ArabiaTerra

I haven't seen the sign yet, so I haven't voted yet. Does anyone have a photo they could upload?

It is quite scary to see these lunatics (the SCP) getting organised. If I ruled the world (and it's probably just as well that I don't ), I would ban anyone holding any position in any organised religion from having any say in anything. (Apart from the Church of ArabiaTerra of course )

^^^ Are you saying Tony doesn't deserve a kick in the nads?^^^

I totally agree, but as this isn't going to happen anytime soon (not until we de-elect Blair, Brown and co anyway), Harry should go and "do his bit" for his granny and country. After all that's what he joined up for.

I have recently been re-reading the arguments for and against the windfarm here and in the Shetland Times and I have been astonished by the short-sighted, parochial, head-in-the-sand nimbyism that has been spouted on this subject. The case against the windfarm : 1.It is ugly. 2.It will affect tourism. 3.It will disturb some peat. 4.The economics are uncertain. 5.Why should we build more windmills than we need to cover our own energy use? 6.It will affect the birds. It is time to WAKE UP! Global warming is the biggest threat to the biosphere of this planet since the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. It makes the last ice-age look like a mild cold snap. We are currently in the middle of the sixth great mass extinction to affect this planet since life first crawled out of the oceans, and it is entirely man-made, OUR fault. What makes you think that Shetland is simply going to sail serenely through this catastrophe unscathed? If we do nothing, millions of humans are going to die. The end of the last ice age was certainly a severe trial for all the species caught up in it, and many died out because they were unable to adapt quickly enough or move to somewhere warmer, but that event took thousands of years. Global warming is happening in mere decades. It is unprecedented in the last 60 million years. So lets look again at the objections. 1.It is ugly. - This is a matter of opinion, I quite like them, but given the nature of the threat this objection is trivial nonsense. So what if you have a hundred windmills on the horizon, it's got to be better than having the sea lapping on your doorstep which is what we face when the icecaps melt. The Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise sea levels 7 metres. Add in Antarctica and the rise will be more like 70m. All the icecaps of the world are melting. 2.It will affect tourism. - Yes the windfarm probably will affect the tourism industry but to base the entire Shetland economy on a three month tourist season is IMO sheer folly. In 20 years or so (if we do nothing), when the governments of the world ban all non-essential travel to combat global warming there won't be any tourism. 3.It will disturb some peat. - I went down to the Historic Scotland free entry day at Jarlshof the other weekend. On the way we passed the devastation caused by the landslides in the South Mainland a few years ago. This was not an isolated freak event. It is the norm we can expect to see every couple of years as the world heats up and the weather gets more extreme. Global warming does not just mean things will get warmer, rather it is like putting a lid on an already simmering pan of water. It begins to boil. What was once regarded as a freak weather event will happen more and more often until all the peat currently on the tops and sides of the hills will slip into the valley's (Where it will meet the rising sea. Where will you hide?) 4.The economics are uncertain. - Rubbish! The one thing that is certain is that the price of energy is going to rise and the returns from the windfarm will rise with it. This could be the greatest financial windfall these isles have ever had. The wind will never run out. Sullom Voe, on the other hand will be shut in 10 or 20 years regardless of whether there is oil left in the ground because to extract and burn the oil would be suicidal. 5.Why should we build more windmills than we need to cover our own energy use? - Because global warming is OUR fault. Great Britain started global warming when we began burning coal on an industrial scale to power the Industrial Revolution. The rest of the West quickly followed. Or consider it from a more local perspective. Imagine Shetland without the oil money: Single track roads, no lesiure centres or swimming pools, no ro-ro ferries, no pelagic fleet, corrugated tin local halls, no new museum or cinema/music venue, no housing grants for crofters (no grants of any kind for that matter), a population of 10,000, no local schools, no fisheries college. Or if the moral arguement doesn't move you, think of the money. The windfarm will give Shetland a steady, garuanteed income which, if invested in R&D into tidal and wave power, could serve us for generations to come. Why should China deal with it's emissions if we do nothing? 6.It will affect the birds. - Yes, it probably will and I'm sad about that. But as I said above, we are in the process of causing a mass extinction anyway. The birds will be affected one way or another. There will be casualties. I would much rather that it affected a few birds in Shetland than the entire world. I have been following the global warming debate since the mid eighties and the one thing that has been entirely consistent is that every new report, every new computer model says it's going to be worse than the last one. I see no reason to expect this trend to change. The windfarm and the further development of the renewable energy industry it will make possible will provide all year round jobs and income for the Shetland economy. To stop the windfarm for the sake of a tourist industry that is likely to collapse anyway when global warming really starts to bite is crazy. We have a moral obligation to our children and grandchildren to solve Global Warming and we have less than 50 years to do it. This means changing from an economy based on fossil fuels to an economy entirely based on renewable energy. We have the technology, so lets do it. The time for excuses is over. P.S I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant (and I've already toned it down a little), but it is a subject I feel passionate about and some of the comments here and more especially in the Times have really rattled my cage.

I like the new look..... but, people's avatars are not displaying beside posts. I am using firefox and XP. Belay that! They have now returned.

I changed to talktalk from BT about a year ago. The speed is nothing special, 2.2Mb when it's supposed to be "up to 8Mb", but the service has been reliable. Their free broadband isn't available up here as the local exchange hasn't been unbundled yet so it costs £10/month together with approximately £20/month for phone calls (£11 for the BT line and £9 for the talktalk package). You get free landline calls to anywhere in the EU. They did have a problem with too much demand when they introduced the free broadband offer last year but I would assume that's all sorted now ( I haven't heard anything on the News about it anyway) Still a turd Indian call centre tho' but thankfully I have only had to use the helpline once.

I remember paying a deposit for vimto bottles in the flower park in the late seventies. I am sure I heard the the SIC were going to give out recycling bags for newspapers. I have a large pile of ST's building up in the porch but so far no bags to put them in. Does anyone know anything about this, or was I just imagining it?

I won't vote for New Labour because of Tory Liar and his, well, lies.... and the war in Iraq..... and the corruption. I won't vote Tory because well, they're Tory. I won't vote Lib Dem because Tavish is more interested in his own ministerial career than Shetland and anyway I'm still waiting for the cinema he promised me when he stood for the council. That leaves the Greens, the SNP and the Socialists. Out of those the SNP gets my vote because I support the replacement of the Council Tax with a local income tax and I support their ideas on further education. It is a right not a privilege and should be financed from general taxation. As for the Independence debate, I remain to be convinced but I would welcome the debate and a referendum on the matter. I disagree with the SNP on Trident and Nuclear power but I think they will come round to my way of thinking once Global Warming really starts to bite. Freedom! (as the Australian American with the blue face once said)

I think the crucial point here is that someone with a gun got in among a load of people without guns. That's the problem with gun control, unless its a watertight ban, the one load madman can cause a massacre. If everyone on that campus had been allowed to carry a gun then this guy might have got one or two before someone shot him but he would not have killed thirty two. Food for thought?

I totally agree about the Hydro. I bought a TV from them a couple of years ago and when it failed it turned out their "local" repair service promised on their guarantee meant shipping it to Orkney!

Hi sis, big night last night?

I normally buy computer parts and supplies from dabs.com. I was recently infuriated to find they had introduced a surcharge for delivering to Shetland. I then spent a couple of hours scouring the web for an alternative company (after sending a nasty e-mail to dabs telling them what I thought) but ended up buying from dabs anyway as they were still cheaper than anywhere else!

Wow, less than 5 mins. That's the quickest response I've ever had from Tech support anywhere, anytime, ever! You guys are goood. (note to self: Must remember to sort out that paypal a/c so I can bung you some beer money)

I'm having trouble navigating the site. It keeps coming up with a page with the Shetlink logo and the message: There seems to be a problem with the MySQL server, sorry for the inconvenience, we should be back shortly. Any ideas? Or is it just me? (I've just tried to preview this message a dozen times without success, will keep trying) (Make that 100 times) Now getting a different message: SQL Error : 2002 Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2) INSERT INTO nuke_bbposts (topic_id, forum_id, poster_id, post_username, post_time, poster_ip, enable_bbcode, enable_html, enable_smilies, enable_sig) VALUES ('2595', '1', 648, '', '1176733119', '59f2fdbc', '1', '0', '1', '1') Line : 271 File : functions_post.php

This is one of the biggest problems I have with Christianity. According to this creed, Hitler got into Heaven whereas Ghandi is burning in Hell! sausage that!

Keep it up guys, this is getting good! DeMascus wrote Dawkins attempts to answer this one in "The God Delusion". His theory is-as we grow up we are genetically programmed to listen to our elders. Religion has hi-jacked this response and grown as a parasitic meme on the human psyche.

Green heatman wrote: Why?

The thing that gets me about religion is they can't all be right. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of different religions all spouting their particular party lines and they are all the divinely inspired word of God(s). At least with science, when you have two or more competing theories you can look at the evidence and make up your own mind (or look for more evidence). Religion has no evidence, no proof and IMO no credibility. One might be asked "How can you prove that a god does not exist?" One can only reply that it is scarcely necessary to disprove what has never been proved. ~David A. Spitz (lots of posts tonight, I should have a drink more often. )

My Ned name is : Baldy Half-incher My Brazilian name is : Smerdo 8O

It's all about drawing lines. There are two definite lines that cannot be argued with: conception and birth. Either a fertilised egg is a human being or a new born is human upon birth and not before. Currently we draw the line somewhere in the middle. What I find disturbing is the way, with constant advances in medical science, the line seems to be edging closer and closer to conception. What I do believe is wrong, is the availability of abortion to women who simply find it inconvenient to be pregnant. If you are going to have sex then you should be prepared to accept the possible consequences. No contraceptive is 100% reliable. I used to be pro-choice, but now I'm not sure. If there are genuine medical reasons then I'm all for it, but if it's just because the woman doesn't happen to want a baby at that time then I have grave reservations. Better she just keeps her knickers on. But then, I'm just a guy, so what do I know?

I'm a bit pissed at the mo', so this might be a load of crap, but... I was under the impression that the reason for the overthrow of Saddam was that S had signed contracts with the Germans, French and Russians to rebuild Iraq's oil industry once the sanctions were lifted (as they would have been for humanitarian reasons). S would then sell his oil for Euro's, as Trout said. This would have shot down the dollar as the only reason the $ retains it's value is because everyone has to buy dollars to buy oil. By getting rid of S, the US could rewrite the contracts to suit themselves and gain control of the Iraqi oil market. It always amused me (in a sick sort of way) that the Yanks left Iraq's museums, hospitals and most of the government to burn, but they did secure the Oil ministry.

Dorky Bubblelips 8O

Hmmmmm..... 130, better than I did on that BBC "test the nation" thing. (117 I think). It seemed like a very basic test, I've done much more complicated ones.

Watched "Pan's Labyrinth" the other day. What a weird, creepy, cute, sweet, terrifying, graphically violent, bitter-sweet film. Compulsive viewing, but avoid if you find ultra realistic violence a problem. Very strange!