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Shetland Islands
Latest news from the Shetland Islands
Anderson returns to wind burnt Shetland power
The founder of Shetland Wind Power, Michael Anderson from Hoswick is to buy back some of the assets of his old company, sold to Glasgow private equity investors Nevis Capital last year and which went into administration on Friday. He is to start up a new operation looking after the needs of the company’s turbine customers in the islands.
Shetland gets tube system
As Edinburgh has to concede defeat as it is only with great difficulty, perhaps going to get trams, a joyful Gaberlunzie votes "The Shetland Times" as the best in Huntie Gawk or April Fool creative tradition. "Revealed: ambitious plan for six-line, isles-wide underground rail network," is just one fine piece of work and well worth the read.
Upgrade Adobe for school closure response
The Shetland Islands Council (SIC) schools service has issued a list of instructions for people trying to respond online to the proposals to close Sandness, Uyeasound, Burravoe and North Roe Primary Schools
Hang in there coastal waters: technology to the rescue
The proposed modernisation of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency will only require 48 coastguards, located at two national networked centres and five substations. Improved radio, Cloud computing and virtual reality will do the rest. Let's hope Chevron drills safely.
Sound carbon accounting needed and environment audits
A meeting of Shetland Islands Council being held in Lerwick debates controversial proposals to site Europe's biggest community wind farm in the heart of the Shetland mainland, at a time when a report has focused on Scotland's need for sound carbon accounting with its footprint grown 11% since 1992 according to new research and not being offset by homegrown green energy.
IT delays funds; phoney consultant warning
The Shetland News reports that computer problems are delaying government subsidy payments to farmers, according to Shetland MSP Tavish Scott, and that police warn of a man claiming to be an IT consultant requesting remote access to home computers.
Routes to European markets
Shetland businesses with an interest in growing and doing business in Europe are invited to a free lunchtime seminar at Islesburgh Community Centre in Lerwick
Alchemy nets the north
With its Inverness facility due for launch this year, Alchemy Plus has a suitably audacious plan to develop both Lerwick in the Shetland Islands as well as an Aberdeen site. The Faroes next?
MIT entrepreneur training for Highlands
Seven Highlands & Islands businesses recently won sponsored places to MIT to attend an entrepreneurs development programme. One, a Shetland businessman excelled at an entrepreneurs development programme.
A future for more than 40 fragile rural communities
Building on a long history of support in remote areas, HIE is to invest in encouraging selected communities which want to develop and implement plans for local growth. The agency plans to spend almost £1.5m over the next three years on this aspect of its strengthening communities remit. HIE is also utilising up to an additional £1m from the European Union's LEADER programme and local authority sources.
Creative economy for Islands: tourism for Cairngorms
Creative industries importance in the islands was highlighted during presentations to the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) board when in Inverness in this week. The £2.5m Creative Industries and Media Centre at a former textile mill near Stornoway will make a major contribution to the growing media industry on the Outer Hebrides. In Shetland work has already started on the £12m Mareel centre in Lerwick which is expected to support 53 new jobs. On the mainland the Board members agreed to embark on a strategic path to prepare operations at CairnGorm Mountain tourist destination near Aviemore to return to alternative ownership
The chessmen cometh
Gaberlunzie is a great admirer of The Lewis or Uig Chessmen, which he has always believed came from when chess was not played in a single set, but in ranked sets, hardware modelling for real battles. He is also an enormous admirer of the British Museum curator Irving Finkel and his book "The Lewis Chessmen." Finkle is aptly described as 'the last of the great eccentrics, put on the earth to brighten up the dull grey everyday.'
Technology monitors Shetland Orca whales
For the last two summers, Dr Andy Foote, a PhD student at Aberdeen University One for Aberdeen's rural and economy hub, has been based in Shetland working on the population structure of Orca's, or killer whales, using photo-id and genetics, but collaborating and assisting colleagues from the Sea Mammal Research Unit, St Andrews and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute with their acoustics studies.
Planning taps Shetland marine energy
Shetland Islands Council have won European funding to employ a development worker based at the NAFC Marine Centre, in Scalloway, who will prepare the islands for the arrival of energy companies wanting to harness one of the most powerful wave and tidal resources in Europe.
Trust in forensic science and computers
Gaberlunzie never has any problems spending book tokens, but if anyone out there is on the hunt for a couple of detective novels, this travel & detective reviewer has located two that look to be worth reading.
Mareel: if you build it, they will come
Twelve years of planning, campaigning and even acrimonious debate over the proposed Shetland centre of excellence for international creativity have moved closer to reality with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) major investment of £965,000. The multi-purpose music, cinema, arts and education centre will be sited in Lerwick alongside the new Museum and Archives and is due to open in Summer 2010.
Planning and hard work gives Unst new economic hub
Three years ago, residents of the Shetland island of Unst were aghast at news that the Ministry of Defence had decided to pull out of RAF Saxa Vord, an early warning radar base and centrepiece to the island's economy since 1957 giving a bleak outlook for the 720 islanders. Over a hundred service personnel and civilians depended on the base for employment, dozens more jobs were supported in the wider community.
Wanted livewires to market and skipper Shetland's Swan
The famous Shetland sail training vessel Swan is looking for experience in computers, marketing or finance to help with the trust's administration. It also needs a permanent livewire skipper to explore new avenues of business. The 108 year old restored fishing boat has seen a gradual drop in bookings in the last five years and is currently relying on its core work with schools, youth groups or private charters. The Swan no longer has a skipper following the departure of Jane Brander this year after two potentially major charters were cancelled, and is now using relief or temporary staff for the few bookings it has this summer.
Corruputed computer controls has Whalsay without its Linga ferry
Whalsay Island is to be without its main ferry for the next two or three weeks after its computer control system which monitor the diesel electric engine’s propulsion system and play a key role in the ship’s operation broke down last weekend. The 36 metre Linga has been fraught with technical problems since it first arrived from the Gdansk shipyard in 2002, and now must have three computers replaced after the originals had their hard discs corrupted.
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