The Shetland Ponies do Up Helly Aa

A few months ago, my cartoons of the Shetland Ponies - inspired in part by the famous Orcadian comic The Giddy Limit - debuted on this blog in the post following the referendum result. The annual Shetlandic festival Up Helly Aa (pronounced "Up Hell-Yaa") takes place in a couple of weeks, and Sigurd and Thorfinn are excited for the festivities.

On one of my trips between Aberdeen and Kirkwall aboard either the Hjaltland or the Hrossey, I met some extremely kind Shetlanders. I told them that I'd visited Shetland, and that it hadn't gone particularly well, and they insisted that I was absolutely going to come up and celebrate Up Helly Aa with them. I feel like that voyage took place in November or maybe early December. I left Scotland in late December having never heard from any of them despite having given them my business card and expressed some interest in coming up to the festival. Oh, well, c'est la vie... Or, as the Orcadians might say, "Ah've jus' gottae get awn wae hid, beuy."

Also, this may not be the first time Sigurd and Thorfinn have discussed Up Helly Aa...

If you're a Shetlander who happens to be seeing these, have fun at the festival, and try to stay safe!

Loss of the Cemfjord in the Pentland Firth

The cargo ship Cemfjord has capsized and sunk in the Pentland Firth, between Orkney and Caithness. A Cyprus-flagged ship, the Cemfjord was hauling a consignment of cement to Cheshire when it went missing Friday afternoon. Its bow was spotted by the Hrossey on Saturday afternoon, and several lifeboats and rescue helicopters were dispatched to the area to search for survivors. As I write this, no survivors have been found. BBC Radio Orkney has posted a number of updates, which I've reproduced below (with the original links.

Update #1:

A large sea search operation is underway South East of Orkney after an upturned vessel was sighted in the water. Lifeboats from Longhope, Stromness, Scrabster and Wick as well as the search and rescue helicopter from Sumburgh are combing the area and are being assisted by the Northlink ferry Hrossey. The search appears to be concentrated at the eastern end of the Pentland Firth.

Update #2:

Four lifeboats and the Coastguard helicopter from Sumburgh are still searching the sea at the eastern end of the Pentland Firth after it was reported that an upturned boat had been sighted in the water. The Stromness and Longhope lifeboats as well as those from Wick and Scrabster are in the are searching. The Northlink ferry Hrossey assisted with the search for a time but has now resumed its journey to Aberdeen. The picture shows the search pattern being followed by the Longhope lifeboat.

Update #3:

A cargo ship carrying cement has been reported as missing. The Cypriot registered "Cemfjord" was last seen passing through the Pentland Firth on Friday afternoon but since then the 83 metre ship hasn't been heard from. Four lifeboats from Stromness, Scrabster, Longhope and Wick are currently combing the ship's last know position in the Pentland Firth. The coastguard rescue helicopter from Sumburgh is also involved in the operation. Earlier in the day the Northlink ferry "Hrossey" is understood to have sighted an object in the sea to the east of the Pentland Firth and raised the alarm. The "Cemfjord" carries a crew of nine and was on route to Runcorn in Cheshire.

Update #4:

Pictures taken by passengers aboard the Northlink ferry Hrossey have confirmed that the cargo vessel "Cemfjord" has sunk. A search operation is underway for the crew which is thought to number eight men.

Update #5:

A sea and land search was launched at first light this morning to try and locate the missing crew from the cargo ship "Cemfjord". The bow of the sunken ship was spotted by the Northlink ferry "Hrossey" yesterday while it was on passage to Aberdeen. Longhope, Stromness and Scrabster lifeboats as well as coastguard search teams are involved in the operation. Of the eight crew who are missing - seven are from Poland and one is from the Philippines.

Update #6:

Coastguards say that a vessel which capsized in the Pentland Firth now appears to have sunk. The Cemfjord has been drifting to the eastern approaches to the Firth since it was spotted by a passenger ferry on Saturday. It's believed to have capsized in gale force winds on Friday afternoon.There's been no sign of the vessel's eight crew. The MCA tug Herakles is continuing to standby the submerged ship. Local coastguard teams from Orkney are being transported by helicopter this afternoon to two uninhabited islands in the Pentland Firth. The four lifeboats involved in the search are all returning to their respective bases - though coastguards say they're not yet being officially stood down. A small inflatable tender was found badly damaged yesterday on the shoreline of South Ronaldsay, but there's no confirmation on whether it came form the Cemfjord.

Apparently, this isn't the first time the Cemfjord has run into trouble. Last July, the vessel ran aground off Denmark, possibly because its Russian captain was drunk at the helm. That captain was replaced, and the eight man crew is believed to have consisted of seven Poles and one Filipino, as noted above. The Cemfjord was a cement carrier, owned and operated by the German company Brise Bereederung, and flagged in Cyprus.

Radio Orkney took a hammering in the comments to Update #4. Many claimed that it was disrespectful and unprofessional to post the photos before confirmation that the family had been notified. Having worked in risk management myself, and having had some exposure to the risk management sector of the energy industry while I was in Aberdeen, I know that companies that have their act together will have a risk management program either in house or through a third party to ensure that measures are in place to ensure that loved ones are contacted as soon as anything happens to a vessel, or oil rig, or what have you. So, I took all of the complaints with a grain of salt. I can also tell you from my own experience on ferries running to and from Orkney that the sea conditions in the Pentland Firth during the Winter months are no joke. This incident serves as a solemn reminder of the Longhope Lifeboat tragedy of 1969, when the Liberian-flagged vessel Irene ran aground and the Longhope Lifeboat based in South Walls (a tidal island/peninsula which is considered part of Hoy) was lost with all hands. As the lifeboats, coast guard, and Royal Air Force personnel continue to manage the crisis, our thoughts and prayers should be with the emergency services and the families of the missing crew.

Photo Selection: Intelligence Question Time

E no longer lectures at Aberdeen. I think he's at the University of Bath, the University of Nottingham, or splitting his time between the two. When he was in Aberdeen - and I think he continues to do this wherever he's teaching at the moment - E would host an annual Intelligence Question Time, modeled after Question Time on BBC One. E had hoped to get CN Odin for the 2013 IQT, but CN Odin was otherwise occupied; however, he invited me as well, the head of our department, and The Director. (The Director's the guy with the greying hair.) I don't remember most of the questions, but I do remember someone asking about the most likely points in which nuclear war could have happened after the Cuban Missile Crisis, another guy who wanted to know about enhanced interrogation techniques, and at least one question about the justification for the Iraq War. I enjoyed it, and I think most of the rest in attendance did as well. It's unfortunate that E is no longer in Aberdeen, because he threw down some pretty interesting content in his lectures. Oh, well, it's a gain for Bath... Or Nottingham?

Photo Selection: The Director at Graduation

This is a picture of me with The Director, at graduation. Of the two pictures of the two of us together at that event, it's not my favorite, but the other one has CN Chatti photobombing right between us, so I'm posting this one instead. The Director was very good to me - still is - from all the way back in late 2010, when I first E-mailed him to inquire about the program, all the way up to the present. I have nothing but fond things to say about him, and he's one of the five or six folks whom I can say, without question, that they unequivocally changed my life.

Speaking of, I'm long overdue to send him an E-mail...

Aunt Jo and Fruit of the Loom (No, Not Like That!)

In my first post, I mentioned "Aunt Jo", who recommended that I go to Aberdeen. This morning, I woke up having been tagged in a video she posted to Facebook. I wondered: why?


Ohhhhhhh... That's why. Some of you may remember my post about how to wear a kilt, for which the accompanying video (that I watched to help me dress for graduation) seems to have disappeared - bummer. Anyway, my one annoyance with the Fruit of the Loom advert pertains to the language it used: This holiday? Which holiday? Come on, folks. It's called Christmas. Tons of people celebrate it, even those who don't believe in the divinity, or even the historical existence, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Caveat aimed at Honda: nobody ever got Stretch Armstrong or Skeletor "for the holidays"!

Mr. Salmond Goes to Westminster (Or Maybe Not)

Alex Salmond is going to be running for the Gordon constituency in Westminster - the British, not Scottish, Parliament - next May. He's going to be a candidate for a seat in a legislative body in which he publicly, openly, and rather obnoxiously didn't believe that Scotland should even be a part of as recently as three months ago. For those who don't remember my exhaustive coverage of the secession referendum, Alex Salmond...

... is the dynamo of charisma and optimism seated in the back seat in the above photo.

Be still my aching heart.

Scotland's New Alcohol Law is Crazy

I spent over a year of my life in Scotland, and the Scottish Government - of which I've been openly skeptical for a long time - has passed new legislation that's got me pretty frustrated. I heard about it on Friday's edition of Around Orkney, saw their corresponding blurb on their Facebook feed, and then I read about it in more detail on the BBC News website.

When I was in Scotland (back when they still had the same laws on this matter as the rest of the United Kingdom), I was appalled by how draconian both the laws and attitudes toward alcohol and motor vehicles were. I'm all for responsible driving, and I think that drunk driving ("drink driving" in the British vernacular) is an extremely serious issue. However, the British obsession with "health and safety" is disproportionate to the actual risks, and their attitude toward intoxicants and the operation of motor vehicles reflects that. I frequently dealt with people who wouldn't risk a single drink, even on a full stomach, if they intended to drive at any point within the intervening twenty-four hour period. The actual risk of impairment rarely factored into it - it was all about the law.

Now, Scotland has made that law even stricter. The Scottish government has lowered the legal limit for a driver's blood alcohol content. In the rest of the United Kingdom, the legal limit is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, and 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 milliliters of breath. Scotland's limits are now 50 millileters for blood, and 22 micrograms for breath. So, rather than boosting enforcement of the existing draconian laws, they've just made the laws more draconian.

"There was a preconceived idea, perhaps, with people that maybe have a glass of wine while having a meal, the message now is don't drink at all. People that are gonna, perhaps, fall foul of the new legislation is ones that have a drink the night before, and obviously driving then in the morning, so if you have a drink the night before, the message is in the morning, don't be taking the car to work in the morning, just walk to work, or cycle, whatever the case may be, or taxi, so the message is: do not drink and drive."

[...]

"The proposed changes sends a clear message that there is no safe alcohol limit for drivers, so just don't drink and drive. And it reduces that element of, perhaps I can have a glass of wine with a meal on the afternoon of a Sunday, or whatever the case may be, or the night before, just, don't be drinking and driving, that's it, it's just a clear message."
- Police Scotland (Kirkwall) Road Safety Officer Jim Munro

This, my friends, is simply asinine.

One of my best friends, Gus (whom my longtime readers will remember) just happens to be a state trooper in our home state, and one of the state's leading specialists in alcohol and intoxicant identification and apprehension. I gave him a call and posed both of those statements to him, and he immediately dismissed them as ridiculous. He listed off a bunch of statistics, based upon actual science, and pertaining to how quickly the body metabolizes alcohol and how much alcohol must be in a person's system in order to cause impairment. His description was cogent, and although I understood it all, I don't remember the precise details. The bottom line, though, is that he was unequivocal that there was no reasonable expectation that an individual who had one drink with dinner would still be in any way inebriated the next day. My words, not his: PC Munro's statements are absurd, and have as much basis in science as the burning of witches or the conversion of lead into gold.

One of my favorite essays/lectures of all time is Aliens Cause Global Warming, which uses global warming as an object lesson in the use of pseudo-science to justify well-intentioned policy. Reducing drunk driving isn't just well-intentioned, it's important. Whether one is in America or Scotland, that goal is poorly served by misguided laws and hyperbole from public officials.

Around Aberdeen: Cluny's Port

When I was a kid, I read three or four of Brian Jacques' Redwall series. In the first book, the villain is an evil rat named Cluny the Scourge, who wears a patch on his eye and has a poisoned barb on his tail. He is, of course, soundly defeated in the book's climax. On St. Machar Drive, on the University of Aberdeen Campus, there's a door into what I think must be a private residence, and above the door it reads "Cluny's Port". I never had an opportunity to investigate any further, but I made a point of taking a picture.