Off to Manchester now for two days …
July 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
… where I will catch up with eight relatives, notably my talented and beautiful niece of almost 11, Saskia, who has a starring role in this evening’s end of year school production “Shrek – The Musical”.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Unions are not too strong; they are too weak; and we all suffer
July 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I may be biased. For most of my career – some 24 years – I was a national trade union official. But read what Aditya Chakrabortty, senior economics commentator on the “Guardian”, states in this article:
“… the current imbalance of power between workers and bosses, between labour and capital is so lopsided as to threaten the very political and economic viability of this form of capitalism. That’s not only my take – it’s the implication of much recent economic research from, among other places, that notorious cell of workerist activity, the IMF.”
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Should we be worried by big data?
July 7th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’ve recently read a novel which presents a nightmarish vision of how the collection of personal data could totally undermine any notion of personal privacy. You can read my review of “The Circle” here.
But big data could give us totally transformative approaches to the development of public policy and the tackling of social problems. You can read my new column on this theme here.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
The two new movies I’ve seen this weekend
July 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
They were very contrasting in subject and style:
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
I have completed “The Circle”
July 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
“The Circle” by Dave Eggers is a novel that will appeal to anyone who enjoys a good read and wonders where all this digital technology might be leading. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
How good is your country?
July 3rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Simon Anholt is a British policy adviser who has developed a Good Country Index.
The idea of the Good Country Index is pretty simple: to measure what each country on Earth contributes to the common good of humanity, and what it takes away. Using a wide range of data from the U.N. and other international organisations, he has given each country a balance-sheet to show at a glance whether it’s a net creditor to mankind, a burden on the planet, or something in between.
The top country may surprise you. You can find the full list here.
You can find an 18-minute TED Talk on the concept here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Today my web site is 15 years old
July 2nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I suppose that, like most non-technical people, I first became aware of the Internet around 1995 when world-wide the number connected to the network doubled. Besides e-mail, for me the great benefit of the Internet was the web. I’ve never been interested in newsgroups or gaming and make limited use of social networks.
The more I used the web, the more I thought that I should like to generate my own content on my own site. Indeed I was convinced that soon most Internet users would want to have their own site and I’ve been surprised at how few people have a site.
So, on 2 July 1999, I started my own site with the help of my wife’s nephew Martin Rowe – the first piece of content was the Darlington newsletter for Christmas 1998. In succeeding months, I taught myself Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) with the aid of my then CWU colleague Jane Taylor and developed the site with the encouragement of my good friend Eric Lee.
From the beginning, I have believed in the principle of simplicity, so the site is designed that any part of it can be reached with a couple of clicks from the home page. Also I firmly believe that content is king, so I have concentrated on adding well-written material rather than decorating the place with spinning symbols. Finally I’m a great believer that the web is all about links to other sites and therefore throughout my site there are lots of links to other sites relevant to the particular topic under discussion.
I confess that my site has now become something of a passion and I’ve asked myself why I love the exercise so much. My answer involves the four Cs:
- It is creative, encouraging me to develop my IT skills and my knowledge of the Internet, the links especially taking me to corners of the web that I might not otherwise explore.
- It is continuous, enabling me to work on it whenever I have time and incrementally to build up the content and develop the format.
- It is comprehensive, allowing me to bring together all my interests from aviation to the cinema, from technology to literature, from history to travel.
- It is cohesive, permitting me to bring into one place previous as well as current work, such as extracts from my book “Night Hawk”, book and film reviews, and of course those famous Darlington Christmas letters.
Fifteen years ago, my web site was literally one page and had no visitors. Today, it is a huge site with well over 100 sections and two blogs and it has up to 10,000 visitors a day. Thanks for visiting.
Posted in Internet, My life & thoughts | Comments (4)
Are you on Facebook? Do you know how its newsfeed algorithm works? Do you know how to control your newsfeed?
July 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
During a January week in 2012, around 700,000 English-speaking Facebook users were chosen, without their knowledge or consent, to be emotional lab rats. The researchers found that, if you tweak what people see in their Facebook newsfeed – the scrolling information on your page –to suppress or heighten certain emotive words, readers’ emotions will shift to match. Understandably there has been anger that the experiment breached ethical guidelines.
So, are you on Facebook? As of the first quarter 2014, Facebook had 1.28 billion monthly active users. I am one of them. Do you understand how and why Facebook manipulates the newsfeed that you receive? Do you know how to take control of your newsfeed? You’ll find helpful explanations here.
This whole Facebook controversy comes as I am reading a prescient novel called “The Circle” by Dave Eggers.
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Five ways in which science is making us reconsider some of our most basic beliefs
June 29th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
- Lifestyle can change genes.
- The mind can affect the body.
- Quantum effects exist in biology.
- The universe is a computer (and we are the programmers).
- Human beings are nothing special.
A short explanation of each of these insights here.
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Sarajevo: the site of the origin of the First World War – and of the longest siege in modern history
June 28th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
One hundred years ago today, Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian-Serb radical, set in train a chain of events that led to the outbreak of the First World War when he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The resultant global conflict killed at least 15 million people.
But, as this article explains, in Sarajevo itself, the memory of Princip elicits very different views: “For one half of the city, he was the national hero who fought against imperial oppression and fully deserves a new park in his name. For the other half, he is a villain who killed a pregnant woman and brought a flourishing epoque to an end.”
We should also remember today the siege of Sarajevo which was the longest of a capital city in the history of modern warfare lasting from from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 – a total of 1,335 days. The siege lasted three times longer than the siege of Stalingrad and a year longer than the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War.
In 2007, my sister and I visited Sarajevo and you can read my account of the trip here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)