Argyll and Bute harnesses wave power

LIMPET principle - click for full size image and desription

Progress may be slow for wave power, but so it was with wind power – before it developed to the stage where anyone out to make a quick green buck under the name of renewable energy could plant wind turbines across the land, and ruin the view and lives of those beneath them, until the planning process finally caught up with them.

Maybe the same will be true of wave, and other hydro-power systems, but at least they don’t eat up vast areas of land, or have so many apparently unforeseen negative side effects. Wind power still provides the greatest laugh though – doesn’t work when there’s no wind, and doesn’t work if there’s too much wind. I’m not biased though, and I’m sure there will be similar surprises in store with wave power, maybe, once there are enough installations in place.

Islay is the most recent site to have a wave power installation commissioned, and the turbine was turned on today by Scottish Energy Minister and local MSP Jim Mather.

This is the first of the UK’s commercial wave power stations, and is planned to be followed by a 40 turbine installation off Siader on Lewis in the Western Isles. When completed, this will provided a breakwater to benefit the community, and power for some 1,500 homes (and apparently not cover some vast tract of land, spoil the view, produce weird noises to disturb the residents, interfere with aviation, or swat birds out of the air).

The system has been developed by Wavegen and uses a device called the LIMPET, installed at Islay. This uses an oscillating water column to move air in and out of a chamber, and rotate a specially designed turbine which converts the airflow into electricity – the turbine rotates in the same direction regardless of the airflow direction. The turbine has been installed and was developed with support from the Scottish Government’s Wave and Tidal Energy Support (Wates) scheme.

Concern about Welsh and English coastal access bills

Portmeirion - coastal village and fee-charging attraction

Regular readers will have noticed that I often refer to the Scottish Open Access Code, and hopefully also notice that I generally draw readers’ attention to the fact that it bestows both right and responsibilities on the land owner and the land user. So far, it seems to have gone well since its recent introduction, and most the of the “Geroffmyland” types have been treated appropriately be its enforcement. As far as I can see, and I’d be pleased to receive any links with examples I’ve missed, there have been no reports in the media about any corresponding cases involving offensive land users.

I keep a watching eye on Wales too (visitors will know a Scot could be forgiven for getting lost there) as I have a long term attachment to the Italianate village of Portmeirion, created by architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. The village occupies a sizeable estate which includes a significant section of coastline, charges a fee for visitor access, and attracts some 220,000 visitors through its gates each year.

The Assembly government is considering a move to force free-for-all rights of access to land around the Welsh coast. Last week the it abandoned plans to launch coastal access consultations. Instead it will seek similar coastal access powers as the Westminster government, which wants to implement a coastal corridor in England via the draft Marine and Coastal Access Bill, it will then relaunch consultations on how the powers are applied, including possible exemptions. It doesn’t take too much imagination to see how a badly formed plan could deliver damaging side-effects together with its potential benefits.

While you may wonder at why I would alert you to events in Wales and England, it should be remembered that the Scottish Open Access Code followed the introduction of the same legislation south of the border, made simpler (to some extent) by the availability of maps showing Rights of Way, something which Scotland just never had. (And please, no repetition of that silly Urban Myth of there being no trespass law in Scotland, there is, and it’s a civil wrong, not criminal offence. End of.)

If this coastal corridor, or free-for-all right of access to land around the Welsh coast, and the English Marine and Coastal Access Bill come into being, there’s no reason to assume that the Scottish Government won’t jump onto the same bandwagon, or be pressured into introducing legislation which effectively give the Welsh and English more rights of access than the Scots.

Each of the the nations that make up this island have distinctly different coasts, different in formation, population, use, history, and in the visitors they attract, and if we assume that this legislation will ultimately arrive, it has to be formed correctly, or it will do as much harm as it can do good.

Cast grows for Prisoner remake

ITV released some more details of the cast for its remake of The Prisoner, and I can’t say I’m impressed. That’s not a reflection on the talents of any those listed, it simply means I wouldn’t know any of them from Adam, or Eve for that matter. The only reason I might ever be found to recognise anyone that might be considered a “celebrity” nowadays would be to allow me to see them from a distance, and cross the road to avoid them. This list includes:

• Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre, Capturing Mary) in the role of Number 313
• Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited, Mansfield Park) as Number 41-5
• Lennie James (Jericho, 24 Hour Party People) as Number 47
• Jamie Campbell-Bower (Sweeney Todd, Rocknrolla) as Number 11-12

Given that we’re getting name-dropping and credits, I fear that my thought that this remake will prove to be little more than a stylised shopfront and an excuse to jazz-up what some might refer to as a dated concept might come to pass.

I’m getting the same bad feeling that Dr Who gives me now, while I might be one of the faithful from the original and classic series, I think things are ever so slightly wrong when the announcement of the Doctor’s new assistant is celebrated by parties, interviews, and national news features which treat them as great stars and huge successes – before we’ve even had the chance to see them in an episode and decide for ourselves if it’s time for plaudits or pants.

Nonetheless, the buildup means the remake has more to achieve, and further to fall if it’s little more than media vessel.

Norwich – ROC 6 Group HQ destroyed

ROC 6 Group HQ Norwich © Nick Catford

While it’s understandable that not everyone shares our interest in the intriguing subjects that might remain around the country, there’s no excuse for wanton destruction and vandalism of our heritage, and there seems to be little official enthusiasm for protecting it any really serious manner.

Normally, this is carried out by vandals, kids out of their head on drink or drugs, or one of those that just can’t stand to see something that gives others some pleasure left undamaged.

Dating from the Cold War, Royal Observer Corps (ROC) 6 Group Headquarters was opened on September 27, 1961, on the site of RAF Old Catton, and was a three level bunker with an adjacent prefabricated accommodation block. 30 feet deep and some 60 feet long, the walls were 18 inches thick, and its underground location was intended to protect the occupants, 60 ROC volunteers, from radioactive fallout.

Decommissioned in 1991 as the ROC was stood down when the Cold war “ended”, plans to turn the site into homes were blocked by Norwich City Council.

The ROC was staffed entirely by volunteers, stationed around the country, they would have monitored and reported on the atomic bomb blasts and movement of fallout had such an attack taken place.

Bought in 1997 at auction by Belmont Industries (local developers), news reports saythey were unable to find a use for the site, although they got planning permission for a Pizza Hut in 2001, the backer pulled out. It was also reported that permission to develop the site and build a restaurant was granted in 2006, valid until 2009.

There has been an active campaign running for some years in support of the bunker, with the aim of having it restored and opened as a tourist attraction – possibly like Scotland’s Secret Bunker at Troywood, near St Andrews – however this is now at an end, with no hope of revival. In July, 2008, it was reported that the owner, Daren Burney of Ilford-based property firm Burney Estates Ltd, has demolished the building in order to put an end to the campaign.

The campaign had been led by Leum Dunn, interviewed by the Eastern  Daily Press, owner of city computer firm Get IT Dunn, who offered to raise more than £1million and hoped to get the building listed by English Heritage, but was worried that the long period taken to process the application might see the site being demolished before the process could be completed.

Video interview

The loss was also criticised by Green city councillor Rupert Read, who said, “It’s a real shame that the owners of this site of great heritage interest have decided to cut off the campaign to save it.”

Former observer June Clark, who served for 24 years, had been a supporter of the campaign.

Former volunteer Harry Teague was the commandant of ROC Group 6 from 1970 to 1988. Now 79 years of age, he said, “I would be very pleased to see it turned into a museum. It’s part of Norwich’s Cold War history. Volunteers worked there for a lot of years. I think it would be a great shame to see it virtually destroyed. I think a museum about the 1950s onwards would be great.”

The story was reported by Norwich Evening News.

Mr Burney was not available to comment.

History repeats

Something similar also happened there back in 2002, when there was a call to preserve a private nuclear bunker:

Norfolk archeologists are asking English Heritage to list a private nuclear shelter as an important national monument. Noel Barrett started to build the bunker in 1982 using government guidelines on how to survive a nuclear attack. He says he started the project for fun and not because he was scared about the possibility of a third world war.The 62-year old of Taverham, near Norwich, said: “It’s covered by about 8ft of soil and is about 30ft long by 9ft wide. It’s got everything from carpets and pictures on the walls to a spa bath and exercise equipment.”David Gurney, landscape archaeologist for the Norfolk museums and archaeology service, says few people built bunkers. He adds many of those that were built have been demolished.He told the Eastern Daily Press: “It still survives exactly as Mr Barrett built it. It is the only one I know of in Norfolk and nationally it’s very rare. It is so well built and equipped that a family could live down there for a long time and survive the fall-out.”Even though it was only built in the 1980s it can still be of historical importance because it represents a brief moment in time.”Mr Gurney also wants other Cold War relics preserved, including 1980s hardened aircraft shelters at RAF Marham and early warning radar sites at Neatishead and Trimingham.

I wonder how successful that was?

CS Lewis beats Edinburgh family

I always think there’s something mildly despicable when Soft Targets are selected for special attention, and if we accept reported accounts, this certainly seem to be the case in the outcome of a dispute which arose between an Edinburgh couple and the estate of author CS Lewis.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) seems to have succeeded in scoring something of an own goal by settling a dispute over ownership of the domain name www.narnia.mobi in favour of C.S. Lewis (Pte) Ltd. While WIPO seems to more like WIMPO when confronted by serial cybersquatters, it seems they had no problem in stripping the domain from the family, and handing it to the company which handles the CS Lewis estate, and owns numerous other Narnia trademarks.

What stinks in this case is that WIPO can make their ruling based only on their opinion, and nned not provide any evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of the accused. The family bought the domain for £70, intending to present it to their 11 year old son, who enjoys CS Lewis, to use for his email address.

WIPO decided the family had registered and was using the domain name in bad faith:

In its judgement, the WIPO said it could not think of any “plausible” reason why the family would think the Narnia mark could be used for an e-mail address.

It said it was “equally disturbing” that he went on to register the domain names freenarnia.com and freenarnia.mobi after the complaint was filed.

“While the respondent denies making any active use of the disputed domain name, the passive holding of a domain name can be considered as bad faith where it is not possible to conceive of any plausible actual or contemplated active use of the disputed domain name that would be legitimate,” it said.

“This panel cannot, in the circumstances of this case, find the respondent’s intended use as asserted to be legitimate.”

Although the family had not done anything with the name, and provided statement from their internet registration company that they had not tried to make any money from the name, this was ignored.

And what exactly did WIPO mean when the described the family’s registration of the domain names freenarnia.com and freenarnia.mobi after the complaint was filed as “equally disturbing”? I think I’d have done something “equally disturbing” if CS Lewis’ estate had been hounding me – and had some web pages behind them with the story.

Big businesses only have themselves to blame for making cybersquatting a profitable “tool”, having paid ridiculous amounts to get domains they wanted, and the real squatters care little for WIPO and rulings as they register domains by the skip load in the hope of netting a goldmine. Even small businesses fall foul of this ploy, and can be asked for 5-figure sums if they want a domain that matches their name, and I doubt WIPO would bother with them.

In this case at least, the result smacks of a big “name” mercilessly crushing a little tiddler.

Having read a later and more detailed review, which also leads to the ruling, I can’t help but consider they have been made an example of, in the knowledge that they probably were unwilling to fight, and could not afford the potential costs, something the CS Lewis estate could easily absorb without even noticing.

Project preserves World War II memories

Ten museums and galleries will take part in a project aimed at gathering recollections and memories of life during World War II while the opportunity to do so is still available. The intention is to concentrate on personal accounts, diary entries, photographs, news items and the like, to ensure that these remain available to be referred to by future generations.

This will be the second phase of a larger initiative that began with Their Past Your Future Scotland Phase 1, organised by Museum Galleries Scotland which commemorated the 60th anniversary of World War II through a touring exhibition and a series of community events including local exhibitions, entertainment, and events specifically created to generate intergenerational learning opportunities.  One of the biggest outcomes of this exercise was the gathering of numerous first hand accounts, unique experiences and veterans’ stories that would otherwise have remained unknown. The majority of these were extracted through interaction with schoolchildren or groups of young people.

Following on the success of the initial phase, the second project will bring together young people and older generations in communities across Scotland capturing oral histories which on World War II and subsequent conflicts. The outputs from these oral history projects will be a series of some 300 online mini-exhibitions or vignettes – oral histories and illustrative or contextual items from local and national collections which may include diary extracts, newspaper articles, old photographs, archival film, documents, paintings, and photographed objects. Together, they will create a vivid story of a person, event or location.

Their Past Your Future Scotland will culminate with the launch of a website in 2010.  The vignettes and other outputs generated will available as a classroom teaching aid via Learning and Teaching Scotland’s new Scottish schools’ intranet, Glow.

The ten museums and galleries and their projects are:

• Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum, Stirling “Pull Up A Sandbag”
• Hunterian Museum & Art Gallery, Glasgow  “The Glasgow West War Story”
• Kildonan Museum, South Uist, “Proiseact Beinn na Coraraidh”
• Museum nan Eilean, Isle of Lewis “Lewis At War”
• Renfrewshire Council “Re-Solve”
• Scapa Flow Visitor Centre, “Fortress Orkney”
• Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen, “Post-War Conflicts and Peace-Keeping Missions”
• The Museum of The Black Watch, Perth, “In Peace And War”
• West Dunbartonshire Council,  “Singers, Sirens and Silent Heroes”
• West Lothian Council “West Lothian and The Forgotten War”

More details can be found in the original news release.

A similar project can be seen on the World War II in the Highlands web site.

The Scottish input is part of a larger scale project covering the UK.

Their Past Your Future Phase 1 ran between February 2004 and July 2006. It was an educational programme led by the Imperial War Museum and supported by the Big Lottery Fund as part of the official commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Their Past Your Future Phase 2 is a UK-wide educational project which will build on the experiences and successes of Their Past Your Future Phase 2.

Neglect of Bletchely Park museum

Hut 1, Bletchley Park - © Dr Richard Murray

Regular readers will probably have spotted the odd reference to Bletchley Park in some of our articles, well known as the place where the Enigma codes were broken but it is also the place where Colossus was created – a machine that was the forerunner of many modern computers – and used to break the more advanced Lorenz code.

Thanks to the propagation effects of the radio signals being used during World War II, listening stations (Y-stations) based in England were not ideally suited to monitoring enemy signals from Europe, and Scottish outstations were established in places such as Montreathmont and Kingask, providing valuable information when the main centre was unable to pick up the signal.

Following a visit to the National Codes Centre at Bletchely Park, the state of decay and lack of funding moved one visitor to raise a letter to The Times, signed by 100 academics saying the code-cracking centre and crucible of the UK computer industry deserves better. Describing the state of disrepair, and blue tarpaulins used in an attempt to prevent further damage, Dr Sue Black, head of the computer science department at the University of Westminster, noted that the centre had been ineligible for Lottery assistance until recently, but also that even a successful application would mean at least another year before any monies were made available.

Bletchely has not fared well in the preservation stakes, and even as the war ended, its most famous resident, the Colossus computer which gave the British so much valuable information known as ULTRA – Ultra Top Secret – was subject to a total destruction order by Churchill, presumably to stop the technology being picked up later by enemies. Only a few scraps of the original machine survived, and are now on display. In order to show the machine itself, those involved had to fund a reconstruction of the original.

There are many places vying for all sorts of funding, but it just doesn’t seem right that somewhere such as Bletchely, with what must number amongst some of the most historically significant events of the war having taken place there, does not have its future secured by national funding, and has to sell the tiles from its roof ro raise funds to make that roof watertight.

Tidal power in Strangford Lough

Although the knee-jerkers are happily throwing windmills into everyone’s back garden in the hope of generating a few watts of “green, environmentally-friendly, renewable” power whenever the wind happens to blow (and as long as it’s not blowing too hard of course), there are a few more far-sighted visionaries that want to play with the grown-up toys. Wind power is fine, despite my complaints I’m happy to see it, it’s not the wind power as such that I’m griping about, but we really need to stop seeing it as the one-stop solution to renewable power generation, and begin to look and think laterally for more solutions.

As part of its commissioning process, the SeaGen tidal-current turbine generated 150kW of power onto the grid this week, and is the world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine, sited in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough and a development of Bristol-based Marine Current Turbines (MCT). Once operational, it should be generating 1.2 MW of power, probably predictably, since the tide generally tends to appear with a little more certainty than the wind

SeaGen is reported to be the world’s first commercial-scale tidal stream generating sytem, producing four times the power of the company’s SeaFlow system, the world’s first offshore tidal device, installed on the north Devon coast near Lynmouth in 2003.

‘The marine environment poses a number of unique technical challenges, not least installing SeaGen in an extremely aggressive tide race, so we are delighted that MCT has delivered yet another world-first in this sector,’ said Martin Wright, managing director of MCT.

As a first, it’s not the forerunner of a vast army of such devices waiting to be installed, but it is noteworthy as represents an installation in a real environment, described as “aggressive”, and should provide useful information for similar installations in future.

Irish energy company ESB Independent Energy is purchasing the power generated by SeaGen for its customers in Northern Ireland and Eire.

St Kilda makes complicated wrecks

When we first started to look at St Kilda a few months ago, we discovered a rich sources of intriguing information, ranging all the way from the roots of its name somewhere back in the 16th century, maybe, all the way to the present day and its Cold War connections. And then there’s all the more well-known stories that the BBC tried to make mysterious in its recent three-part series which featured the archipelago.

As we’ve learned, the island group is largely unaltered from its early days of habitation, and was abandoned during the 1930s, only seeing the return of people when a tracking station was established there in the late 1950s. Since then, the group has become subject to a number of protections intended to ensure it remains untarnished by human hands, and survives as an important natural habitat.

Back in February of 2008, a trawler (the Spinningdale) was forced on to the rocks of the main island, Hirta, and wrecked, forcing her crew to abandon the vessel when they were winched off to safety. Since then, the majority of the removable nasties have been removed to avert the pollution danger, and there’s even been a scare story about rats infesting the island to keep the tabloids happy.

What is interesting is the approach to the wreck and its potential removal, which those responsible for the care and maintenance of the islands now have to consider. While there will be those that simply see the knee-jerk reaction of having the wreck removed as soon as possible, regardless of any other thoughts, now that the vessel itself doesn’t present an immediate hazard, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has announced that it will remain there until 2009 while they consider the correct course of action

Gut reaction says remove it, but a moment’s reflection suggests wrecks have been occurring since the first boat hit the water, so are natural occurrences, and the removal, or threat of removal, has created similar controversy. However, in this case, it seems the problem is not the loss of any historic value, but the position of the vessel, in shallow waters, which complicated the operation, and the potential damage that could be done to the environment during the removal. The location also makes the operation extremely hazardous. As we saw during the BBC documentary, there’s never any guarantee of what local weather will be like at any given time, and it can change from safe to treacherous in a matter of a few hours, with little warning.

Hopefully, the matter will still be considered newsworthy next year, and we’ll learn the outcome without having to remember to go and search for the outcome of the NTS’ review.

Untidy Glasgow elections

Apollo 10 Command Module - Charlie Brown over the lunar surface

Glasgow is an untidy city and litter laws are ignored. You would expect that at least prospective councillors would instruct their agents not to deface walls, shops and public buildings with posters. Nearly all voters received their literature via the letterbox, so there is no need for posters.

In future, candidates should be compelled to remove these ugly posters or deposit an extra £50 on nomination day to the Cleansing Department to deal with this nuisance.

Given your scribe’s earlier musings on the rubbish being tied around all the lampposts in Glasgow’s east end at the moment, you could be forgiven for thinking the preceding was written by the same person, but you’d be wrong.

The apparently random and unrelated picture may have given you a clue that there was something afoot (and the Apollonian reference is purely coincidental), and you’d then have been right.

The opening text was actually written by Name and address supplied of Glasgow, who had their letter published in the now defunct Glasgow Citizen newspaper of May 22, 1969. I happened to find this topical item when I found the old paper, and its photographs of Apollo 10, which it introduced with:

For the first time in any Scottish newspaper, readers can study the superb colour close-ups taken by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Thomas Stafford from only eight miles above the Moon’s surface. These pictures, the most exclusive ever taken, will pave the way July’s scheduled landing on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin.

Together with the Command Module nicknamed Charlie Brown, where astronaut John Young remained alone, and is usually forgotten, Cernan and Stafford piloted the Lunar Module, Snoopy, to test its radar and ascent engine, survey Apollo 11′s landing site, and also made the first ever live colour TV transmission from space.

Even though we are supposedly all green and environmentally friendly and aware, it seems that things are no better 39 years later, and an election still means rubbish plastered all over the place, and another rain forest giving its life in the name of election communication that have a life of around 1 second, as they make their way from letterbox to bin. I seem to have received as many mailings this week as I did last week, and all from the same people.

The most pathetic attempt arrived this afternoon. I already referred to the sad boilerplate letters, where the candidate pretends to know you by pasting your name and address into a template letter, apparently supposed to fool you into thinking it has been personally written to you. Today’s new low was delivered in an envelope that had been printed in a longhand font, in blue ink, presumably to make it look as if someone had taken the time to write it out in longhand – just for you. I still shudder as I think of our Sales & Marketing director bundling our typist off home with bundles of envelopes at the weekend, paying them a few quid to hand write the envelopes for his next, greatest, sales campaign – that made me shudder too. Anyway, having gone to all the effort of producing this mock, personally addressed envelope, the candidate involved lost any chance of winning a vote by addressing me as “Dear Resident” on the enclosed letter.

Yet another case of someone without two brain cells to rub together – but still good for a bit of a laugh on its way to the (recycle) bin.

And I managed to make a post that included by-elections, space exploration, and history, and all without being deliberately contrived.