JAStewart

Would they? Speaking as someone from, I guess, a 'young' generation (decreasingly so, of course), I have no connection with Scotland other than it was where I studied my degree.

Shettish, or British.

Northlink sails and warns people -> criticized.

Northlink does not sail -> criticized.

http://toptenmostannoyingsounds.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/atheist_rage_face.jpg

Pøsærs being Jarlshof's fine sticky establishment, Posers being Lerwicks.

Maybe people in Jarlshof enjoyed going to Pøsærs!

How would you verify posts? In a anonymous-free world I could sign up as but it's not them that's saying it.

http://shimajournal.org/issues/v2n2/f.%20Grydehoj%20Shima%20v2n2%2056-72.pdf

An article by Adam Grydehøj concerning the depopulation of Fetlar as published in Shima: The International Journal of Research Into Island Cultures, Vol. 2, Number 2, 2008.

It's worth a read.

It was fantastic! I'd never been to the opera before but I shall return!

Needless to say, the 'Fly' scene was perhaps one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen in my entire life.

Here's one that maybe 50% of you can relate to:

http://i.imgur.com/5Zbtb.png

http://www.ragemaker.net/

What's a rage comic? It's a meme using a set of cartoon faces to describe situations. 'Rage' is just the name, but there doesn't need to be any anger involved. See here http://ragecomics.memebase.com/

Here's a go at a Shetland one.

http://i.imgur.com/3rDwh.png

It is a shocking state of affairs. If you don't work and have have no intention of working you get everything handed to you but if you're a decent, hard working individual and have savings of more than *£1* you get nothing.

I'd rather have a job and have my life in order than live the chaotic lives that many do. The fact that you don't get support should be something you're proud of.

It is quite impossible to get a place of your own in Lerwick unless its a turd area where alot of turd happens, if i didnt have my business then i would move south as life is so much cheaper and easier down there. even houses are cheaper south.

Depends what you want. My friends decided they wanted a flat and started looking on a Sunday, by Tuesday they had it sorted out. Central Lerwick, good value. You just need to actually put in the effort to look.

You know for a place that regularly elects the lib dems in massive majorities there are not half some right wing daily mail types on this forum

This forum doesn't represent Shetland's "generic/standard" viewpoint (whatever that is) very well at all. See here for an example

nope, no idea. Now if it'd been someone "Famous" and "Cool" like Richard Feynman, might have been easier...

Sagan is most definitely in the same league as Feynman.

Why, it's Carl Sagan.

I contacted them ages ago through the website but didn't even get an acknowledgement. The website itself is full of euphoric praise for the general idea of the initiative, but still has zero information on which ideas are contenders for taking forward.

 

The system seemed inherently flawed and those involved repeatedly refused to answer the tough questions - even easy ones!

Could you perhaps expand on this further? How would you sum up the proposals in a nutshell? Hearing a few of these questions would be interesting too.

 

Having also had to sit through a BID team presentation, i am of the same opinion as JAStewart.

 

When asked what schemes etc the BID organisation would like to see started, we were told that we needed to join to really find out what it was all about, and what could be achieved.

 

A bit like joining the Masons (i am told!)

Yeah, that was one of the questions that I asked. They said they didn't want to say at this point. I asked what schemes had happened south. They didn't really want to say either, just a few buzzwords like "security", "promotion".

EM - I'll have to dig out the minutes from that meeting to see, but I'm away to Aberdeen for two weeks so it'll have to be after then.

As GR said, an overcomplicated/unnecessary system, but it is also entirely unfair on smaller businesses and charities due to the voting system. If this scheme is aiming to re-empower the local businesses from say, Tesco, giving the biggest business the largest weight of voting seems entirely counterproductive.

Where did you find the information on voting = rateable value anyway. I see no information on that at all or is that just rumour based?

As a Community Councillor, the BID team did a presentation to us.

Just read this back again. Why would you be 'happy if it never got off the ground'?

 

Surely having a main street in any town, anywhere in Britain is something locals should be striving for. Look at it just now, its like a bloody car crash, buildings falling to bits, charity/takeaways every other premises(not that its a problem but if you get anymore it soon will be) patches of tar everywhere and cars parking willy nilly wherever they want.

I would be happy if it doesn't go ahead because I don't think it would help. On the contrary I think it would make things worse. I listened to the half hour presentation and came away from it completely unconvinced. The system seemed inherently flawed and those involved repeatedly refused to answer the tough questions - even easy ones!

I'm speaking from my own view here and I could be wrong, of course but having been enlightened to the scheme, I disagreed that it would be the way forward. Perhaps those in charge just didn't sell it well.

We shouldn't stop the kids going to the street. Why make life for the street businesses any more difficult?

We all did silly things when we were kids. No one is perfect.

I've had a specific Gourami tank set-up recently, just for breeding. I've been successful once but I didn't have a suitable nursery tank to transport the utterly minuscule fly to, so they must've died.

Might be leaving Shetland before the end of the year, will be sad to lose the fish

Council members are ex-officio members of the Community Councils too and certainly in Lerwick are often in attendance.

People always say we should pay councillors and MP's less but then you just get lesser quality personnel. I've worked in an MP's office and not only is it very much flat oot work, they get little thanks and plenty of berating. Would you like a job where every single word and sentence you say is analysed to make you look bad?

Hell, I'm a Community Councillor and I've already had individuals on here directing abuse at me on something they were entirely wrong about (Apparently the reason I was for the Scalloway school closing is because I'm a toonie with no understanding/connection to that side of Shetland. They of course neglected to realise I was raised in Burra and half my family is from that area but whatever).

Public office is a thankless task that many see as not worth the effort. I'd like to see successful entrepreneurs at the helm of the economy, not a history graduate.

The problem I found with the scheme is that voting within the scheme that would be carried out by businesses is based on their rateable value. So if some of Shetlands larger businesses enter into the scheme they would entirely dominate the voting.

It should be one person one vote. Or in this example, one business one vote, not how much you're worth.

At 1.45am someone tried our back door they then tried again around ten minutes later, at this point I switched on the outside light unlocked the door and had a look around but saw no-one.

Now this could have been a piss-take or it could have been more serious.

 

Please if you live rural or have family that live in rural areas please warn them to lock all doors at night.

 

Mal

Might be Big Bannock related?

I saw a BID presentation and I found it to be wholly unconvincing, I must say. I'd be happy if it never got off the ground.

No-one has directly accused you of associating with the loonies above, you're doing mental gymnastics to try and get some modicum of moral high ground you don't have. You're jumping to conclusions. But hey, let's not let facts get in the way of reality!

It is weird that the government would block such a video, given how moronic it makes the 'movement' look.

There's notable BNP members in that crowd. I didn't really expect much. Reading more about it you see the far right links. Just angry men.

Prison Planet. Really, Stuart?

I can't think of a more discredited human being than Alex Jones. Whether he is race bating, perpetuating the myth that 9/11 was an inside job, claiming that people who suffer from schizophrenia are demons, claming that Hollywood is run by Arabs. But actually it's the State Department and CIA. But actually it's the Arabs, claiming that Obama is a muslim, believing vaccinations cause autism... these are just a few of the things he has said. Linking to Prison Planet just weakens your message entirely.