Remarkable
August 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
It caught my eye while browsing my Google homepage: “Muslim outrage at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman’s hat“. The offending poster shows a cute puppy sitting in a policeman’s hat advertising a new telephone number of the Tayside police force.
“The advert has upset Muslims because dogs are considered ritually unclean and has sparked such anger that some shopkeepers in Dundee have refused to display the advert.” according to the article.
On the matter of dogs, police and Muslims there was this other item that police search dogs will now have to wear special footwear when doing sniffing work in houses occupied by Muslims.
Both quite remarkable news items in my opinion.
History
May 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
I’m not too much into politics but things are getting interesting in UK as Gordon Brown appears to be sitting on a three legged chair which is soon to change in a two legged one… Tough job to keep your balance!!
After the blatant defeat of the recent elections (I do not understand the British election system and nobody managed so far to explain it to me in full), Gordon Brown and Labour are under serious attacks. You see comparisons of Brown with Major as they both entered the arena after a very successful Prime Minister (Blair, Thatcher).
Will “history” repeat itself?
Fuel crisis
April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment |
“SCOTLAND could be just days away from a fuel crisis after workers at the country’s only refinery announced a two-day strike in a pension row.”
Read more about it here
We found out yesterday at the local gas station where we were only allowed a £20.00 take-in. Really hope they get this sorted quickly. Skye is not really looking forward to something like a fuel crisis…
Fallen
January 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment |
The Pound Sterling has dropped quite considerably compared to the Euro over the past months. I heard this through a news flash on BBC Radio yesterday.
What do the experts say? Well, it has to do with the Pound being closely tied to property prices and the recent Northern Rock debacle acting as the match that lit the fire. Although it’s way beyond my capabilities to analyze its impact on daily life, for our personal situation this is not too bad as we still keep a fair share of our savings in Euros…
Wind farm
December 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
The Ben Aketil Wind farm appears to be up and running. When we drive towards Portree, just before passing through Edinbane, you get a good look at the whole setup. I personally think the windmills don’t look bad in the landscape. They have an air of elegance over them, especially when they’re working.
It also appears that the community offering for buying shares in the farm is a success, although I also read in this weeks issue a letter to the editor of the West Highland Free Press, in which the setup of the farm was considered as not going far enough. The writer of the letter stipulated that this wind farm should have been owned by the Skye community and that its proceedings should have benefited the Skye community primarily, e.g. buy the produced energy directly from the farm at a discount. In the current setup, the energy produced by the farm is sold to the National Grid and the wind farm is just an “investment opportunity”. I thought the letter had some strong points.
Scots out by 2017…
November 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Today I read a news item in which the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond was quoted with a statement that Scotland will be independent of Great Britain by the year 2017.
According to the article, this was the first time that a time frame was mentioned by an official. The Scots already have autonomy in the areas of health care, education, housing and transportation.
The statement is made in the same year that Scotland is joined with the British crown for 300 years.
[digg-me]
The farm revisited
September 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
I wrote about the wind farm earlier on. Now I wanted to know the exact location, so I checked out some maps and websites. The project is known as the “Ben Aketil Wind Farm”. Ben Aketil is 266 meters high mountain, roughly between Dunvegan and Edinbane.
Check out the map below to get idea about the position. As you can see, it’s quite a bit away from our location so i doubt our views will be affected by the turbines.
[Update 21st September]: We drove by the farm today and the first two turbines have been erected. You can’t see them from our location but they’re quite visible when you’re approaching Edinbane. I thought they did not look too intrusive…
The farm
September 20, 2007 | 2 Comments |
The much debated wind farm near Dunvegan is getting real. Last week components for the turbines arrived on Skye. The components are fabricated in different parts in Europe and are shipped from Holland. The farm -when finished - will consist of 10 turbines each measuring about 100 meter, from bottom to the top of the blade.
The project is developed by a company called Falck. Part ownership comes to Isle of Skye Renewables Co-Operative Ltd. which will offer residents of Skye the opportunity to buy a share in the farm and receive a share of the profits. As a matter of fact we received a mailing for participation a couple of days ago…
Relevant sites: Wind 4 Energy, ISRC
It’s here…
September 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Due to an IT background I’m still interested in computers, gadgets and software. So what was special today? Well, today could be marked as a scoop for Europe as Apple introduced the iPhone for the UK during their “Mum is no longer the word” event in London. The carrier deal went to O2 and it’s rumored that they’re paying Apple a massive 40% of their iPhone earnings.
The device itself will set you back £269,00 including VAT. Quite expensive, considering the $399,00 on the US market. When you’re a daredevil, you can buy yours in the US and use special software to hack the simlock and have any carrier or phone plan you want. Be warned though, Apple might play tricks on future updates of the iPhone software!!
Check out Engadget’s covering of the event if you’re into this…
An extra 99 cents…
September 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Nothing to do with life here on Skye, but last week Apple introduced ringtones for their flagship product, the iPhone. The sting here is that you have to purchase the ringtone separate from the original song. So, let’s say I just bought Blondie’s Hanging on the Telephone in the iTunes store and decide that it makes a nice ringtone, then I’d have to pay an additional 99 cents to use it as a ringtone on my iPhone…
Astonishing, to say the least! What’s next? Do I have to pay another 50 cents if I want to dance to it? Or 1.10 if I want to listen to it over speakers in stead of a headphone because there’s a chance more people are listening to it ? I’m not too sure who’s the greedy one here. Is it Apple, $teve Job$ or is it the music industry owning the copyright? Somehow I think it’s the latter although I’m not 100% sure…
Please, somebody… wake me up! This must be a bad dream!
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Latest music...
Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
An Rathad a Bhatarsaigh, by the Vatersay Boys