U.S. presidential election (31): what about the other candidates?

August 10th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

I suppose that either Hillary Clinton or (perish the thought) Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. But these are very strange times politically, so who knows? However, there are other candidates for the White House.

There is the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson who is currently polling around 8% – more information here.

Then there is the Green Party candidate Jill Stein who is presently polling about 4% – more information here.

Now there is a guy called Evan McMullin who is a conservative independent – more information here.

If any of these challengers wants to appear with Clinton and Trump at the scheduled three debates between presidential candidates, he or she has be polling at least 15%. The venues have been warned to be ready just in case – see here.

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)

Was there really only one Renaissance?

August 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

I recently read a book called “Age Of Discovery” written by Ian Goldin & Chris Kutarna. This impressive and inspiring work is sub-titled “”Navigating The Risks And Rewards Of Our New Renaissance”. The theme of the book is that, since around 1990, we have been living in a time which is in effect a New Renaissance and we should learn some of the lessons from the original Renaissance of 1450-1550.

However, in first chapter of the book, the authors argue that renaissances can be you found in every civilisation. As well as the European Renaissance, they instance:

The Mayan Classic Period of 300-900
The early centuries of Korea’s Choson Dynasty (1392-1897)
The Islamic Golden Age from 750-1260
China’s Tang Dynasty of 618-907
India’s Gupta Empire of 320-550
The Mughal Empire under Akbar the Great (1556-1605)

We should avoid adopting a superior Western-centric view of history and appreciate that many parts of the world have exhibited periods of great cultural and technological flourishing.

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A review of the impressive book “Age Of Discovery”

August 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

There are not many books that are so wide-ranging in subject matter and optimistic about the present and future of humankind as “Age Of Discovery”. It argues that, for most people in most places on the globe, this is the best time to be alive in the whole of human history. You can read my review here.

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)

U.S. presidential election (30): has Trump finally gone too far?

August 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Donald Trump has just had what pundits are calling the worst campaign week of any presidential candidate in living memory. It may be that we look back on this week as the turning point in Trump’s seemingly unstoppable march on the White House and the time when he lost the race to the relief of the world (with perhaps the exception of Russia). But he has bad weeks before. He seems to be the teflon candidate and his core support is solid.

An article in today’s “Observer” newspaper summarises the week and its current consequences:

“In a few short days, Trump managed to insult the parents of a fallen war hero, claim that Russia would not invade Ukraine (it has already done so), say his daughter should “find another company” if she were sexually harassed, joke about receiving a Purple Heart, initially refuse to endorse Paul Ryan, the highest ranking elected Republican, and even order a crying baby out of a rally.

The string of unforced errors certainly seemed to affect independent and moderate Republican voters. An NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll put Hillary Clinton at 47% and Trump at just 38%; tellingly, she had moved one point ahead among men, who usually lean away from the Democrats. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey even put Clinton four points ahead in Georgia, where a Democrat hasn’t won a presidential race since her husband, Bill, did in 1992.”

Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)

A review of the new super-villain movie “Suicide Squad”

August 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

It’s the summer and my workload is starting to ease, so this week I managed three visits to the cinema to see some very different films. This latest was the over-the-top but fun “Suicide Squad” which I’ve reviewed here.

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

A review of the new action film “Jason Bourne”

August 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

My two visits to the cinema this week have been to see “Finding Dory” and “Jason Bourne”. These are two films that could hardly be more different but that’s the magic of the movies.

So how does the fifth film in the Bourne franchise compare to the others? See my review here. And, if you want to track back to the previous four movies, you can check out my reviews here.

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

A review of the new animated movie “Finding Dory”

August 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

What’s a 68 year old doing at an animated feature film? Giving a dear five year old friend an afternoon of fun, that’s what. You can read my review here.

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

Are you hooked to your digital devices? Do you fancy a ‘digital detox’?

August 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Fifteen million UK internet users have undertaken a ‘digital detox’ in a bid to strike a healthier balance between technology and life beyond the screen, according to major new Ofcom research. The study of 2,025 adults and 500 teenagers reveals how our reliance on the internet is affecting people’s personal and working lives, leading many to seek time away from the web to spend time with friends and family.

Ofcom’s “Communications Market Report 2016” finds that one in three adult internet users (34%), equivalent to 15 million people in the UK, has sought a period of time offline, with one in ten (11%) doing so in the last week alone. Of these digital down-timers, 25% spent up to a day internet-free; 20% took up to a week off; and 5% went web-free for up to a whole month.1

The most common reasons for taking a ‘tech timeout’ were to spend more time doing other things (cited by 44%) and more time talking to friends and family (38%).

Many people found their time offline to be a positive experience: a third (33%) said they felt more productive, 27% found it liberating, while a quarter (25%) enjoyed life more. However, 16% experienced a ‘fear of missing out’ (‘FOMO’) while on the web wagon, 15% felt lost and 14% ‘cut-off’.

Millions of holiday-goers are purposely abandoning technology. Thirty percent of UK adults have done some form of digital detox holiday. Sixteen per cent of UK adults have purposely visited a destination with no internet access, while 9% have intentionally travelled to a place with neither internet nor mobile phone coverage.

Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)

What is the name of your organisation’s Intranet?

August 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington

Many organisations have an Intranet and give some thought as to what to call it. I do some work with South East Water and learned recently that they call their Intranet Gurgle.

I though that this was a clever name. It is a play on the name of the web search engine Google; it is a reference to the basic business of this water company; and it elicits a smile when it is mentioned.

What’s the name of your organisation’s Intranet?

Posted in Internet | Comments (0)