How to cope with unemployment

February 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

I’ve been very fortunate – I’m retired now and I never had a period of unemployment, But many relatives and friends of mine have experienced unemployment, this situations seems to be affecting more people more often, and so I sought advice from a friend who knows what unemployment is like.

You can find his advice here.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

You learn something every day. Let me introduce you to RAMSAR

February 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

For the past four years, I have chaired a body – currently called the Customer Panel – for a company called South East Water. The operation and regulation of the water sector is incredibly complicated with lots of specialist terminology and a great many acronyms.

This week, we had a meeting at which we focused especially on environmental issues. We learned that some 44% of the area covered by South East Water lies within landscape which has some kind of environmental designation. The national average is 24%.

So there are 144 SSSIs which are Sites of Special of Special Scientific Interest – a designation I know. But the paper before us mentioned five RAMSAR sites and this was an acronym that was totally new to me.

A quick search on Google revealed that RAMSAR is not actually an acronym but a place – a town in Iran where in 1971 there was agreement on the Ramsar Convention (formally, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat).

You learn something every day …

Posted in Environment | Comments (3)

U.S. presidential election (19): the previous, the next and the last contests

February 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington

So, in the first state to have primaries, Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump in the Republican race and effectively Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tied in the Democratic contest. In a perceptive analysis of the Iowa results, “Guardian” correspondent Gary Younge concludes his piece:

“Last night’s results lay bare the scale and depth of the realignment that has been taking place within the country for almost a generation: a polarisation of left and right that has made elections more volatile, politics more gridlocked and discourse more shrill. A socialist is in the running for the Democratic nomination; Donald Trump could be president. If these are the things we are saying in February, imagine what we might be saying come the Democratic and Republican conventions in July.”

It’s now on to New Hampshire where it looks likely that Trump will win for the Republicans and Sanders will be the victor for the Democrats. It’s still very early days though and it may well be that the general election will be between Marco Rubio on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats – and the result could be close.

If this is the shape of the general election, then the White House would have either its first Latino president or its first female president which, coming after the first black president, would be another page in the history books. The whole world is watching …

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)

U.S. presidential election (18): the results of the Iowa caucuses

February 2nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Iowa was the first of the 50 US states to decide who its delegates should be to the Republican and Democratic party conventions which will choose a candidate for the presidential election in November. What were the results?

Republican vote, 99% reported:

Ted Cruz: 27.6%, eight delegates
Donald Trump: 24.3%, seven delegates
Marco Rubio: 23.1%, seven delegates
Ben Carson: 9.3%, three delegates
Rand Paul: 4.5%, one delegate
Jeb Bush: 2.8%, one delegate
Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Rick Santorum: less than 2% each, no delegates

Democratic vote, 99% reported:

Hillary Clinton: 49.8%, 22 delegates
Bernie Sanders: 49.6%, 21 delegates
Martin O’Malley: 0.5%, no delegates

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)

A review of the new film “Spotlight”

February 2nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington

The subject matter of this particular film – child abuse by Catholic clergy in Boston – is heavy, but the story of how it was investigated and revealed by reporters on a local newspaper makes for compelling viewing.

You can read my review of the film here.

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

Let’s enjoy (and admire) President Barack Obama while we can

February 1st, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Regular readers of NightHawk will know that I have been an admirer of Barack Obama since even before he entered the Senate. On the day that the election of his successor as US President begins in earnest with the Iowa caucuses. let’s take a moment to reflect on the person who currently occupies the White House.

I’m with Dick Meyer who states in this column:

“Americans are lucky to have Barack Obama as president and we should wake up and appreciate it while we can. President Obama will go down in history as an extraordinary president, probably a great one. He will have done this in an era that doesn’t aggrandize leaders and presidents, but shrinks them. All presidents have had profound opposition, vicious enemies and colossal failures. A few were beloved and others deeply respected in their day, but none in the modern era and certainly not Obama.”

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)

How the Internet is changing lives one person at a time

February 1st, 2016 by Roger Darlington

For four years now, I have been a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Tinder Foundation (previously the Online Centres Foundation), which co-ordinates the work of 3,800 online training centres in England. I think it is useful for me, from time to time, to visit an actual centre and see the work at the screen-face so to speak.

So, a few days ago, I visited my fourth online centre. It was located in the East End of London, just round the corner from the site of the famous 1888 Matchgirls’ Strike. The centre is located in the Eastside Youth and Community Centre and managed by Circle Housing Old Ford under the inspirational leadership of Sheniz Ildeniz.

I made a point of talking to each staff member and student and everyone had a story. Many were women from Bangladesh but others hailed from places like Northern Cyprus or St Lucia or East London. Each life has been touched by the Internet, whether it is improving their English, enabling them to communicate with distant relatives, allowing them to find employment information, empowering them to make an online purchase, or learning how to use social media.

I congratulated each person on his or her progress and commitment, but many of them wanted to thank me for the support that the centre is receiving from the Tinder Foundation. Truly, a humbling experience.

Posted in History, Internet, My life & thoughts | Comments (1)

I don’t want to spoil your day – but have you ever heard of Dark Winter?

January 31st, 2016 by Roger Darlington

I’m currently reading a cracking – and very long – novel called “I Am Pilgrim”, the debut work by Terry Hayes. It’s a thriller centred on a bio-terror attack on America. The text mentions a bio-terrorist simulation exercise called Dark Winter which turns out to be true.

Operation Dark Winter was the code name for a senior-level bio-terrorist attack simulation conducted from 22-23 June 2001. It was designed to carry out a mock version of a covert and widespread smallpox attack on the United States.

As Wikipedia puts it:

“Dark Winter’s simulated scenario involved an initial localized smallpox attack on Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with additional smallpox attack cases in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The simulation was then designed to spiral out of control. This would create a contingency in which the National Security Council struggles to determine both the origin of the attack as well as deal with containing the spreading virus. By not being able to keep pace with the disease’s rate of spread, a new catastrophic contingency emerges in which massive civilian casualties would overwhelm America’s emergency response capabilities.”

You can read more about the exercise here.

Posted in Cultural issues, Science & technology | Comments (0)

Is it necessary, indeed is it even possible, to give your body a detox?

January 30th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Around this time of year, several of my friends tell me that they are on a detox and seem astonished why I explain that I actually I don’t believe detox is necessary or even possible.

Don’t take it from me. Listen to Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University:

“If toxins did build up in a way your body couldn’t excrete, you’d likely be dead or in need of serious medical intervention. The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak. There is no known way – certainly not through detox treatments – to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”

You can learn more here.

If you really want to be healthier, here is how.

Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)