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Hi - quite a few people have written to us asking about broadband. We're no experts but will try and find more info when we can. Here's a great site that has more information on what's going on and how to lobby.

Anybody else got experience or ideas on how to get a response?

Mike

We're going to be travelling round the islands again next month to try and troubleshoot any problems you've had, get pictures of you lot, gather material for the site and generally get feedback from you.

We'll let you know as soon as we have our dates confirmed, but if you have suggestions or ideas on what you'd like from us, please get in touch.

We are hoping to arrange events from hands-on workshops to pub quizzes to speakers on broadband.

Last week Ö÷²¥´óÐã Scotland's Arts Show featured blogging all week. Listen again to Thursday's show, featuring the kids from Tiree High School here:



http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/radioscotland/view/show.shtml?listen_again

Hey Blogatistas

just to say check out our new Gallery feature and gallery competition!

We want your photos...

Mike & Richard

Glad to see the windfarm debate kicking off on Mull. Here are some interesting links I thought worth chipping in to the debate:







or







or







or what about



Mike

If anyone has been experiencing problems with the image uploader launching a blank pop-up (like Seven?), this is just a note to say this has been fixed.

This makes our picture competition all the more enticing...

Given the debate on Mull, this makes interesting reading:

WINDPOWER SET TO HEAT TIREE’S NEW HALL
An Talla, Tiree’s new community hall is taking shape on the site of the old hall at Crossapol.

The Hall will now have its own 6 kilowatt wind turbine to provide electricity too keep it warm, thanks to a grant from the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI).

Catriona MacLennan, Treasurer of An Talla commented ‘ We are thrilled to be getting our own small wind turbine. We’ll be able to keep our heating costs low and our hall warm. That way we can be sure the Hall will be a well used and well maintained.’

Steven Watson, Manager with Argyll, Lomond and the Islands Energy Agency (ALIenergy) who arranged the grant welcomed the success of An Talla’s application. ‘ Incorporating renewable energy and energy efficiency in to this new building is a great step forward. Soon, all new community buildings will adopt this environmentally sustainable and clever approach to meeting their energy needs.’

Eric Dodd, Manager of the HIE Community Energy Unit said ‘ We want to encourage community halls across the Highlands and Islands to investigate how renewable energy can contribute to the power they consume. There are a range of renewable energy technologies from Heat pumps to wind turbines and solar panels waiting to play their part in helping reduce running costs.

Tiree already has one small windturbine – the little sister of the new one planned for An Talla. Pete Blackhall of Gott bought a 2.5 kilowatt Proven Wind turbine to provide heating to his house six years ago. Pete helped arrange the Hall’s turbine project and commented ‘Our own wind turbine has been a great success so we’re pleased the new hall will get a similar benefit for years to come.’

The Tiree Development Partnership is keen that this is only the first of these 6 kilowatt wind turbines to help the community on Tiree. Manager Mark Jennison, commented ‘People on Tiree want to see how the island can benefit from using the wind to reduce our dependence on oil or conventional electricity. There is so much energy in the wind here just waiting to be harvested.’

The turbine is being manufactured in Stewarton in Ayrshire by Proven Engineering. Gordon Proven, Managing Director of Proven Engineering who developed and manufacture these turbines said. Our turbines are ideal for windy islands like Tiree. We have a range of machines up to 15 kilowatt to help people meet their own energy needs. Most of our customers live in areas with harsh conditions, we even have machines working in Lapland and Antarctica.’ Closer to home, smaller turbines on Lismore and Jura have been working for some time.

An Talla has a website on which you can view the building as it takes shape. .

Hi Bloggers
there's two ways you can save links. Suppose you want to add the link to the RSPB site at this address: http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/windfarms/index.asp 1)When you click on the 'Link' button on the right hand side of the page it will come up a box saying the following:

Script Prompt:

Enter url:

http://

Copy in your url (or web address) into this box, then click on okay. It will then appear like this on your page:


<a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/windfarms/index.asp"></a>

You then have to paste or write some text into the space between the '>'
and the '<' characters>in here!!!!</a> which could be a description,
in this example for instance just 'RSPB' would do. So now it would read:

<a href="http://www.rspb.org.uk/policy/windfarms/index.asp">RSPB</a>

and all that the reader would see would be the letters RSPB which would link through to their site when clicked on.

2)Alternatively you could just paste them into the text directly and people will copy them into the browser themselves.

Hope this is a help.
Mike

...this from the Herlad today:
IN a 21st-century reworking of Whisky Galore, the inhabitants of Coll were last night on a collision course with the authorities after a whale's jawbones mysteriously vanished on the small island.
A Celtic brotherhood on Coll in the Inner Hebrides have secreted the two 12ft jawbones to try to thwart attempts to remove them by the National Museums of Scotland.
Taking their "subversive" lead from Compton Mackenzie's book, one of the islanders said last night: "Something like this happens once in a blue moon. Why should we not keep them?
"They were going to be a whale arch for our village at Arinagour. We don't want to let them go, and the islanders have hidden them."

"Police telephoned one islander today to tell him that, if the whale's jawbones were not on the pier by tomorrow night, there will be legal action."
The jawbones belong to a 56ft fin whale which was stranded on Coll at the beginning of February. Experts believe that the creature was dead when it was washed ashore.
The rest of the skeleton was taken from the beach three weeks ago in a major operation which involved removing the blubber and soft tissue, and taking the bones by truck and ferry to the National Museums of Scotland's research base in Edinburgh.

Jerry Herman, assistant curator of mammals at the NMS, said: "Whoever took these went to a lot of trouble. It was obviously someone who had a rough idea of what they were doing, because they have been cut out quite neatly.

"Police telephoned one islander today to tell him that, if the whale's jawbones were not on the pier by tomorrow night, there will be legal action."