jambo6

The OP indicates over 18s. The OP was made before the Friday gig was dreamt up. States on Shetland Box Office that the Friday show is for over 16's. http://www.shetlandboxoffice.org/whats-on/northern-soul

Not exactly an apples and apples comment, and not true anyway. Average Shetland rent is 61.04p per week which is above the national average of 56.94p but by no means highest (74.87p) When you consider you have zero chance of being put in a tower block or tenement the cost doesnt sound high vs the rest of the country. Its probably lower vs the same type of accomodation but its hard to dig into detailed statistics like that, you can see at a high level from gov figures though that 60% of Scotlands social housing is in flats whereas 15% of Shetlands social housing is in flats. Might not be the best info available but at least I tried rather than just spouting some nonsense under the caveat of "apparently"

I'd like to know ^^this too Radiohead? Always interested in a better service but would be surprised if the latency via satellite comes anywhere close to that provided by BT. Whats your ping to Paris & NY, just to give us some comparisons? Mine with BT are around 65 ms and 120 ms respectively.

That was what I had thought until reading the earlier post, I assumed the poster knew what they were talking about which is a foolish trap to enter on the web, they may still be though, do we need expert help? Found an interesting suggestion of the origin of Black Affronted - BLACK-AFFRONTED: Ashamed, a Scots term still in use today and probably derived from the act of covering your heraldic shield (affronty is a heraldic term) in order not to be recognised. Scots knights did this as they fled from Methven, in order not to be subsequently accused of being supporters of Bruce.

Interesting point - I've never actually thought about the meaning of black fantin until you posted this. I would guess it's origins are anything but racist - Hungry as an African would be its direct translation, and when you consider how many poor-plates the church-going folk of Shetland have had thrust under their noses over the past 150 or so years its easy to see where it came from.

Instead of presenting this as a fact, maybe you could explain why it is, in your opinion, a fact. I'm not saying I agree or disagree but a lot of this seems very grey to me - how do you personally define racism if you believe its not rooted and entwined in xenophobia? Its a valid point and i am no phycologist, but i suppose i was referring to the points in the discussion that related to incidences of calling someone a Welsh, English, Irish etc, soandso, and comparing this to the issue initially raised by the OP, which was abusing someone purely on the grounds of their ethnicity/skin colour. It may well be symptomatic of the same thing at the core of that behaviour, i don't know. But I have always considered it to be different. I accept what people say about how stereotypes are used either in jest or in more forthright terms and that this is a lower scale of 'abuse' in some cases. I also accept that there needs to be an element of vitriol or hate in the way this is portrayed before it is much of an issue so am not flogging a PC line at all. I have heard quite a few hate filled racist outbursts in Shetland, along with the knockabout tendency toward racist jokes, which are at opposite ends of a spectrum, but within all that there is plenty underlying racism. Going back to the main point however, it is ultimately caused by ignorance and no worse in Shetland than other parts of Scotland. My own take on it is this, and its not informed by much more than watching a lot of Nicky Campbell on Sundays so feel free to rip it apart. Racism is an expression of xenophobia, a subset if you like as it focuses on race and ethnicity rather than the wider scope of xenophobia. For most people though racism is rooted in the wider xenophobia - a fear and distrust of what they perceive as immigrants and incomers threatening their ways, rather than a dislike based purely on origin and skin colour. Thats why I see it as grey, I dont think there is a huge difference between racism and, if you like, "regionalism". In the past people would fight with people from other streets, villages, towns - any pretext to get together and fight over perceived differences, there is a violent streak in human nature that is innate, especially in men, and Shetland has excelled in this area in the past. I think the *real* big difference is the way we are being trained to react to racism by the people driving the racist agenda vs no-one really cares about regionalism as the British have a deep-seated sense of "sticks & stones". I'm not knocking the drive against racism here. If I came from another ethnic background I'm sure I would see things very acutely and be citing the many huge inequalities people have suffered in the past in Britain as reason for zero tolerance. It now seems though that our attitude towards racism sticks out like a sore thumb against the wider spectrum of xenophobia which is really odd if stop to consider the subject as a whole.

Instead of presenting this as a fact, maybe you could explain why it is, in your opinion, a fact. I'm not saying I agree or disagree but a lot of this seems very grey to me - how do you personally define racism if you believe its not rooted and entwined in xenophobia?

Wife uses it on me. Lock her up

Question is pretty limited. When I was at the AHS in the 80's, yes, definitely. Now, not really. I dont hang out with school children though, but my own never make any comments that could be construed as racist. What do you define as racism? Baiting people for being Irish, English or Welsh to their faces is not by definition racist, it does go on, British people generally accept that as banter within reason. Some of the more PC people might cry racism at this too. I have observed that a fair few people will make racist remarks when they are in a WASP only environment where they perceive it will be accepted. Most of the folk I've heard making comments like that would be nice as pie when in the company of foreigners so are they actually racist or just lapsing into the language they may have heard and used as bairns? Abusive language to anyone in their workplace is not acceptable, the racist part is perhaps secondary as to me most racism appears to be applying adjectives to add to abuse. By that I mean if someone calls me a **** English ****, which has been known, I dont consider it racist. Its either offensive or funny depending on the context, but the English part is a factual adjective. If they call someone from China a **** Chinese **** does it become racist? The Chinese part is still a factual adjective. I'm throwing this out as I remain a bit puzzled by some of what is defined as racism. Acceptable language and semantics have changed greatly since I was a child in the 70's and living so far from the net cast by the bellwethers of political correctness in London some of us are always going to be a little behind in catching on that we are slightly out of step. Personally I find the amount of homophobic language I hear more worrying. Its far more prevalent than racism in Shetland and where we have had a history of being reasonably tolerant to foreigners in the UK, we have a pretty horrible record of behaviour towards homosexuals. The chat I hear from my children (Who are in primary school) about being gay being "totally wrong" worries me. I've tried to instill the opposite in them but know that lots of their peers are being brought up in households that are openly homophobic, and kids will defer to their peers rather than stand out, its natural.

What would you fill it with though - they cant invent News out of nothing? We are in such a different place to even 10 years ago when the internet was still catching on. The "News" now is anything but - there's no surprises in the News section on a Friday. I am very much against the parochial invasive reporting we get in Shetland, not just from the ST either. Every minor offender is named and shamed and it smacks more of salacious gossip than News, but it begs the same question - what would I have them replace it with, and I really dont have an answer. At least Sport is positive.

He's got a new job, whats unusual about that?

If you want unblinkered answers to that the blogosphere is the place to look. Channel 4's Alex Thomson http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/next-24-48-hours-vital-rangers/1422 And the Rangers Tax case blog http://rangerstaxcase.wordpress.com/ are both good resources. The Scottish media have been critical of bloggers over this but you can see the RTC blog has been predicting disaster for over a year while the media have been sweeping it under the carpet as they seem too scared to do anything but cosy up to Rangers. I dont think they'll survive - its dragging on too long and soon they will have to pay up or fold. This is better for them in the long run imo, a new Rangers starting in Div 3 would be clean and have the integrity they desperately lack at the moment. The loathing a newco that stays in the SPL will receive is not to be trifled with. The club have cheated their way to a generations worth of silverware and prizemoney and the reward would be a generation of almost universal hatred from the rest of Scottish supporters if you go by the polls. I dont share the media-driven view that the SPL is stuffed without Rangers. Expand it to 16 or 18 and it would be a lot more competitive - having to play Celtic twice instead of playing Rangers/Celtic 8 times would open the league up and hopefully bring back the big supports we know exist in places like Dundee and Aberdeen. The media complain it will be a one-horse race, well 2 points here. 1) Its a one horse race anyway to everyone outside the OF - always won by an ugly sister, and 2) History doesnt support this. When one of the old firm has been in the doldrums in the past, other teams have come to the fore and taken the title on occasion. I feel sorry for the decent Rangers supporters but would still ask them one question. If the garden were rosy and you had been offered an unconditional place in the EPL, would you have taken it?

Live blog from the count at the town hall courtesy of Shetland News. Great work from them, well done guys http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/4058-follow-our-live-coverage-of-this-mornings-election-count-from-900am.html

The Sun would have been laying into Harry for Spurs recent poor run if he'd got the job. Nature of the beast.

He went to the Marlex and said it was fine. Before that though, had to stop his car near the Thule as a handbags at dawn style punchup was ensuing in the street between Rangers & Celtic supporters. Its an old firm bashing each other thread now

Thanks - the slavering I was referring to was the quantity of beer they'd have consumed by then - no the notion that all supporters of the bigot sisters are slavering

As it says on the tin. Got a colleague up from south who wants to watch the Newcastle game at 4pm on Sunday in a pub in toon. Where still has Sky? Preferably somewhere that wont be full of slavering Rangers/Celtic fans who'll have had a 4 hour head start on him

No, it was Haddock, they had both though.

Care to elaborate Scoots? As a secularist I have high hopes for the side-lining of religion in the UK (In a political sense), hence my interest.

I was in Aberdeen recently and got one of the biggest fish suppers I've ever seen from The Osprey at Dyce Station. Tray was like a big kebab tray as full of chips as it could go, with 1 1/2 really large fillets on top. Cant remember the exact price but it was about 4.60 I think. Not only was it huge but excellent too, beat all of my recent experiences at home by a good margin.

Are you talking about the Johnsmas Foy or the Flavour Of Shetland event which was on Victoria Pier? Are you trying to trip me up with some form of pedantry here Flavour of Shetland was a part of the Johnsmas Foy in years past as I remember it (Apart from 2010 when we just had Flavour of Shetland), neither happened last year as we had the Freeze-a-thon instead. FoS was good on its own but the JF including it was much better. This year we have neither, just Mareel taking over entertainment in its entirety it would appear. Does that clarify my earlier waffelations?

The Grand Opening of Da Muckle Disco will surely make up for no Johnsmas though? If its this summer, that is. http://www.johnsmasfoy.com/ Does appear to be cancelled which is a shame as it was, well, really good.

The same way they make money already - targeted advertising. They use browser cookies to analyse your shopping habits via the internet already, and thus ensure the advertising you see is relevant, the idea being you are much more likely to click through. This will refine that greatly as they will gather more and more data on you as a person. They have 3rd party partners who also use this information I think - sure that was stated in a recent T&C update.

I see one of our national treasures has been puffing his chest up about this. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17249099

So the Faroese cable can be used to assist in the provision of improved mobile coverage in the longer term - good news. I'm sure this will have been answered in the case-making for the link, but why wasnt an improved micro-wave link a good option to improve the backhaul? Is it owned solely by BT and they lack interest?