News.Scotland.Org

The weather gods are quite predictable for the people of Shetland with there traditional way of prediction. The ‘wind dogs’ helps to predict the day’s climate more accurate than the television forecasters for the locals which they were banking on till now. The traditional theory works in an interesting manner, as the phrase denotes a fragment of rainbow. While if one appear in front of the sun, then the weather will be fine tomorrow. But if the wind dog is behind then people should be ready for some showers.

Sharing his experience, Lawrence Tulloch a former lighthouse keeper tells that, people like him who are living here since a long time can make out how the weather gods will play. He adds that the old method to predict weather is still in practice but the credibility of wind dogs will soon face stiff competition with modern science.

Moving a head, the government is planning to include Shetland into the network of the thirteen national weather radars. This device will help to track all moves of the weather and sudden climatic changes. The council is backing up the need to connect Shetland with the radar network. It is also getting support of Tavish Scott, Shetland’s MSP and key members of the business community. Even the council’s general manager Jim Dickson feels the need for radar in Shetland as there is very less observable data on weather there. He state that “To the north and west of Shetland, there is little in the way of observation sites, and a polar low can descend with little or no warning,”. This type of sudden disturbance could result dangerous for the place and as it is the largest oil port, so disturbance could affect the economy of the region.

According to one of the spokesman of Met Office said that discussions are going on with the ministry of defense of the use of the site Saxa Vord for the installation of the radar. The estimate cost for this is said to be around £1.5 million. One can still hope, which one the people will rely on the old way or the technological device to predict the weather through out the day.

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Violent crime is on the rise in Scotland, the figures show a huge increase in the percent of crime in the recent years. These surprising figures were disclosed by the Scottish crime and victimization survey on the basis of poll conducted on 5000 people. In this survey minor assault recorded the major cause for the rise in the violent crime graph. The survey also showed that the number of crimes committed from April 2005 to March 2006 was 13 percent more than the last survey. The minor assault rose to 35 percent from 2003-04.

The survey also pointed out that about two third of the attackers involved in the minor assault cases did the crime under the influence of alcohol. John Carnochan the head of Violence Reduction Unit says, majority of such violent crimes remains hidden from views and are not reported. He insisted people to take initiative and report such matters to police.

Some interesting facts were also found in the survey, it shows that the most of these crimes were backed by drugs and alcohol. This factor was the biggest concern for these crime rates going up. It also revealed that over one million crimes took place in Scotland during the period of the survey. Even in these crimes about 44 percent accounted for personal crimes and rest 56 percent relating to property.

The figure also tells that the risk of being a victim of personal crime is more due to the increase in the minor assault rates. It also pointed out those men and women who are in their late teens are at more risk of being a victim of crime rather than old aged people.