It has been difficult to fit this week’s nominated posts into categories. I like that. You’ve all been so varied this week, so think of this roundup as a Pick ‘n’ Mix stall. No pinching that sneaky extra sweetie as you browse, now!

That Miserable Bastard has a go at the choice of the world’s most miserable cities from what he believes to be a  writer more miserable than he:

“The other day, while browsing through some news reports, I stumbled upon an article entitled ‘World’s rudest cities‘ on MSN news, written by an author named Vivian Song. Wondering which 10 would be chosen and the reasons behind this, I had a little peak in and what I found was pretty much the ramblings of an ignorant woman who ventured slightly on the side of racism.”

Read the full post here.

Caron Muses on breastfeeding.

“When I see a report which undermines breastfeeding, like this one today saying that introducing solids to a baby earlier than the recommended 6 months,  I always look for the connection to the baby food industry. And I have never seen such a study where there is no connection.”

Read the full post here.

The news that Gail Sheridan is to stand for election has Burdz Eye View’s attention.

“During The Trial, while all around me were sympathising with “poor Gail”, I kept stumm.  Hard as it was. I knew, at some point, I’d be writing a blogpost like this, though I had expected to be doing so after Tommy’s sentencing.  Because “poor Gail” nothing. Anyone who saw the footage of Mrs Sheridan immediately after the verdict surely saw what I did.  How could you miss the determined pursing of her lips or the flinty glint in her eyes?  She may be standing by her man but Gail will make sure she gets her share in the process.”

Read the full post here.

Stephen Noon has only been blogging a  week but he’s already come up with an idea to revolutionise voting.

“My own experience of this past week, and knowing the way others in the SNP are using their iPhones or smartphones, has led me to wonder whether Scotland’s election this year could be the UK’s first iPhone election?”

Read the full post here.

The Tucson shooting  is on Jack Deighton’s mind.

“US citizens have a remarkable range of freedoms, not the least of which is that of free speech. They also have the freedom to own and use weapons. Both of these are, I understand, constitutionally guaranteed (or at least people believe they are.) The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords may, however, suggest that these two freedoms may be incompatible.”

Read the full post here.

Dear Scotland links the shooting to violence of a different sort closer to home.

“On Saturday, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Tucson, Arizona by an apparently deranged young man.  Giffords is still alive, but among the six people killed was Christina Green, a girl born on the 11th of September 2001 — a girl whose short life began on a day of terror and ended in a moment of terror.  Since the shooting, the US airwaves have been filled by politicians of all persuasions calling for restraint and a reduction in the aggressive rhetoric that is increasingly today’s norm. Someone in Berwick didn’t get the message: after Celtic’s cup game on Sunday, they threw a bottle at the Celtic bus, breaking a window (no-one was hurt).”

Read the full post here.

Ellen tries to be positive in the face of loss:

“Generally, in both blogland and the real world, I try to adopt a position of merciless positivity. I am convinced there is a silver lining under every cloud even if it’s of the what-doesn’t-bust-you.. variety.”

Read the full post here.

Devolution Matters reports form the Scotland Bill Committee:

“Scott and Hughes-Hallett had emphasised in their written evidence and opening statement that they were concerned only with the bill, not with fiscal autonomy, in their evidence, but this was overlooked by the committee.  The resulting session was clearly highly acrimonious.”

Read the full post here.

The etiquette of space sharing is on Science is the Answer’s mind this week. A post that would be at home on the excellent “Passive Aggressive Notes” website.

“In a shared house notes are often left to pass on information, claim ownership or discourage others from eating your food (see I Lick My Cheese, a brilliant book). In a communal lab, notes are also left to offer instructions as to how the lab should run, pass on info, claim ownership and discourage others from nicking your stuff.”

Read the full post here.

Talking of sharing. When is it time to stop writing about your children without their consent? MisssyM loses one of her muses:

“The day is going to come, sooner than you think, where you will not be able to write about your kids. And sadly it is the point at which they start doing the most bloggable stuff- the teenage years. You can pretty much time it- they will no longer let you write about them as soon as you catch them spraying on deodorant or voluntarily brushing their hair. The day you hear them running a bath for themselves is the day you need to look elsewhere for material.”

Read the full post here.

Pining for the West draws a comparison between Narnia, harsh winters and Tory victory. It’s a convincing argument!

“I caught the back end of one of the Narnia episodes which were on TV during the Christmas holidays, it was the wicked queen doing her stuff. We used to be steeped in Narnia here as Gordon my youngest son was obsessed with the books and videos at one point. It always reminded me of the winters of 1979/80/81 which were terribly cold, worse than anything that I had ever experienced before. When we moved down to Essex the diesel in the removal lorry’s tank froze and the men had to light a fire underneath it to thaw it out, scary stuff. This all coincided with the Conservative party getting into power…”

Read the full post here.

Mike Ritchie’s not keen on buzzwords:

“Apologies for being pedantic, but the “buzzwords” topic should really have been about ridding the world – pronto – of annoying and meaningless phrases or terms that people in business, mainly, have latched on to and use, remorselessly, thinking they sound authoritative, smart or contemporary.”

Read the full post here.

Now for some Photo Blogging and snapshots of Scottish everyday life this week…

Jade’s photos this week are a heady mix of Snow, Innoculations and Going Green

And the Blipfoto blogs of the week are:

DaisyGlaisy’s shot of the Inverurie Youth Orchestra’s first show of 2011

Jelly Cat’s beautiful portrait of her friend’s daughter

David’s shot of Vancouver from “the other side”

In My Life’s view of Bennachie as the snow melts

HollyJuneSmith’s leaving do.

MeesterFeature’s shot of his mandolin player having a rest in the studio.

Day of the Tripods shot of the Australian Classic Rock Show in Aberdeen’s Music Hall

That’s all for this week. Happy blogging.

Editor’s note: There really were a lot of nominations this week, which is great. However,  some of you may be wondering why your blog didn’t make it. I apologise, there were a lot of nominations but a lot of people only sent us in their blog URL and did not nominate an actual post. So I had to be selective. When it came to deciding which posts went in I decided not to trawl through a week’s worth of entries from those who had just nominated their blog wholesale and concentrated on actual post nominations. Editing the Roundup is very time consuming for the volunteers, so make it easy for them and make sure your nomination actually has a chance of going in by nominating an actual post, and not just recommending a full blog. It also means we don’t pick one of your weaker posts and ignore your best ones that you’d rather have in the spotlight. I hope you understand and please nominate a single post for next week and we’ll be sure to include it.

Gillian

The Scottish Roundup has two aims; to give Scottish bloggers a platform and to showcase the best of Scottish blogging every week.  Like its cousin The British Blog Roundup we want to show our readers the diversity of blogs out there in Scotland.

However, we need your help. In short we need blog readers and blog writers to start getting more involved. Here’s what we think the roundup needs:

1.       A wee bit of showing off: We need everyone to stop being so shy about nominating their own posts. If you think you’ve written a good post, then tell us about it. Nominate yourself- no-one will think you are up yourself! We strive to include anyone nominated (unless their posts are offensive). So do it- put your posts forward, no one need know you did it yourself. We won’t tell!

2.       Variety: Never think that something isn’t up our street. We want the Roundup to be diverse. Scottish Roundup had a tendency to include a lot of political posts but this is changing. We only draw the line at pornography and offensiveness. Everything else is our bag- so nominate it! We like art, photography (incl Blipfoto- we think that’s blogging), food and drink. Poetry, music, fiction, sports, science, technology, news, ecology, fashion, personal blogs, film reviews – everything. We want it all, as long as it’s :

• Written by anyone in Scotland OR
• Written by a Scot living anywhere in the world
• About anything relating to Scotland

3.       Editors: We need more volunteers to help edit the Roundup. We have a core team of volunteers who administrate the site but we like our editors to be different every week so that each roundup is decided by a range of people. We are not a clique, we don’t know each other in real life and we’re not snotty or scary. All we’d need you to do is email us and say something like “Hi, I’d like to edit the roundup one week, I am a fully functioning member of society and I promise not to use the F word too much” and then we’ll get back in touch and tell you how to go about it. You don’t even need to be a blogger. You can just be a gentle reader. And you can edit the Roundup as many times as you want- no pressure.

4.       Feedback: we’d like it. Start telling us what you’d like. Do we post the round up too often? Do you want more arts stuff, more sports stuff, more stuff from ex-pat Scots? What did you like about past roundups? What did you not like? Do you want to get more involved? Could be doing anything to make Roundup better?

5.       Link love: We’d really like it if everyone mentioned in the roundup each week pimped us out a little bit. That way you will all get more readers and maybe Scottish Roundup will grow and people like Andrew Marr might shut his face about how unimportant bloggers are! Retweet our links, facebook them, tell your friends, link to us on your blog- anything. if we all fly the flag then being included in the Roundup might become an even greater thing as the site grows.

There are heaps of ways you can get in touch with us. You can use that little form on the right hand side, you can Retweet us/follow us @ScottishRoundup, you can email us at scottishroundup@gmail.com or you can leave a comment in the comments box. We’d also be grateful that if you’ve ever been included in the Roundup if you let us know your views and pass on the link to this post. We’ll be following up on all suggestions and letting you know how the feedback has gone.

So, any thoughts?

Misssy M (Gillian Martin)

On behalf of the Scottish Roundup Team

..I’ll just get you the keys after I’ve phoned the papers.” The William Hague story has caught the eye of most of us. Has the press gone too far this time? Ideas of Civilisation thinks so.

As Edinburgh International Film Festival shifts its focus towards first and second-time filmmakers, there has been a collective call to encourage others to get out and make movies, regardless of financial circumstances. Filmmaking at Edinburgh from Uncultured Critic

To whoever nominated this- thanks, it’s a welcome and different addition to The Roundup. Spooky tales from the gallows from Shootin Fae the Shin

Bella Caledonia mulls over the legend of William Wallace.Wallace, by contrast, was a gey complex case: myth folding on myth. The closer you got to his own day, the more mythical he got: Wallace in Flesh and Stone

Yeah Okay Bye on cheese etiquette  Yes, there is an etiquette surrounding cheese!

Caron from caron’s Musings believes that very often  common sense is flung out the window when it comes to “child safety”. Caron muses over the bureaucracy that could close a nursery in Fife. Despite my own over-anxiety as a mum, I realise that swaddling children in red tape is neither sensible nor effective.

Big Rab at the always wonderful Ben Lomond Free Press looks at the prolofereation of the word aspirational and asks what it really means.

Bright Green Scotland wins the best post title of the week award for sure.Why I superglued myself to the Royal Bank of Scotland

Three Scots political bloggers have joined forces to start a new blog . It’s called Better Nation and the contributors are bloggers you will know from SNP tactical Voting, Malc in the Burgh and Two Doctors. A fine pedigree.  Read their posts  here and here for a sample .

As a Mum and a dog owner the horrible news that a girl was attacked by three dogs in Dundee certainly got me thinking about responsible dog ownership.  Ellen asks what can be done to stop a repeat of the terrible attack by dogs on Rhianna Kidd in Dundee ?

Absolvitor discusses the news that the City of Edinburgh Council are embroiled in a complex legal fight to evict a community organisation from premises in the Craigmillar area of the city in Eviction and Equalities in Edinburgh

The Absurdist champions our libraries in the face of underfunding, under-use and, to make matters even worse, a severe drubbing from Quentin Letts on Radio 4

Let’s sing-a-long-a-Lallands-Pat-Worrier

Love and Garbage is even more excited than before about the trial of Tommy Sheridan now that Andy Coulson has been called as a witness

Andy G ends his stint at the tapas bar in Edinburgh but comes back with some stories.

Dark Lochnagar deals with groundbreaking, expensive  and fairly obvious scientific research

My real life person has  a new blog which allows me to write about kids stuff and this week’s post is about something that every Scottish mother has to cope with. Not sleep deprivation, colic or reflux, but the arrival of the Health Visitor

Photo-blogging

And now to what’s fast becoming my favourite part of the Roundup- the Blipfotos. So many of our established Scots  bloggers have a Blipfoto account as well.

Rab does

I do

David  Lewis does

Adelaide Green Porridge does

Andrew Reeves has a Flickr account

And some others just blog in their Blips. Like…

Meeester Feature

Alive and Kicking

Beefy Lorelei

Daisy Glaisy

In My Life

Stewart Bremner

Eco Dad

Wingpig

Lady Findhorn

Joe Blogs

Scobes

Red

Ben’sView

It’s  a Dobb’s Life

That’s yer lot for this week. Lallands Peat Worrier takes over the reins of the Roundup for the next wee while. Keep blogging and nominating through this site, by Tweet on  Twitter @ScottishRoundup and via email scottishroundup@gmail.com Thanks to everyone who has nominated whilst I’ve been administrating. See you out there in Blogland.

Misssy M

There are some great posts this week from the blogosphere of Scotland. Thanks to all who got in touch with their nominations.

Bellacaledonia wants a debate on Scottish independence and says the time is right for the discussion. http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2010/08/26/they-have-no-mandate-reclaiming-scotland-part-1/

A Burdz Eye View takes the opportunity of the news that Jack McConnell is leaving politics to reassess his legacy. http://burdzeyeview.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/hit-the-road-jack/

Lena the Hyena blogs about some people’s vitriol towards Kenny McAskill over the Lockerbie bomber release. http://lenathehyena.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/think-tank-director-the-baroness-and-the-shriek-of-english-bigotry/

Philosophical Zombie talks about the spirit level debate and asks, why can’t we be more like Singapore?  http://philosophicalzombie.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-society/

Alex Massie reviews Alistair Beaton’s Caledonia. at the Edinburgh Festival http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/6229495/oh-caledonia.thtml and says “There’s a great play to be written about Darien. This isn’t it.”

Whilst Ellen goes for the more lowbrow end of the cultural scale and makes no apology for it. Her (and her family) review the first episode of this year’s X Factor http://living.stv.tv/health-fitness/family/193698-x-factor-is-hitting-the-spot-in-my-family/ and she has trouble knowing how to talk to her postie on her own blog: http://bundance.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-cant-i-handle-truth.html

The Absurdists tries out the sports pages to see what all the fuss is about: http://theabsurdistshequeen.blogspot.com/2010/08/scottish-football-news-is-breath-of.html

A sad tale of sartorial disaster from me, Misssy M, this week: http://misssymartin.blogspot.com/2010/08/tales-from-hood.html

Yeah Okay bye is on a blog marathon this week. www.yeahokbye.blogspot.com I’m not going to pick any one post in particular because they all pretty much want to make you take a sledgehammer to your house and start rebuilding it. Choose your own favourite.

Claire O’Gallagher on the BBC learning Scotland has memories of Edwin Morgan visiting her school. He did a lot of that- my own sister met him at secondary school and I was taken on a school trip to the theatre where he read his poems to schoolchildren. A great Scot. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/scotlandlearning/2010/08/edwin-morgan.shtml

And now to what I’m hoping to become a regular feature- Blipfoto blog posts. This week the Blipfoto “Life Turns” Video was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival. Did your photo make it in. Watch it here. http://www.blipfoto.com/lifeturns/

And this week Blip highlights are here:

Meeester Feature on The Mither Tap http://www.blipfoto.com/Meestermartin

Daisyglaisy meets some strange characters in Oldmeldrum’s new square: http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=700480&month=8&year=2010

Alive and Kicking is up early with the dew http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=700138&month=8&year=2010

This’ll make us feel better about the rain, David Lewis is blipping in Canada http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=700463&month=8&year=2010

Snapping Aboot has some new additions to his family http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=699630&month=8&year=2010

There were some great nominations this week but not a lot to choose from, so we need more of you to be nominating or putting yourself forward. If you want to be included you can nominate your own stuff, you know- it’s OK to blow your own bassoon. Just email us or send us a message on twitter. Follow us @ScottishRoundup on twitter. Email us at scottishroundupp@gmail.com

News and Politics

This week in Scotland sees the first anniversary of the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Al Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Predictably the UK media have jumped on this date and well, the fact that he lives on. But are Scots bloggers doing the same? It seems the media coverage of the anniversary is getting our goat more than anything.  SNP Tactical Voting takes exception to the London Evening Standards coverage. And the Lallands Peat Worrier analyses public opinion. Forget about complaining about Al Megrahi being sent home, Rolled up Trousers calls for a new inquiry into the bombing itself.

In party political news, we’re all wondering if Charles Kennedy is about to defect. Gordon MacMillan at Hurry Up Harry has the latest insider info.

I wonder what was the last straw for Kennedy?  Surely the council housing announcement this week won’t have sat well with a lot of Lib Dems. The news that there may no longer be a council house for life has also caught Demitrius’s attention

And Caron looks at the coalition’s latest bombshell about taking benefits away from those addicted to drugs

Malc in the Burgh marks the first 100 days of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition

Subrosa looks at why for thousands of soldiers the Iraq troops withdrawal is a long drawn out process with an end even further in sight.

Obituary

Sadly two great Scots  died this week, poet Edwin Morgan and writer and activist Jimmy Reid. Here are some blogger tributes to them:

Go lassie Go on Edwin Morgan

Quotables put together some Edwin Morgan quotes to commemorate Edwin Morgan’s life

And if you’re a Gaelic speaker you can read this commemoration on BBC Gaelic Blog

Joan McAlpine tells us about Jimmy Reid’s funeral.

Bella Caledonia talks about Jimmy’s life as a Scottish socialist

And Gallus Glaswegian feels the loss of “the greatest MP we never had”.

Families and Friends

Hopeman Man finds a photo of his dad and brothers that brings back memories and prompts him to think about his dad and grabbing a moment in time.

Phil’s Phrase a Day continues with other gems from his daughter. Do you remember getting this involved in a book?

Talking of books, writer Nicola Morgan continues to give authors and wannabe authors tips on writing that bestseller. This week she considers what gets readers turning pages.

And of course this was the week that most Scottish kids went back to school. My son, Indy, went to the “big school” and it got me wondering why I was so nervous for him- could it have been memories of my first day?

And Big Rab’s girl trotted off to secondary as well, and this got him thinking about whether school days really are the best of your life. I defy anyone over the age of 35 to not recognise some of these school day memories.

On the subject of Ellen is thinking along the same lines  and is still upset about the removal of school milk by Mrs T .

Sadly one of Aberdeen’s best live music venues has sadly closed down. Here is a eulogy to Moshulu from someone posting on Aberzine who has a host of great memories of the place. Me? I’m still upset about the Venue closing down in 1988.

Design, Photography and Art

I thought it was about time we started to look at the expanding world of microblogging on Blipfoto. There are some great little photo blogs out there by an army of Blippers. Here are some that caught my attention this week for Scots Blippers:

Meeester M and the story of the Turra Coo

In keeping with the Back to School theme here’s DaisyGlaisy take on the first day back.

BeefyLorelei has possibly the coolest garden ornament I’ve ever seen

Rising early for a shift at the hospital Dr Ben shares his morning view when most of us are still in bed.

It’s a Dobb’s Life snaps one of Aberdeen’s hothouses of talent, Captain Tom’s studios and rehearsal rooms.

Moving away from Blipfoto, on the design front  Plan B thinks about the design of her home, Yeah Okay Bye looks at the architectural drawings of Laura Barnard and a new blog from a jewellery maker who used to be an electrician in His Majesty’s  Theatre. How did Hamespun get here from there?

Monty Python spoke the truth when they sang…“Finland, Finalnd, Finland. The place where I’d quite like to be “  A wee bit of cooking goes to Finland. No cooking though, she was presumably enjoying Finnish food, which is world reknown (anyone who’s ever been to Finland is laughing right now)  Her photoblog is here

And finally on the culture front, Scots Whayhae previews the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Something for Everyone

Mr Farty looks at the miracle properties of water and has a fight with science experts who dispute his methods

Mike Ritchie’s PR blog talks about dealing with a client who admits to knowing nothing about their public image.

Scot goes Pop talks about this decade’s Gold Blend type advertising saga: The BT ads . Bring back Maureen Lipman’s Beattie, I say.

And another ad makes Real Street think about pride and Islam.

ShopaHolly gives us a top ten of her favourite meals. And knowing her, they’ll be thrifty too.

And this bizarre story just in Bogey man volunteers at soup kitchen. He says he wants to give something back. Bless him.

And if you’ve not got enough of football in a summer full of it then head over to Scotzine for a fix and read their fan’s account of the Athens v Dundee United game .

Oh and finally folks,  it’s that old chestnut . Indeed I was a victim to it myself at London Fields Lido the other week along with countless others visiting our English cousins this summer. It’s the curse of the Scottish banknote. Absolvitor- gives us the facts before we make false assertions!

Can I have a Jerry Springer Final thought moment? Indulge me. Every time  my blog is featured on the round up I get loads of new visitors, which is great. But does anyone ever comment on any of the new blogs they visit? Do us a favour, if you read any or all of the posts in this week’s or any weeks roundup- say hello, leave a comment. And keep the nominations coming in for next week.

If anyone wants to edit next week’s roundup let me know, as I am Roundup Mighty Overlord for the next few weeks.

Cheers Scots bloggers and readers!

Misssy M