Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
Seven reasons why people hate reason
July 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
My thanks to Nigel for drawing this feature to my attention – although you’ll need to obtain the “New Scientist” magazine for the full story. For all the limitations to reason, I firmly believe that it should guide our lives and our society much more than it does. It is the best guide to truth […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
How happy are you?
July 6th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Denmark is the happiest country in the world and Zimbabwe the least happy, according to new data just released by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research as part of its World Values Survey. The USA only comes 16th, while the UK is just 21st, out of 97 countries – containing 90% of the […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (3)
The fringe benefits of failure and the importance of imagination
June 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This was the unusual title chosen by author J K Rowling for her recent address at Harvard. It makes a wonderful read and has given me a couple of marvellous suggestions for my “Thought For The Week”. Read the text here
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Oh dear … it’s Monday!
June 16th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“If days of the week were wine gums, Monday would be the green one.” Giles Morris offers some advice on how to get through Monday.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (1)
The curse of management-speak
June 9th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
There’s an amusing article in one of the “Guardian” supplements today about the terrible habit of management-speak which seems to afflict so many people – especially those in senior positions – at work. Currently the phrase which causes me most anguish is “going forward”. I was at a conference today and decided to note the […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (6)
How to resolve conflict
June 5th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
If you have a conflict situation in your life (or think that you might do), you could check out this advice or – better still go – on this course.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
What about money?
June 5th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This is the name for a new web site created by the Financial Services Authority to offer advice to young adults on financial matters. As a consumer advocate, I welcome efforts by regulators to give practical advice to consumers.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
So – how does karma work?
May 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The actress Sharon Stone has rightly been criticised for her utterly insensitive and totally ridiculous suggestion that China’s earthquake was the result of that country’s treatment of the Dalia Lama through the medium of the concept of karma. In this report, it is argued that Stone does not understand how karma works: “None of us […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
How many gods in Hinduism?
May 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The reason I ask is that I’m currently reading “A History Of God” by Karen Armstrong and this is focussed on Christianity, Islam and Judaism as the three great monotheistic religions. When I was in India [account of my trip here], I heard talk and saw representations of a great many gods and was told […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Welcome to behavioural economics
May 20th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
No economics course that I have ever done has mentioned behavioural economics. Yet today I attended a meeting of the Ofcom Consumer Panel at which we had a paper and a discussion on the subject and coincidentally today the “Guardian” had a feature on the topic. So what is? Behavioural economics incorporates insights from psychology […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)