iain miskimmin

Digitally Built Engineer, historian, infrastructure enthusiast, CSM/RSWO/SO3 & professional sillyman. NED @COMobileIT & Digital Advisory #Sapper #BIMbrew

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

The National Infrastructure of Ukraine is under attack & understanding what is Critical & what is Vulnerable will help them prioritise reconstruction & protection from future disasters.

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

Britain buried a man among its kings. 👑

To this day, nobody knows his name. ❓

Not his family. Not the army. Not even the officer who chose him. 🤫

It was meant to be that way. 🕊️

In 1916, an army chaplain stopped at a grave in a back garden in France. 🪦

Someone had pencilled on its cross: "An unknown British soldier." ✏️

For four years, he told no one what it made him think. Then he wrote to Westminster Abbey. ✉️

His coffin was made from an oak tree at Hampton Court. 🌳

Dover Castle gave him a nineteen-gun salute, usually kept for a field marshal. 💥

The King walked behind him on foot, as chief mourner. 🇬🇧

The guests of honour were around a hundred ordinary women. Each had lost her husband and every one of her sons. 💔

Today, his is the only grave in the Abbey nobody may walk on. 🌺

They buried him among the kings, because he had done good toward God and toward his house. 🙏

We will remember them. 🌺

Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧
Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

[Morden Station @MordenStation]

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Thought Of The Day From Morden Station

[Digital Sapper @Digital_Sapper]

“If you're going through hell, keep going”
CO, 6th Battalion, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1916

[🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 @front_ukrainian]

❗️The Slovenian company Valhalla Turrets has completed multi-day live-fire tests of the remotely controlled ASGARD 134 module armed with a six-barrel Dillon Aero M134D machine gun (7.62 mm, 3,000 rounds per minute), firing several thousand rounds from a JLTV armored vehicle. The module is designed to counter UAVs and loitering munitions, features an optoelectronic sighting system, and allows the operator to remain protected inside the armored hull. The video was published on the company’s X page.

[Prof. Bonk 🇺🇦 Perverse & Unintended Consequences @actfast]

🧵In a single day, Russia counted 1,265 drones, sued its army builder for $230M, and branded active frontline troops as deserters.

In Minsk, Putin's Bestie Alexander Lukashenko declared: 'There are no forces, no resources; everyone is tired,' giving the war months to live. 1/🧵

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

It really does. Six people from these islands made sure the whole world could count too. Thank you for sharing it, there's plenty more like this on our page. 🙏

If anyone reading thinks this mission is worth supporting, nobody else seems to be counting: https://t.co/rih7iKwVkN 🙏🇬🇧

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

I’m going to be presenting around operational resilience in infrastructure at the @ComitProjects innovations event on the 26th November.
Free registration. See you there?
https://t.co/kys7XUqk4W

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

@szczepanek_j 🤗

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

A whisper falls, a final grain,
The upper bowl is clear.
The shadows stretch across the pane,
And silence draws anear.
Just one soft slip of golden dust,
Before the quiet night—
We hold the hour as we must,
And let go of the light.

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

Every day, you use the names of dead Britons. 🇬🇧

You just never knew they were people.

Your wellies? The man who beat Napoleon. 🥾

Your mac? A Glasgow chemist who made cloth waterproof. ☔

Your plimsolls? An MP who fought the owners of overloaded ships. ⚓

The tarmac outside? A road builder from Ayr. 🛣️

Seven Britons. One ordinary day.

They teach you the steam engine.

Not that James Watt's name is on every electricity bill you pay. ⚡

The world runs on British names. It just forgot they were people.

Watch the full story. 🎥

Their names are everywhere. Their stories aren't. Help us tell them: https://t.co/QWpRFbzGZE

Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧

Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 Britain sent warships into a friendly country's harbours. 🔥

And burned its ships at anchor. ⚓

That country was Brazil 🇧🇷

More enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil than to any other country on earth. ⛓️

Not America 🇺🇸 Brazil 🇧🇷

Nearly half of everyone shipped across the Atlantic went there. Ten times more than the United States. 🌍

In 1826 Britain made Brazil sign a treaty. The trade would end by 1830. 📜

Brazil signed. Then ignored it. They even had a phrase for laws like that: "para inglês ver". For the English to see. 👀

Tens of thousands of people kept arriving every year. 😔

So Britain changed the law. Brazilian slave ships could now be tried in British courts as pirates. ⚖️

In 1850 the Royal Navy sailed into Brazil's ports, under the guns of the forts. They cut out the slave ships and burned them. 🚢

Emperor Pedro II's government had a choice. War with Britain. Or end the trade. ⚔️

That September, Brazil banned it. Within two years the trade was dead. 🕊️

Yet today only one country is asked to feel ashamed. 🤔

The one that stopped it. 🇬🇧

Be part of us. 🇬🇧

Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

[Proudofus.uk @ProudofusUK]

Slavery was normal everywhere. ⛓️

Pharaohs. Romans. Vikings. 👑

Then one country's people said no. 🇬🇧

No army. No vote. ✊

300,000 stopped buying sugar. 🍬

Nearly a million signed. One in every seventeen people in Britain. ✍️

Then the Navy went to sea. ⚓

1,600 slave ships taken. 150,000 people freed. 🕊️

It cost a century and a fortune. Barely taught at all. 📚

That's why we're here. 📖

Be part of us. ☝️🇬🇧
Be Proud Of Us. 🙏🇬🇧

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

Mi más sentido pésame para el pueblo de España. Una tragedia así.

[Morden Station @MordenStation]

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Thought Of The Day From Morden Station

[Jayson Geroux @JaysonGeroux]

"A military that is unprepared for urban operations across the broad spectrum is unprepared for tomorrow."
– Ralph Peters, "Our Soldiers, Their Cities," Parameters, Volume 26, Number 1, 1995.

Urban fighting (minutes 0:10 to 0:38)
Trench/subterranean fighting (0:45 to 2:01).

[Morden Station @MordenStation]

Friday 16th October 2026 Thought Of The Day From Morden Station

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

I shall be sharing my work on #infrastructure #resilience at the @ComitProjects day in November. Join me?
There’s more to it than a transport & energy hub…
https://t.co/nqT9uttgEH

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

@szczepanek_j 🤣 an awesome sketch! 🤣🤣

[iain miskimmin @Skimmod]

New travel booking system….. has AI interface. So far I have wasted 30 minutes repeatedly telling it I want a return train ticket to London sigh….

[Digital Sapper @Digital_Sapper]

#itsoknottobeok
Mental Health week is a gentle reminder to us all that we don’t have to suffer in silence.
If you need to talk over a brew, kettle is always on.

[Morden Station @MordenStation]

Thursday 8th October 2026 Thought Of The Day From Morden Station