Njugle

"Enable the Memberlist!" sounds like the catchphrase of some new animation i haven't seen yet, like He-Man or transformers but featuring a Peter Kay club! "IIIIIIII haaaaavveee thheee booouuunnnccceeerrsss!"

Indeed! In terms of value for effort, the best you can get out of the night is to take a drive around LK at about 9am on wednesday. It's priceless.

Jimmy Stewart, eh? A fine actor indeed, always reminds me of my late Uncle Henry. I thought best of you in 'Vertigo' but i confess an enduring soft spot for "A Wonderful Life" Anyhoo, i thought you passed away in 1997? Must have been one of those Hollywood conspiracies. Any new films on the cards? "We are the makers of music, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

The best thing is the "Ray Mears Factor" Dependance on nothing but food and water, ie you, as a non-smoker, could now be dropped on a desert island with fruit, water and fish aplenty and survive very happily. A smoker could not

Running the risk of sounding like a ponce here, i do neither. I fold the entire pagefrom spine to edge diagonally. That way the book does not become "dog-eared", and i don't need a bookmark, or lose my place. NB I only do this with my own books.

Cue the debate then...What is art and what's it worth? And who can decide the merits of an individual piece? Not Tracy Emin (or whatever her name is) anyhoo! But, do we pride ourselves on being a haven and promoter of those of vision, or do we expect something with flashing lights that will occupy the kids for hours? Somebody stop me.....!

Bets bacon roll was DEFINITELY Lizzies! And see that grill thing they used, you just wanted to grab it and snog all that dripping bacon fat out of it mmmm... Ahem! Enough of my fantasies. Sarmile does it for me. I think they've slipped a little since they first opened but they still rock. Best value snack in town; Chicken tikka roll from there. Maryfield is great but can anyone manage three courses? I did it once, but had to leave one of the side dishes that comes with the main. Best steak- I would have to say the shetland hotel, as a one off. Baroc seem to do good food, decent portions but the presentation reminds me of school canteen, ie dumped on the plate. (snobby, eh?) Questions: what's this new lerwick hotel gaff all about, haven't been. Is the NAFC good? Personally i don't rate it that highly, it's a canteen serving fish 5 days a week, and... Where oh where oh where is our decent seafood restaurant? We live in the middle of the sea for flukes sakes. Anywhere else in the world...etc Chinese? Muckle dyke for takeaway, silver bus for eating in. oh yeah, rumour has it that the sarmile guys want to find a restaurant venue and if they can't will move away And peeriebryan; co-op wins on price for fry-up but have you seen what they do to black pudding? it's a crime against offal! dried up cheap plastic yuk! And the fat soaked tattie scone, and those awful hash browns

That is so true. We think we live in a democracy with free speech etc., and a liberated press, but it is 100% true that our perception of what is happening around the world or even in our own country is incredibly selective. During the beginning of the 2nd "Gulf War" i was pointed towards debka.com, a middle eastern news service, and was gob-smacked to see the differences in what we were hearing in the UK as compared with debkafile. One can hardly imagine what the yanks were hearing. The fiddler calls the tune indeed

Okay guys and galls, let's have it... What's hot and what's not in the realm of Shetland fast food and eateries. Put your opinions down and who knows, could be the local 'Michelin' guide. Then again it could just let me know where to go on Saturday night to save the effort of cooking. PS Use nicknames or hints if you want to avoid shameless promotion/legal action But i don't think any of you are that 'blett'

Purely in the name of science, of course, i spent the afternoon listening to SIBC today while doing some car work. The playlist was pretty good really, i (urgh) almost enjoyed it The downside being it was the same playlist as the last time i heard it, which seems like ages ago, and there were a couple of horrific cringe-ing tunes. On the comedy factor, the chris hodge advert? "Hi there..." "Hi, i'm troy maclure" would be less twee

To be fair, the Unst guys were the first to gain fully organic status, and you can really tell the difference. Especially after Dave Parham has worked his magic with it. (You owe me for that one dave )

Ha ha ha, me so smug. My run up to the bells was accompanied by no tv, instead i had the honour of sharing in live accordion, with accompaniment, courtesy of Drewie and Aimee Hawick. And the annual westerloch fireworks may not have been a nuclear assault, but hey, i'm an animal sympathizer, they were loud enough. So if you want a 'real' new year next time around, turn the tv off and get with the 'program', and petergear 'why oh why' were you not providing your own tunes, hmm? Personally if i didn't have the honour of such an event, i would have the hogmanay bells mixing into "Hells Bells" by AC/DC or Hayseed Dixie, either way it would beat tv nonsense. ALSO, i kinda lik KT Tunstall, leave her alone you fascists.

A relative of mine used to work in a school, and to quote her the macs they had never had any probs from the day they got them until the SIC opted for cheap tat instead. She misses them in fact. Another Massive point! Net security? Do i need it? NO! Does a PC? Recent Geek-mags are reckoning that an un-protected PC will last 20 seconds online before infection. (ptuh!)

egg sack tuh lee!! But in a featured evening show or sumfink, sponsored by the Camera Shop. Bingo!

Au contraire amigo, without going into lengthy technical description, the system he uses ensures consistent heat throughout the house, similar to the newer method the coonty uses to counteract condensation. (his upstairs is lined to the peak of the ridge etc.) Just couldn't let it lie.

Ther's nothing new about any of this, hark back to Gary "Ticker" the physics techer? He had the exchanger in 20 years ago, just think how stupid we all look to him! Another one is a certain free-minded Laurenson fellow in Scalloway who draws the air for his heating system....from the ridge of his house, ie re-using the heat lost within the building...now that is clever. And when did he install that? at least 10 maybe 15 years ago! There's truly nothing new under the sun, AND on that note, what happened to solar water heaters? Why do you not have them either mr gear, hmm? We're all as bad as each other.

Something i was made aware of recently, was our nearness to the concept of Peak Oil, as in, there is now as much oil left in the ground as has already been used, which means at current consumption only a few decades till run-out. The complication to this is that certain developing nations are using ever increasing quantities of oil in contrast to europe trying to cut down. The same report outlines that the only way to make oil last until we can secure alternative sources is to set an oil price of $182 per barrel NOW! The other hidden point here is as petergear alluded to, plastic. Look around for something that does not contain or utilise plastic in your daily life. Life will be pretty tough without it, unless someone gets their finger out soon. My opinion? Think big. Ever flown across the pentland firth? It's one big generator. Stick a barrier right across it and reap the tidal benefits! It might cost a billion or two, but what did that poxy parliement building cost £0.4 billion? And the return is.....? Then again....bressay brig? How about bressay barrier! With a movable sluice gate to allow shipping through.....what the....no...mr wishart don't shoot me...please... have mercy!....uuurghhh!

Land of the brave, Home of the free.....once upon a time. Now Land of the ignorant, home of neo-conservatism. There's none so blind as those who will not see. Not to detract too much from the petrodollars debate, which is lengthy in itself, but when more than half the senate uphold creationist beliefs as opposed to darwinism, you are looking at a country in intellectual reverse gear, following the "God is on our side, we are prosperous, whatever we do is God's will and so must by default be right" ideology. God gave america oil, god gave america the ability to take other peoples oil, so mr bush can sleep well in his bed at night knowing that what he does will 'always' be right. But the other big hidden agenda here is that high oil prices make for higher oil revenues, which are good for governments and oil companies. Record profits in fact. And so we sit home watching adverts telling us how much the oil giants are investing in 'green' technology, but guess who's paying for it? Plus the whole control by unified fear psychology of the war... 'it's all good' for those at the top. The good christian yanks demonize 'muslim fundamentalists', but the real terror is the christian fundamentalists, cos they've got the money AND the weapons and the confident ignorance.

Not unreasonable male, seeking perfect harem.... Well, you can always dream, eh? Then again, think of all that backchat.... Ok, Human male seeking alien or primate, any/no language considered

The tradition/culture angle is entirely modern, truth be told. The viking heritage, well, i've mentioned that elsewhere. Even the 'beard wearing' is a recent addition. Call it a piss-up/social/community event to brighten up long winter nights and it's a-ok. Call it anything else and you're full of it. It wouldn't really matter if we burned a 'long-ship' or a 'massey-ferguson' really. My cynicism is in keeping with the genius that spawned the now forgotten "Pictish-Festival". Revive it and throw in some kind of fertility turd and a votive offering and we've got it in spades. Or more to the point 4 festivals! one for each season. All year tourist attractions to boot!

I heard the decision making process was based on the female family members competing to corrupt an honourable policeman by dancing naked outside his bedroom door singing hypnotic folk songs. The process was alledgedly severely delayed by the difficulty in finding a suitable test subject, and the 796 strong paternity battle is currently under way.

Mac it is! Why have nylon when you can have silk? (before you even think it, i actually like cotton quite a lot, hence the bastardized analogy) Anyhoo, here's an anecdote in favour of the Mac school. A good friend of mine has had a pc for many years and did nothing apart from viewing photos on it. Just before Xmas he became the owner or a very decent Mac. Within three weeks he was turning out DVD slideshows with his own musical accompaniment without any tuition. Hands up all the PC owners who can easily do this? Point made. As to the price issue, well, even a refurb mac is a 'goodie'. I should know, i'm running an upgraded 4 year old refurb. No probs in that time. None! (touch wood!)

peeriebryan: I am being deliberately contrary, a la devil's advocate, but on the grounds that not everyone who tunes in ther radio for some background noise, cares whether it's local music, or steve "bloody awful" wright, realistically. Most non-musicians just want something to brighten their day, most teenagers want something "cool" and most older people want something non-confrontational and familiar. 'Go figure' as they say. My own opinion is entirely excluded from this. And Muppet: Do you honestly beleive that tourists and the tourist market can be figured into this without widespread billboard advertising that no-one will pay for? When did you, honestly, spend time on holiday looking hopefully for local music on the radio, and responding to included advertising? And before you shoot me down, yes i have, but i'm not 'everyone', and i have also taken pleasure in being far from home and finding familiar tunes on da wireless, as opposed to local artists, don't even start me on the details!

peeriebryan said"I can't figure out if you're being serious or not. " I'm being serious, with tongue firmly in cheek! But i do take issue with the sound-byte poll you have made in that people claim they would listen to SIBC more if there were more local artists on it? Empty promise I'm sure, because it would still contain the same grating advertisements, and have less "mass appeal". There may be an argument towards it becoming more of a serious niche audience, but at the expense of 'middle-of-the-road' casual listeners. Like i say, partition it and it may work. Or keep it thin. Here's another thought, why not have sponsored features, through the day. Same advertising power, but with breaks in the monotony? Eg. the jim's garage rock show, or the LBC bluegrass show, or even the chart show sponsored by clive's. All it would take is a few mouse clicks to administer surely? And then people can target their listening, rather than the musical 'soup' we could otherwise expect? And this would generate a reward-based listener demographic(!)

Yup, the words white and elephant spring to mind. And also the words ice-rink and bowling alley when 9.1 million are at stake. Couch potatoes or olympic prospects? Muso part-time elite or beer, bowls and burgers Don't even start me on demographics and reasons for population decline... AND as someone pointed out to me the other day, the heating system for the clickimin could be used as a heat exchanger for the ice-rink