Scraplet

Quote taken from the newspaper report. Made me laugh! A modern, well run landfill is an engineering project, not a compost heap. Fires might have been standard in a 1970s unengineered tip, but not in a 21st century landfill site! In a modern site, a fire is a sign of poor management or something going very wrong with the landfill engineering. You don't just shrug and say its normal! If the waste is properly emplaced and compacted, it has very little air in it. Tiny amounts of oxygen left after compaction will be quickly consumed by aerobic bacteria in the waste, leaving it anerobic. Without oxygen, you can't have a fire. The 'hot' waste should be entirely anerobic, so unable to burst into flame! People have mentioned pipes on the site in the waste. I don't know this site, but I would guess they are part of a landfill gas and leachate managment system, which a site like this would normally have. If you have sufficient moisture in a landfill, anerobic bacteria will 'eat' the waste, producing methane gas and liquid waste (leachate) which you need to manage as quantities increase. Landfills usually have engineered wells in each cell, from where you can pump out the excess leachate. If enough gas is produced, it can be pumped out through a network of pipes, and flared or used to generate electricity. Unless a landfill is only taking inert waste (eg rubble, bricks), it will tend to require gas management. One of the main aims of good management and monitoring is to prevent ingress of oxygen. Setting fire to waste can lead to voids, instability, and damage to the engineering and containment (not to mention the air quality issues). Oxygen and methane mixing in the leachate wells or other part of the system can have terrible safety implications for people on site. Confined void space + flammable gas + oxygen = BANG!

If I remember rightly**, in Julian May's Galactic Milieu & Pliocene Exile novels, Unst was a major inter-planetary spaceport. Its got to start somewhere! **its been a very long time since I read them!

Wow, an elected official in the UK with what appears to be a sound grasp of economics and banking! I never thought I'd see the day. It is a shame that the view he is promoting is on another paradigm from that of virtually every other politician and central banker. It will only be met with ridicule and offense, as it was in the video. When the next (ie real) collapse happens, and we yet again look around for a cause, perhaps then people will start realizing the truth of Hayek's 'fatal conceit', as referenced by the speaker in the video. "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design." F.A. Hayek. No system of regulation and centralised control will organize capital, resources and people more effectively than a free market. As with the banks, regulation just opens the doors for special interests, rent-seeking, and corporate power grabs. There would be no "too big to fail" in a free market. Time to get used to this idea, people, before our society goes down the tubes. This recession we are experiencing is just the warning shot across the bows!

Gender is not a binary male/female deal, no matter what you think. Many people are born with a mixture of physical, emotional and biochemical situations that are neither male or female, but somewhere in between. Gender, like many things, is a sliding scale. A spectrum. Most of us are lucky to be far enough down the spectrum one side or the other so that we don't have the burden of wondering where we fit. However, those who are in that situation should not be forced to choose in order to have a normal life. From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity Many people with gender identity issues accept their intersex characteristics and do not want to surgically alter themselves, but still do not identify as the gender on their birth certificate. Why should someone *have* to choose surgery to be "legally male or female"? It's not your business or the business of any government. The issues surrounding gender dysphoria / gender identity are in a similar place to where gay and lesbian rights were 50 years ago, and conciousness needs raising. Well done Posiedon for bringing it up.

Aye, that sounds like the Badman report. It was lots of assertions and assumptions, with no real data no back any of it up. It started with the outcome it wanted to see (compulsory annual registration requiring local authority approval) and worked backward (like most government policy these days!). It would be nice if government collected data and did a bit a science before deciding there is a problem. And the 'checking' thing is interesting. You, as a parent, are responsible for education, legally. School is not compulsory, though most people think it is. This leads to the assumption that home educating parents should be 'checked', even though there is no real legal basis for this. It seems most local authorities go far beyond the law to 'check' because they believe they have a duty to. So they cry to government that they don't have the correct powers. Then the government is shocked to find out there are a small number of people legally educating children their own way without government intervention and oversight, so they weigh-in with lots of accusations and anecdotes in an attempt to change the law. The last government threw so much mud that much has stuck, and brought a small part of public opinion to their view. Doesn't change the fact that, so far, it is baseless. Its just about control, and on principle they will always get minimal co-operation from me until that changes. Zebedee; I'm glad your school experience, and that of children you know, was so positive. I suppose my surprise is that boarding in hostels, and long days travelling to school is not seen as a more negative experience. I've no doubt the schools themselves are of a high calibre; Shetland is famous for it! Most of my children's friends say the opposite; they hate school and would love to do what my kids do! I think that tells you all you need to know about Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire schools!!

Not sure that's the case, Annie. I home educate my kids, and keep my ear quite close to the ground on these issues. I've not heard of any proposed changes......can you point me at some details? There was the Badman review in England, if that's what you're thinking of, but that was thrown out with the Labour govt, and had no bearing on Scotland. Mind you, the educational fascists are always cooking up something, so I wouldn't be that surprised to learn I've missed something! I'm not in Shetland yet , either, (working on that!) but if I make it happen soon, then I'll continue to home educate. I'm always surprised its not a more popular choice in Shetland, especially where children travel quite far to school, or even have to board during the week.

your headache would disappear lol! Yeah, and you may just have a gastro-intestinal ulcer from the overdose you didn't know you were having, or your headache may have gone for placebo reasons, but you won't be able to tell. That's why we have science-based medicine to tell us these things. Sorry, was responding to Paulb's point! Yeah, but its a bit like theology. You can be an expert in "angels dancing on the heads of pins", but if angels don't exist then what is your expertise worth? I'm sure your herbalist has a great wealth of folk knowledge about herbs that have traditionally been judged to be useful, and no doubt some really are. However, until clinical trials can show a herb is useful then we have no evidence for its efficacy. Remember, anecdotes are not evidence, because humans are terrible judges of causes. Just consider the placebo effect. Thats why we need the scientific method. On the clinical trial front it doesn't look great: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/533968/?sc=rsmn So, lets look at the herbal remedies, and see if they work. If they do, great, we have a winner! If they don't, lets move along and not waste people time, money and emotion.

To be fair, Posiedon is right. Herbal remedies have been studied by pharmacologists who have identified the active ingredients and turned them into a medicine you can take with a controlled dose. You cannot control the amount of an ingredient in a natural product, so a 'natural' herbalist doesn't know what dose you are getting. If he does, its because the medicine has been processed to get the active ingredient out. So its just medicine! Its a complete fallacy to assume that something is good because it natural and bad because it processed. If it has a pharmacological affect on your body, a chemical is a chemical, no matter where it comes from. Like Posiedon said, you could take an aspirin or lick the inside of willow bark. Same difference, but how will you know when you've licked enough willow bark? Or overdosed?

I have to say I disagree. When I head to Shetland I know there is a possibility of poor weather, but that's never put me off! (As I contemplate the M1 first thing in the morning, the thought of Yell in the rain seems like heaven!) Shetland's handicap as a tourist destination is the geography, and nothing else, from my point of view. It is difficult, time consuming and expensive to get to there! If I've only got a few days, NW Scotland, the Western Isles, even Orkney, is realistic. But Shetland isn't, even though it'd be my first preference. Example; - its not quite 1am, so if I set off now I could make the morning ferry from Ullapool and be in Stornaway for about 1pm tommorow afternoon. Or I could head to Aberdeen and get to Lerwick for breakfast a day later. I need to put aside 4 days for travel alone, when you include the return journey. Or half that and lower costs to get to Orkney or the Western Isles. Unfortunately, that's what often wins for me, even though I'd rather come to Shetland

Maybe, but teachers and schools in the state system are bound by targets, attainment goals and the curriculum, so any creativity can only be exercised within very tight constraints. Recent reports have suggested that formal education should be delayed until children are 6 or 7 in some cases. If you think that is the case for your child, your only choice is to withdraw them from the system. If the child is just not ready to start reading / writing, there will be no teacher - no matter how flexible - who would suggest leaving that alone for a few months, or even a year. Its unlikely that any school could be this adaptable, yet this may be what the child needs.

*delurks* Hi all, not posted before, but as a home educator, felt I might be able to add something. If you have the time and energy to commit to home education, then I firmly believe it is the best thing for many children, especially those who don't thrive in the structure of regular schools. Its the elephant in the room with these debates, but school can destroy the willingnes to learn in many children, turning it into a chore. Its a one-size approach, which can't fit everyone. With home eduation you're in control. If a child follows their interests, they learn. All you have to do as a parent is facilitate that. They absorb it like a sponge, just as they do (to no-ones surprise) before school age. You can introduce new concepts, and if they like it, they will latch on. I they don't like it, maybe they're not ready. Try again in a year or so....afterall, its only schools and governments that insist your child must be at a certain level by a certain age. Yet, we don't expect them all to walk, talk, or ride a bike at the same age. Many school children quickly loose their love of learning in the forced environment of a school. My son did, before we withdrew him. I did. I discovered education again as an adult, when I followed my interests, and realised I was educating myself. My children learn and devlelop everyday, but its not 'work' and they don't see it as anything but enjoying the things they love doing. All of life's skills follow. As for socialsation - the community and family is the best socialiser. My kids still mix with school kids. But, they are not forced to spend time with those they don't like, or those who may damage them (as my son was in school). I'm way down in Derbyshire, so I recognise that my situation may be very different from you guys; if we had primary schools of the quality you have on Shetland, then I may never have discovered home education. But, like many things, you often can't understand the value of something untill you've done it. Even if we had a top quality school on our doorstep now, it would be a last resort (unless my children wanted to go..... ). Hope that helps...happy to discuss.... Ben. Edited to add: This link is to evidence from a teacher, presented to the Select Committee currently reviewing home education legislation in England and Wales. Read sections two and three.....(the rest is only relevant if you are interested in the government's review; which perhaps everyone should be from a civil liberties point of view, but that's another subject!) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmchilsch/memo/elehomed/me7402.htm That reflects my opinion and experience more elequently than I ever could!!