"Today is August 4, 2026" There Will Come Soft Rains By: Ray Bradbury

Dear tourists on Edinburgh trams with all the luggage; do not get off at Edinburgh Park Central, you want Edinburgh Park Station. The only exceptions are when you should have gotten off at the Gyle or, having dumped your bags, you are visiting Patina.

Many scopies based at RAF Buchan and RAF Saxa Vord during the #ColdWar would have tracked the SR-71s based in the UK. They’d head north on reconnaissance flights and then we’d see them return. Always made a night shift at Saxa more interesting to see them coming back. #RadarLove

RAF Air Defence Radar Museum @rafadrm.bsky.social · last wk.

An amazing day celebrating all things SR-71 at the American Air Museum at IWM Duxford today, meeting the real crews, demonstrating the heat resistant strength of the Blackbird's materials and a bit of friendly competition between the IWM volunteers and the RAF cadets on the reaction test!

Vent: Let's talk about why this is a one-way ticket to the Buildings At-Risk register. That is not a natural hill they are digging into, that is a thin layer of top soil on top of Shale brought in from West Lothian which was used to cover a concrete building built on the floor of a Quarry. 🧵

David Booth@caleydave.bsky.social · 5d ago

And if Nature and wildlife is your thing this is the current view on google maps. This is on top of the bunker. (The cooling stack is in the middle) of the cleared area. If they hit the roof of the R4 this it becomes a multimillion pound damp problem. Corstorphine Hill is a Nature Reserve.

Always good to see an #EdinburghPoliceBox get a makeover. Here we have the Box outside the "The Johnnie Walker Experience" now sporting branding for said Experience. This one has a Siren Mount but has been moved here #SirenSaturday

A reminder that the Management and ownership has never changed at #BarntonBunker ( #BarntonQuarry ). It doesn't matter if you are there for a few days or 10 years, as a volunteer you are disposable, replaceable and a problem if you raise concerns. (And its #Corstorphine Hill not Carlton)

Fire fears, accidents and emu attacks among safety concerns at Cold War bunker

Volunteers restoring a former Edinburgh nuclear bunker are worried someone will be hurt because of safety issues.

bbc.co.uk

Corstorphine and Clermiston Community Council@cor-clem.bsky.social · 6d ago

Barnton Bunker on Carlton Hill has a community garden and is open for volunteers to get involved. Check out their website for more www.barntonbunker.com/edinburgh-co...

A reminder that the Management and ownership has never changed at #BarntonBunker ( #BarntonQuarry ). It doesn't matter if you are there for a few days or 10 years, as a volunteer you are disposable, replaceable and a problem if you raise concerns. (And its #Corstorphine Hill not Carlton)

Fire fears, accidents and emu attacks among safety concerns at Cold War bunker

Volunteers restoring a former Edinburgh nuclear bunker are worried someone will be hurt because of safety issues.

bbc.co.uk

Corstorphine and Clermiston Community Council@cor-clem.bsky.social · 6d ago

Barnton Bunker on Carlton Hill has a community garden and is open for volunteers to get involved. Check out their website for more www.barntonbunker.com/edinburgh-co...

Here's another meaning for the Radio Telescope: it is a military tracker of satellites and by implication ballistic missiles (the capacity to launch is the same) A Lovell ally tells prime minister Harold Macmillan : 'the country is very lucky to have had ready a radar instrument which is capable'

As a historian of Jodrell Bank, I agree! And the reason it is important is that it has been made to mean different things to different people at different times. Who's up for a mega thread on how and why? (I'm off for lunch now, but I'll do it after. I'll need the energy...)

John Grindrod@grindrod.bsky.social · last wk.

Really one of the most important postwar sites in Britain

Fighting against burnout by registering for Reader tickets for The National Archives. Now I have 13 weeks to get down to Kew!

Slowly making progress in 5 minute chunks in between life and work. I Made good progress on the Basics embedded in a web page using Leaflet, now to find the time improve on the basics. #EdinburghPoliceBox #SirenSaturday

As we watch parts of the Country Burn with increasing frequency is it worth the lament that there was once a supply of Pumps kept in reserve &, going back further still, Trained Volunteers to Operate them? With climate change & war fears accelerating when do we expand our underfunded Fire Brigades?

Scotland has a wildfire season. That should concern everyone.

The Edinburgh Reporter@edinreporter.bsky.social · 2w ago

Edinburgh’s Cramond Island hit by large fire CRAMOND Island, a popular tourist destination in the north-west of the capital, was hit by a large grass…...

The Imperial War Museum released a video on Thursday about "Protect and survive". There is a deviation towards the middle where they discuss the warning system. During this they show the the Carrier Control Point and Siren on display at the IWM youtu.be/XK9bqjAq3jE?... #SirenSaturday

Why Protect and Survive became so Controversial

YouTube video by Imperial War Museums

youtu.be

The declassified 1962 memo for the UK prime minister informing him (in shakespearean prose) that the US accidentally fried Britain's Ariel satellite with its Starfish Prime nuclear test.

If you skip over @edinburghlive.co.uk mistaking cast iron for Wood there is a story on some businesses located in a #EdinburghPoliceBox Interviewed are: Sam the owner of "Pourboy" at Orwell Terrace at the Telfer Subway. Vaaghisar the owner of "Step One Coffee" at Morningside Park/Road outside

The hidden struggles of running a business from an Edinburgh police box

"It's been a very rewarding experience"

edinburghlive.co.uk

I made Reference to the Carrier control Points, which controlled the Sirens, connecting back to a Royal Observer Corps Group Headquarters. So lets plot them on the Map! There were 31 Groups in total, 2 types of standard buildings, 4 groups in reused buildings and 2 groups closed. #SirenSaturday

David Booth@caleydave.bsky.social · 3mo ago

In addition to national warnings, Carrier Control Points received local warnings from Royal Observer Corps Group. From the early 1960's not only was Glasgow warning area split, 26 Group Glasgow ROC was disbanded and split. Here we see the CCP connected to 25 Group Ayr ROC. #SirenSaturday

Due to a incident on Princes Street, Trams are Part Route from Edinburgh Airport - West End only. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to your journey this morning. ^NB

From my nuclear archives: can anyone decipher the first word in the underlined section? It's SOMETHING with the unthinkable.

By my count here are currently 71 #EdinburghPoliceBox on street or stored in a viewable location. Here is a corner of the map showing those in Leith and adjoining areas. I am exploring ways to get this online if a form other than just a big static image #SirenSaturday

Am reminded to read Ray Bradbury's 'There Will Come Soft Rains' again, as we're one month away from August 4, 2026 - the date given in his apocalyptic short story from 1950. I really hope such prophecies do not come true... but given recent global events and the rise of automated tech, I do worry!

Sticking with Transmitters; During the #ColdWar it was intended that Should an Air attack be initiated the BBC would be contacted in London and at their Wartime HQ at Wood Norton. Both sites would be able to interrupt programming to make an emergency announcement. #SirenSaturday

It is the final night of Radio 4 on Long Wave 198KHz. Whist primarily associated with Droitwich, there are (were) two supplementary Longwave Transmitters in Scotland, one at Westerglen and the other at Burghead. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/... rsgb.org/main/radio-s...

Scotland's national film archive holds 26,000 films – from Clyde shipyards to St Andrews parades. But half are on decaying formats, and time is running out. This year's Annual Appeal is raising funds to digitise and restore them, before they're lost > auth.nls.uk/support-us/w...

"The island is scattered with hundreds of German fortifications built while it was occupied during World War Two. The children had since been "nipping down" for short cool-off periods, said Judd, with a lesson also taking place in the unusual setting." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Footbaths and WW2 German bunker helping keep Guernsey pupils cool

Students are finding some unusual ways to focus in the heatwave, including learning in a bunker.

bbc.co.uk

“Mother, I've weighed the risks - which I prefer to living in a world dominated by Nazis. Bill" Thank god for Bill and so many more like him (Pic from @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social on X)

A Rainbow of former Police Boxes for Edinburgh Pride. 🌈 #EdinburghPoliceBox #EdinburghPride Enjoy and stay safe.

In a normal Royal Observer Corps group, like 20 York, the phone to talk to the Carrier Control Points was on the operations table. The patch in the table below the phone is where the "warning keyboard" was located, the replacement phone had the CCPs programmed in memory. #SirenSaturday

Piano Lessons anyone?

A vent to the void. Nearly every Saturday for 10 years I was involved with a Cold War Project in Edinburgh. I loved it & I became THE expert on the history with 100s of hours research, it was my hyper focus. Yesterday I saw the successor projects stall at the fair and it brought tears to my eyes.