Why do jihadis seem so evil?
November 23rd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
“There appears … to be something especially potent about Islam in fomenting terror and persecution. Contemporary radical Islam is the religious form through which a particular kind of barbarous rage expresses itself. So, to understand why jihadis have been drawn into a different moral universe that allows them to celebrate, brutally inhuman acts, we have to understand why political rage against the West takes such nihilistic, barbaric forms today; and why radical Islam has become the primary means through which to express such rage.”
This is an extract from an interesting article published this weekend in the “Observer” newspaper and online here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the latest (and last) “Hunger Games” film
November 22nd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I’ve read all the three books by Suzanne Collins and now I’ve seen all the four movie adaptations. This weekend, the film franchise concluded with “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” which I have reviewed here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
UTC or not UTC? – that was the question
November 22nd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
An international agreement has been reached to retain the “leap second” in coordinated universal time (UTC). The deal was reached at the International Telecommunications Union World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) which is currently taking place in Geneva.
Leap seconds are periodically added to adjust irregularities between the earth’s rotation and UTC in order to remain close to mean solar time. A proposal had been made to suppress the leap second in order to make continuous time references available for electronic navigation and computer systems but, following concerns expressed by several Member States including the UK, the WRC has decided that further studies are needed on the impact of modifying UTC.
Whew!
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
20th anniversary of the Dayton Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia
November 21st, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Twenty years ago today, an agreement was reached to end the three and a half year bloody ethnic war in Bosnia. The Dayton Agreement froze the conflict but did not resolve fundamental political issues.
I saw the post-Dayton situation in Bosnia at first hand when, eight years ago, I visited Sarajevo. You can read the account of my trip here.
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
What hope is there for Kenya?
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I recently visited Nairobi for a week and wrote about my experience here. More recently, I have read a book on the post-colonial history of the country which I have reviewed here.
Somewhere between hope and despair, author Daniel Branch concludes: “Kenya may never be prosperous or be a nation; but armed with a government that it deserves, it can be a state whose citizens live side by side in peace and enjoy equal opportunities.”
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A 30-mile traffic jam in Kenya
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Since my son and his family relocated to Kenya about three months ago, I have been more than usually interested in the history of, and news from, the country.
So I was amazed to learn that more than 1,500 trucks are locked into a traffic jam stretching for 50 km (30 miles) on the highway between Mombasa and Nairobi. You can learn more here.
Next time, you’re delayed by a few minutes in a traffic jam, try to remember this story – and relax.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
How to recognise a stroke
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
It’s called the FAST test and you can learn about it here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Why we should support Wikipedia
November 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Dear Roger,
A year ago, you gave £XX to keep Wikipedia online for hundreds of millions of readers. We are deeply grateful for your support, and we need your help again this year.
Please renew your donation today.
We are the small non-profit that runs one of the top websites in the world. The others on that list — Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon — all for-profit companies powered by ads, shareholders, and a constant stream of revenue.
Wikipedia isn’t like that. We’re a small nonprofit. We’re independent. We don’t run ads or sell services to Wikipedia readers. Our size requires us to maintain the server space and programming power of a top site, we are sustained by the support of grassroots donors. People like you.
If all our past donors simply gave again today, we wouldn’t have to worry about fundraising for the rest of the year.
Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind, a place we can all go to think and learn.
If Wikipedia is useful to you, please take one minute to keep it online, ad-free, and growing.
https://donate.wikimedia.org
Thanks,
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder
I’ve just received this e-mail from Jimmy Wales and given another donation to Wikipedia which I think is one of the most impressive sites on the web. You may want to think of doing the same.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
100 amazing women from around the world
November 19th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Our news and current affairs are still dominated by men, so it’s good to see the BBC compile a list of 100 women who are changing the world. Check out some of these special people here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Why did the forecasts of the opinion pollsters get the result of the British General Election so wrong?
November 17th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
So far, we still don’t know. An official study commissioned by the British Polling Council, being chaired by Professor Patrick Sturgis, is due to report its initial findings in January.
But a survey by the British Election Survey (BES) seems to offer some useful indications. It looks as if the BES approach of random sampling is more accurate than either telephone or online polling used by the pollsters.
Telephone polling has the problems that many households are now increasingly reluctant to pick up their landline and that a growing number of young people do not even have a landline.
Online polling has the weaknesses that it draws on panels of volunteers who may not be statistically representative and that many older people are still not on the Net.
By contrast, BES data is collected from knocking on doors which is obviously more time-consuming and expensive but it appears more statistically representative.
More information here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)