Jonners

Anyone seen this?

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i18414

I'm all for funny stuff about Shetland that takes the p**s but this just isn't very funny.

If Nelson Smith's bigoted views concerned, say, Jews or Shetlanders, instead of homosexuals, his nonsense would never have made it into print.

Good point, but I think it's pretty much fair enough to allow anything to be printed. The consequences lie with those that printed it. Where would we be without controversial points of view?!

I find lots of things that people write offensive, but people have different points of views on things for whatever reasons.

And essentially people printing what they want to say is just an extension of people saying what they want - freedom of speech.

I know there are arbitrary limits set by society in terms of what's allowable, and it's an interesting topic.

So if 40 pence from the poll goes to the running costs, and 10 pence goes to local charities does it mean that 25 pence goes to Stuart Hill?

I don't expect Stuart to make much money out of it but to expect people to pay to vote on something seems ridiculous to me. Maybe I'm wrong but this Muckle Poll thing will sink without trace.

Good luck with the rest of the newsletter though Stuart. I admire your passion for Shetland. And things like Nelson Smith's views might be offensive to some people but I think it's good to give a public forum for some of the more weird ideas circulating within society, on the whole.

That's a great use of your vote. Basing your choice on the place where they were born. How sad.

I totally disagree! It's a very credible way to use your vote. By stint of being from Shetland Tavish has an incredibly detailed knowledge of Shetland issues from first-hand experience. The others don't.

You have to say well done to Tavish for the increased majority. It's very impressive, even if he was up against a bunch of numpties.

crofter wrote:

Hey Greenheatman - I'd love to see you in action on "Dragons Den"!

p.s. I understand your graphs, but until you verify the figures I reckon people will refuse to 'get it' and continue calling them silly.

 

 

You will - quite soon!

So Greenheatman, I take it from this that you are going to be on Dragons Den. Are you able to prove this claim that you will be on Dragons Den or do you only have a graph that says you will be appearing?

Don't think Duncan Bannatyne et al will be all that impressed unless you show up with a prototype.

Firstly i just thought the appauling quality of the Shetland Times colour pictures has to be mentioned. It is very hard to make out who the players are in the Delting picture especially.

Totally agree Gervais!

The Shetland Times has had colour printing now for a number of years - and they STILL can't make it work properly!

They should just drop it. The black and white look was far more classy anyway.

No, but it will be undergoing tests by next Summer but you will have to travel a long distance to see it - what a shame but you will be able to read about it in the Press.

Greenheatman - it's childishly arrogant, hectoring statements like this that leave you with zero credibility.

You have to expect that 99% of people do not know the technical details of renewable energy technology. However it's these 99% of people you have to win over to achieve anything. You may not like it, but that's life.

I hope your experiment, if it happens, is a roaring success. But so far you have no track record and therefore cannot expect public backing from the people of Shetland.

Greenheatman - wouldn't it be a good idea to make a prototype?

So bigdancingman is unmasked as Daniel Robertson, the youngest person to be standing for the Shetland Islands Council in the Shetland north ward. Good luck Daniel!

It seems that democracy is alive and well in Shetland - there seems to be a huge amount of people standing this time.

Well I suppose the answer is that the world needs green energy right now, urgently. In fact it needs it yesterday. That is the argument for making such a big windfarm and also the argument for going with wind rather than undeveloped wave power.

This is why it's probably a risk worth taking. And we can also do the tidal and wave thing later down the line if it turns out to be viable.

Personally I think the windmills will sit pretty well on the Shetland landscape, from an aesthetic point of view. But it's a matter of personal taste, I guess.

I'm afraid the graphs don't mean much to me either, greenheat man. I remain to be convinced. For what it's worth I think your pitch is all wrong, but that's beside the point.

ii) as I've already posted earlier in this thread: that's what is to be installed in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, is the same device as it is installed for testing in Eday Sound, Orkney, see also at the CBC news, Feb. 2007:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/energy/tidal-power.html

Interesting article islandhopper. I hadn't seen it before and have come late to this debate I realise. Not quite a plethora of tidal power examples, but a significant few that do seem to have some track record - the French one certainly, but perhaps not a good idea to copy it en masse!

As I said before, I think most of us would love tidal power to be what Shetland goes for but the technology is still evolving and at an early stage. There's nothing to stop Shetland from going down the tidal route at a later date - it could be very lucrative as well. But I think with the windmills we are going down a tried and tested - and less risky - route. Taking a gamble on GENTECventuri based on what we know so far would be too big a gamble.

As for the Drew Ratter thing, you're probably right crofter.

I'm a bit surprised at Drew Ratter's decision not to stand at the next SIC election, especially since he's been such a big supporter of the windfarm stuff. I also think he's one of the most able people on the SIC.

I wonder if he thinks there's not enough support for the windfarm stuff and it's not going to happen and he's lost interest?

Or can he be both chairman of Viking Energy and chairman of the Crofters Commission?

Jonners - You should have had the decency to cross battery out with a felt tip

I wish I had Bigmouth - unfortunately she noticed before I did.

There's so much to hate about going to the supermarket - struggling through swarms of people, duelling with other motorists for a parking space, struggling with the trolley which invariably has a wonky wheel.

We've used the ASDA delivery service from time to time, but's never been as wonderful as you would hope.

It's very annoying when you're looking forward to that pie you ordered and then they turn up and they don't have it for whatever reason.

Also they substitute things from time to time. Most of the time you can live with it, but one time they came with battery eggs rather than free-range. Being the heartless individual that I am I wasn't too bothered, but the lady of the house was horrified and vowed never to use the service again.

The ferry ticket sounds like a flippant remark to me. I am sure that we have fully expensed the travel of every other consultant who we have had the "benefit" of in the past.

 

His 50:50 share on micro generation installs must be making him very wealthy indeed. I am sure that he can easily afford the ferry ticket.

I know it was a flippant remark, and I don't think it makes him sound very professional.

I also don't really see that he has much - if any - sort of track record. I certainly don't see evidence of him ever doing much commercial work. But perhaps I haven't been looking in the right places. Maybe he's a genius but I'd want a bit more to go on first.

Is Shetland Aerogenerators not bankrolled by the development trust?

I don't know but I'm supposing it is. I've no problem with this. The Dev Trust is supposed to back projects like this, it's shown some foresight and should therefore be given credit. I think Burradale has been a success. But then wind power has a proven track record - tidal power, unfortunately, has not got a proven track record yet. Far brainier people than me who actually know about renewable technology aren't yet backing tidal power - I defer to their superior knowledge. Perhaps some of the millions Shetland makes from wind power could be ploughed back into a renewable energy research company that pioneers new renewable technology?

Like many people I would prefer the tidal method but the general concensus among people in the know is that it's not ready.

It comes down to a question of trust. Why should we trust this guy when the rest of the renewable energy community says renewable tidal energy technology still needs to come on.

I guess there's no harm in investigating more fully Andrew Mackay's claims. But I can't help but feel slightly prejudiced against him when he makes his plea for the SIC to pay for his boat-fare to Shetland! It doesn't inspire confidence in Mr Mackay - do you have a penny to your name, sir? - and it's almost as if he's trying to take advantage of the SIC's infamous carelessness when it comes to handing out cash to all and sundry.

I think Andrew Mackay should prove to the people of Shetland his scheme works first, get private backing to set it up and if it does then get round the table with the powers that be. That's what the windmill people have done.

I know you're well meaning digitaldodo but this ...

if anyone really believes it's OK for the west to hog global resources while much of the world starves, I'd say, morally speaking, they become legitimate targets for terrorism

... is just nonsense in my opinion. It's like saying someone with money, morally speaking, becomes a legitimate target to be robbed by someone less well off.

American strategy is to maintain it's own wealth at all costs, not necessarily to maintain a gulf between itself and the rest of the world. Indeed many of these Muslim states that you mention are incredibly wealthy and yet keep their own people in poverty. And, to give America it's due, it pumps billions of aid dollars into the Third World.

But to get back on track, if the USA still want to pursue a 'Star Wars' strategy then I don't see much harm in it. It's a defensive military strategy. I agree that it seems a bit pointless these days, but then who knows who might be running China or Russia in 5 years time and what sort of agenda they might have.

Shetland might become more of a target but certainly not from Middle East terrorists, as this whole strategy doesn't directly impact on US policy in the Middle East. It would be about as much a target as RAF Saxa Vord was, and Islamist terrorists seem far more interested in attacking heavily populated areas. In the event of some sort of horrible nuclear war we would all become a target anyway and we're all screwed.

However, in a slightly perverse way, nuclear weapons and the stalemate they have produced have resulted in us living through one of the most stable and peaceful periods in history.

That was class!

Is there another SIBC spoof out there?

What you could do is use the 100000 to build the old folks home in India, move them out there and use local labour to do the caring, that way we would use our 100000 to set up a more cost effective way of caring for our old folk and help out the locals. Also it would be a nicer climate for them. Idea we could send Drew Ratter out as a test case?

Brilliant post Penfold!

It's more radical, blue-sky thinking like this that's needed in the Town Hall. I implore you to stand for election. The only downside would be the massive carbon footprint made by the family and friends of aforementioned old folks as they fly out to Mumbai every weekend to visit.

I think we should keep it simple. 'The Shetland Arena' or something. It doesn't need to have art in the title. I also like 'The Shetland Opera House', but somehow I don't think that will happen especially now the bridge plan has been scrapped and plans for Lerwick to become the Sydney of the north have been shelved - for the time being.

Hiarta is too poncy. Nort Hansel is awful in my opinion as the very word Hansel makes me cringe. It's one of those cutesy, couthy Shetland dialect words that makes me want to be sick.

Thanks for that Njugle.

It seems to me that Russon has been effectively cleared of doing anything wrong here, so Dr. Bowie should welcome him back.

There was never any suggestion he wasn't doing his job properly.

I tread with trepidation back into this discussion as I don't really want to get bogged down in ancient old testament theological turf wars on the merits or otherwise of christianity and islam.

But from reading between the lines on the various reports on this story, it sounds like Russon has basically been admonished of doing anything wrong, right?

So I don't understand why he's not able to practice in Hillswick?

Maybe I misunderstand the situation but surely if he's allowed to practice in Lerwick then he should be able to practice in Northmavine?

Hang on a minute - these people are actually stealing.

Maybe it's just jealousy on my part - a BMW motorbike would be nice, thank you - but I think there's something pretty distasteful about it all. It's just a bunch of chavs and greedy freeloaders trying to get their grubby mits on stuff that belongs to other people, some of it personal belongings.

We should be thankful we live in a country where we can enjoy 'provocative' television programming.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/23/wchina23.xml

"I don't think they're racist, just unbelievably dumb. They're motivated by an intense, aching jealousy they're simply too stupid to process. After all, Shilpa is 20 times more successful than any of them, not to mention 400 times more beautiful. When you're a go-nowhere moomin-flasher, a washed-up singer or a famous dunce, that's bound to rankle, especially since Shetty's also more intelligent, dignified, patient and likable than you could ever, ever be.

 

There's a certain grim amusement to be had, watching the angry trio stropping about with faces like thunder, steadily dismantling their own careers, but equally, there's something profoundly embarrassing about having this lot representing Britain to a disarmingly gracious group of overseas visitors - the aforementioned Shilpa, plus sweetly gentle Jermaine and dry, debonair Dirk. This is humiliation on a national scale..."

Very good.