Ghostrider

Oh dear, it seems I've caused something of a stushie. A the risk of being shot down a second time...... I'm struggling to see where you're pulling the Islamophobia from, as in the context in which I posted (in reply to cicero's assertion privacy didn't exist) it was actually intended to be positive. In that by accident of how they chose to dress anyway their privacy was far more assured than those who chose to dress otherwise, and good luck to them. Again, I'm struggling with the masks comment. If you're seriously suggesting that I should have cited masks instead, you're obviously missing the point I was trying to make completely. I could have cited masks, or full face crash helmets, but I didn't as they were poor examples, folk who wear them as a rule still remain identifiable from their choice of other clothing. I could have cited nuns or monks (or is that Christianophobic?) to address the clothing identifying people issue, but neither 'uniform' usually includes an effective face covering, and in any case there's coming to be damn few of them around these days anyway. What I cited covered all bases perfectly, and if I was planning to visit anywhere that's bristling with cameras, I'd seriously consider wearing one myself. Anyhow, that's last weeks news, forward..............

The Dimplex storage heaters I'm familiar with have all had two controls. an input and output. The more you turn the input down the less heat will be stored in the heater and the less power it uses. The trick is figuring out how low you can set the input control and be almost run out, but not quite of stored heat before the timer kicks in next to recharge it back up. Not an easy task given that you've got to second guess how much heat you're gonna need 12-24 hours in to the future. Its a fine enough idea in a very modern house with tip top insulation and draught proofing as indoor temps don't get influenced all that much all that quickly, different story even with some houses no more than 20 years old where a change in wind strength or direction can turn the place from a sweat box to an ice box in a couple of hours. Without spare stored heat to call upon to compensate at such times you either sit and freeze a while or have to pull in temporary conventional heating, which cancels out the small savings for storage heating usage worryingly quickly. A new or near new high spec house, or in town or a few really sheltered locations its probably fine and well, but anywhere else in Shetland its very difficult not to end up paying for heat you don't use and still and on ending up with a few hours here and there that you need to keep your jacket on, and thats with watching the weather forecast and attempting to fine tune the input/output settings daily to best cope with the predicted weather. A leaflet came through the door the other week bragging that 'there was now an alternative supplier to SSE for THTC customers. I've not got round to reading it yet, but if its not been chucked already, I'll see if I can dig it out and see if its promising anything worthwhile/realistic.

They couldn't afford me.

Privacy. Its none of their damn business what anybody is doing unless that person is up to no good. Being spied and eavesdropped upon wherever you are is contrary to the basic principle of justice, 'innocent until proven guilty'.

They don't see much if you are in the habit of wearing a cap with a wide brim worn low. Do we have many that actually work anymore anyway, I thought their infamous over-priced CCTV died a long time ago. Not that they ever seemed t ID anyone using it.

Not everybody uses their bank card as their default method of making purchases or owns a mobile, and if you're someone who only goes online at home, while the IP would lead back to a connection in a given locality eventually, there's no way of proving who was using it at the time, and some people don't even have the internet either

President?1? Nah, Salmond won't be content until he's crowned as King. Just like Sturgeon won't let it lie until she's crowned as Queen. Another party in Scotland is no bad thing seeing as Labour seem to have sunk without trace and the Lib Dems and Tories have only ever really been a niche market for decades and there's no real sign of that changing. Just don't think Salmond and the kind of people he'll attract is going to do much to improve things. We've had something similar before, when he led the Nats, and that's where we started getting in to the mess we're in now. Whatever it does, or doesn't turn in to it'll be a Nats Lite or Nats Max outfit if it survives and end up either splitting the vote which will just perpetrate the bickering between the factions, or take over and be much the same as the present lot but with a few tweaks here and there. Its not quibbling over different shades of Nationalism Scotland needs right now, independence needs put on the back burner for a while by whoever is in charge, and proving their capability to competently run a nation and make it thrive become paramount. The current crop of Nats aren't getting it, that they need to show the nation they can walk the walk as well as talk the talk before the electorate are likely to be persuaded to let them loose with any more power and responsibility than they've already got, and Salmond has been at least equally guilty of being all talk and no substance as the rest of them. In common with the UK, perhaps the new party both need is a centrist one comprising as far as possible new faces and new ideas, rehashing the same old faces and slightly tweaked ideas has been done to death and failed too many times already.

The card is probably about as much worth as the 'vaccination' it refers to. Which doesn't stop you catching the lurgie, or from passing it on to others, it just makes it 'less severe', they say. Not a lot of plusses to be had anywhere there. Gotta hand it to the big pharma/government marketing/PR efforts though, in turning a 'vaccine' that only works kinda, sorta, a little bit, maybe, in to such a sought after commodity.

Where's the Council roads people suddenly come in to a bit of money from. Did an elderly relative die and remember them in their Will. They seem to be in a 'spend, spend, spend' mood anyway, they've even managed to get Tulloch's sent out to replace the thick with rust waterlogged road signs round here. Its only been something like 3 1/2 years since the most rotten of them blew over in a gale. If we've managed without that long and no problems, I'm not sure we really need them..... Oh yeah, and they finally managed to fill a pothole thats been there for 10 years...... Whatever they have planned for the Tesco Roundabout, it'll be grandiose for sure. Whether its useful or a white elephant though, is probably 50/50 at best.

^ We're aa doooomed then. Politics, science and common sense are mutually exclusive.

@ Frances. Perhaps a similar query directed to the LPA would be in order, to enquire what measures they propose putting in place to ensure any risk, either actual or perceived, to the wider Shetland public by letting cruise passengers come ashore on their property in minimised. The cruise lines are only one half of the equation, they can bring people here, but any risk posed by those people is only realised by allowing them ashore. Probably a further epistle of CB will result, but it might have slight entertainment value.

Aye, put like that, I can't disagree. There's an element of Russian Roulette for us in just letting it be a free for all. You'd hope any outbreak onboard would happen long before they got here, and they'd stay at sea or at least at anchor in quarantine for the duration, but depending on where they started out from or if a crowd of them managed to pick it up someplace along the way here, that wouldn't always be the case. Plus, we would undoubtedly be expected to cater to anyone needing hospitalisation on any of them within chopper range. Unless for the loss of bus hires and work for tour guides, not a lot of others make much of anything off the liner traffic unless the harbour, and the harbour has plenty of other strings in their bow that doing without liners won't bankrupt them.

Half way there, just needs the steam boiler and an effective power transfer to the gearbox. https://www.newlyswissed.com/pimp-my-volvo-swiss-edition/

I really don't think it will make much difference. The 'rona is endemic, it won't matter how long things are restricted, once things are opened up again the result will be the same until/unless natural immunity/vaccine are best case scenario effective, and its far, far too early to know that yet. Either you keep everything closed down for another 2-3 years to see how effective (or not) immunity/vaccine is in the longer term, or we just get on with it and hope for the best. With a global fatality of under 4%, mostly the frail or those in poor health, and 30% of sufferers having zero symptoms, the mass hysteria generated by media and political scaremongering IMHO is more dangerous than the lurgie itself, and the only way to quell it is to just get on with living and dying as normal. Prove its not the Plague which has fatality rates between 50-100% depending on the specific type.

Never mind art, it'll not be long given the state of the place with all the holes and crumbling concrete in the sea defences, before the Queens is only fit for bulldozing. Then the Harbour will have the perfect starting point for their long planned deep water berth for the liners coming alongside, and the extra touries tempted ashore by not having to fash around with lifeboat shuttles will save the street. Okay, its a few years away, but by all appearances it'll be at least that long before all these pointless travel restrictions are finally lifted and touries can get back on the circuit.

^ I prefer ebay.

Which burns most diesel per mile travelled, Gremista creating the electric that runs the electric car, or the car that runs on diesel itself. Electric cars are all very fine, I suppose, until there's a power cut. Something toonies don't get affected by much, but a regular and often lengthy event for the rest of us.

^ They may well be financially privileged, there's little debate about that, but I'm not so sure so much in other departments. I'm not going to argue about the doffing caps to them being mental, but still and on I don't think its anywhere near as mental as they are given some of their antics over the years. A superfluous bunch of defective inbreeds really. Kinda like Appalachia's finest, but with a lot more money.

That. depends entirely on the cow concerned, and the strength of the wall concerned. Put a cow in season on one side of a wall, and a bull on the other side, and one or the other of them will find a way to the other side. Maybe the Scots had crappy bulls the English cows didn't rate as offspring worthy producing material, or maybe the Scots never managed to figure out you needed to being the bull to the wall when an English cow was in season for the bait to work. Regardless, old Hadrian's plan seemed to work, or maybe, having built the damn thing only to find it didn't work, them Roman's couldn't be arsed to pull it down again.....after all they like their siestas.....Oh, nope that's the Spanish.Mustn't mention the Armada.

Just how much is the SCT's share these days, does anyone know. They've never exactly been forthcoming with any meat on the bones of the 'deal' they struck with SSE. If they put in no more money than was in when they last admitted how much they'd spent on it, at a guess they can't have much more than a 1-2% stake these days, and Burradale, if they're still in, something like 0.05-0.1%

STOP PRESS. Potentially explosive revelations fae an otherwise quiet an innocuous looking ebb idda nordert. https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2021/03/07/cordon-placed-around-possible-gas-cylinder-found-on-beach/

I fan twa double endit widden, whit appeared ta be 'aircraft' style propeller bleds idda ebb years ago. I telld naebody, dey med fur owreweel firewid sic is dey wir. Fan a dead coo eence too, tocht me luck wis in, reddy sauted steaks ta tak hame an reest, bit dey didna smell fairly richt, so I left dem.

I plead temporary insanity! Or maybe its permanent insanity. Jury is oot, I hear....

^ Mebbe dir heard da sang it begins 'Bonnie Isle, Shetland Isle.......' No shure whit wid grind me gears warst, locals imply dir just wan land mass, ur usin da wird 'island'. Dats English, Isle, pronounced 'Ile' is da Shetland version. Dat opens anodder can o' wirms tho, ta onybody wi Fair Isle connections 'Da Isle' is da Fair Isle, if you're fae Bigton/Scousburgh etc, 'Da Isle' is St Ninian's..... I hae no idea whit idder districts wid ken is 'Da Isle', so I'm not even going ta try an guess. Its all foo o' anomalies tho. 'Burra' or 'Burra Isle', very common usage, even Burra fok, dir twa isles tho.... Don't think I'd ever get back across da brig alive if I suggested they shud re-name demsells 'Burras', so I'm no gonna....

It dusna seem ta geen doon very weel whin we return da compliment tho... 'Da Englands', 'Da Scotlands, 'Da Britains'..... Dey look it you laek you hae a head foo o' duff mossy paets, an da hinmist een dey tink you're spaekin aboot a brand o' bairns toys.....