The bomb hoax

Mid-morning on Wednesday. A group of half a dozen farmers wives are standing by the village hall deep in conversation. The local schools have been hit by a wave of bomb threats. The same thing has happened in Ulster and, on an even bigger scale, in Italy. Some mothers want to drive down and collect their youngsters. Others are relaxed and see it as a hoax. Last week it was the airlines who were forced into making emergency  landings. The BBC tells us a ' hostile foreign state ' is suspected.

It's now dark by four thirty. As soon as the sun sets the mercury starts to plummet. The little BMW has taken on its winter persona and has taken to informing me that it's three degrees and I should be aware of ice. It does this with a repetitive teutonic fervour that could drive you insane.

Thousands and thousands of crows are overnighting in the fields around the last wee house before Denmark. At first light, or whenever the first of the village dogs pass by, they take off in a vast crawing flock. They circle three times before splitting into smaller groups of about a thousand. After half an hour they divide into pockets of five  hundred or so and head off in different directions. There must be some method to their madness.  Some sit on the roof and engage in animated conversation with each other. The sheer numbers are breath taking. The process is reversed at sunset. The farmer thinks they do this for safety and to teach their young how to read the landscape for food and shelter. " Crows are canny birds " he says with a finality that brings our conversation to an end.

Diesel remains at just under £2 a litre. It seems to have been that price since February. Unleaded is 15% cheaper.

Things I didn't know: https://x.com/itsolelehmann/status/2119921162054504747

Gullivers Travels is having a big anniversary :https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/shruti-rajagopalan-the-political

Update on India :https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/india-is-quietly-doing-great

High window to wall ratio

The village has power but no internet connection. The phone company decide to do some repairs at four in the afternoon and don't get the system back and working until ten at night. Six hours without internet or tv is a pain. For the parents of village teenagers it's a nightmare. While waiting to be reconnected  'The Font' completes three FT crosswords and I finish off the final chapters of two books . 

In the next village down the coast we pass an old Georgian house with a high window to wall ratio. It's been designed to let in as much light as possible. The upstairs windows are unusually large. At the gutter line, where the pantiles have been worn away by the rain, a thin band of long lasting slates has been installed. How canny. There's something pleasing about the simplicity of the design.

The Christmas decorations have been put up. The same decorations are  reused every year. In these Presbyterian parts celebration is highly cost effective.

Ethel finds the time to stop and glare. Her sisters all ignore us.

Life is quiet.

Dreams :https://www.sciencenorway.no/sleep-the-brain/why-do-we-dream/2734046

How humans evolved :https://iai.tv/articles/humans-evolved-through-culture-more-than-biology-auid-3722

This is reviewed as a great movie and ' a moral and intellectual insight into our times ' :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw0YhiqOPFg  The FT says it has topped the box office in both the US and Asia.

Dating NDA's :https://www.onluxy.com/dating-nda-relationship-confidentiality-executives-guide.html

'Off season' mode.

Ten years ago Donald Trump won his first term as President. We were staying at a pricey but not very good hotel in Laguna Beach. The hotel was notable for a) the forest of table lamps in the lobby and b) the staffs Olympian indifference to their guests. On the rare occasions there was anyone at the front desk they would sullenly greet me with the phrase ' Hey dude'. This may be a 'hip' California service culture thing. The hispanic gentleman ( a proud ex-Marine ) who cut my hair at the local barbers surprised me by saying he had enthusiastically voted for DJT. " He's gonna shake things up " he would say while snipping, happily, away. Boy was he right !  A decade on the world certainly seems very different. Informed of this anniversary 'The Font' , rather delphically, asks me to list the things that are better now. This makes for interesting breakfast table conversation. Would your list be long or very short ?

The Spanish and Italian tourists have gone and the golf courses are home to locals , a few 'Quiet Americans' , sixth formers from the high school and students fitting in a round ( or two ) between lectures. 

The streets that are manic in Spring and Summer are quiet. At five off the hour they fill with eight thousand undergraduates rushing to their next tutorial. On the hour they're once again deserted.

Fuchias love the Scottish climate. This fine example is passed on a small lane.

The Halloween decorations at the door of the new restaurant have been upgraded . One of those German nutcrackers has been added to the mix alongside some small tinsel draped Christmas trees.

The cobblers robotron has dropped its Halloween outfit and is all set for windy winter weather.

The town is firmly in 'off season' mode.

Cathedrals of light :https://blue-continuum.com/cathedrals-of-light

Masculinity :https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_ideas_of_masculinity_might_affect_a_countrys_wellbeing

The changing ocean colour :https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/pacific-garbage-patch-ocean-color-microplastics/

Problems in Paraguay ( a place I know nothing about ) :https://tomasmandl.substack.com/p/santis-hydra-a-bank-the-president

And proof that top hats are still worn min Edinburgh :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGWsfTUWvBc

The rain holds off.

A shooting in Krakow, Russian bomb threats against Irish flights and a Chinese 'honey trap' involving the Chairman of Nvidia the news headlines this morning.

Yesterday was Remembrance Day. The rain held off . For Scotland in November this is no small miracle. 

For the first time ever I see people stopping in the street for the two minutes silence . Not everyone, nor the majority, but enough to remind you what day it is. Black ties are much in evidence. We both note that the old medieval bells have been muffled and peel in a most unusual high pitched way.

The students were out in force.

So too the local regiment. Our Member of Parliament was there processing with a flock of civic worthies. There was a time when the councillors would wear top hats but top hats are well and truly  a thing of the past.

Guides, Scouts, and a melee of local school children ( and their parents) follow along behind. The procession here has little of the formality of the one in Edinburgh but the turnout is youthful and the street is packed solid a full three hundred yards back from the war memorial to the cafe where Kate met Wills ( allegedly ). 

In small rural communities remembrance of global tragedies continues to be a big thing. There is an understanding that try as you might they never pass you by. 

The next big event will be St Andrews Day. Until then the town takes on a quieter air as 'they' come to the sobriety inducing realisation that exams are now less than a month away.

A Pictish memory. Coming up for auction in Edinburgh. Why were they made ? What were they for ? :https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auctions/form-through-time-929/lot/19

Made in China. An update :https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CHINA-ECONOMY/TRADE-OBJECTS/moparrmewva/

Academic technology :https://hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com/p/you-are-protesting-the-wrong-technology

Europe and America :https://karnitschnig.substack.com/p/europes-america-obsession

Loud

Saturday night. 'They', or at least a large group of them, had a party in a local barn. It was a lively affair. Bands had been hired and the students were determined to get their monies worth. At one in the morning 'The Font' observes that the noise is loud enough to make the pillows throb. The barn must be at least two, quite possibly three, miles away across open fields. After ten minutes 'The Font' also observes that there is no discernible tune or beat to the music. 'The Fonts' final observation is that the noise inside the barn must be like that standing next to a 777 on its takeoff roll. Teenage hearing truly is a remarkable thing.

Trust Private Eye to have their own take on world affairs. The Kings tour of the Caribbean has not been without 'issues'.

In Starbucks a customer has been promised a cup of milk foam. The barista is agonizingly slow in delivering it. The customer tries to hide the impatience that's gnawing at his soul.

Subway has closed. There was a time ( in the 80's ? ) when this American chain was everywhere.  I never saw anyone in the St Andrews branch. Perhaps we're past peak sandwich shops ?  A Blank Street coffee shop is about to take its place.  The town has turned into one vast coffee shop. There must be the better part of twenty of them which must be some sort of population / coffee outlet record.

More books dropped off at the library. There are, the ap informs me, 186 students already at work. That's pretty good for a Sunday morning. None of the titles being donated were memorable.

Two Remembrance Sunday ceremonies. The University one and the civic one. Both will merge into a semi-chaotic whole. Attendee numbers have been growing in recent years. 

On the radio some well known Pipe music . This will be played in  just about every town and city this morning  :https://youtu.be/fKqiu92hYOo?t=203

Columbia calls the future :https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2026/11/05/could-the-2026-election-results-lead-to-a-decrease-in-political-polarization/

Good(ish) news :https://x.com/trevorabranch/status/2118397842574512504?s=46

A strange analysis of ham :https://primitivepines.com/pork-roll-vs-taylor-ham/

Fin de saison poppies.

A grey but mild start to the day. Two of the young American fathers who are on a years sabbatical at the university are out on the beach. They miss the familiar routines of  Berkeley and Notre Dame but admit to enjoying the chance to have a daily pre-work walk with their three year olds in the fresh air. Neither particularly enjoys the mind numbing drudgery of having to teach undergraduates four times a week.  

Scotland play New Zealand in this afternoons rugby match in Edinburgh. Scotland have never beaten New Zealand at Murrayfield so expectations have been adjusted accordingly.  There are elections in New Zealand but the BBC's attempts to describe the passions being raised leave me confused.

The cormorants and herons are skittish birds and take off when the gesticulating  three year olds start to move in their direction. By contrast the gulls remain resolutely indifferent to the presence of these brightly dressed small humans and cluster defiantly on the  rocks.

On the way back up the hill a splash of colour in the grass. This late in the season the poppies petals have a thin and brittle beauty. 

The town has two booksellers. This morning there's a group of people standing  outside Waterstones waiting for the doors to open. No student would be that keen on a book. The store is opening up early at eight so devotees can get a copy of a new sci-fi novel. The Queen of the Xenons does battle with the evil Guptreaders .... or some such thing. There is much about modern life that leaves me bemused. 

A new store has opened up where the Vodafone shop used to be. Everyone buys their mobile phone on line these days so their days were numbered. There have been delays in getting planning permission for the new branch of 'Accessorize'. The original colour scheme was to have been a shocking Barbie Pink but this was thought to be ' out of keeping with the historic environment '. Plans were resubmitted and a pale grey with gold lettering was approved.  Even in its toned down form it is still very 'bright'. 

The flickering mind :https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/your-brain-flickers-between-two-realities-15-times-a-second/

No Paul Simon :https://miniphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-most-philosophical-songs-in-history

Intelligence :https://iai.tv/articles/michael-levin-memory-and-intelligence-do-not-require-a-brain-auid-3719

Moronic pepper eaters. 'The Font' reminds me I - against advice - once ate a wild pepper in Ecuador and lost the power of speech for a day :https://www.acsh.org/news/2026/11/05/youtube-idiots-eat-worlds-hottest-peppers-what-could-possibly-go-wrong-50436

Military bands :https://stevepabst.substack.com/p/why-does-an-army-need-a-band

Texas before Tehran.

The American mid-term election results continue to generate excitement in the global media. The BBC quotes a former Portugese Foreign Minister who says, rather pithily, that ' Regime change came to Texas before it came to Tehran '. This makes both of us chuckle.

Christmas is officially here. Heathrow airport has put up one of those minimalist  conical Christmas trees in the departure hall. It does little to generate a festive spirit.

Our flight home leaves on time, arrives ten minutes early and is completely full. There was a time when November would be a quiet off season for flights heading north. No longer. I'd reckon fully two thirds of the passengers are tourists. Many have taken warnings about Scottish weather to heart and are dressed as if they're going to the Arctic. 

Something I've never seen at an airport before. A 'privacy' booth for those conversations that simply can't be overheard.

We take the tram from the airport which gives us enough time to have a coffee at Haymarket while waiting for the connecting train. The platform is full of late 20's something men in black tie heading off to some sports club award shindig. There must be three hundred of them which makes for an unusual sight. Never has the Dundee InterCity looked so smart !

Last night there was a Guy Fawkes firework display on the West Sands. The students enter into the spirit of fireworks displays with unmuted enthusiasm. Young couples seeking a little privacy in the sand dunes are warned of the danger of falling rockets. 

The weather may be chilly but it's dry and bright. Two out of three ain't bad.

The BBC breakfast programme has a remarkably long section on the Zeptoverse. This is broadcast from Cambridge so it is presumably seen as a 'British' field of science :https://thedebrief.org/into-the-zeptoverse-cern-experiments-detect-evidence-of-something-so-rare-it-could-potentially-reveal-new-forces-of-nature/

Taxing food fairly :https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/10/whats-the-fairest-way-to-put-a-carbon-tax-on-a-hamburger/

A very Princeton thought :https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/what-brains-are-for

One of my favourite French Xwitter accounts  ( written by their former ambassador in the US ) has this uplifting reminder that eloquence isn't dead :https://x.com/GerardAraud/status/2118279655962931220