street, but I'm unconvinced / cannot find this tablet on Google Streetview.

* www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/it...
Blairgowrie Scottish Veterans Garden City Association
Memorial type: Board / Plaque / Tablet
www.iwm.org.uk
October 11, 2025 at 10:44 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Lost & found (Geograph edition).

* www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/it...

* www.geograph.org.uk/photo/8142792
Imperial War Museum War memorial Register record for an allegedly lost memorial. Says "Stobs Prisoner of War Camp Memorial (LOST)", shows sepiatone picture of a pillar-like cairn with a tablet embedded in it. Geograph photo taken 29 days ago. Says "The Prisoners Memorial at the Stobs Camp Cemetery". Colour image of the pillar cairn tablet memorial, with wreaths at its foot.
October 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
For no good reason beyond OpenStreetMaps being down for maintenance earlier today, here are the number of memorials and monuments per million population, and per square kilometre, for western European countries, according to OSM.
Spreadsheet of number of memorials and monuments per million population, and per square kilometre, for western European countries, according to OSM. Data is: County,M&M,Population (M),MnM/M,Area (KM^2),MnM/Area Scotland,4122,5.5,749,77910,0.053 Wales,991,3.1,320,20799,0.048 England,14971,58.3,257,130279,0.115 Northern Ireland,336,1.9,177,14130,0.024 Luxemborg,770,0.7,1100,2586,0.298 Germany,87420,83.5,1047,357022,0.245 Austria,8780,9.2,954,83871,0.105 Finland,3601,5.6,643,338462,0.011 France,43736,68.5,638,632702,0.069 Belgium,5302,11.9,446,30688,0.173 Ireland,2386,5.4,442,84421,0.028 Italy,23930,59,406,302073,0.079 Norway,2006,5.6,358,385207,0.005 Denmark,1861,6,310,42592,0.044 UK,20420,68.8,297,243188,0.084 Netherlands,4912,18,273,41865,0.117 Greece,2720,10.4,262,131957,0.021 Spain,11716,48.8,240,506030,0.023 Portugal,2304,10.7,215,95170,0.024 Switzerland,1430,9,159,41285,0.035 Sweden,1107,10.6,104,450295,0.002
October 5, 2025 at 11:41 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Started / going.
Aerial image of a building in Redford Barracks, Edinburgh Aerial image of a building in Redford Barracks, Edinburgh, with spectacular reflection of the sun
October 1, 2025 at 4:44 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
The Bronx NYCHA building which partially collapsed earlier today - one of the Mott Haven Mitchell Houses - was built two years before the 1968 Ronan Point collapse, so I guess there's that. Seems like much the same etiology; explosion taking out the entire structure above it.
Photo of one of the Mott Haven Mitchell Houses scarred from top to bottom by the loss of an entire section of incinerator shaft.
October 1, 2025 at 4:14 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Is the 1830 French Prisoners of War Memorial in Penicuik the earliest cenotaph in the UK?

Seems to indicate outsize regret from the citizens, 15 years after Waterloo.

* www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/it...

* www.google.com/maps/place/5...
Cenotaph on a grassy hillside with steps leading up to it, trees behind. A large empty stone tomb on a tall plinth having a large tablet on its front side.
September 29, 2025 at 6:45 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
@whippletom.bsky.social has asked me to issue an urgent clarification, explaining that this tweet should not imply that a major newspaper believes there is a causative link between paracetamol and autism. The headline was merely for shits and giggles.
tagishsimon.bsky.social tagishsimon.bsky.social @tagishsimon.bsky.social · Sep 27
Are you proud of this headline, @whippletom.bsky.social?

What's the truth about whether you have any of a spine, a conscience, or agency? It can be confounding.

"Science" at The Times.
Headline above newspaper story by Tom Whipple: What's the truth about paracetamol and autism? It can be confounding
September 29, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted
paulbernal.bsky.social
I wrote a thing about digital ID cards. It’s rather long…

paulbernal.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/d...
Digital ID cards – some of the issues…
Since Keir Starmer announced the forthcoming introduction of mandatory ‘Digital ID’, the so-called ‘Brit Card’, there has been a lot of discussion and debate – some of…
paulbernal.wordpress.com
September 29, 2025 at 1:33 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Here's the Winchburgh (West Lothian) War Memorial, erected 2000. Commemorating WW1 & WW2 war dead, the statue about as far removed from sanity as one could hope. The Disneyfication of remembrance.
Cairn-like war memorial with brass tablet of names, atop which is a statue of idk an Edwardian drummer boy because why?
September 28, 2025 at 8:58 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
This sounds like a fun future: techbros with the wealth to buy and control much of the mass media (think CBS, CNN, TikTok, WaPo, X &c), and politicians and think tanks (notably the Tony Blair Institute).
robertscotthorton.bsky.social Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · Sep 27
Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'
Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune
Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.
fortune.com
September 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Are you proud of this headline, @whippletom.bsky.social?

What's the truth about whether you have any of a spine, a conscience, or agency? It can be confounding.

"Science" at The Times.
Headline above newspaper story by Tom Whipple: What's the truth about paracetamol and autism? It can be confounding
September 27, 2025 at 5:29 PM
tagishsimon.bsky.social
Still going well, I see, for the sporting genius that is Jim Ratcliffe. Much like his Brexit.
Result of today's football match: Brentford 3, Manchester United 1
September 27, 2025 at 3:09 PM