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)
Ruminations on Rome (5)
November 16th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Whenever we can, on our short breaks together my sister Silvia and I try to visit a location associated with Jewish life and (sadly) death. So, on the last day of our weekend in Rome, we headed out to the former Jewish Quarter to visit the synagogue and museum.
Jews have been a significant presence in Rome since the 2nd century AD and thrived throughout the Middle Ages until 1556. Then, in a wonderful act of Christian charity, Pope Paul VI – who also founded the Inquisition – confined the Jews to a ghetto where they remained until the unification of Italy in 1870.
On the way to the old quarter, we spotted examples of a new commemorative phenomenon: bronze squares inserted into the pavement outside apartment buildings with the names of Jews who lived there during the war and died in Auschwitz after their deportation. We found five very close to our hotel and another seven later on.
Once we found the synagogue located on the river embankment, there was a lot of security in place, but it had nothing specifically to do with the recent terrorist assaults in Paris. In 1980, there was a terrorist attack on this particular synagogue and a two year old boy died and many were injured.
Once all the men had donned a kippa, a young, heavily-accented woman showed a group of us round the Main Synagogue which was built in 1901-1904 to replace the five synagogues located in the same building in the old Jewish Quarter but necessary because of the different religious traditions. Then we were taken to a basement area which, as well as housing the museum, has a Sephardic (or Spanish) Synagogue.
The excellent museum has seven rooms, six of them devoted to Jewish religious and cultural activities and traditions. Silvia and I – as non-Jews – were most interested in the seventh room which records the horrific events for Roman Jews in the Second World War. After years of utter denial of their civil rights by Mussolini’s Fascist administration, the ultimate reckoning occurred shortly after the Germans took over control of Rome when, on 16 October 1944, all the Jews in the city were given just 20 minutes to pack before being taken away. Their final destination was the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz: 1,022 were arrested that day and just 16 survived the war. Another 700-800 followed.
For the only time on our trip, we took a taxi back to Piazza del Popolo so that we had time to have a decent lunch at the restaurant which we enjoyed on our first evening in the city (“Canova”). I had ravioli and Silvia had aubergines and I finished off with a huge banana split. The reason for the slight rush was that, before we caught our flight home, we wanted to see a couple of my friends. Earlier in the year, Vee and I met Christopher and Gilberto on our holiday in Ethiopia. They have a flat in Rome and flew in this morning for a week’s visit, so we teamed up at the hotel for a drink and a chat. On almost every holiday we have had, Silvia and I have managed to spend a little time with friends who live locally and it always adds something to the break.
Finito.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)