Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
How to think critically
January 11th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The United States Naval War College at Newport, Rhode island has just approached me for copyright permission to reproduce my web site advice on “How To Think Critically”. Of course, I was happy to agree. If it’s good enough advice for the US military, you might want to check it out here.
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The day I ‘found’ £328,000
January 10th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In today’s G2 supplement in the “Guardian”, there is an article about how journalist Leo Benedictus found that £250,000 was accidentally paid into his bank account. I can beat that. I once received a bank statement that included two payments into my account that were totally unknown to me: one for £3,246.10 and the other for £324,610.00 making […]
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An up-date on baby Catrin
January 9th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Until today, I hadn’t seen my granddaughter Catrin for a month because she was away in Canada with her parents celebrating Christmas with her mom’s relatives in Montreal. She saw her first snow and experienced temperatures as low as – 17C. When I collected her from nursery this afternoon, I found that, even in four […]
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Would you bungee off a bridge?
January 9th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
No – neither would I. But my wife Vee would and has. I was reminded of this by the amazing news that a bungee jumper at the Batoka Gorge at Victoria Falls experienced a break in her line and fell into a crocodile-infested river with her feet still strapped up. You can view the video of the […]
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What makes you happy?
January 6th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Today the “Mirror” newspaper quotes the result of a survey by PruHealth on what makes people happy. Top of the list is: spending time with family. You can check out the top ten activities here. All the factors highlighted are obvious, but no less important for that, and the survey chimes well with my own […]
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My latest short story: “The Girl With The Crimson Scar”
January 5th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
It’s been nine months since I wrote a short story, but the quiet beginning to the New Year has given me the opportunity to craft a new story – my 28th. It’s entitled “The Girl With The Crimson Scar” and you can read it here. All comments very welcome. If you want to check out […]
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Searching the web is no substitute for critical thinking
January 2nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The nature of my large and eclectic web site is such that I receive e-mails from school, college and university students around the world and I always try to reply and be helpful. But I am really struck by the observation that many students expect to find the answer to their assignment in the nature […]
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2.4 M visits to my web site in 2011
January 1st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In the last few years, the number of visits to my web site – which includes my two blogs – has been around 1.8-1.9 M but, last year, the number broke the 2 M barrier for the first time. In fact, in the course of 2011, there were 2.384 million visits. That’s an average of […]
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My 50 years writing a daily diary
December 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
On 31 December 1961, I started to write a diary – and never stopped. So today marks the 50 year mark with an entry for every single day. If you’re curious, that’s 18,260 days! You might think that 31 December – rather than 1 January – is an odd date to start a diary. The […]
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The day I was zapped by a laser in both eyes
December 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As if we have not had enough trauma this Christmas with having to put our cat to sleep and my sister-in-law being admitted to hospital (she’s still there), I had to spend three hours at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London this afternoon. It was a scheduled appointment – the first I could obtain – after […]
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