iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 05/10/2026

Digging this recent trend of Spanish cities raising monuments to their founders in Ancient Roman style. (1: Augustus and Praetor Paulus Fabius Maximus in Lugo 2: Legio VII Gemina in León)

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 02/10/2026

As evening jogging routes go, the only surviving full circuit of Roman city walls in the world is going to take some beating. Lugo - Lucus Augusti, Galicia. 🏺🏰

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 01/10/2026

This here is what every dictator ends up believing. "I won the civil war, so I must be smart." "I won the election, I must be doing something right." "I succeeded in a coup, so I'm good in economy."

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 01/10/2026

What the hell is this framing, Guardian? Of course Ukraine won't pay attention to the dodgerings of a demented dictator. They're already at war with another one.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 29/09/2026

Wonderfully filigree palace of the kings of Asturias in Naranco. It must've been an astonishing piece of work for the time.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 28/09/2026

First time got one of these in playoutlier.com

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 27/09/2026

San Salvador de Valdedios looking absurdly like a scale model of a basilica. As if it was built for a park of Roman miniatures, not for actual worship. ⛪🏺

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026

Cool little Romanesque capital guys from Villaviciosa ⛪🏺

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/09/2026

Inside an 11th century Asturian village church.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/09/2026

The church where Louis XIV and the unfortunate Marié Thérèse married. Basque architecture is as idiosyncratic as their language.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/09/2026

The bulk of Polish army evacuated from St Nazaire, but about 20 thousand fought their way south through occupied France (post-surrender) to the last free harbour, where Basque fishermen staged their own Dunkirk ferrying the soldiers to the liners who were too big to enter the harbour.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/09/2026

There are no boring numbers to a mathematician; there are no boring places to a historian. Tiny St-Jean-de-Luz is famous for at least two things: the wedding of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse in 1660, and the evacuation of Polish Army in 1940 on ocean liners Batory and Sobieski

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 20/09/2026

The endgame is every billionaire building themselves a fortified tower in Washington (to be near to the Emperor's ear), medieval Italy style.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 13/09/2026

Now in Asco, where in 1938 the Dąbrowski and Lincoln Battalions fought to cross and then hold the Ebro. The battle continued through August and September, and with the heat now at 30 degrees plus one can begin to imagine the devastating conditions endured by the troops.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 12/09/2026

Breakfast in Catalonia: a deep-fried croissant filled with creme brûlée. It remains a mystery why Spain has some of the highest obesity rates in Europe.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 10/09/2026

Seu of Égara in Catalonia. A monumental complex of three Romanesque churches built on foundations of a Visigothic bishopric - an extremely rare relic of the post-Roman-pre-Arab conquest Spain. The mosaics are 5th century, the frescoes are 6-8th century.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 09/09/2026

Nic się o sobie nie dowiedziałem poza tym że Rumunski tak samo zmyślony język jak węgierski.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 03/09/2026

There is, in fact, a Polish hair metal band Turbo

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 29/08/2026

Thanks, Google. Apparently the last World of Warcraft expansion was released a year before the first World of Warcraft expansion.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 29/08/2026

It is impossible to make a bad photo of Annecy

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/08/2026

Not too bad given I haven't realised until halfway through you can do more than 4 letter words ;)

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 25/08/2026

Macron, the first nerd president.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 23/08/2026

Surely by this token the strongest representation of British culture is a St George-flag festooned hacienda in Benidorm.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 19/08/2026

Man in the High Castle-coded snack.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 11/08/2026

The vacuum cleaner repair shop meanwhile still stands for reasons none dare to guess...

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 02/08/2026

Jak na rosyjskiego generała. Może za młodu wyglądał bardziej jak syn:

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 31/07/2026

I love this bit from Plutarch, in which Athens learn of the Sicilian disaster from barbershop gossip. As if US found out about Pearl Harbor from a Harlem barber.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 29/07/2026

POV: you have all the money of 18th century Russia but none of the responsibility, and want a nice little house by the sea.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 28/07/2026

Latvia's beaches remain undefeated.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 27/07/2026

For a Polish schoolchild of a certain age, standing at the tomb of Janusz Radziwiłł is like standing at the grave of Mordred or Sheriff of Nottingham.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 26/07/2026

One man's hero is another man's traitor, Polish-Lithuanian edition.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/07/2026

A waffle iron built into a stove in Żuławy Museum. You can take a Mennonite out of the Netherlands, but you can't take the Netherlands... Etc.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 22/07/2026

Post-Mennonite arcade houses of Żuławy

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 21/07/2026

This is the English version of the alert. We just heard the sirens go off twice, that's it.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 21/07/2026

A grim yet hopeful exhibit from Żuławy Museum in Nowy Dwór Gdański: a set of keys from a German refugee's house which miraculously survived (with its owner) the Wilhelm Gustlof disaster and was returned home decades later.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 15/07/2026

This is why Bluesky is the superior social network right now (meanwhile Twitter top trend is 'Falklands'). #palantir

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 15/07/2026

25 years ago Japan provided the solution

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 09/07/2026

Check out Spain's path to the final. Looks like they're re-fighting all their old wars again. Austria. Portgual. Spanish Netherlands (Belgium). France. And finally, England. The Armada will sail again!

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 09/07/2026

If you see this, post a STAR TREK

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 06/07/2026

Grand example of Germanic hubris. The massive Imperial Castle of Poznań, built as a symbol of eternal German Reich and its lordship over Greater Poland, finished in... 1910, eight years before it all collapsed.

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James Calbraith @jamescalbraith.co.uk · 06/07/2026

The Irish mind cannot comprehend this 📍 Pyra Bar, Poznań

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