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Electric Scotland News
If you emailed me this week then I might have lost your message. My email program lost it's database so while I have email titles displaying I was unable to see the actual messages. So if you didn't get a reply from me feel free to email me again.
I also have had some changes to my medicines which has meant I've had to have conversations with my doctor and pharmacist.
Also this was the week for me doing my taxes and reviewing my car and home insurance so not much happening on the web sites this week.
-------
MyHeritage
I’m writing to give you a recap of all the announcements we made this year in our keynote, to make sure you didn’t miss a thing:
20 billion records — we recently reached the significant milestone of 20 billion historical records available on MyHeritage!
All-new profile pages with hints — a major enhancement to the profile pages on MyHeritage including the ability to see and add new details from matches in the context of the page.
OldNews.com — a whole new website for exploring historical newspapers from all over the world. Read more here.
Coming soon: AI photo scanner on the MyHeritage mobile app — the smart scanner previously available only on the Reimagine app will be added to the MyHeritage mobile app very soon.
Coming soon: share your DNA results with an expert — the ability to share your DNA results securely with a DNA expert to help you with your results will soon be added.
Coming soon: Ethnicity Estimates 2.0 — a major upgrade to our ethnicity estimate model will be released in the summer of 2024
By the way, the special promotion we had going for DNA data uploads — offering free access to Ethnicity Estimates and advanced DNA tools to anyone who uploads a new DNA data file to MyHeritage — has been extended until March 10. Make sure your followers know, in case they missed it.
---------
9.3 million
The number of working age people outside the UK job market - a post Covid high
Source: Office for Budget Responsibility
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Shocking documents reveal Trudeau covered up massive PRC infiltration
Trudeau has been reckless and dangerous with Canada's national security
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/live/pc4M946...iBZcr4c1OEYWA_
Stop blaming Churchill
Blaming Winston Churchill for the Bengal Famine of 1943 is a common pastime for many on the modern Left. But it's historically illiterate. The causes of the famine were numerous and complex, and weaponising a tragedy that occurred 80 years ago for point-scoring in today's culture wars is plain indecency.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/blaming-churchill-fo...cal-illiteracy
State funeral planned for former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney
A state funeral will be held in Montreal for former prime minister Brian Mulroney. He died Thursday, at age 84, in a Florida hospital after a recent fall in his Palm Beach, Fla., home. There's no question Mulroney had a profound impact on Canada, leading the nation for nearly nine years. As David Akin reports, there's a lot to say about his legacy.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/tkrBUW5xe_Y?si=ZGOo7iWeXcMwLmu4
Germany’s Economic Reckoning
The EU Needs Berlin to Get Its House in Order
Read more at:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/germa...omic-reckoning
Top court rules states cannot bar Trump from ballots
The US Supreme Court has struck down efforts by individual states to disqualify Donald Trump from running for president using an anti-insurrection constitutional clause.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68280062
Truckee, CA dig out from epic blizzard of 2024 - Semi Recovery - Plows - Snow Train
Tow trucks recovering dozens of tractor trailers buried in feet of snow. Some tractor trailers were up to the windows in snow
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/sL9ectO13gA?si=OS6tozk_i9ip1JJQ
Police Scotland will not investigate every crime
Police Scotland will no longer investigate every low level crime after the success of a pilot scheme. A report says the new approach to certain reported offences where there is no CCTV or witnesses should be rolled across Scotland.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-68501949
Sweden formally joins NATO military alliance
Sweden has officially become the 32nd member of NATO after it completed its accession process in Washington.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68506223
Why the SNP is pleasing no one on the economy
The party’s spending cuts are alienating campaigners, while its tax rises alienate business
Read more at:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...on-the-economy
Electric Canadian
Poems Written in Newfoundland
By Henrietta Prescott (1889) (pdf)
You can read these at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...inne00pres.pdf
The Conspiracy of Pontiac
And the Indian War after the conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman (1897) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...18parkrich.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 3rd day of March 2024
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...-of-march-2024
Pioneers of France in the New World
By Francis Parkman, in two volumes (1910)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...rsoffrance.htm
Electric Scotland
Discovering the Northern Picts with Professor Gordon Noble
The first lecture in the 2022-2023 academic year is by Dr Gordon Noble, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen. In this lecture, Professor Noble discusses The Northern Picts project at Aberdeen, which is an award-winning project run by the University of Aberdeen uncovering the archaeology of Pictish society in Scotland. Winners of the 2021 Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year, the project has uncovered major new central places of the Picts including an early royal centre at Rhynie and a 16-hectare settlement at Tap o’ Noth with over 800 house platforms. This talk outlines some of the major discoveries of the project and outlines what the new findings mean for Pictish society in the period c.300-900 AD. Added this video to the foot of the page at:
https://electricscotland.com/history/articles/picts.htm
Traditional Ceremonial and Customs connected with Scottish Liturgy
By F. C. Eeles, F.R.Hist.S., FSAScot., Diocesan Librarian of Aberdeen (1910) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/t...00eelegoog.pdf
The Thirty-Third Division in France and Flanders 1915-1919
By Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Seton Hutchison, D.S.O., M.C., F.R.G.S., 3rd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Machine Gun Corps (Served 33rd Division, November, 1915, to June, 1919). (1921) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...visionFrFl.pdf
The Gentlemen's Magazine
By Sylvanus Urban, Gent.(1850)
You can read this issue at:
https://electricscotland.com/history.../gentlemen.htm
Dr. Chalmers at Glasgow
An article from the Gentlemen's Magazine
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...singlasgow.pdf
Grangemouth
The Town That Was Obliterated
You can watch this video at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rangemouth.htm
The Last Clyde Ferry
A Short History of Glasgow's Ferries
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...gowferries.htm
Story
We are assembled on the green sward. Each face is sad. Solemnity is everywhere traced in the features and movements of every one present. The scene is one which cannot be studied by itself. As we gaze upon it we are hurried along on the swift wings of imagination, and halt not till we find ourselves, as the sun reddens in the west, among the hushed crowd that assembled on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, to hear him “who spoke as man ne’er spoke.” Each one seemed to make sorrow his. For my own part, whenever I looked at my neighbour, I felt as if I could weep. I felt that choking sensation which I remember feeling when, for the first time, I left my father and mother—my brother—my gentle sister— my home, with its old and dear associations. (But ah! I have here touched a chord which makes me even now feel as a child!) Many unsympathizing hearts may laugh at me when I say I felt in this wise; while others, who try to study the philosophy of facts, may call me a poor, simple being. Simple I am, or I should not be writing this, and that simplicity (we call it simplicity to meet the demands of the philosophy of facts) filled the hearts of all those present—the best and bravest of men on earth. Old men and young, all sat with heads uncovered. Even the sprightliest were loath to enter into conversation. Every person appeared to be thinking (some, perhaps, for the first time) and each one thought it an unholy thing to interrupt the current of thought— whether religious or otherwise—that flowed through the other’s mind. With regard to myself, although impressed by the sacredness of the scene, I allowed my boyish fancy free play among those mysterious problems met in the contemplation of death and the grave. But my reverie is suddenly ended. We are arranged in pairs, with a space between each pair. And now the mortal remains we are about to convey to their last resting place are slowly carried out by friends, who experience a mournful pleasure in thus paying the last rites to one who can no more feel grateful for any work of affection. The bier is reverently raised on the shoulders of the first two pairs. Friends and relations walk close behind it. In front there paces a saint-like man, with “measured step and slow.” He is, in this case, an old soldier. At every hundred or two hundred paces, according as the distance to the cemetery is far or near, he cries out “Relief,” which is a signal for those under the bier to halt for a few seconds, until those coming next assume their places. Whenever they do so, those relieved stand still till the whole line passes them, and then they join in the rear. This process is repeated all the way. Were it otherwise the men would be very much wearied; for sometimes they convey the dead in this manner to a distance of twenty miles or more, and very frequently along the roughest roads. Should any person chance to meet the funeral, he would be showing the greatest dishonour to the dead unless he uncovered his head. This idea of respect is something similar to another very common in the Highlands—that of adding a stone to the lonely cairn set up in memory of some poor unfortunate who was not blessed by being buried in the tomb of his fathers. The Russians and most northern peoples observe both customs.
When the churchyard is reached the body is lowered at the gate, and carried to the grave by friends of the deceased. On its being lowered into the grave every one present uncovers his head, and, as freely submitting to the will of the Creator of all, says “Amen.” The earth is then returned into its place by some of those present, the chief mourners all the time standing at the head of the grave.
Females do not take part in Highland funerals. It is their chief duty to go to the house of affliction, and to comfort sorrowing ones. In Orkney and Shetland, however, it is no strange thing to see women present at funerals. But in these parts, I have observed, the female portion of the community knows what its rights are. I cannot see why women should not pay the last honour that is in their power to pay to the dead, unless, indeed, the practice might be objected to on account of the ebullitions of sorrow which the fairer and softer sex would naturally give vent to on such occasions.
Here I may say a word or two with reference to a notion that has somehow or other crept to the south—that a great deal of intoxication takes place at Highland funerals. No scandal was ever of a more creeping and lying nature than this. Because the foresight of the “son of the mist” has told him to provide himself with a small supply of his favourite beverage when he is at a funeral where the nearest churchyard is fifteen or twenty miles distant, and where the only road is a sheep-track across snow-covered moors and ice bound hills, are we on that account so destitute of charity as to call him a drunkard—a savage who celebrates the death of his nearest, his dearest friend in the most repulsive and inhuman manner! I should think not. Those who know anything of Highland character know that it is not characteristic of the Highlander to ridicule the solemn or make light of the sacred. He may claim, without boast, the first place in nobleness of soul, in purity of morals and in religious sentiment. These are the qualities to which it is owing his name is rendered so notoriously famous throughout the whole world. The most dull eye is all aglow when it sees, on printed page and painted canvas, the noble deeds of heroism displayed in the person of the Highlander; and the ear, at first reluctant to hear, is made to tingle when it hears rehearsed the chivalrous exploits and cool daring of the hardy son of Caledonia. The dreamy philosopher and the sleepy theologian are aroused from their lethargic musings on the selfish and depraved state of man when they find that here, if not elsewhere, is a race whose moral nature is benevolent, and whose soul is filled with an all-inspiring fear of its God. And all, in fact, who are possessed of the rare power of thinking for themselves, and basing their observations on facts, and not on the authority of others, will find that this matter with regard to funeral “sprees” is scarcely worth the paper and ink wasted in its refutation.
Raibeart Mac-an-Rothaich.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
If you emailed me this week then I might have lost your message. My email program lost it's database so while I have email titles displaying I was unable to see the actual messages. So if you didn't get a reply from me feel free to email me again.
I also have had some changes to my medicines which has meant I've had to have conversations with my doctor and pharmacist.
Also this was the week for me doing my taxes and reviewing my car and home insurance so not much happening on the web sites this week.
-------
MyHeritage
I’m writing to give you a recap of all the announcements we made this year in our keynote, to make sure you didn’t miss a thing:
20 billion records — we recently reached the significant milestone of 20 billion historical records available on MyHeritage!
All-new profile pages with hints — a major enhancement to the profile pages on MyHeritage including the ability to see and add new details from matches in the context of the page.
OldNews.com — a whole new website for exploring historical newspapers from all over the world. Read more here.
Coming soon: AI photo scanner on the MyHeritage mobile app — the smart scanner previously available only on the Reimagine app will be added to the MyHeritage mobile app very soon.
Coming soon: share your DNA results with an expert — the ability to share your DNA results securely with a DNA expert to help you with your results will soon be added.
Coming soon: Ethnicity Estimates 2.0 — a major upgrade to our ethnicity estimate model will be released in the summer of 2024
By the way, the special promotion we had going for DNA data uploads — offering free access to Ethnicity Estimates and advanced DNA tools to anyone who uploads a new DNA data file to MyHeritage — has been extended until March 10. Make sure your followers know, in case they missed it.
---------
9.3 million
The number of working age people outside the UK job market - a post Covid high
Source: Office for Budget Responsibility
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Shocking documents reveal Trudeau covered up massive PRC infiltration
Trudeau has been reckless and dangerous with Canada's national security
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/live/pc4M946...iBZcr4c1OEYWA_
Stop blaming Churchill
Blaming Winston Churchill for the Bengal Famine of 1943 is a common pastime for many on the modern Left. But it's historically illiterate. The causes of the famine were numerous and complex, and weaponising a tragedy that occurred 80 years ago for point-scoring in today's culture wars is plain indecency.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/blaming-churchill-fo...cal-illiteracy
State funeral planned for former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney
A state funeral will be held in Montreal for former prime minister Brian Mulroney. He died Thursday, at age 84, in a Florida hospital after a recent fall in his Palm Beach, Fla., home. There's no question Mulroney had a profound impact on Canada, leading the nation for nearly nine years. As David Akin reports, there's a lot to say about his legacy.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/tkrBUW5xe_Y?si=ZGOo7iWeXcMwLmu4
Germany’s Economic Reckoning
The EU Needs Berlin to Get Its House in Order
Read more at:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/germa...omic-reckoning
Top court rules states cannot bar Trump from ballots
The US Supreme Court has struck down efforts by individual states to disqualify Donald Trump from running for president using an anti-insurrection constitutional clause.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68280062
Truckee, CA dig out from epic blizzard of 2024 - Semi Recovery - Plows - Snow Train
Tow trucks recovering dozens of tractor trailers buried in feet of snow. Some tractor trailers were up to the windows in snow
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/sL9ectO13gA?si=OS6tozk_i9ip1JJQ
Police Scotland will not investigate every crime
Police Scotland will no longer investigate every low level crime after the success of a pilot scheme. A report says the new approach to certain reported offences where there is no CCTV or witnesses should be rolled across Scotland.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-68501949
Sweden formally joins NATO military alliance
Sweden has officially become the 32nd member of NATO after it completed its accession process in Washington.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68506223
Why the SNP is pleasing no one on the economy
The party’s spending cuts are alienating campaigners, while its tax rises alienate business
Read more at:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politic...on-the-economy
Electric Canadian
Poems Written in Newfoundland
By Henrietta Prescott (1889) (pdf)
You can read these at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...inne00pres.pdf
The Conspiracy of Pontiac
And the Indian War after the conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman (1897) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...18parkrich.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 3rd day of March 2024
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...-of-march-2024
Pioneers of France in the New World
By Francis Parkman, in two volumes (1910)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...rsoffrance.htm
Electric Scotland
Discovering the Northern Picts with Professor Gordon Noble
The first lecture in the 2022-2023 academic year is by Dr Gordon Noble, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen. In this lecture, Professor Noble discusses The Northern Picts project at Aberdeen, which is an award-winning project run by the University of Aberdeen uncovering the archaeology of Pictish society in Scotland. Winners of the 2021 Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year, the project has uncovered major new central places of the Picts including an early royal centre at Rhynie and a 16-hectare settlement at Tap o’ Noth with over 800 house platforms. This talk outlines some of the major discoveries of the project and outlines what the new findings mean for Pictish society in the period c.300-900 AD. Added this video to the foot of the page at:
https://electricscotland.com/history/articles/picts.htm
Traditional Ceremonial and Customs connected with Scottish Liturgy
By F. C. Eeles, F.R.Hist.S., FSAScot., Diocesan Librarian of Aberdeen (1910) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/bible/t...00eelegoog.pdf
The Thirty-Third Division in France and Flanders 1915-1919
By Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Seton Hutchison, D.S.O., M.C., F.R.G.S., 3rd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Machine Gun Corps (Served 33rd Division, November, 1915, to June, 1919). (1921) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...visionFrFl.pdf
The Gentlemen's Magazine
By Sylvanus Urban, Gent.(1850)
You can read this issue at:
https://electricscotland.com/history.../gentlemen.htm
Dr. Chalmers at Glasgow
An article from the Gentlemen's Magazine
You can read this article at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...singlasgow.pdf
Grangemouth
The Town That Was Obliterated
You can watch this video at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rangemouth.htm
The Last Clyde Ferry
A Short History of Glasgow's Ferries
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...gowferries.htm
Story
A HIGHLAND FUNERAL
We are assembled on the green sward. Each face is sad. Solemnity is everywhere traced in the features and movements of every one present. The scene is one which cannot be studied by itself. As we gaze upon it we are hurried along on the swift wings of imagination, and halt not till we find ourselves, as the sun reddens in the west, among the hushed crowd that assembled on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, to hear him “who spoke as man ne’er spoke.” Each one seemed to make sorrow his. For my own part, whenever I looked at my neighbour, I felt as if I could weep. I felt that choking sensation which I remember feeling when, for the first time, I left my father and mother—my brother—my gentle sister— my home, with its old and dear associations. (But ah! I have here touched a chord which makes me even now feel as a child!) Many unsympathizing hearts may laugh at me when I say I felt in this wise; while others, who try to study the philosophy of facts, may call me a poor, simple being. Simple I am, or I should not be writing this, and that simplicity (we call it simplicity to meet the demands of the philosophy of facts) filled the hearts of all those present—the best and bravest of men on earth. Old men and young, all sat with heads uncovered. Even the sprightliest were loath to enter into conversation. Every person appeared to be thinking (some, perhaps, for the first time) and each one thought it an unholy thing to interrupt the current of thought— whether religious or otherwise—that flowed through the other’s mind. With regard to myself, although impressed by the sacredness of the scene, I allowed my boyish fancy free play among those mysterious problems met in the contemplation of death and the grave. But my reverie is suddenly ended. We are arranged in pairs, with a space between each pair. And now the mortal remains we are about to convey to their last resting place are slowly carried out by friends, who experience a mournful pleasure in thus paying the last rites to one who can no more feel grateful for any work of affection. The bier is reverently raised on the shoulders of the first two pairs. Friends and relations walk close behind it. In front there paces a saint-like man, with “measured step and slow.” He is, in this case, an old soldier. At every hundred or two hundred paces, according as the distance to the cemetery is far or near, he cries out “Relief,” which is a signal for those under the bier to halt for a few seconds, until those coming next assume their places. Whenever they do so, those relieved stand still till the whole line passes them, and then they join in the rear. This process is repeated all the way. Were it otherwise the men would be very much wearied; for sometimes they convey the dead in this manner to a distance of twenty miles or more, and very frequently along the roughest roads. Should any person chance to meet the funeral, he would be showing the greatest dishonour to the dead unless he uncovered his head. This idea of respect is something similar to another very common in the Highlands—that of adding a stone to the lonely cairn set up in memory of some poor unfortunate who was not blessed by being buried in the tomb of his fathers. The Russians and most northern peoples observe both customs.
When the churchyard is reached the body is lowered at the gate, and carried to the grave by friends of the deceased. On its being lowered into the grave every one present uncovers his head, and, as freely submitting to the will of the Creator of all, says “Amen.” The earth is then returned into its place by some of those present, the chief mourners all the time standing at the head of the grave.
Females do not take part in Highland funerals. It is their chief duty to go to the house of affliction, and to comfort sorrowing ones. In Orkney and Shetland, however, it is no strange thing to see women present at funerals. But in these parts, I have observed, the female portion of the community knows what its rights are. I cannot see why women should not pay the last honour that is in their power to pay to the dead, unless, indeed, the practice might be objected to on account of the ebullitions of sorrow which the fairer and softer sex would naturally give vent to on such occasions.
Here I may say a word or two with reference to a notion that has somehow or other crept to the south—that a great deal of intoxication takes place at Highland funerals. No scandal was ever of a more creeping and lying nature than this. Because the foresight of the “son of the mist” has told him to provide himself with a small supply of his favourite beverage when he is at a funeral where the nearest churchyard is fifteen or twenty miles distant, and where the only road is a sheep-track across snow-covered moors and ice bound hills, are we on that account so destitute of charity as to call him a drunkard—a savage who celebrates the death of his nearest, his dearest friend in the most repulsive and inhuman manner! I should think not. Those who know anything of Highland character know that it is not characteristic of the Highlander to ridicule the solemn or make light of the sacred. He may claim, without boast, the first place in nobleness of soul, in purity of morals and in religious sentiment. These are the qualities to which it is owing his name is rendered so notoriously famous throughout the whole world. The most dull eye is all aglow when it sees, on printed page and painted canvas, the noble deeds of heroism displayed in the person of the Highlander; and the ear, at first reluctant to hear, is made to tingle when it hears rehearsed the chivalrous exploits and cool daring of the hardy son of Caledonia. The dreamy philosopher and the sleepy theologian are aroused from their lethargic musings on the selfish and depraved state of man when they find that here, if not elsewhere, is a race whose moral nature is benevolent, and whose soul is filled with an all-inspiring fear of its God. And all, in fact, who are possessed of the rare power of thinking for themselves, and basing their observations on facts, and not on the authority of others, will find that this matter with regard to funeral “sprees” is scarcely worth the paper and ink wasted in its refutation.
Raibeart Mac-an-Rothaich.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair