Scotland Thread

[Flashermac]

Surprisingly cool in Bangkok this morning, 27C and a light breeze blowing.

 

Supposed to get up to 34 though.

 

 

[The_Munchmaster]

Satellite images showing the difference in the UK weather over the last week

 

[The_Munchmaster]

Feeling a wee bit nostalgic the nicht,

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyx1xeZo_tk

[Flashermac]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu6KanGlL88&feature=related

[Mekong]

The Economists view on Scottish Independence

[The_Munchmaster]

What happened to the Orkney Islands?

[The_Munchmaster]

Death row Scot Kenny Richey admits threatening judge

 

A Scot who spent two decades on death row could be sent back to jail in America after admitting threatening a judge who prosecuted his original case.

 

Kenny Richey left a threatening message for the judge on New Year's Eve 2011.

 

 

He will be sentenced in Ohio in May and faces up to three years in prison.

 

Richey spent 21 years on death row after being convicted of starting a fire in which a toddler died. He returned to Scotland after being freed in 2008 but now lives in Mississippi.

 

The 47-year-old former marine, who was born to a Scottish mother and American father, was released under a plea bargain deal after a US federal court overturned his sentence.

 

In his latest court appearance, Richey agreed to plead guilty to a retaliation charge.

 

The court heard he threatened a judge in exchange for prosecutors dropping a charge that he broke a protection order when he called the Putnam County courthouse in Ottawa on 31 December 2011.

 

Investigators said Richey was at his home in Tupelo, Mississippi, when he left the phone message for county judge Randall Basinger, warning that he was coming to get him.

[dean]

I know noting about him until just reading his bio. That wasn't the first threatening message he had sent. During his first trial, he was quoted as saying if he didn't die in prison, he would kill everyone involved in sending him to prison. After returning to Scotland in 2008, he was arrested for assaulting a 63 year old man in Edinburgh. The Judge dismissed the case because he felt the defendant has suffered enough. He had two other assaults, including taking a baseball bat to his son's head. Just an observation; Kenny is definitely anti social and should have received help while in prison in Ohio (if he did, it didn't help) and the Scottish Judge should have sent him for mental evaluation, not let him off. He's 47 years old and has no hope of holding a job in his mental state. If he had not accepted a plea agreement for his conviction, he would have received around $800,000 from the state of Ohio if his re-trial resulted in a not guilty verdict. That could have been enough to live on. As it stands, if he would receive more in Scotland from the government to live on (and mental treatment , he would be better off there. I don't feel his remaining life is going to have a happy ending.

[The_Munchmaster]

Pretty amazing record, to qualify for the World Snooker Finals for the 27th year in a row!

 

World Snooker: Stephen Hendry wins Crucible qualifier

 

Seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry will compete at The Crucible for a 27th consecutive year after winning his World Championship final qualifier.

 

 

The 43-year-old Scot, now ranked 23, resumed 6-3 up against China's Yu Delu on Sunday and went on to win 10-6.

 

Hendry, who has been a fixture at the Crucible since his debut in 1986, will go into Monday's first-round draw.

 

It will also include Belgian 17-year-old Luca Brecel, who will become the youngest ever to play at the Crucible.

 

Ranked 87 in the world, Brecel - in his first year on the professional tour - beat world number 31 Mark King 10-8. At 17 years and one month, he will surpass Hendry, at 17 and 3 months when he made his Crucible debut in 1986, as the youngest player to qualify for the World Championship.

 

Hendry, who claimed the last of his world titles in 1999, has not won a ranking event since the Malta Cup in 2005 and had to endure a Crucible qualifier for the first time since 1988.

 

After breaks of 129 and 107 to take a 6-3 overnight lead, a run of 73 took him 7-3 up before Yu reduced the gap to 7-5. But breaks of 69 and 76 saw Hendry move 9-5 ahead, and after Yu took the 15th, he sealed victory with a run of 88.

 

"It was a huge match and I had to go into it with the mindset of just trying to win, however I played," said Hendry, who has only lost one qualifer in ranking events since dropping out of the top 16 earlier in the season.

 

"In fact I played very solid and won frames in one visit. Yu is a very capable player and I wasn't taking it for granted. I'm used to being in the top 16 so it was tough to have to play an extra match to get there and I'm very pleased to get through.

 

"It would have been horrible not to qualify as this is the biggest tournament. I can't wait for it now, I will just enjoy it and I don't care who I get in the draw."

[Flashermac]