Scottish Cities.. Large, Historical and Small

Scottish Cities.. Large, Historical and Small

In Scotland we have "few" cities. Well that's by the English estimation, which I *do* admit is by the millions or so. For them it makes sense.. for us Scots however, this will, imho, never make sense.

I often thought about how we have no 'City' or Cities on the northwest coast and I personally would like to see a reclassification of our communities.

Current Terms are:
Dwelling
Croft
Hamlet
Villiage
Town
City

Stirling is called a 'Historic City' which I like immensely.
I would like to see more classifications such as:

'Capital'
Like Dumbarton is the Tradition Capital of Strathclyde, or Stornoway is the Traditional Capital of the Hebrides, then Lerwick marked a Capital of Shetland..

I'm from Dumbarton, and while we have a small-ish population we cover much land, it's bigger than a traditional Scottish town, but smaller than a city.

I would also like to see.. Oban become a classed as a 'Small City' or 'Micro-City'. I'm not sure what the term might be.. but something flattering :)

I saw a movie once that included a place called Reno.. Reno's motto is something like; The Biggest Little City in the World'.. I often think this about Oban, for the North West it's a decent size.. I feel guilty while writing as many would recommend Fort William, but I don't know Fort William that well.. having only ever stopped there in a car park once. I've been to Oban a couple of times and loved it there.. even wishing I had loads of money so I could move there. It's beautiful.

Moving down to the South West, Kilmarnock could also have an increase of status.. I'm not 100% sure what that should be.. probably a City.

These are thoughts I have had for a very long time.. and it's just good to get them out of my heart and out to the WWW.

Dava









1 Glasgow         599,650 City         Glasgow City
2 Edinburgh 464,990 City         City of Edinburgh
3 Aberdeen 196,670 City         Aberdeen City
4 Dundee         147,710 City         Dundee City
5 Paisley         76,220 Town Renfrewshire
6 East Kilbride 74,740 Town South Lanarkshire
7 Livingston 56,570 Town West Lothian
8 Hamilton         53,200     Town South Lanarkshire
9 Cumbernauld 51,610 Town North Lanarkshire
10 Dunfermline 50,380 Town Fife
11 Kirkcaldy 49,460 Town Fife
12 Ayr                 47,190     Town       South Ayrshire
13 Perth         47,180     City  Perth and Kinross
14 Inverness         46,870     City         Highland
15 Kilmarnock 46,350 Town East Ayrshire
16 Coatbridge 43,970 Town North Lanarkshire
17 Greenock 43,690 Town Inverclyde
18 Glenrothes 39,100 Town Fife
19 Airdrie 37,130 Town North Lanarkshire
20 Stirling 36,440 City Stirling
21 Falkirk 35,310 Town Falkirk
22 Irvine 33,740 Town North Ayrshire
23 Dumfries 33,280 Town Dumfries and Galloway
24 Motherwell 32,120 Town North Lanarkshire
25 Rutherglen 31,180 Town South Lanarkshire
26 Wishaw 30,510 Town North Lanarkshire
27 Cambuslang 27,610 Town South Lanarkshire
28 Bearsden 27,340 Town East Dunbartonshire
29 Clydebank 26,640 Town West Dunbartonshire
30 Newton Mearns 24,650 Town East Renfrewshire
31 Arbroath 23,640 Town Angus
32 Musselburgh 23,620 Town East Lothian
33 Bishopbriggs 23,430 Town East Dunbartonshire
34 Elgin 22,980 Town[3] Moray
35 Renfrew 22,010 Town Renfrewshire
36 Bathgate 21,070 Town West Lothian
37 Bellshill 20,650 Town North Lanarkshire
38 Alloa 20,390 Town Clackmannanshire
39 Dumbarton 19,950 Town West Dunbartonshire
40 Kirkintilloch 19,630 Town East Dunbartonshire
41 Peterhead 18,450 Town Aberdeenshire
42 Barrhead 17,620 Town East Renfrewshire
43 Grangemouth 17,280 Town Falkirk
44 Blantyre 17,090 Town South Lanarkshire
45 St Andrews 16,800 Town Fife
46 Kilwinning 16,420 Town North Ayrshire
47 Johnstone 16,390 Town Renfrewshire
48 Bonnyrigg 16,360 Town Midlothian
49 Penicuik 16,110 Town Midlothian
50 Viewpark 16,020 Area North Lanarkshire
51 Erskine 15,530 Town Renfrewshire
52 Broxburn 15,360 Town West Lothian
53 Port Glasgow 15,190 Town Inverclyde
54 Larkhall 15,020 Town South Lanarkshire

Path to the Planets.. (end all fighting over resources)

Hi www

There is a reason for every state of human existence, whether that be due to ego or might, skill or understanding.

We as human beings are coming to a junction, that in the next 100 year we have an opportunity to build a utopian society. Looking back there was good reason for feudalization, then industrialization, then enterprisation.

Now and in the near future, we have to begin the process in gently assuaging these ideals.

Enterprisation, known as capitalism, is very much, you have it, I want it. Supply and Demand. Going forward to a utopian society these ideals would seem barbaric..

Why? because if a resource is required for any reason it is procured without delay and with only sunk cost.

Taking the free-will of libertarianism, the care of life over resource of socialism, and the productivity of conservatism in a culture of endless resource, makes a, I feel, compelling Utopia.
Who leads?.. who decides?
Meritocracy, then Democracy.

How should we attain these endless resources?

Surprisingly simple, the Solar System has itself more resources than we could possibly fathom a use for at this time in our growth. Space is dangerous.. yes, but attaining resources has always been dangerous, what of those who go to war over resources.. the soldiers? They are indeed at risk of injury and death. If Enterprisation overruns it course, Earth will become a dystopia.
Just like when workers complained robots stole their jobs, in the car manufacturing industry.
I digress..

We need to learn how to:

1. Launch reusable ships (see Space X)
2. Build habitats underground.
3. Safely and effectanly mine resources.
4. Send said resources back to Earth.

All of this could be seen as overwhelming, but in reality these are just job creation factors. People tend to get stars in their eyes when it comes to space, or even worse terror and dread. We enjoy Sci-Fi and romanticize about space, however.. more seriously we should perhaps express most of this romance once we have actually colonized somewhere other than our home planet.

'Whomever gets there first gets everything!!'

This is simply not true.. no one can defend a whole planet, it is entirely impractical. Eventually even Mars will have colony countries with their own economic structure, but even with that, what will we their ancestors have taught them? be greedy and selfish and start more wars? or teach them to both share and respect culture diversity.. that resources should be free as they are plentiful?

One leads to destruction the other leads to utopia.

'This 'Utopia' sounds like a lot of lazy people with only a few working!'

Why would I encourage such a thing?.. I'll lay it out, and while I do, I'll keep in mind Gene Roddenberry's idea of a Utopian future.

Right now the present world's school system is very very basic.
It caters only to people with an academic temperament.
IF you are Academic you thrive.
IF you are Artistic, Practical or Social you die.
This system is wildly insufficient for a modern age, and we will be stuck in the early 1900s if we stay with that structure of education.

Each temperament is very intelligent in it's own way.

An Academic temperament, will share knowledge with the group to achieve a goal of shared truth.

I am Artistic in temperament.. I respond better with one teacher, not many, not changing.
I first need to feel an innate admiration for a teacher then follow them.
If I do not have an interest in a subject before you suggest it.. I will not learn it. simple fact.
Like many the school system forced me; a square peg in a round hole.
It did not work. I do not enjoy working in groups.. like most artists.
I enjoy to absorb over a long time to digest then share when it is ready. Usually when inspired.

A Practical temperament also.. they do enjoy working in groups, but do not enjoy anything abstract.
They enjoy and understand physical objects.. think of how a mechanic works on a car or machine, they enjoy seeing and holding the parts, it is visual and not an abstract concept that they express their solutions.

A Social temperament will amasse information, catalogue it and store it for future use, they are attracted to people, how the human mind works, what people have done before and the chance they will do it again. Some might see this as a 'gossip'.. but these people can do much more than that.
Psychology, Sociology, team building.. it just takes the right environment. Which the Academic environment does not provide.

Teaching children is very difficult for us in present day, as we have not done the research to be adequately equipped to do so.. like a human 10000 years ago with a smartphone. Hitting it with a rock won't turn it on.

Hitting children with the broad rock of Academia will not light them up, you will just end up with a load of broken children. And so broken adults.

Resources

Countries will be afraid of losing trade with other countries if resources can be gotten elsewhere off-planet.. but this is not forward thinking enough. No one's going to sit on a mountain sized pile of tin.. they will sell it and the price will go down, I'm using tin as an example..imagine that but the price on EVERYTHING goes down. Meaning the cost of buying goes down also. Everything becomes more affordable for the world economy.. until we shift values, we won't understand this.
We have enough land that we can have machines farm for us.
We have enough land that we can have unlimited solar energy. Also wind/wave farms, totally automated. free power.

Then what are we really fighting over?
Ego.

Many, not all, but many politicians fight for Ego and money.. the money feeds the ego, the ego feeds the money that they attain more power to create more wealth.. and so on. All at the cost of war and struggling.

Resources are unlimited.
We just need to go out there and get it!