News.Scotland.Org

Scotland, Feb 29: A dog was electrocuted as it walks past the lamp post in Dundee. The owner of that dog Keith Baar and Barbara Miltner have demanded a full and formal investigation about the incident. The dog named Milou is aged 12. Technical fault on the low voltage electricity network is considered as the reason behind the incident.

While responding to this Scottish Hydro Electric said that the problem will not affect human being, although when a person touches the post he will feel an itchy sensation.

“When I, my husband and Milou walk past the post Milou suddenly fell on the ground. It was not even barking instead we heard a horrible shrieking noise. We can’t understand the reason behind that. My husband bends down on his knees to hold her still. He immediately withdrew on identifying something wrong with the spot as the dog was tingling all over. Later we found that she was electrocuted,” said Ms Miltner.

She further added that: “I’m angry and shocked. Milou was like a member of our family for the past 12 years. We flew her across the Atlantic because we couldn’t stay away from her. She came everywhere with us and did everything with us for the past 12 years.

“The tragic death of the dog has created disturbance in the minds of the neighbouring residents. The Taits lane, the spot where the incident happened is always busy as it is used by several pedestrians every day,” said the councillor for the west end, Fraser Macpherson.

Meanwhile a spokeswoman for the Scottish Hydro Electric said: “It is an unusual situation and we are investigating the reasons behind this sad incident. We are in direct communication with the owners of the dog. We assure the resident that there is no risk to them at any time.”

February, 28

Music is all set to rock the buzzing Edinburgh city with the Celtic music festival. It is known that many award winning musicians from all over the Scotland will participate in this festival gracing the occasion. Many renowned and classic musicians will display their mesmerising performance at this three week long music festival to be held in Edinburgh. Artist like Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Julie Fowlis, Lauren McColl and veteran stars like Jackie Leven and Mike Heron will also stage their appearance in the fest.

This musical festival will not only incorporate musicians from Scotland but many overseas musicians will also render their performance in the Celtic music festival. Eyes still remain on the special overseas musicians, the Appalachian multi-instrumentalist Laura Boosinger and Nashville veteran Billy Joe Shaver who are about to enthral the audience by their musical treat. This time this festival is designed in a grand manner with over 30 venues to host this mega event, which will attract huge crowd turnout.

The sixth annual music festival is considered to be a big event and even the Edinburgh city council have said, that this year’s programme would be the best so far. The festival will also benefit the Ceilidh culture and will provide them with great monetary benefit.

Every year huge number of tourist from around the globe reaches here to witness this musical fest. Beginning from 21^st March till 13^th April this festival will showcase different style of music and great performances of renowned musicians. The festival will support and encourage more and more new talents to come up in their musical field. Edinburgh too has gained reputation as a traditional art hub in the UK with this annual music festival. So preparations are going on full swing and the city is getting ready to embrace this musical treat which is about to glorify the Edinburgh city.

Scotland, Feb 27: Christopher Brookmyre the writer renowned for his crime novels including Quite Early One Morning, A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away and Boiling a Frog, visited Baldragon Academy a school in Dundee.

He also interacted with the pupils and shared his views about writing crime stories. He was impressed by the interest shown by the pupils of Baldragon. The students of the Baldragon Academy are composing short stories that will be published as a single volume; this is as part of Write Here, Right Now project put forth by BCC Radio Scotland.

While commenting on this Mr. Brookmyre said: “The main challenge of short story writing doesn’t lies in making it exciting but the real challenge lies in making it short as possibly. The students are keen to hear the tips and are excited about their work being published in a book form.”

He further added that: “A perfect crime story needs some essential elements such as intrigue, mystery, some kind of suspense, violence and in my case usually something totally inappropriate.”

The Baldragon Academy pupils are eagerly expecting their compiled short stories to be released by the end of May. The budding writers will get a new mould and their perspective of story writing will also be widened as a result of these initiatives.

February, 26

A new tax scheme is all set to be levied on the obese insurance holders, who now have to bear an extra ‘fat tax’ which will make them to pay about 50% more on their premiums. Confirming this new insurance scheme, Legal & General insurance company informed that the new insurance scheme will overburden the new applicants with 13% increase in premiums. Anyone with a body mass index of 30 or higher will be liable to pay that extra premium for being obese.

This new structure of insurance has made things tougher for all those insurance holders who fall under the high-risk category. So from now over weight people, smokers and even people with serious medical problems have to pay more premium than what they were paying before. This announcement has resulted to be a bitter one for all those obese and people with serious health troubles who will fall under this new scheme.

With the second largest cases of obesity in world, UK is living dangerously with many live threatening diseases like cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and many more other disorders which is growing up at a brisk rate. Obesity is one of the serious problems which Britain is bearing since many years and this fat problem makes one vulnerable to many other serious diseases in due course.

With the new policy the insurance sector has embraced will affect a huge number of insurance holders to pay more to insure their lives. This has made these obese insurance holders to face the dual battle, first with the obesity syndrome and other with the excess premium which they have to pay every time. This ‘fat tax’ is all set to over burden the obese insurance holders in Britain.

Scotland, Feb 25: As an initiative to improve the health of deaf people an online pilot scheme is being introduced by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It is estimated that about 163,000 people in the region are deaf or have other hearing related disorder. About 1,000 people depend on British Sign Language (BSL) to gain information. As part of this project 30 video footages including deaf presenters who provide information using BSL, on topics ranging from how to find a GP to how to make a complaint. The video footages are made available at www.nhsggc.org.uk

Jac Ross, the health board’s corporate inequalities manager for disability opined that: “Conveying messages among deaf person through written English is creating communication barriers. In total it is creating negative impact on the health of deaf people. They are vulnerable to health related problems and don’t go for help as like the hearing people.”

He further added that: “A hearing person will notice the adverts advising about safe drinking levels but the deaf person cannot able to interpret the message. This initiative is an earnest attempt to fill that void in conveying the messages.”

While commenting on this Catriona Lafferty, health promotion worker with Deaf Connections said: “As a deaf person I cannot able to understand the messages that are written in English, converting the messages in BSL will help me a great deal and the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are making an effort to convert the website more user friendly for people suffering with hearing problem.”

Chief executive Gordon Chapman said: “Remoulding health information in BSL language will help a lot in empowering the deaf people and help them to take decisions that will have a direct impact on the quality of their lives.”

This project is backed by Scotland’s oldest charity for deaf people named Deaf Connections. Experts from this organisation translated the health information into BSL and were captured as video footages.

February, 23

So if you are consuming a diet pill to trim inches off your waistline, then forget it that you could burn out that extra fat. Well it will definitely burn your hard earned money not your fat that’s for sure. These drugs though claim to have a miracle power which could make you slim even when you are at sleep, wow.

It is seen that only in UK over £20 million a year is spent on such magic pills which are nothing more than a fake slimming drug. It is also widely seen that the major part of these fat burning pills are consumed by women, who dream to be slim in a short period. With more and more obesity and excess fat cases in UK, such types of drugs are misguiding people by their fake promises.

The impacts of these new baseless drugs are such that people are lured by its big claims which many believe and get trapped. So to make aware those innocent consumers who spend a lot on these magic pills, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have started a campaign of sending out fake slimming leaflets to many women in
w:st=”on”>Scotland. The leaflet which has been sent to women aged between 25 and 50 will make sure that the product sent by the watchdog to highlight tricks used by diet scammers.

Even there are several other products apart from these pills which also promise to reduce extra fats in no time. Some product also comes with money back guarantees and even supported by fake testimonials from doctors. All these products tarp people with the weight loss promises they do in very short span of time as these products tap into our laziness and desire to look pretty.

There are also many other products available in the market like gels, pads and other slimming techniques which all promise to reduce the fat with their miracle powers. But many women have fallen in the traps of such products and wasted lot of money that too without any results. So next time you are looking out for any such product do make sure you are not wasting your money.

Scotland, Feb 22: The enthralling slack lining masters’ tournament will be conducted as part of the Fort William Mountain Festival to be held on Saturday. Lochaber Leisure Centre in Fort William will host this prestigious event. Competitors from various part of the country including the US and Britain will compete in what could be termed as the UK’s first slack lining masters.

Walking on a tightrope that is set above the ground is the highlight of this event. The concept of this sport was put forth by American mountaineers in the 1970s and has been contested at heights of 5,000ft.

Among the judges Ric Pheigh of America is considered as the most experienced slack lining judge in the US that adds experience to the judges’ panel. To add more merit to this event prominent experts like Andy Lewis and world record holder Damian Cookson will take part in this event.

The cash award for this event is fixed at £2,000. Last year the organisers of the festival promoted the event by displaying images that depicts slack liner John Ritson walking a line above the Lower Falls of Nevis River.

February, 21

Britain will soon have to face the infectious attack of animal diseases like bird flu, sars which can cause severe problems for human health. This fact was revealed by scientist after a recent research conducted in this field, the study has also showed that these deadly viruses will infect people and is a worry sign for humans. To get a clear picture of this growing threat, the researchers have created a global map of emerging disease and hot spots. This will help us to be prepared to overcome these diseases.

It is known that to meet the need of the growing population, and to meet the food needs of such a huge population, has some how made the UK vulnerable to zoonoses-infections which transmits from animals to humans. This tendency has put the situation in a more serious state.

In recent years it has been noticed that the cases of disease transmitted from animals to humans has increased significantly. And in the past ten years the population of the UK also expanded dramatically which further has added more problems. If one looks at the past we can trace the mad cow disease and famous salmonella in eggs scare which rocked the UK during 1980s. All this tells how vulnerable this place is, to these diseases. Dr Peter Daszak the executive director of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine said, “These maps show that the key threat to public health is where human population and wildlife diversity clash.” While Dr Kate Jones, research fellow at ZSL said preserving the wildlife areas is also a good way to avoid this disease.

But the thing to look for is how come we can reduce the danger of these diseases in near future and develop a better plan to overcome this threat for humans permanently.

February, 20

Cancer, one of the most feared and dreadful disease which has been taking toll on patients lives, has once again made into news. As it may be known that cancer is the leading cause of death in Scotland, with over 15,000 people giving up their lives to this killer disease. But this time a ray of hope is noticed for all those patients who are suffering from this disease or fear to get hold of it in future. It is seen that the survival rates among the cancer patients are improving at a higher rate. Indicating a good sign of relief for all those who had left their hopes to fight out this dreadful disease.

In recent years it has been seen that cancer survival rates are improving at a slow pace, which is a healthy sign for both patients battling out this disease and also to the medical field. The day is not far when cancer will be seen as any other chronic disease which could easily be treated. Slowly this killer disease is losing its fatal power and the day is not far when cancer will not be seen as a fatal disease.

If we look to the past record, we can find that those areas where the rate of survival in cancer was more were prostate, breast, leukaemia and Hodgkin’s disease. Meanwhile the situation of lung cancer is not that good. With cancer being the most furious killer disease in Scotland, has now become a challenge for Scotland to fight out with. Expressing her views, Nicola Strugeon, the Health Secretary said, “I would like to see cancer services that have state-of-the-art buildings and equipment and have staff that are as good as we have today”.

But the main fact lies on the way the patients are treated to fight this disease, more effective and improved treatments should be given. Even the drugs prescribed shall meet the cost efficiency, as people should afford to bear the treatment. Even the treatment waiting time shall also be reduced and also in the most effective way. We can hope in coming years the fear of cancer will fade out from our lives for ever.

Scotland, Feb 18: Records are meant to break over the period of time. Drawing inspiration from previous record and with stern determination heading towards new milestone is the right way to carve out a new record in your respective field of ability. The latest example for this is the record breaking cycling tour round the world by a British man named Mark Beaumont. He hails from Fife and took 195 days to complete his journey as against the previous record of 276 days.

After completing the 18,000 miles long journey Mark Beaumont reached the finish line at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. As part of his journey he crossed 20 countries that include Pakistan, Australia, Malaysia, US and New Zealand. Mr Beaumont overcame several adverse situations to accomplish this achievement. Floods, road rage, road accident and lot more stood as the barrier on his way towards the record. He originally belonged to Bridge of Cally in Perthshire but he is now living in Newburgh.

While commenting on his achievement Mr Beaumont said: “I’m delighted by this record breaking performance. It will take some time for me to sink in. Now I feel happy to meet my friends and relatives after a long time I’m looking forward to get nice sleep. My confidence level reached a new high after proving myself as the first and the fastest one to beat the record.”

Mr Beaumont’s mother Una, father Kevin and sisters Heather and Hannah received him at the finishing line. Prince William and Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy also appreciated him for his effort. The authorities of the Guinness World Records consider this as an official attempt and found everything in order; the researchers are going through the paper work and it will soon be registered as a world record.