What did we Google in 2013?
January 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
If you live in the UK, these were the most popular search terms here.
If you live in the USA, these were the most popular search terms here.
You can check out the most popular global searches here.
If you are not British or American and want to check the searches for your country, go to any of these pages and select your country from the search facility at the top of the page. Enjoy.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Annual visits to my web site pass 3 million mark
January 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
OK, I’ve done the sums. In 2013, the number of visits to my web site – which includes my two blogs NightHawk and CommsWatch – was 3,020,367.
I know that not all these visits are human beings but it’s worth being visited by search engines indexing my pages. Besides which, as long as one is comparing like with like, at least one can measure growth and this figure is 18% up on 2012.
Almost 50% of visits are to this blog and another 9% are to my professional blog.
British visitors are by no means the majority which is good because I try to include wide-ranging material of general interest. Most visitors come from the United States and India and others come from Australia, Canada, the Philippines, China and Pakistan.
Thank you so much for your interest and support. Please keep visiting in 2014.
Posted in Internet, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the novel “Everything Is Illuminated”
December 31st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This was the first novel from American Jewish writer Jonathan Safran Foer and I have reviewed it here.
Last year, I read the author’s second novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and you can find that review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Twixtmas: Day Five
December 31st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
You know all about Christmas and New Year. But what do you call the period in-between? Welcome to the five days of Twixtmas where you are being encouraged to make the most of this valuable time.
Day Five is do something for your future. You’ll find five suggestions here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
An overview of the movies in 2013
December 30th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
As any regular visitor to NightHawk will know, I love films and try to see one each week, either at the cinema or on rental. I review briefly all the movies I see for my web site [see here].
But I see nowhere as many films and offer nowhere as full reviews as my friend Lee Johnson. On his blog, he has just produced an overview of the movies of 2013.
He highlights the following trends:
- The lessening importance of the American market
- The growing importance of the Chinese market
- The impact of video games on both cinema attendances and film styles
- The continuation attraction of the franchise movie
- The growing pitch to older viewers
You can check out Lee’s overview here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Twixtmas: Day Four
December 30th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
You know all about Christmas and New Year. But what do you call the period in-between? Welcome to the five days of Twixtmas where you are being encouraged to make the most of this valuable time.
Day Four is doing something for the planet. You’ll find five suggestions here.
Posted in Environment, Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Story time with my friend Daniel
December 29th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Regular vistors to NightHawk will know how much I love to spend time with my granddaughter Catrin who is one month short of her third birthday and currently away with her parents in San Antonio.
But I love all children and especially enjoy reading with them. I recently attended a family reunion in Leicester where I was able to read to a wonderful little boy called Daniel. He is three today and in celebration I share this picture with you taken by my brother-in-law.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A funny (and clever) collection of science jokes
December 29th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Check them out here.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Twixtmas: Day Three
December 29th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
You know all about Christmas and New Year. But what do you call the period in-between? Welcome to the five days of Twixtmas where you are being encouraged to make the most of this valuable time.
Day Three is help a friend. You’ll find five suggestions here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
How close was Hitler to obtaining the atomic bomb?
December 28th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
There is some new speculation here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)