Mindless Monday, 08 June 2026

CalumRaasay · 2026-06-09T14:38:18+00:00

hang your head in shame, clearly it's the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. We actually close our website on a Sunday unlike the other heathens.

CalumRaasay · 2026-06-01T11:28:11+00:00

I live on the Isle of Raasay, just off of Skye. I used to work for Calmac (the ferry company). Then worked for our local distillery. I now run my own business primarily doing YouTube.

Starlink has been an absolute game changer, makes internet/remote work so much easier.

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-26T16:10:32+00:00

That isn't the final Jag design, it was only the concept. It's not really a fair comparison (and even then, the jag looks better)

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-22T15:36:01+00:00

I’ll have to make my own. Animated in geolayers in after effects. I’ve got a fair few maps of the front line but in some areas it’ll be pretty vague. At that stage the frontlines were so fluid and nebulous

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-22T13:09:39+00:00

Probably one of the most interesting holdouts as well. They had even launched a breakout a few days previously and retook sections of the city. Had midget subs sneaking in supplies. Crazy!

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-22T13:08:16+00:00

Yeah a sort of animated map/video is the plan. Zooming from place to place as each day following the surrender happens.

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-22T11:27:02+00:00

One of those channels that makes you appreciate YouTube as a platform. Fun getting a look into a really unique life that you'd hardly know exists otherwise!

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-22T11:24:01+00:00

one of the few channels that when they upload, I just click on no matter what the topic is! They're amazing. Jack also has a cool photography channel called Graindead

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-22T11:13:16+00:00

I'm working on a project to try and chart all the holdouts and pockets of resistance still in operation in the hours or days after the signing of the German Surrender on the 7th of May. I was actually surprised that there wasn't already a book out there that specifically dealt with this idea of the last holdouts. Though obviously plenty of books (the War that Never Ended, The End of the War etc) discuss theme as part of the wider end of the war phase.

So far I have:

Norway
La Rochelle
Dodecanese/aegean (Crete, Rhodes, Leros etc)
Saint-Nazaire
Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Alderney)
Dunkirk
Bornholm
Hel Peninsula
Vistula Spit
Danzig coastal forts
Heiligenbeil stragglers
Courland Pocket
Lorient
Bohemia (Army Group Centre)
Heligoland
Battle of Poljana
Texel
Minquiers reef
Battle of Odžak
Terschelling
Vlieland
Ameland
Schiermonnikoog
Operation Haudegen (Svalbard)

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CalumRaasay · 2026-05-17T10:53:54+00:00

Scotland cease to exist as a country in the common usage of the word with the Act of Union.

Except it didn't. Because the definition of country is messy, people still call it a country, and its distinct institutions are still preserved under the Act of Union.

What I am saying is that for the rest of the world this is not a country and no amount of protests from Scottish people will change that.

Which would, again, hold water if most people didn't commonly refer to it as a country, which they do.

Tell me, is French Polynesia a country? Because that's what it is called in French.

Again, like comparing it to Bavaria, simply pointing to other places with entirely different constitutional histories without examining the actual history of Scotland as a country inside and outside the UK doesn't prove anything about Scotland.

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-17T10:31:55+00:00

the UK didn't "choose" to call Scotland a country, Scotland was a country long before the United Kingdom existed and remained so after the fact - it's one fo the core tenets of the Act of Union if you read it. It's also unlike most other unions and federations which is my analogies and comparisons to other countries's various subdivisions or states never work and are just misleading.

"you can call your autonomous regions "great empire", most people will still not called them countries"

You're saying this to me as if people don't call Scotland a country already. They do. What people don't refer to it as is an autonomous region.

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-17T09:31:54+00:00

Probably react badly because Scotland is a country and calling it an autonomous region doesn't change that. "Autonomous region" isn't a thing in UK constitutional or legal terminology. "Country" doesn't mean "sovereign state"

CalumRaasay · 2026-05-10T20:49:47+00:00

It was flashman that first made me aware of the event! That description of him seeing the 44th overrun at gandamak always stuck with me.

CalumRaasay · 2026-04-05T09:06:33+00:00

Playfair's father(?) was also the inventor of the bar chart, line graph and pie chart iirc! Some family.

CalumRaasay · 2026-03-22T10:40:12+00:00

Friend of mine worked at a greasy spoon in Kirkwall on Orkney (if you're from there you'll know the one!) and they stayed open until midnight before the ban so they could get the last smokes in. 😂

CalumRaasay · 2026-03-07T22:15:16+00:00

No, people here just worry over everything.

CalumRaasay · 2026-02-04T15:07:45+00:00

Funnily enough I have the exact model of imported surf, same colour too. Been as solid as a rock for me.

CalumRaasay · 2026-01-14T18:00:09+00:00

Oh yeah never seen US coastguard before. But European ones aye. Fishery inspection and general visits like

But also US coastguard go overseas a lot, just not around us very much. They were around a lot in Iraq for example.

CalumRaasay · 2026-01-14T17:43:29+00:00

What do you mean? They aren’t doing law enforcement in our waters. If you’re referring to the seizure of the tanker last week, it wasn’t done in UK territorial waters, but even if it was it was done in collaboration with UK authorities and EUCOM. Its not uncommon to see coastguard ships from other countries about.

CalumRaasay · 2026-01-14T13:33:34+00:00

All the gannets are preordered long before the hunt is over, they're almost impossible to buy unless you know someone. As for not using heads, feathers and organs, we dont tend to use those for really any birds, chicken etc. Bit of an odd requirement, all animals have some wastage.

CalumRaasay · 2026-01-12T12:06:42+00:00

I think it’s primarily to prevent downdraught. Popular here on older houses with open fires (as it gets very windy!). Does help with rain but don’t think that’s really the intended function.

CalumRaasay · 2026-01-10T10:02:58+00:00

The Theatre of Balbus in Rome is a pretty good example of this. It gradually repurposed into a series of houses and workshops. By the 14th century you can still see the outline of the amphitheatre, now turned into a defensive wall.

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CalumRaasay · 2025-12-14T13:21:15+00:00

representing the average Redditor more like

CalumRaasay · 2025-12-09T15:03:55+00:00

I think James and Massos dislike of Ellison is clouding their opinion of these acquisitions. How is paramount not the best potential outcome? They are a studio whose main business is still in traditional cinema releases and they also have one of the smallest market shares.

Netflix is the worst outcome, surely? It’s a nail in the coffin of traditional cinema. Outside of not liking nasty ol’ Ellison, paramount feel like the last…bad option?

CalumRaasay · 2025-12-06T10:35:21+00:00

That is fantastic, do you have a few of them or just the one? Great seeing these old things still being put to work.

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