Late light

The above picture was taken at 10pm earlier this week, and shows the television on the BBC News at 10. Newscaster Huw Edwards is at Westminster, which is in complete darkness. The window to the right of the television set shows the broad daylight outside, here in Stornoway. As per usual in June, the sun sets at 10.30pm (9pm in London). And this shows the difference quite nicely.

Friday 12 June

Sunny day but with a cool breeze. Was sitting out for a minute, about an hour ago, but it wasn't very pleasant. Decided to have a lie-in, but it does mean you lose half the day.

Was surprised that only half the people questioned in a survey were able to correctly position certain organs in their bodies. And that means that there has been no improvement in the last 50 years.

I continue to notice a reduction in the number of posts made on the blogs I follow in (formerly) J-land. A lot of folks have migrated on to Facebook and Twitter, myself among them, but I cannot find FB very user-friendly anymore, and you can't write on Twitter what you can on a blog. One of my contacts tried to do that on Twitter, and ended up with about 11 posts, describing a daytrip to St Kilda. I've done a similar thing reporting on the attack on the Dutch Royal family back in April, with about 350 posts in the one day.

Flu pandemic

The World Health Organisation has declared the current outbreak of swine flu, H1N1 (an electron microscope image shown above), to be a pandemic, i.e. occurring in at least two different areas of the world. At the moment, the pandemic appears to be causing only moderate illness. An extensive article can be read on the BBC website.

Subscriptions by email

It is now possible to subscribe to Atlantic Lines by email, like the alerts we used to get on AOL. There is a widget just underneath the followers block.

Thursday 11 June

Cloudy but with some sunny intervals as well as the odd shower. Not too cold either.

I am disgusted to read that Man United footballer Christiano Ronaldo will be transferred to Spanish side Real Madrid for a trifling £80 million. It's a record breaking amount, and a shocking demonstration of the cattle mart phenomenon that top flight football has become. I mean, here you have 22 men gallivanting over a grassy pitch for 90 minutes once or twice a week and getting 7-figure salaries for their efforts.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's state Governor, has proposed to do away with all printed books in schools and have everybody read their textbooks off the web. What a load of tosh. I know from bitter experience that trying to revise off a computer screen is a total non-starter; I can tell you safely it earned me a big round zero back in 1988. Arnie thinks that not having to continually replace text books in schools and colleges is a good way of saving money. Well, the Terminator forgets that this requires everybody to have an Internet connection - is that the case in CA?

Scientists have formally discovered the chemical element 112. This was made by smashing two atoms together, causing their nucleii to fuse. A rather unstable proposition, so the new nucleus falls apart in milliseconds.

Isles FM

The local radio station in Lewis, Isles FM, has recently started broadcasting a stream on the Internet, through its website. This only appears to be working through Internet Explorer; it doesn't do anything through Firefox.

Yesterday's walk

Yesterday, I jumped on the 12 noon postbus to the district of Uig in the west of Lewis. An hour later, I alighted at the hamlet of Ungeshader on the shores of Loch Roag and headed west into the hills below Suainebhal [pronounce Swainyeval]. After reaching some old shielings (summer meadows), I went west over the pass below the mass of Suainebhal and turned north to make my way between the hill and Loch Suainebhat. That was a wee bit tricky in places, with some scrambling over rocks - and with a 100 foot drop down to the water below. The biggest challenge was the angle of the ground, a full 45 degrees. Once past that little difficulty, I quickly gained a little road which took me back to the shop at Timsgarry. To my surprise, the 4.45 bus came past at 5.35, allowing me a rapid transit back to Stornoway, a journey of 35 miles.


Postbus disappearing along the road at Ungeshader, past Loch Croistean


Fording Loch Croistean


Loch Pheillear Beag


Gearraidh Thodail (shielings)


View from below Suainebhal


Forty-five degree angled terrain between Suainebhal and Loch Suainebhat


Loch Suainebhat from the north

Wednesday 10 June

After a few showers earlier, the day is clearing up to a repeat of yesterday. Bit breezier though.

Yesterday, the leader of the British National Party was pelted with eggs outside the Houses of Parliament as he tried to hold a press conference. The BNP is a far right party, which seeks the (voluntary) repatriation of immigrants, and does not want any ethnic minorities in its ranks. They gained two seats in the elections for the European Parliament last week.

This means that they are now representing parts of the UK in Europe, and have a right to air their message, however repugnant it is to a large section of society at large. Pelting their MEPs with eggs and possibly worse turns them into martyrs for their cause. Let them speak, let them air their message. And then everybody can make up their own mind about them - and see what a one-issue party can do for you. Little, probably nothing. Some people are best left to sink themselves by their own words.

I do not think anyone has much reason to complain about the appearance of the BNP in the European Parliament. The turn-out rate for the European elections was low, 43% nationally in the UK, and as low as 25% in some areas. If you don't bother to vote, then you have no right to complain.

Tuesday 9 June

Some phenomenal showerclouds bubbling up in my vicinity, said he, looking out of the window. Shall I or shall I not go for that long walk in the island's interior. Hmmm.

The tailfin of the crashed Air France jet has been recovered from the Atlantic, together with more bodies of its passengers, bringing their total now to 24. The US Navy is bringing in sophisticated sonar devices to pick up the pings from the black boxes, which lie 4 km down at the bottom of the Atlantic.

The Twitter hype is not so much of a hype as some would have us believe. Read more here.

Monday 8 June

The morning after the election night before, and not a happy result. Leaving Labour's drubbing to one side for the moment, I am horrified at the rise of the far right in the UK as well as in Holland. Only a small number, but strongly indicative of problems not being addressed by government. This is certainly the case here in the UK, where the man at the helm is not on top of the situation and hasn't been since he came to No 10 Downing Street. The result is plain for all to see: Labour down to the worst result since 1918, Conservatives well up and the far right sneaking in. My local paper referred to him as a "dead man walking" some time ago.

The ascendancy of the far right in Holland is nothing new. It has been on the rise since the early years of this decade, when Pim Fortuyn cashed in (even after his death) on discontent in society over problems with immigrants. Last February, the Prime Minister (a chap by the name of Balkenende) actually stood up for the leader of the far right PVV party, Geert Wilders, when he was refused entry to the UK. I blogged about this on Thursday or Friday, so won't repeat myself. It was a bad mistake to make, giving them an aura of respectability.

All that on a beautifully sunny day with a breeze.
I emailed the captain of the sailing ship that left here yesterday, and he replied this morning. He said he was very proud of his Harris Tweed hat and jacket, but was currently sailing into a headwind. I also sent him some of the pictures of the ship that I took last week.

Tagged.com - repeat

I keep being sent invites from Tagged.com by people. It seems that it wasn't them doing it directly, but the site. They are one of the breed that abuses your email addressbook for sending out invites. Scam at best, phishing at worst, apparently. Read this review - wait for a few seconds for the banner ad to clear as you enter the page.

Sunday 7 June

Bright and breezy today, with sunshine in amongst the high and medium level clouds. The Applecross Forest (that's a deer forest, with no trees in it) looms up across 60 miles of sea. The sailing ship that had been in port for 4 days departed at 8.30 this morning, heading for Scalloway in Shetland. That port lies northeast of here, and there is a breeze blowing from the northeast, so they'll have a whale of a time tacking all the way there. Distance is about 150-200 miles. Temperature here is a slightly nippy 11C, but we're used to that.

The number of cases of swine flu is steadily rising, falling under the radar due to all the political turmoil. Two doctors in a hospital near Glasgow contracted the disease off patients they were treating, signalling that we're entering a different stage of the disease progression. Previously, only people who had been (in contact with others who had been) in Mexico got swine flu.

The results of the European elections will be known after 10pm tonight, apart from the Dutch results which were released early, on Thursday evening. I'm getting quite tired of all the politics in the news, and the disrespect shown towards politicians. Yes, some of them have behaved below the standard we can expect from them, and one or two will face prosecution. I get very concerned once we see displays of mob rule in the media, like we have over the past couple of weeks.

113

World War I veteran Henry Allingham turns 113 today. He is the oldest man alive in the UK. He is one of only two veterans of the Great War left alive today.

Saturday 6 June

Today is the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, which heralded the beginning of the end of the Second World War in Europe. It would be another 11 months before the forces of Nazi Germany were finally vanquished, although great progress was made in the summer months of 1944, leading to the liberation of France, Belgium and southern Holland.

I had planned to go on a walk in the interior of Lewis this afternoon, but decided against it when a series of showers appeared to be on the menu. A local contact sent me a picture of the terrain I would be encountering, and it involved 45 degree angles and exposed rock. Not something to tackle in wet conditions, so I pulled the plug on the expedition. The bus was due out at midday, which was exactly the moment that the showers moved into the Minch and the sun came out. Bummer.

Shocked

Elections are being held for the European Parliament until Sunday 7th June across the European Union. Yesterday, voters went to the polls in (amongst others) the UK and Holland. The Dutch decided to publish the results of their poll early - officially, the EU will publish the results on Monday, after all countries have voted.

Fifteen percent of the vote in Holland went to the far-right PVV (Freedom Party), led by controversial MP Geert Wilders. Mr Wilders was denied access to the United Kingdom in February, amidst fears his presence would destabilise community relations. Following the attacks on London's public transport system in 2005, much work has gone into drawing ethnic minorities back into mainstream British society. I was surprised that the Dutch government, which protested loudly about the treatment of

I am particularly shocked, as Holland has for centuries had a reputation for tolerance and being a safe haven for the persecuted of the world. In the wake of the Second World War, which was fought to combat racism, discrimination and intolerance, any problems surrounding ethnic minorities in Holland were sidestepped, for fear of raising the impression of discrimination.

Back in 2002, politician Pim Fortuyn became hugely popular for giving a voice to those people who felt that the migrant-related problems were not being dealt with. He was assissinated just before a General Election, and his party (not the current PVV) gained a huge percentage of the vote.

As Dutch politicians are saying today, Mr Wilders has a clear message, but no workable alternative. I hope someone realises the message that underlies the 15% vote for the PVV, and starts addressing the problems.

Disaster relief

Not widely known, tropical cyclone Aila struck southeastern India and Bangladesh ten days ago. As per usual, I monitored the storm until it disintegrated over land north of Calcutta. The impact of such storms doesn't normally attract much media attention, but I am grateful for the following update from Blogger user Bianca, who bothered to comment on Tropical Cyclones:

Music for Relief is responding to help provide relief following Cyclone Aila. The Cyclone struck eastern India and coastal Bangladesh on Monday 5/25 leaving millions of people displaced and in desperate need of food, water and shelter. In West Bengal at least 5.1 million people were displaced, with more than one million people stranded in the Sundarban islands alone, most of them without any food or water. Food security and loss of livelihood are also major concerns as it is estimated that 80,000 acres of rice paddy and other crops have been destroyed, about 300,000 acres partially destroyed and over 50,000 poultry and livestock have been killed.

Please help the victims of this disaster by making a donation: http://www.musicforrelief.org/donate

MFR is partnering with BRAC in Bangladesh where 100% of funds contributed will go to those affected by Cyclone Aila.
More information about BRAC: BRAC has provided emergency aid and rehabilitation in Bangladesh since its inception and carried out large-scale relief and rehabilitation activities there for cyclone and flood victims in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1998, 2000, 2004 and 2007. BRAC, the largest non-profit in the developing world, was launched in Bangladesh in 1972 and today reaches more than 110 million people in Africa and Asia with its holistic approach to addressing poverty by providing micro-loans, self-employment opportunities, health services, education and legal and human rights education. http://www.brac.net/usa/index.php

Thank you for your support!
And forward this information to spread the word.

Evening notes

I am feeling a wee bit sad this evening after reading that Morton is quitting his blog (see Call for Support). It is particularly due to the reasons he gives, namely that a lot of us are no longer making updates on our blogs. Whether this is due to a move to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or offline is debatable. But it highlights very strongly the effect that the closing down of AOL Journals has had on what used to be known as J-land. Our community is dwindling, and I'm saddened by it.

Thursday 4 June

Today is the 20th anniversary of the shortlived student uprising in Peking, which was brutally knocked down by the communist regime in China. The image of the student, standing up to a tank, is etched on the memory of anyone who lived through the momentous year of 1989. Only a few months later, communism in Europe collapsed. Today, the only place in China to commemorate the events of Tiananmen Square was Hong Kong.

European elections (and council elections in parts of the UK) are held today. Judging by accounts on Twitter, trade at polling stations in Lewis was brisk. When a general election will be held soon is anyone's guess. The swing from Labour to Conservative is inevitable, as such is the nature of British politics. Over the last 30 years, the period of the swings has been lengthened considerably. The Tories were in power for 18 years, between 1979 and 1997; Labour has been in No 10 for 12 years now. In both instances, sleeze and a collapse in public confidence in politicians of the party in power led to the downfall of the respective administration. As will be the case in the next general poll. The difference this time is that all politicians have egg on their faces.

Wreckage from Air France flight 447, which disappeared on Sunday, has been located in the middle of the Atlantic. Whether the flight recorders or passengers will ever be found is very unlikely. The relatives of those on board AF447 have been informed.

Another boatful week

More unusual visitors to Stornoway this week: the Astor was here on Monday, covered in fog. Today, the cruiseliner Island Sky called in and half an hour ago we were treated to the sight of the 1945 training sailing ship Gunilla, registered in Sweden, coming into port under engine power at a leisurely 6 knots.


Astor in the fog off Sandwick on Monday


Cruiseliner Island Sky


Sailing ship Gunilla

Wednesday 3 June

Overcast and cooler than yesterday, with a bit of a breeze going. Political situation not much changed, apart from one minister resigning from the government. Mr Brown faced questions in parliament this afternoon, which did little to change the situation. Tomorrow will see European and local elections in the UK, and the outcome of that should be interesting.

Locally, the debate about Sunday sailings continues, with the focus on what legal opinion is valid or not. I don't think it's legal opinions that count, at the end of the day. It is the outcome of a consultation, currently being conducted by ferry company Calmac, that determines what will happen with a Sunday service.