Argyll, the Isles, Stirling and the Trossachs

Latest news from Argyll, the Isles, Stirling and the Trossachs

The Crinan Canal is to remain closed indefinitely. The canal, which spans nine miles from Ardrishaig to Crinan, was first closed two weeks ago for 10-days after damage to the sea lock was discovered. The area was expected to re-open last weekend but has been closed to all vessels following the discovery of further damage to the lock cill.

ExtraMed Limited an innovative and dynamic healthcare IT consultancy and software development house founded in 2000 and based in Grangemouth in central Scotland is enjoying considerable expertise success as its customer Bedford Hospital NHS Trust has won the Health Enterprise East 2008 Innovation in Software Awards for their implementation of the Infection Tracking Module of ExtraMed Beds. The customer won this prestigious Innovation in Software award for it's Electronic Management for Infection Control project. Thie project was centered on one of ExtraMed Beds latest capabilities - Infection Tracking. Now following a short pilot study of the ExtraMed BEDS Bed Management system, at eight wards in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, NHS Grampian is to adopt the system of real-time bed management for use across the whole hospital, the largest in the North East and the first in Scotland to use it.

Photographs, videos and messages posted on sites such as Bebo resulted in Central Scotland Police Officers going to the homes of 182 children, aged between 12 and 18, to question them about gang violence and antisocial behaviour after Scotland's first major investigation into internet social networking sites.

Campbelltown based call centre operators Contact 4 called its 24 staff to a meeting on Friday at 11am to tell them they were out of work. By 11.15am the desks and computers were being loaded onto lorries, while the stunned staff cleared out their personal possessions from the custom-built centre at Snipefield.

The Forth Valley Hospital project in Scotland being designed to use robots was reported back in June 2007 by The Jaggy Thistle and BBC News, Scotland. At that time, the new hospital being built at Larbert in Stirlingshire, was also to be the first in the UK to use a fleet of robots to transport goods and equipment. The robots run along separate corridors and use magnetic strips or infra red to find their way around in technology, similar to that already used in car plants and semiconductor fab facilities and industrial shop floors as well as in hospitals in France and Japan. But while such a robotic porter sounds invaluable, why is Scotland not looking to other medical robotics which have been introduced apparently with success in the UK?

Having read harvesting advise to farmers to protect corncrakes by cutting crops in a diminishing circle to leave a central standing island, but never having seen this, Gaberlunzie was delighted to read that the Renfrewshire Heights or 9,000 hectares of moorland south of Greenock in Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park is being given SPA status, as is the southern part of Colonsay and neighbouring Oronsay.

The Census of Marine Life is a growing global network of 2000 researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life â€“ past, present, and future â€“ will be released in 2010.

Ground-breaking is a unique installation, offering a linkage between art and science, and a collaboration between environmental scientist Dr Paul Adderley (University of Stirling) and composer Dr Michael Young (Goldsmiths, University of London). It will feature at Prague's forthcoming Event 3 Festival and conference Mutamorphosis: Challenging the Arts and Sciences, a radical international gathering of scientists and creative practitioners, including Stelarc who incorporates themes of cyborgisation and other human-machine interfaces in his work.

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