# Denseman on the Rattis

> Formerly known as the Widmann Blog


## Posts

- [The Year We Remember](https://widmann.scot/the-year-we-remember/): I am a quantum engineer at the Zurich–Kyoto Institute for Temporal Optimisation. Which sounds grand, though most of my days are spent cajoling fragile qubits not to decohere when a postdoc sneezes or a technician slams a door. Still, on Boxing Day, the world turns its eyes to us. Public Information Pamphlet, 2124 The Oracle simulates billions of possible years in parallel. On Boxing Day, every citizen reports their happiness (1–10). The run with the highest total collapses into history. All other runs are discarded. If you remember it, it was optimal. If not, it never happened. Thank you for […]
- [Ajapsandali](https://widmann.scot/ajapsandali/): Ajapsandali აჯაფსანდალი /adʒapsandali/ is one of my favourite Georgian dishes. Here’s the recipe I brought back from Georgia in 1997: 1½ kg aubergines salt 100–200 ml sunflower oil (don’t use less than this, or it won’t taste right!) 3 onions, chopped 500 g chopped tomatoes 2 bay leaves 2 green peppers, cut into strips ½ bunch coriander ½ bunch basil ½ bunch parsley 2 cloves of garlic Peel the aubergines and cut them into big chunks (quarter them lengthwise and then slice them). Sprinkle them with salt. After half an hour, press the water out of them without mashing them. Chop […]
- [Letbane på hele Fyn](https://widmann.scot/letbane-pa-hele-fyn/): Sporvogne og letbaner kan efter min opfattelse anlægges rigtigt eller forkert. Forkert har man fx anlagt sporvognene i Edinburgh i Skotland – de kører kun i eget baneleje på en strækning, hvor busserne kører ret hurtigt, og inde i centrum ligger skinnerne meget ofte på vejen, hvorfor de ikke er hurtigere end busserne mellem lufthavnen og Waverley-banegården, og de er meget langsommere end togene mellem Waverley og Haymarket-stationen. Hvad er pointen i det? Rigtigt anlagt er de fx i Stuttgart i Württemberg, hvor de kører lynende hurtigt ud til forstæderne og kun blandes med resten af trafikken inde i centrum. […]
- [Counterurbanisation and the corona crisis – or why this is the right time to buy a rural property](https://widmann.scot/counterurbanisation-and-the-corona-crisis-or-why-this-is-the-right-time-to-buy-a-rural-property/): I started writing this blog post back in October, long before anybody had even heard of the coronavirus. I didn’t post it at the time, mainly because I thought it was going to be slow change that would take years to manifest itself, so time was going to be on my side, and I might as well spend a bit longer adding more details. I was wrong – the pandemic has accelerated a change that had probably already started but was moving at a glacial pace, and I suspect things will now start happening really fast: People will move out […]
- [Er der en plan?](https://widmann.scot/er-der-en-plan/): Der er mange mulige måder at håndtere coronakrisen på, blandt andet: Vi kan prøve på at opnå flokimmunitet (“herd immunity”) ved at lade mindst 60% af befolkningen blive smittet – og helst i et tempo, hvor sundhedsvæsenet kan følge med. Vi kan gå i skjul (via hjemsendelse, social distancering og så videre) og vente på en af to ting: Der udvikles en vaccine. Coronavirusset dør ud, fordi ingen smitter hinanden. Vi kan lade dem, som har haft covid-19, opføre sig normalt (altså gå på arbejde, i skole og på besøg), mens alle andre skal holde sig hjemme. Vi kan isolere […]
- [Peter JC in memoriam](https://widmann.scot/peter-jc-in-memoriam/): Tyverne starter elendigt: Først et brændende Australien og en truende krig med Iran, og nu er min gamle ven Peter Juhl Christiansen (bedre kendt som Peter JC eller Guitar-Peter) afgået ved døden. Vi var begge tutorer på samme tidspunkt, og sammen med Jesper lavede vi den berømte Russangbog 1994. Da vi havde udvalgt sangene og sat dem i LaTeX, spillede Peter hele sangbogen igennem på sin guitar, mens Jesper og mig sang. Det lød helt sikkert fantastisk. På cirka samme tidspunkt startede vi en læsegruppe, igen sammen med Jesper, samt Arne og Simon. Emnet var portvin. Vi startede med de […]
- [Godt Nytårti igen!](https://widmann.scot/godt-nytarti-igen/): Det er interessant at genlæse det blogindlæg, jeg skrev for ti år siden. Heldigvis prøvede jeg ikke at forudsige ret meget, men jeg anede tydeligvis ikke, at skotsk selvstændighed ville komme til at fylde så meget i min liv… Nu er jeg tilbage i Danmark, og det var jeg slet ikke forberedt på. Flytter jeg til et nyt land hvert årt? Jeg tør ikke forudsige noget overhovedet – jeg håber bare, verden bliver lidt mindre vanvittig (mindre Brexit, mindre Trump, mindre climate denial). Nyd tyverne!
- [Happy New Kiloday!](https://widmann.scot/happy-new-kiloday-4/): If metric time had been introduced as I suggested, today would be the beginning of kiloday 83. So Happy New Kiloday!
- [Nationalisér Sygeforsikringen "danmark"!](https://widmann.scot/nationaliser-sygeforsikringen-danmark/): Danmark er på mange måde et meget egalitært samfund med en udpræget retfærdighedssans, så for folk, der flytter hertil fra udlandet, kan det virke underligt, at flere ikke er forargede over de høje priser på tandlægebesøg, receptpligtig medicin og briller. Jeg spekulerer på, om det mon skyldes, at næsten halvdelen af befolkningen (2,5 mio. mennesker) er medlem af Sygeforsikringen “danmark”, der som bekendt giver tilskud til netop tandlægebesøg, medicin og briller. Desværre kan man ikke melde sig ind, hvis man allerede er syg, hvilket vel rammer kronisk syge, fattige og udlændinge uforholdsmæssigt hårdt – de fattige, fordi kontingentet er oplagt […]
- [Hvis man vil have meget, skal man have et alternativ](https://widmann.scot/hvis-man-vil-have-meget-skal-man-have-et-alternativ/): Nu hvor den Socialdemokratiske regering er blevet dannet, er det måske værd at se på, hvor meget De Radikale og Morten Østergaard har fået ud af forhandlingerne, og det er ikke meget, så vidt jeg kan se. En del klima- og udlændingeforbedringer, men det var jo også ting, som Enhedslisten krævede. Og så en forlængelse af Margrethe Vestagers ansættelse i Bryssel. Det er naturligt nok – der var vel kun to alternative parlamentariske grundlag til den regering, der blev dannet: SV: meget nem at danne, især hvis man kunne sende Løkke til EU, og den ville potentielt være meget stabil. […]
- [Under dobbeltdynen i mørket](https://widmann.scot/under-dobbeltdynen-i-morket/): I Skotland er det naturligt for et par at sove under en dobbeltdyne i en dobbeltseng, og naturligvis i et mørkt rum. Naturligvis er dobbeltsenge ret normale i Danmark (men en tur gennem Ikea Odense får mig til at tro, de er relativt mindre udbredte end i Skotland), men dobbeltdyner ser ud til at være ret sjældne. Hvorfor dog det? Det er da så dejligt at dele en dyne! Har det mon noget med det faktum at gøre, at man i Skotland normalt slukker for varmen natten over, hvorimod man i Danmark har opvarmede soveværelser? Det betyder jo, at det […]
- [Curtains and the real time difference between Scotland and Denmark](https://widmann.scot/curtains-and-the-real-time-difference-between-scotland-and-denmark/): On paper, the time difference between Scotland and Denmark is one hour, but that’s not what it feels like. A 9–5 job is called an 8–4 job in Denmark, and schools tend to start a some point between 7.30 and 8.15 depending on the council area, rather than Scotland’s typical 9am. So I’d say the real time difference is about 2½ hours. I’ve also noticed that Danes use fewer and thinner curtains than most Scots. Is there a connexion here? Do Danes start the day earlier because the sun wakes them up most of the year? Do Scots sleep in […]
- [Πάντα ῥεῖ – til Fyn fra Skotland](https://widmann.scot/%cf%80%ce%ac%ce%bd%cf%84%ce%b1-%e1%bf%a5%ce%b5%e1%bf%96-til-fyn-fra-skotland/): Brexit kan virke meget underholdende, hvis man sidder trygt uden for Storbritannien og spiser popcorn, mens man følger galskaben i fjernsynet. Når man bor herovre, er det slet ikke sjovt, skal jeg hilse og sige. Der er slet ingen klarhed over, hvad fremtiden vil bringe, eller over, hvor hård eller blød Brexit mon bliver. Og den skotske førsteminister, Nicola Sturgeon, blev tydeligvis skræmt af catalanernes uautoriserede folkeafstemning, så det er meget usandsynligt, Skotland kommer til at stemme om uafhængighed igen inden for de næste fem år. Vi har fået nok af usikkerheden. Vores lille firma kan nok ikke overleve en […]
- [Πάντα ῥεῖ – from Scotland to Funen](https://widmann.scot/%cf%80%ce%ac%ce%bd%cf%84%ce%b1-%e1%bf%a5%ce%b5%e1%bf%96-from-scotland-to-funen/): As an EU citizen, Brexit has always been a personal worry. I’ve never considered it particularly likely that they’d frogmarch us all out of the country on the 30th of March, but the UK Home Office would just love to extend their hostile environment to EU citizens here, making it difficult to rent or buy property, get a job or access the health service. It’s also clear that Scotland won’t gain control over the powers necessary to prevent this anytime soon. Brexit will be disastrous in so many other ways, though. The country is already losing large numbers of companies […]
- [The pound since I moved to Scotland](https://widmann.scot/the-pound-since-i-moved-to-scotland/): I always find it hard to remember the £/€ exchange rate because it’s always about stuff after the decimal point (my brain is a bit funny in that way), so I tend to prefer to keep track of the state of the Pound Sterling in terms of Danish crowns instead (the exchange rate of the latter is tied to within 2.25% of the euro through the ERM-II mechanism). When I moved to Scotland, I could buy slightly more than 12 crowns for a pound, but it’s now been closer to 8 for a long time: I wonder whether I would […]
- [Mull of the future?](https://widmann.scot/mull-of-the-future/): (Also published on Arc of Prosperity.) I woke up to the crowing of the rooster and the smell of freshly baked croissants. My butler minion gently opened the door to my bedroom. “Would you like your breakfast in bed, master?” “That’d be great, Bob.” Bob buzzed in on his wheels and served the croissants together with a gorgeous cup of cappuccino. I’ve spent years searching for the perfect recipe, and I finally found it on a website somewhere in Italy. It was worth the hassle, though. People keep asking me for it, but I’ll not share it for any less […]
- [Hans Arndt in memoriam](https://widmann.scot/hans-arndt-in-memoriam/): Jakob Steensig havde flg. triste notits i det seneste nyhedsbrev fra det fhv. Institut for Lingvistik: Hans Arndt døde i onsdags på Djursland Hospice. Hans Arndt var lektor på lingvistik fra midten af 1980’erne til han holdt op for en del år siden. Hans var den som genstartede lingvistik efter at det næsten var forsvundet. Gennem en utrættelig indsats og en helt usædvanlig åben og dialogisk stil lykkedes det ham i løbet af ti til femten år at få lingvistikfaget, hvor der nogle år i firserne var to eller nul studerende som startede hvert år, og næsten kun ham der […]
- [Emil fra Lønneberg og Julemanden](https://widmann.scot/emil-fra-lonneberg-og-julemanden/): Anna (som lige er fyldt ti) læser hver aften lidt op for mig for at blive bedre til dansk (og jeg læser også højt for hende). For tiden læser hun Emil fra Lønneberg, og det går da også ganske godt. Nogle gange går det dog galt, som for eksempel, da hun glad og fro sagde flg.: Emil spejdede op i skorstenen, og da så han noget sjovt. I hullet lige over hans hoved hang en rød julemand og kiggede ned til ham. „Hej med dig,“ sagde Emil. „Nu skal du se en, der kan klatre!“ I originalen står der „julimåne“, […]
- [Scots on Smartphones](https://widmann.scot/scots-on-smartphones/): A’ve been fasht for a lang time at predictive keyboards wadna recognise Scots ava – ilka time ye uised a perfecklie normal wird, it wad get chynged tae a completelie different Inglis wird at juist happent tae leuk similar. Sae A wis weel chuft whan ane o ma clients, Scottish Language Dictionaries, gat a email fae Julien Baley fae SwiftKey (a Lunnon-based companie awnt bi Microsoft) twa-three months syne anent addin Scots tae thair predictive keyboard for Android an iOS. A dae aw the data stuff for SLD, sae o coorse A wis chosen tae wirk wi Julien on this. […]
- [Generation X are disappearing](https://widmann.scot/generation-x-are-disappearing/): Hugo Rifkind had an article in The Times today about being a Xennial (too old to be a Millennial, too young for Generation X), and I sent him the following tweet as a reply: I have this theory that the financial crash has caused Gen X to disappear. The ones who had enough assets to cope merged up, the rest down. — Thomas W., A.o.P. (@arcofprosperity) October 26, 2017 Hugo and 77 other people (so far) were kind enough to like it, so I thought I’d elaborate a bit on my theory. A lot of the stuff about the Baby […]
- [AlphaDiplomacy Zero?](https://widmann.scot/alphadiplomacy-zero/): When I was still at university, I did several courses in AI, and in one of them we spent a lot of time looking at why Go was so hard to implement. I was therefore very impressed when DeepMind created AlphaGo two years ago and started beating professional players, because it was sooner than I had expected. And I am now overwhelmed by the version called AlphaGo Zero, which is so much better: Previous versions of AlphaGo initially trained on thousands of human amateur and professional games to learn how to play Go. AlphaGo Zero skips this step and learns […]
- [The future belongs to small and weird languages](https://widmann.scot/the-future-belongs-to-small-and-weird-languages/): Google Translate and other current machine translation programs are based on bilingual corpora, i.e., collections of translated texts. They translate a text by breaking it into bits, finding similarities in the corpus, selecting the corresponding bits in the other language and then stringing the translation snippets together again. It works surprisingly well, but it means that current machine translation can never get better than existing translations (errors in the corpus will get replicated), and also that it’s practically impossible to add a language that very few translations exist for (this is for instance a challenge for adding Scots, because very […]
- [What happens to grandparents in the Harry Potter universe?](https://widmann.scot/what-happens-to-grandparents-in-the-harry-potter-universe/): We were all (re-)watching the Harry Potter films over the holidays, and at some point I suddenly noticed something I’d never paid attention to before: There are very few old people, and in particular almost no grandparents in the wizard world. The old people we see are mainly school teachers (like Dumbledore and McGonagall) or authors like Bathilda Bagshot, and they’re all single. The only prominent grandparent I can think of is Neville Longbottom’s grandmother (and she’s of course a widow). At the same time, it’s clearly the case that wizards and witches have children at a very young age, […]
- [Scots-medium schools](https://widmann.scot/scots-medium-schools/): If Scots is a language – and it’s almost universally accepted today that this is the case – why is it treated as a regional accent by schools? The typical approach is to learn a few songs in Scots, and perhaps even to read a short story or a play in high school, but not much else. There’s also now an awareness that kids shouldn’t get told off for talking Scots or using Scots words when speaking English. Surely this approach only makes sense if Scots is some variety of English. If Scots is a language then it should be […]
- [The traditional East Asian seasons work really well in Scotland](https://widmann.scot/the-traditional-east-asian-seasons-work-really-well-in-scotland/): Just to escape from all the Brexit madness, I read a couple of Wikipedia articles about the traditional East Asian calendars that divide the year into 24 solar terms instead of 12 months. The solar terms are defined in terms of celestial longitude, and the same is true for the four seasons: Spring (315°–44°): 4th February–4th May Summer (45°–134°): 5th May–6th August Autumn (135°–224°): 7th August–6th November Winter (225°–314°): 7th November–3rd February (The dates are approximations – they can vary by a day. And I haven’t really sussed why the four seasons aren’t exactly the same length.) The funny thing […]
- [Tesla's model doesn't work](https://widmann.scot/teslas-model-doesnt-work/): It’s been revealed that the first person ever has been killed in a crash by a self-driving car: The 7 May accident occurred in Williston, Florida, after the driver, Joshua Brown, 40, of Ohio put his Model S into Tesla’s autopilot mode, which is able to control the car during highway driving. Against a bright spring sky, the car’s sensors system failed to distinguish a large white 18-wheel truck and trailer crossing the highway, Tesla said. The car attempted to drive full speed under the trailer, “with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S”, Tesla […]
- [No normal person will ever own a self-driving car](https://widmann.scot/no-normal-person-will-ever-own-a-self-driving-car/): A few things I’ve read recently have convinced me that the average punter will never own a self-driving car. The main reason for this is that they’re going to be significantly more expensive than an old-fashioned car, mainly because of all the sensors. As pointed out recently in the New York Times, “[a]dding self-driving technology — at least as it stands now — into regular passenger cars could make them absurdly expensive for anyone without the cash of a Silicon Valley mogul. Until recently, the laser sensor used on the Google car project cost $75,000 [£50,000].” Even though that price […]
- [Det ville have været min mormors 100-års-fødselsdag i dag](https://widmann.scot/det-ville-have-vaeret-min-mormors-100-ars-fodselsdag-i-dag/): Min mormor ville være blevet 100 år i dag. Idith, som jeg altid kaldte hende (som ældste barnebarn ville jeg bestemt ikke kalde hende mormor, når alle andre kaldte hende Edith eller Mor), samlede altid familien om sig på sin fødselsdag, så hvis hun stadig havde været i live, ville hun helt sikkert have insisteret på at samle hele familien om sig, og hun ville have trakteret os med jordbærkager og kokosmakroner (sikkert også med andre ting, men de to slags kager var obligatoriske). Hendes fokus på at fejre sin fødselsdag betød, at man altid kunne være sikker på at […]
- [New URL](https://widmann.scot/new-url/): This blog is now more than ten years old (you can check the archives if you don’t believe me). I recently changed its title from The Widmann Blog to Denseman on the Rattis (check The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie if you don’t get the reference). I’ve also now moved it, changing its URL from blog.widmann.org.uk to widmann.scot. Given my continuing support for Scottish independence, I thought that was more appropriate.
- [Relearning how to spell](https://widmann.scot/relearning-how-to-spell/): The #JeSuisCirconflexe shitstorm that is currently engulfing France is a reminder of how hard it is to implement an orthographic reform. People who witnessed Denmark’s “mayonnaise war” (when the Danish language academy wanted to change the spelling of mayonnaise to majonæse) or the German spelling reform fights will not be surprised. People who’ve invested many hours in becoming good spellers in order to feel clever and superior simply don’t want any reforms that make them worse at spelling than primary school children. This is probably the reason why systematic spelling reforms that are really easy to learn often get accepted […]
- [Hellenic Traders](https://widmann.scot/hellenic-traders/): I recently discovered Harry Turtledove’s “Hellenic Traders” series (written under the pseudonym Turteltaub). The four books follow two cousins from Rhodes who sail around the eastern Mediterranean selling luxury goods between 310 and 307 BC. In the first book (“Over the Wine-Dark Sea”) they sail to Italy with peacocks, in the second one (“The Gryphon’s Skull”) they try to sail to Athens with the skull of a dinosaur but end up getting mixed up in the infighting amongst the Macedonian generals who took over after Alexander the Great instead, in the third one (“The Sacred Land”) they sail east, to Cyprus, […]
- [Being the god of kitchen plans](https://widmann.scot/being-the-god-of-kitchen-plans/): I once took a very interesting postgrad course in genetic algorithms (taught by Zbigniew Michalewicz), and since then it’s been a technique I occasionally pull out of my sleeve. For a number of years I’ve been producing kitchen plans telling all members of the family when they’ve got to cook, set the table, fill the dishwasher and tidy up the kitchen. In my experience, it’s very hard to get kids to do anything if you try to convince them on the day that’s it’s their turn, but if you put up a plan on the fridge, they’ll moan once the […]
- [Enzo's rabbit recipe](https://widmann.scot/enzos-rabbit-recipe/): Last time we visited my parents in the Tuscan village they’ve retired to, we got invited to dinner by two brothers, Enzo and Franco. Enzo is a trained chef, and he cooked an absolutely perfect meal. Amaia has been raving about his rabbit ever since (she ate half of it), so when I asked her what she wanted to eat on her sixth birthday, it was no surprise that the answer was rabbit. I therefore sent my dad down to their house to beg Enzo for the recipe, and I thought I’d share it with the world. It’s a wonderful […]
- [Norwegian language lessons for Scots](https://widmann.scot/norwegian-language-lessons-for-scots/): Norway is in some regards at least 150 years ahead of Scotland: Until the mid-19th century Norwegians wrote standard Danish, although they spoke Norwegian dialects or at the very least Danish with a strong Norwegian accent; however, for political reasons they decided to recreate a language of their own (they ended up with two separate written languages for good measure, but that’s a different story). In Scotland, there is still no standard way to write Scots, and many people have negative feelings towards the language. Here I’ll discuss two lessons Scots language standardisers can learn from Norwegian. Speak yer dialeck, […]
- [The death of love in Scots](https://widmann.scot/the-death-of-love-in-scots/): A while ago, Anna had to learn My Luve’s like a red, red rose by Rabbie Burns and she asked me for help with the pronunciation, considering me to be the resident Scots language expert. Most of it was straightforward enough, but what pronunciation did Burns have in mind when he wrote Luve? All you hear today is /lʌv/, but if Burns had intended the same pronunciation as in English, he would surely have written Love instead. Fortunately the SND has a very helpful etymological note: [O.Sc. lufe, luff, 1375, love, 1450, O.E. lufu, love, lufian, to love. The reg. […]
- [Self-driving cars](https://widmann.scot/self-driving-cars/): I just discovered that Google have realised some videos that really show how revolutionary their self-driving cars will be. Have a look at the blind gentleman in this one, for instance: It just demonstrates that the current discussions in many countries (where politicians are still in favour of having a human driver in each car who is legally responsible) are awfully silly. What kind of court would hold a blind man responsible for an injury caused by his car? Also, what if there’s nobody in the car (it might for instance be parking itself)? It’s interesting that reducing the number […]
- [Antiblokpolitik](https://widmann.scot/antiblokpolitik/): Det danske folketingsvalg var ret spøjst set udefra. Medierne opførte sig, som om Danmark havde et topartisystem og flertalsvalg i enkeltmandskredse, men reelt er resultatet da noget af det mest grumsede, man har set i mange år. Det er ikke ret oplagt, partierne i Blå Blok har ret meget tilfælles — fx vil Dansk Folkeparti bruge flere penge, mens Liberal Alliance vil sænke skatterne. Men der er jo masser af forskellige flertalsmuligheder: De partier, der hverken er specielt humanistiske eller fremmedfjendske, og som sikkert bare gerne vil videreføre den eksisterende udlændingepolitik uden ændringer (S, V, C og LA), har 100 […]
- [Selkirk-bordbønnen](https://widmann.scot/selkirk-bordbonnen/): Jeg blev bedt om at bede Robert Burns’ berømte Selkirk Grace på dansk til SNP Eastwoods 48. Burns Supper i går. Originalen lyder som følger på skotsk: Some hae meat an canna eat, An some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat an we can eat, Sae lat the Lord be thankit. Desværre var den eneste oversættelse, jeg kunne finde, ret dårlig: Nogle har mad, men kan ikke spise, Andre kan spise, men har ikke mad. Jeg takker dig Gud, jeg er så glad. For jeg kan spise, og jeg har mad. Jeg oversatte den derfor selv til […]
- [Why you need to learn Scots to understand Scottish English](https://widmann.scot/why-you-need-to-learn-scots-to-understand-scottish-english/): When I moved to Scotland and had to learn to understand the natives, I was of course aware of the existence of Scots, but I assumed (wrongly!) that people at any one time would normally speak either Scots or English (or rather, Scottish Standard English [SSE], which is standard English with a Scottish pronunciation and a few loanwords from Scots, such as wee, dreich, outwith and glaikit). However, I was rather disappointed that I almost never met any speakers of Scots, and at the same time SSE speakers often seemed to mumble — for instance, foot sometimes sounded more like […]
- [Whit wey can we revive the Scots leid?](https://widmann.scot/whit-wey-can-we-revive-the-scots-leid/): (Rebloggit fae ma political blog..) In the 2011 census, 1,225,622 fowks indicatit that thay coud speak, read an write Scots, an this maks Scots a heap muckler nor Gaelic. Houaniver, thair is practicallie nae support for the leid in Scotland — we daena hae TV or radio stations (forby wee programmes on the Internet), thair is nae Scots schuils, an thair is nae leid courses whaur outlins (sic as masel) can lairn Scots. Ye can uise Facebook in Faeroese or e’en in Pirate Inglis, but no in Scots. Google Translate canna help ye wi Scots, an yer phone’s autocorreck will […]
- [In defens o <quh>](https://widmann.scot/in-defens-o-quh/): Ane o the mucklest differences atween auld an modren Scots is that the auld Scots grapheme <quh> /ʍ/ wis replacit bi <wh> acause o influence fae Inglis. Houaniver, A think we soud consider gaun back tae <quh>. It’s a gey simple differ that lairners can pick up in nae time ava, an it merks a text as bein in Scots acause nae ither leid is uisin this grapheme. Juist compare the follaein extrack fae Burns’s The Kintra Lass — the text on the caur is in his ain orthographie, and the ane on the richt is a modren version uisin […]
- [Happy New Kiloday!](https://widmann.scot/happy-new-kiloday-3/): If metric time had been introduced as I suggested, today would be the beginning of kiloday 81. So Happy New Year (or should that be Happy New Kiloday?)!
- [Delicious + Twibble](https://widmann.scot/delicious-twibble/): Last year I described how I used Delicious and Twitterfeed to post bookmarks to Twitter automatically. Since then, I got more and more fed up with Twitterfeed. In theory, it ought to check my links twice an hour, but often it would leave three to four hours between updates, which meant that my links sometimes got posted at 3am when nobody was around to see them. I was starting to think about writing a Twitterfeed replacement myself, when I discovered Twibble, and it’s much better. It has many more options — for instance you can specify posting times so that […]
- [Lingua dorica in bocca glasgoviana](https://widmann.scot/lingua-dorica-in-bocca-glasgoviana/): The most prestigious variety of Italian has been described as lingua toscana in bocca romana, or the Tuscan language in a Roman mouth. I wonder whether a similar formula would become appropriate for unified Scots (if somebody tries to create a prestige variety after independence), given that Doric (Aberdeenshire Scots) in general has preserved more words and grammatical structures than the Central Belt dialects that have been heavily influenced by English, but where Doric pronunciation has some features that are quite divergent from other dialects, e.g. /f/ for <wh> instead of /ʍ/, or pronouncing <ui> as /(w)i/ (for instance, guid […]
- [WordPress/Flickr Helper](https://widmann.scot/wordpressflickr-helper/): Flickr recently removed their WordPress sharing support, so all you get now is some generic HTML code that’s not ideal for WordPress. (Mind you, neither was Flickr’s old sharing code, which didn’t work well out of the box — I described how to fix it in this old blog post.) I’ve now written a wee webpage that uses some JavaScript to correct Flickr’s HTML. Just go to Flickr, find the sharing code, select “Small 240 x X“, then “HTML”, and paste the result into the text box on the left and click the button. The WordPress-style code will then appear […]
- [Whit and all that](https://widmann.scot/whit-and-all-that/): When Iain Banks died, Phyllis and I realised that we had never actually got round to reading anything by him. We decided to order a few of his books to rectify this issue. Since then I’ve read Consider Phlebas, The Wasp Factory, Complicity and Whit (in that order). I didn’t like Consider Phlebas at all, I must admit. I love some science fiction novels, but not all, and this was definitely in the latter category (together with for instance the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy and Doris Lessing’s Canopus in Argos books). I then turned to Banks’s non-SF books. The Wasp Factory […]
- [I am a man and I'm wearing a hat](https://widmann.scot/i-am-a-man-and-im-wearing-a-hat/): My old friend Kakha from Georgia was visiting us last week, and at one point I asked him whether Rabbie Burns was well-kent in Georgia. “Absolutely, we love the song about the man and his hat,” replied Kakha. “The man and his hat?!?” “Yes, you know: კაცი ვარ და ქუდი მხურავს (‘I am a man and I’m wearing a hat’),” said Kakha. He started to sing: “კაცი ვარ და ქუდი მხურავს //ქედს არ ვუხრი არავის. // არც არავის ვემონები //არც ვბატონობ არავის.” I managed to find a YouTube clip of Georgians singing this: At first I couldn’t find any poem […]
- [Hårdtarbejdende studerende?](https://widmann.scot/hardtarbejdende-studerende/): Der er flere artikler i de danske dagblade, der påpeger, at danske studerende i realiteten studerer på deltid: På sundhedsvidenskab svarer de studerende, at de bruger i alt godt 34 timer om ugen på undervisning og forberedelse, hvilket dækker over 19 times undervisning og 15 timers forberedelse. […] På humaniora bruger de studerende i alt godt 22 timer om ugen på at være studerende, og den tid går med knap 8 timers undervisning og godt 14 timers forberedelse. […] Lykke Friis, der er prorektor for uddannelse på Københavns Universitet, siger, at hun havde forventet, at arbejdsugen var længere: »Der er […]
- [He'sn't](https://widmann.scot/hesnt/): In English, the words “he is not” can be contracted to either “he isn’t” or “he’s not”, but not to *”he’sn’t”. (The same applies of course to “I am not”, “you are not”, “she is not”, and so on, but for simplicity’s sake I’ll concentrate on “he is not” here.) Any speaker of English thus needs to choose one of the two possible contractions every time this construction comes up, if they want to contract it at all. An Irish ex-colleague of mine once commented that he’d observed that Scottish people had a tendency to prefer the latter (“he’s not”), […]
- [Mangel på strategi m.h.t. SF](https://widmann.scot/mangel-pa-strategi-m-h-t-sf/): Det var ret tydeligt, at både Socialdemokraterne og Det radikale Venstre var ganske lettede over at slippe for SF i regeringen, og på kort sigt bliver alting da også meget lettere. Men jeg vil nu gætte på, at de to partier i de kommende årtier kommer til at fortryde, de gjorde et parti fortræd. Situation nu minder mig om folketingsvalget i 2001, da CD røg ud af Folketinget. Ligesom mange andre radikale var jeg himmelhenrykt, da jeg havde regnet fætter-kusine-partiet for aldeles overflødigt, men konsekvensen var jo, at Anders Fogh nu kunne danne regering uden at inddrage et eneste midterparti. […]
- [Language icons](https://widmann.scot/language-icons/): The existence of national flags makes it easy to create country icons (e.g., in a menu where you can select your country of residence). However, at least in a web context it’s relatively rare to provide country menus. On the other hand, language menus are common, allowing the user the view the page in another language. Wikipedia is a good example of this. Unfortunately, there is no accepted way to symbolise languages. Wikipedia writes the language names out in full, and other websites use two- or three-letter ISO codes. When a graphical icon is needed, people often resort to national […]
- [Predictions for 2014](https://widmann.scot/predictions-for-2014/): I guess it’s high time to publish my predictions for 2014. I’ve decided to be a bit bolder again — it’s just too boring to predict the continuation of the status quo again and again! 🙂 However, I won’t predict the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum — I feel too strongly about that event! Without any further ado, here are my predictions: In the European Parliament elections, UKIP will become England’s largest party, but they’ll fail to win a seat in Scotland. The FIFA World Cup in Brazil will be won by Argentina. The Catalan independence referendum will be […]
- [My predictions for 2013 :-(](https://widmann.scot/my-predictions-for-2013/): Firework Originally uploaded by Paolo Dallorso Predicting future events is harder than it looks…: At least one of Scotland’s unionist parties will change their leader. No. It will finally become possible to obtain dual citizenship in Denmark. No, not yet. One more country will join Scotland and Catalunya in planning an independence referendum for 2014. No. The CDU/CSU will continue to be the largest political grouping in the German Bundestag after the election. Yes! The Eurozone will survive another year (although Greece and Spain in particular will continue to suffer). Yes! Facebook will continue to be the most popular social […]
- [11.22.63](https://widmann.scot/11-22-63/): I got Stephen King’s 11.22.63 for Christmas, and I just finished reading it last night. It’s basically about a teacher who gets a chance to go back in time and save JFK’s life. It appears to be well researched and it’s quite a page-turner (although I think the ending is weaker than the rest of the book). My only real criticism is that the main protagonist (born around 1975) seems to be a little bit too comfortable with life around 1960. Could it be that Stephen King forgot that 1960 isn’t a sweet childhood memory for a child of the […]
- [Exit Voyager](https://widmann.scot/exit-voyager-2/): On 18 September 2011 I wrote this: I blogged back in May 2009 that I had finished watching Enterprise and that I would move on to Deep Space 9. I finally finished watching DS9 last night, and I must say I really enjoyed it, although it took me a wee while to get into. I’m now going to proceed to Star Trek Voyager, which will presumable last until Christmas 2013. I must congratulate myself on my powers of prediction, given that I watched the last episode of Voyager last night (without having checked my old blog post first). The last […]
- [Multilingual Scotland](https://widmann.scot/multilingual-scotland/): One of the things I like about Scotland is that it has never been a monocultural place — it has always been a melting pot. Let’s look at the languages of Scotland as an example (I am a linguist after all!). Today the main language of Scotland clearly is English (or rather Scottish Standard English) — everybody knows it, and it’s the main language of government, education, etc. However, according to the latest census, 1.5m people (out of 5m) also speak Scots, a closely related language (the distance between Scots and English is a bit like Danish and Swedish). However, […]
- [Alternativet](https://widmann.scot/alternativet/): Det radikale Venstre har igen født et lille udbryderparti — hvis det bliver ved, bliver DrV vel snart kendt som alle partiers moder! Denne gang er det Uffe Elbæk, som jeg jo kender ganske godt fra mine dage som aktiv i Århus Radikale Vælgerforening, som står bag, og hans nye parti hedder Alternativet. Da Ny/Liberal Alliance blev stiftet, skrev jeg flg.: Det er lidt underligt at se Anders og Naser bryde ud fra mit gamle parti og lave et nyt (“Ny Alliance“). Da jeg forlod Danmark, var de stadig kernemedlemmer […]. Det viser, hvordan jeg gradvist har tabt forbindelsen til […]
- [Tre år gammel mesterkok](https://widmann.scot/tre-ar-gammel-mesterkok/): Phyllis laver tit scrambled eggs til frokost, og Amaia hjælper hende. Jeg har derimod aldrig lige fået styr på, hvordan man laver den ret. I dag skulle Phyllis lige gøre et job færdigt først, men Amaia var sulten, så hun begyndte at kommandere med mig: Giv mig den kasserolle der! Og det lille piskeris! Find smør, æg, mælk og ost! Hjælp mig med at skære et stykke smør af — dér! Sådan! Tænd for blusset! Så, nu er det smeltet — hurtigt, der skal mælk i! Nej, mere, ja, sådan! Og nu æg! Seks! Og nu skal jeg piske! Nej, […]
- [Buchwider Bräu β₂](https://widmann.scot/buchwider-brau-%ce%b2%e2%82%82/): My first Belgian witbier was full of ginger, coriander and orange peel, and although the result was unpleasant it didn’t really taste like my favourite witbier, Korenwolf. This time I managed to find some recipes on Dutch home-brewing forums (sometimes it’s useful to be able to read Dutch!), and I used them as a basis, adding interesting ingredients such as spelt malt, curação orange peel and elderflowers. The result — Buchwider Bräu β₂ — is quite nice, but it’s still not right. I need to add more orange peel and elderflowers, but there’s something else that isn’t right yet. The […]
- [Oh that she were...](https://widmann.scot/oh-that-she-were/): When I last blogged about the medlar, we hadn’t had any fruit in our garden yet. This year, however, our tree is full of beautiful bletting (i.e., rotting) fruit. We need some more frost to speed up the process, but that has been promised for next week, so I’m really looking forward to feast on rotten open-arse fruits soon. I would have loved to plant a poperin pear tree next to it (cf. the famous lines in Romeo and Juliett: “O Romeo, that she were, O that she were // An open-arse and thou a poperin pear!”), but as far […]
- [Buchwider Bräu λ₁](https://widmann.scot/buchwider-brau-%ce%bb%e2%82%81-2/): I wanted to brew something different for a change, and I opted for a real, alcoholic ginger beer. It was very simple and cheap to make, but the result is extremely dry — you have to be a real ginger beer lover to enjoy it without adding something to it. However, a dash of lime cordial turns it into a pleasant and refreshing drink, although at 6% it’s not something you should drink too fast!
- [UK government debt](https://widmann.scot/uk-government-debt/): Edmund Conway has posted a graph showing who the UK Government owes money to. Not only does the government owe a lot of money to the Bank of England, but less and less money is owed to households (who might have been more forgiving about getting all the money back). It really makes me wonder who Westminster think they’re fooling!
- [Dialects of Scots](https://widmann.scot/scots-dialects/): The fact that the 2011 Census provides figures for the number of Scots speakers in each council area makes it possible to estimate speaker numbers for each dialect (if we assume that people speak their local dialect, which of course won’t always be the case). In some cases there’s a perfect overlap (e.g., between Orkney and Shetland and the Insular Scots dialect), but in many cases I’ve had to split a council area in half, so the numbers won’t be very precise. Bearing those caveats in mind, the numbers I came up with are as follows: West Central 551,984; South […]
- [1.5m Scots speakers](https://widmann.scot/1-5m-scots-speakers/): Today saw the release of more results from Scotland’s 2011 census, in particular about languages. The decline of Gaelic seems to have stopped — the number of speakers dropped very slightly, but it rose amongst young people, so that’s excellent news. For the first time ever, the census asked also about Scots, the Germanic language spoken in Scotland. More than 1.5m people declared that they were able to speak Scots, which is a lot for a language with hardly any official support. At the moment there are no Scots-medium schools, no Scots TV channel, no Scots radio channels. I’ve made […]
- [Pickled green tomatoes](https://widmann.scot/pickled-green-tomatoes/): I planted the tomato plants a bit too close together in the greenhouse this year, and the resulting perpetual shade has produced a harvest of 2.7 kg of green tomatoes, but only one single red one! Fortunately, pickled green tomatoes is one of my favourites, so I spent an hour pickling them yesterday. Here’s the receipe I used, adapted from this Danish one: 1 kg green tomatoes 2 chillies 2 vanilla pods 300 ml white wine vinegar 300 ml water 400 g sugar Wash the tomatoes and the chillies and pierce them deeply with a fork. Split the vanilla pods. […]
- [The generation that got lost](https://widmann.scot/the-generation-that-got-lost/): I’ve written about Howe and Strauss’s Generations before. It’s basically a theory that there are four basic types of generations that repeat in a cycle of about 80 years. For instance, today’s Generation Y (those born after 1982 or so) are supposed to exhibit many similarities to the generation born between 1900 and 1925. They later produced a sequel called Millennials Rising. Written in 2000, it’s attempting to describe exactly this generation, and it’s failing miserably in many respects, because they’re basically describing a successful, heroic generation, something which doesn’t ring true when you look at all those youngsters saddled […]
- [See you on Saturday!](https://widmann.scot/see-you-on-saturday/): As you’re probably already aware, the 2nd annual March and Rally for Independence will take place in Edinburgh on Saturday (21/09). I’ll be there, of course, together with my family. We went last year, too, and it was great fun. Have a look at my wife’s photos from the event. I hope to meet you there, and if you like this blog, please say hello! I’ve got myself an Arc of Prosperity T-shirt, so I should be easy to recognise.
- [Lad mig præsentere Marcel Buchanan](https://widmann.scot/lad-mig-praesentere-marcel-buchanan/): For et år siden brokkede Charlotte sig over at skulle tre uger til Frankrig med sin far (deres forhold var mildest talt ikke harmonisk), og resultatet blev, at han slog hånden af hende og nægtede nogensinde at se hende igen, hvilket glædede hende usigeligt. En måneds tid senere sagde Marcel så, at han ikke ønskede at være hos sin far helt så ofte heller, hvorefter André også slog hånden af ham. Dette var noget af et chok for Marcel, især da det meste af familien i Frankrig tog Andrés parti. Léon holdt også op med at se André på samme […]
- [Converting photos into embroidery](https://widmann.scot/converting-photos-into-embroidery/): I recently discovered that VistaPrint have started selling embroidered polo shirts. However, their embroidery program is rather fussy with regards to the images it can deal with, so you can’t just upload a normal photo. As they write, there must be “no small lettering or tiny detail” and “no photographic imagery or gradients”. So what do you do if you want to get a photo embroidered? Here’s what I did to the photo below: I first opened up a photo in the Gimp, cut out Marcel’s head and placed it on a white background. The result is the photo on […]
- [Individual retirement ages](https://widmann.scot/individual-retirement-ages/): I read the following about rising life expectancy in a Danish newspaper (in Danish, translation follows): »De [ældre] vil være stærkere både mentalt og fysisk. De vil kunne rejse jorden rundt også flere år efter, de har rundet 90 år, og benytte sig flittigt af samfundets tilbud. Vi ser det allerede mere og mere i dag, men det er en tendens, der vil blive forstærket«, siger Peter K.A. Jensen. […] Systemet er bygget op, så pensionsalderen nogenlunde flugter med udviklingen i middellevealderen, hvilket medfører, at pensionen altid starter cirka 19 år tidligere end middellevetiden. Det betyder, at danskerne ifølge prognosen […]
- [Historic Scotland and large families](https://widmann.scot/historic-scotland-and-large-families/): We often feel modern companies are on a mission to punish large families. Cinemas, budget airlines and many others charge almost as much for kids as for adults, and the result is that a family with five kids have to pay almost seven times as much as a single person, although they are likely to have more or less the same income. So it was an absolutely pleasure to join Historic Scotland today. The yearly membership fee for a family with an unlimited number of kids (up to 15 years old) is £84.55, which compares very favourably with the £45.60 […]
- [Drain bird](https://widmann.scot/drain-bird/): A couple of days ago I was standing outside the kitchen door when I suddenly heard some weird noises from the drain, like something was moving down there, but whether it was a rat, a snake or an eel was impossible to work out. I got hold of Phyllis and some of the kids, and we all tried to figure out what it was, but it was impossible to see anything apart from some obscure movements. Finally, however, the creature made a very bird-like squeak, and we decided to help it out. I managed to put a stick down the […]
- [Primary elections and party affiliation](https://widmann.scot/primary-elections-and-party-affiliation/): It appears that Ed Miliband want to introduce US-style primary elections: Ed Miliband used his crunch speech on union funding to announce that a ‘primary’ will be held to pick Labour’s candidate for the London mayoral election. A step short of allowing every Londoner a say, it means that ‘registered Labour supporters’ as well as party members, would be allowed a say. […] Lord Adonis, a former Transport Secretary and a key adviser to Ed Miliband, told HuffPost UK he expected the policy to be expanded across the country. I’m not a great fan of primary elections because it gives […]
- [A Man's A Man For Aw That](https://widmann.scot/a-mans-a-man-for-aw-that/): When Rabbie Burns wrote his poetry, the radio hadn’t been invented yet, so it’s unlikely most folk had ever heard English spoken by an Englishman. Presumably everybody used Scots pronunciations for English words, blissfully unaware that they were pronunced differently south of the border. Of course, many words are spelt in a way that makes the difference obvious, but I reckon the Bard’s poems would have been read by himself with many more Scots features than most people do today. If he had written his poems today, I believe he would have used many more Scots spellings to prevent the […]
- [Buchwider Bräu κ₁](https://widmann.scot/buchwider-brau-%ce%ba%e2%82%81/): I brewed Buchwider Bräu κ₁ on 7th February. It’s a Berliner Weiße clone, and it’s only just becoming drinkable now, which is completely normal for that type of beer — it’s recommended to leave six months between brewing and drinking. (For the first three months after bottling, it had a horrible sulphuric smell.) I brewed it used Wyeast’s Activator 3191-PC Berliner-Weisse Blend, and although many people recommend using separate yeast and lactobacillus, this blend seemed to do the trick. Contact me if you’re interested in the recipe! Berliner Weiße is a sour beer, very similar to a Belgian lambic. Some […]
- [Umami paste](https://widmann.scot/umami-paste/): Asda have started selling umami paste, which really seems to be useful — I’ve tried to add it to several Mediterranean-style savoury dishes, and it does make them more delicious. It seems to contain tomatoes, olives, parmesan, anchovies, balsamic vinegar and porcini mushrooms. All good, umami-rich foods. I’m just a bit surprised they didn’t chuck in some bacon, too, but I guess they wanted to sell it to vegetarians, too. It’s not particularly cheap, though, so I wonder whether I should try to invent an umami paste recipe of my own.
- [A new definition of marriage](https://widmann.scot/a-new-definition-of-marriage/): A few years ago, I wrote: [T]he state could treat you as married if you had either had a child together or lived together for three years, and it could treat you as divorced if you had either “married” somebody else through the above-mentioned actions or lived apart for two years. Now an Indian high court judge seems to have had the the same idea: The court said that if a bachelor has completed 21 years of age and an unmarried woman 18 years, they have acquired the freedom of choice guaranteed by the Constitution. “Consequently, if any couple choose […]
- [Cartoon Camera](https://widmann.scot/cartoon-camera/): It might be rather silly, but one of my favourite apps on my Android phone is Cartoon Camera. It does the cartoonification on the fly, so you can move around and look for something that looks good in your chosen style, rather than applying a slow transformation afterwards. It’s free, so give it a try!
- [Northern English, or Southern Scots?](https://widmann.scot/northern-english-or-southern-scots/): One of the most striking features that distinguish Scots from English is the treatment of Old English /oː/ (guid /gɪd, gød, gwid/ “good”, muin /mɪn, møn, min/ “moon”, guiss /gɪs, gøs, gis/ “goose”) and /uː/ (hous /hus/ [hys] “house”, mou /mu/ [myː] “mouth”, nou /nu/ [nyː] “now”). However, this is a feature Scots shares with Northern English dialects (J.C. Well, Accents of English 1, pp.185f): North of a line running from southern Cumbria to the Humber estuary, the present-day dialectal reflex of Middle English /oː/ is a front vowel, e.g., [gɪəs] goose, while Middle English /uː/ remains monophthongal, e.g. [huːs] […]
- [Smålandsk ostekage](https://widmann.scot/smalandsk-ostekage/): Enhver, der har læst Emil fra Lønneberg, véd, at de spiser ostekage i store mængder på landet i Småland. Mig bekendt findes der ingen traditionel dansk ostekage, så de eneste ostekagetyper, jeg har kendt i årevis, er tysk Käsekuchen og den angelsaksiske cheese cake. Men Google er jo et genialt værktøj, når man skal finde obskure opskrifter, så det tog ikke lang tid at finde en opskrift på rigtig ostekage fra Småland. Til forskel fra de mere velkendte typer er der ingen bund i en smålandsk ostekage, og man bruger ikke ost, men mælk og osteløbe. Jeg prøvede at bage […]
- [Simplifying taxation through personal companies](https://widmann.scot/simplifying-taxation-through-personal-companies/): Companies have lots of advantages compared to real people. Amongst other things, they generally only pay taxes on their profits, not on their income (revenue), and lots of companies are registered for VAT, which means they don’t pay any VAT on what they buy. Companies have these advantages to encourage investment and promote growth. However, one might argue that this should apply to individuals, too. Imagine if every individual automatically owned a “personal” company (i.e., at birth I would have been made sole director of Thomas Widmann Ltd.), and all their work took place through their company (it would be […]
- [Why Brown sold the gold so cheaply](https://widmann.scot/why-brown-sold-the-gold-so-cheaply/): I must have overlooked this very interesting blog post by The Telegraph’s Thomas Pascoe (probably because the Scottish holidays had already started at the time). He’s arguing that Gordon Brown wasn’t an innumerate idiot when he sold most of the UK’s gold reserves at a ridiculously low price, as most people had assumed. What he really did was trying to salvage the banking system: It seemed almost as if the Treasury was trying to achieve the lowest price possible for the public’s gold. It was. […] Faced with the prospect of a global collapse in the banking system, the Chancellor […]
- [A wee video starring Rosie](https://widmann.scot/a-wee-video-starring-rosie/): I made a wee video starring Rosie yesterday: (The music is of course Drink, Drink Yer Zider Up by The Wurzels.)
- [Just say No to renegotiation](https://widmann.scot/just-say-no-to-renegotiation/): It’s completely clear that David Cameron’s plans to renegotiate the EU membership terms is just a plot to halt the progress of UKIP. He thought that promising a referendum in five years’ time would make UKIP’s voters come back to the Conservatives in time for the next general election. However, it’s now increasingly clear that voters are drifting towards UKIP for many different reasons (immigration being one of the major ones), which means that the referendum promise now looks utterly futile. However, many Tories (such as Lawson) are already stating clearly that they’ll vote No, no matter what, just as […]
- [Introducing Rosie](https://widmann.scot/introducing-rosie/): I’m pleased to be able to introduce the newest member of our family: Rosie Hamster. We bought her on a farm in the Coatbridge area today. She was born on 12th April 2013 (so she’ll be one month old on Sunday), and she seems to be really lively and not shy at all. So far she’s just exploring her cage, but we’ll start handling her soon. If you’re interested, there are some photos of Rosie and her siblings on Facebook, and Phyllis has also created a whole photo album there. Rosie will hopefully be with us for the next two […]
- [Will Google Glass lead to Google Glove?](https://widmann.scot/will-google-glass-lead-to-google-glove/): I’m really excited by the upcoming release of Google Glass. Until now, there’s been an inherent conflict in smartphone design between creating a huge screen and making the device small enough that you can be bothered carrying it around at all times. (It’s interesting how mobile phones were getting smaller and smaller until the advent of smartphones meant a larger screen was required, at which point they started growing again.) Although Google Glass is looking great, I’m sure it’ll evolve rapidly over the next few years. Apart from increasing the resolution, I expect it to expand from one eye to […]
- [German salaries should go up by 20%](https://widmann.scot/germany-should-put-up-their-salaries-by-20/): After the introduction of the euro, the German politicians got worried that Germany wasn’t the best place to run a business any more (the “Standort Deutschland” discussion). As a result of this, salaries and other labour costs were lowered. This reform was a success, insomuch as the German economy subsequently boomed. However, one might argue that this reform was partly responsible for the current euro crisis. In any area using one currency there will necessarily be areas doing well and other areas doing badly. Normally one would expect the rich areas to have higher salaries, pensions and prices, so that […]
- [Buchwider Bräu α₂](https://widmann.scot/buchwider-brau-%ce%b1%e2%82%82/): The first beer I ever tried to brew in Scotland was a German Weißbier, ??. Although I was pleased at the time, I later came to view it as a bit of a failure — it wasn’t really pleasant enough to be enjoyed on its own. I therefore decided I would try again. I more or less used the same recipe before, but I used a different yeast (Wyeast Bavarian Wheat Blend instead of Wyeast Bavarian Wheat). I’ve tried one bottle so far, and although it’s somewhat better than my first Weißbier, it’s still not quite right. There’s nothing wrong […]
- [Dividing England along the Severn-Wash line](https://widmann.scot/dividing-england-along-the-severn-wash-line/): In the past I’ve been writing about ways to split up England for the purpose of making federalism work in the UK (see this and this and this). For some bizarre reason one split I never suggested in these blog posts was in many ways the most obvious one. As a linguist, I’ve been aware for years that English dialects split into two main groups: Southern English south of a line roughly from the Severn to the Wash, and Northern English north of this line. (Scottish dialects are a completely different story.) Three of the most important isoglosses are shown […]
- [Tweeting your links automatically](https://widmann.scot/tweeting-your-links-automatically/): If you follow my political independence blog, Arc of Prosperity on Twitter, you will have noticed that I often tweet topical links, prefixed with the text “Seen elsewhere:”. This happens automatically when I bookmark a link so long as I add a certain label to it. To do this, I use two free websites, del.icio.us and Twitterfeed. Del.icio.us is simply a bookmarking site that allows me to save bookmarks and attach labels. All links that I want to appear on Twitter get the label “aop”. (You can see all my aop links here.) The most important del.icio.us feature from this […]
- [Buchwider Bräu ι₁](https://widmann.scot/buchwider-brau-%ce%b9%e2%82%81/): I completely forgot to blog Buchwider Bräu ?? back in January when I starting drinking it. I’ve just opened my second last bottle (apart from the ones in my “archive”), so it’s high time to write about it. My ?? is a clone of Caledonian Deuchars IPA, using a recipe from CAMRA’s Brew Your Own British Real Ale. I think it’s a very pleasant beer, and my dad praised it highly when he and my mum visited us two weeks ago. Unfortunately I haven’t got a chance to compare it directly with the real Caledonian Deuchars IPA — I must […]
- [Fossil fuels](https://widmann.scot/fossil-fuels/): There was a really interesting article about fossil fuel in The Guardian recently. The author points out that in spite of everything we’re doing (renewable energy, emissions trading, etc.), CO? emissions are still rising at the same rate as before — have a look at the graph on the right. As it says in the article: “For whatever reason, cutting carbon has so far been like squeezing a balloon: gains made in one place have been cancelled out by increases elsewhere.” The dotted line shows what the world needs to be doing to limit temperature rises to 2°C — there’s […]
- [Nuntii Latini](https://widmann.scot/nuntii-latini/): Many years ago, somebody told me that Yle (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) were broadcasting weekly in Latin. However, in those pre-Internet days I had no idea how to find a way to listen to it. These days things are much easier. Yle have created a webpage containing podcasts, so that we can all easily get our weekly five minutes of Latin. I must say, however, that the presenters sound very Finnish. I also find it interesting that they pronounce ‘c’ as /k/ before front vowels while at the same time pronouncing ‘ae’ as /?/ — I would have thought that […]
- [Tweeting old blog posts](https://widmann.scot/tweeting-old-blog-posts/): Sometimes I write a blog post that I personally think is interesting but which gets almost entirely ignored, probably partly because I announced it on Facebook and Twitter at a time when most people were asleep. I have now partly solved this problem on my Arc of Prosperity blog by installing a WordPress plugin called Tweetily. Tweetily will randomly select a post and tweet it automatically (I’ve set it to do this every 12 ± 2 hours). I wasn’t sure what the reaction was going to be, but several of my “from the archives” posts have been retweeted and traffic […]
- [Typesetting Gaelic in Gaelic type](https://widmann.scot/typesetting-gaelic-in-gaelic-type/): In Ireland, Gaelic type is widely used for writing Irish (although mainly for decorative purposes these days, if I’m not mistaken). On the other hand, it’s hardly ever used in Scotland, although Irish and Scottish Gaelic are very closely related. However, I thought it’d be nice to be able to typeset Gaelic in Gaelic type using TeX/LaTeX/XeLaTeX. After a big of googling, I found a very nice font called Gadelica. This is a beautiful OpenType font (and it supports the grave accents used in Scottish Gaelic, not just the acute ones used in Irish), but there is a slight problem: […]
- [Paying for journalism](https://widmann.scot/paying-for-journalism/): Today The Scotsman announced that they will make a quarter of their editorial staff redundant, and The Telegraph have decided to set up a paywall. On a more positive note, Wings over Scotland’s fundraiser exceeded its ambitious goal, raising more than £30k. It’s clear that traditional journalism is in danger. However, I’m not really sure that the solution consists of paywalls, fundraisers, intrusive ads etc. The things is that in the “old” days (about ten years ago), I spent something like £1 a day on buying newspapers (slightly less on workdays and slightly more on Sundays). However, the advent of […]
- [Understanding and speaking Scots and English](https://widmann.scot/understanding-and-speaking-scots-and-english/): Scot Independence Podcast 19 is an interesting chat with Michael Hance from the Scots Language Centre. At one point they discuss what should be done to improve the prospects for Scots, and one thing Michael stresses is that schools should stop telling kids Scots words are wrong. I have a lot of sympathy for this view, but as a foreign learner of Scots I have some concerns, too. When I moved to Scotland in 2002, I couldn’t understand half of my Scottish colleagues at all (the other half had such a posh pronunciation that I could just about follow what […]
- [What the Scottish Highlands could have been like](https://widmann.scot/what-the-scottish-highlands-could-have-been-like/): Iain Macwhirter recently wrote an interesting blog posting comparing the Scottish Highlands with the French Pyrenees. He’s bemoaning how the latter is still populated and full of affordable housing. As he ways, “[o]ne of the reasons I love the Pyrenees is that it’s what I imagine the Highlands of Scotland would have been like had the people not been cleared from the land to make way for sheep and deer.” This sentiment reminded me of a song by Màiri Mhór nan Oran that we learnt when I attended the Gaelic summer school at the University of Edinburgh a few years […]
- [Am bu chòir do dh'Alba a bhith na dùthaich neo-eisimeilich?](https://widmann.scot/am-bu-choir-do-dhalba-a-bhith-na-duthaich-neo-eisimeilich-2/): I’ve been wondering for a wee while how to express the official referendum question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?”, in Scottish Gaelic. A few enquiries on Twitter didn’t get me anywhere. I had this idea that the way to express “should” would be through some obscure verb form, but when I finally looked it up in my copy of “Scottish Gaelic in Three Months” today, I learnt that it’s expressed as bu chòir do “it’s proper for”. With that information in hand, it didn’t take me long to find a BBC blog page which gives the question as Am […]
- [Am bu chòir do dh'Alba a bhith na dùthaich neo-eisimeilich?](https://widmann.scot/am-bu-choir-do-dhalba-a-bhith-na-duthaich-neo-eisimeilich/): I’ve been wondering for a wee while how to express the official referendum question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?”, in Scottish Gaelic. A few enquiries on Twitter didn’t get me anywhere. I had this idea that the way to express “should” would be through some obscure verb form, but when I finally looked it up in my copy of “Scottish Gaelic in Three Months” today, I learnt that it’s expressed as bu chòir do “it’s proper for”. With that information in hand, it didn’t take me long to find a BBC blog page which gives the question as Am […]

## Pages

- [Contact me](https://widmann.scot/contact-me/): [si-contact-form form=’1′]
- [About me](https://widmann.scot/about-me/): My name is Thomas Widmann. I was born in 1972 in Denmark as a German citizen, I lived in Scotland as a Danish citizen for 17 years, and I’m now living in Denmark as a New Scot. I’m married to a beautiful Scottish woman called Phyllis Buchanan (see the photo on the right), and we have two wonderful daughters together, Anna and Amaia Buchanan-Widmann. The family also consists of Marcel, Charlotte and Léon – Charlotte remained in Scotland and Marcel has moved to London, but Léon is now at a Danish school like his wee sisters. I hold an MA […]


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