Illicit quad bike use.

Students aren't usually seen around town until ten but there are lots of youngsters around this morning heading towards the library. There's a sense of determination in the air that gives us the feeling that mid-term exams are about to take place. Of course now that exams are on the horizon and everyone's in the library the weather has markedly improved. Student time management has always seen long periods of indolence interspersed with brief bursts of manic activity.

A sign outside the candle shop would seem to support this 'exam' hypothesis.

Only one story in the newspapers.

When I say there's only one story in the papers I mean all the papers. The same photo is used on the cover of all of them. Has a single 'lucky' snap ever been so widely used ?

Elsewhere, the news broadcast has a story about American tariffs and three dissenting Supreme Court Justices. It seems not everyone is happy with this 'foolish and unpatriotic'  ruling. A final segment on the breakfast broadcast discusses whether the arrival of Ramadan will delay the drift to war in Iran. 

Here in the village preparations are underway for a car boot sale to raise money to have the bench by the notice board repaired and revarnished. The farmers sixteen year old has been seen driving his quad bike along the lane towards the potato barns at 'excessive' speed. A number of the older villagers have told his mother that it's not so much his speed as the fact he's been driving on the wrong side of the road that bothers them. " What can you do with them at that age ?" she says when she sees us. Good question and one that has faced the parents of all sixteen year olds and to this day remains unanswered.... or unanswerable. In four months he and his brother will be off to the World Cup with a group of their friends. This thought is still troubling his mother.

Crime :https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/crime-as-proxy-for-disorder

Wouldn't want to bump into this on a dark night :https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-giant-carnivore-ran-on-hooves-scientists-are-investigating-its-massive-skull-and-crushing-teeth-to-decipher-the-beasts-true-nature-180988212/

Myopia :https://www.the-scientist.com/a-clearer-look-at-the-rise-of-myopia-74094

This works in India but would it work in other cultures ? :https://restofworld.org/2026/ai-deepfakes-grief-celebrations-india/