A philosophical question: how important to our lives is it that others live on after us?
September 24th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Consider a hypothetical scenario. Suppose you knew that although you yourself would live a long life and die peacefully in your sleep, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed 30 days after your death in a collision with a giant asteroid. How would this knowledge affect you?”
This challenging question about death turns out to be an insight into how we all live. Read this fascinating essay from the “New York Times” here.
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50 of the most beautiful women ever – Part 1
September 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
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50 of the most beautiful women ever – Part 2
September 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
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A review of a new book on the Internet: “Untangling The Web”
September 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
For a decade and half now, I’ve read a new book on the Internet about once a year. So I’ve just read “Untangling The Web” by Aleks Krotoski and you can read my review here.
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What is the state of income inequality in the UK?
September 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
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Iran: reasons to be cheerful, 1,2,3 …
September 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
There months ago, I did a posting, expressing cautious optimism about the election of the new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. I know that not everyone shared by optimism. My Iranian barber quoted an old Middle Eastern saying: “Same donkey, different saddle”. But I think that there are some encouraging signs as listed here:
Softened diplomacy
[Rouhani] heralds improved diplomatic relations with the west by an exchange of letters with Barack Obama and David Cameron in early August. Both Iran’s supreme leader and Rouhani subsequently strike a newly conciliatory tone, seeming to signal Iran’s readiness for a fresh chapter in diplomacy.
Moderates promoted
Rouhani appoints a new cabinet consisting of pro-reform moderates and pragmatists, naming the veteran US-educated Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif as foreign minister. Several key officials belonging to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s era are dismissed from posts in major ministries.
Censorship eased
On 12 September Iran’s independent House of Cinema – the main film guild, shut down under Ahmadinejad – is reopened. Students previously banned from universities because of political activity are allowed to continue their education. Formerly tight restrictions on the media are eased, with some journalists reporting on the situation of political prisoners.
Women’s rights advanced
Following the appointment of Marzieh Afkham as Iran’s first female foreign ministry spokesperson and two women as deputies to the prime minister, 24-year-old Shirin Gerami this week became the first Iranian woman to race in triathlon under the Islamic republic’s flag.
Political prisoners released
On Wednesday leading human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh is released from jail, along with a number of other prominent political activists. This follows the easing of the terms of the house arrest of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, allowing them more frequent family visits.
The source is this article.
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Have we become too dependent on the Internet?
September 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This is the question that I have sought to address in the latest of my regular series of columns on Internet issues.
You can read it here.
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A review of the film “Museum Hours”
September 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
If you like art house movies, this is a quintessential type of such film – much of it is even about art. But I wouldn’t recommend it , as you see from my review here.
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How rich do you need to be? As rich as the Forbes 400?
September 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Forbes” magazine has just produced its annual review of the 400 richest people in America. The magazine reveals that:
“Five years after the financial crisis sent the fortunes of many in the U.S. and around the world tumbling, the wealthiest as a group have finally gained back all that they lost. The 400 wealthiest Americans are worth just over $2 trillion, roughly equivalent to the GDP of Russia. That is a gain of $300 billion from a year ago, and more than double a decade ago. The average net worth of list members is a staggering $5 billion, $800 million more than a year ago and also a record. The minimum net worth needed to make the 400 list was $1.3 billion. The last time it was that high was in 2007 and 2008, before property and stock market values began sliding. Because the bar is so high, 61 American billionaires didn’t make the cut.”
You will find the full “Forbes” list – with names and amounts – here.
Remember: the United States is one of the countries with the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world and the nation with the highest rate of imprisonment on the globe.
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Word of the day: schwa
September 17th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
My relatives and friends joke that so often I find myself talking to strangers. But I’m a friendly guy and frequently I find that such conversations teach me something. So it proved today.
I was in central London to attend a meeting and had some lunch at a branch of “Pret a manger”. It was busy and there were no free tables, so I joined a table where a young woman was already sitting and we fell into conversation.
She was from Moldova but spoke excellent English. I asked her if she had found it difficult to learn English and she said that it had been easy “except for the schwa”.
I had no idea what she was talking about and thought that maybe I had misheard her. In response to my confusion, she repeated the word: “schwa”.
I had to confess that I was none the wiser. This was strange: a foreigner using an English word that I did not comprehend.
To resolve my bewilderment, she used her connected iPad to Google the word and show me the definition. It was not an easy concept for me to grasp immediately because it refers to a manner of speaking which for me is second nature and has never occasioned thought.
As I understand it, the schwa is a phonetic term which refers to the use of unaccented vowels, letters or syllables. Apparently it is the most common sound in English. You can find a short and simple explanation here.
Thank you, Monika, for educating me about my own language.
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