The North Korean spy who blew up a plane
April 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
In the current climate of international tension between North Korea and most of the rest of the world, it is no bad thing to be reminded of the true nature of this regime. Today the BBC web site publishes this remarkable story of outright terrorism in 1987.
Of course, North Korea is more than capable of committing similar acts today. As recently as 2010, North Korea was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean ship the “Cheonan” with the loss of 46 lives, although – as I reported in this blog posting – many Chinese seemed doubtful about that.
Surely now even China must realise that North Korea is raising the stakes in a manner which threats serious regional, and even world, conflict. I really hope that Beijing is exercising a restraining influence with Pyongyang.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
What do you do with your holiday photographs?
April 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Like most people, I take a digital camera on my holidays. I really enjoy selecting things to photograph and composing the shots – it’s a part of the holiday. On our recent month-long trip to Australia & New Zealand, I took almost 1100 photos.
While on holiday, I try to do some editing as I go along, looking at the day’s pictures in the evening and deleting the obvious duplicates or failures. On our recent trip, I found this continual editing difficult because we were doing so much and moving so often. At home, I was astonished at how many near-identical shots I had of Uluru at sunset and sunrise.
Once the holiday is over, I upload all the photographs onto my computer. When I have time, I then copy a selection onto my web site and integrate them into my narrative of the holiday. For our recent holiday, so far I’ve only put eight pictures on my web site – all of them in fact copies of photos taken of us doing special things. You can check out the page here.
But I also do something extra with my holiday photographs – something I find few people do these days. I have them printed out. Then I put around 80% of them in albums. I like to think that this makes the pictures more accessible to family and friends and that, in the future, my descendants will find it easier to look at hard copies.
But, of course, making up albums takes a lot of time and this weekend I have only just begun the process for our latest holiday.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
We’ve decided that spring has arrived – at last
April 20th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Here in Britain, we had a long, miserable winter followed by a long, cold spring – although Vee and I managed to be in sunny Australia and New Zealand while the UK had its coldest March for 40 years.
We returned from holiday to experience snow flurries and, over the past couple of weeks, there’s only been the occasional mild day.
However, here in London, it’s been a lovely, warm Saturday. Vee put out the wind chimes and we ate on the terrace for the first time this year.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
The horror of the hashtag
April 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This week, I went to see the new Hollywood movie “Olympus Has Fallen” [my review here], an action film about a terrorist attack on the White House. At the end of the movie, the hero – played by Gerard Butler – is struggling to insert a code at the very last minute which will stop a count down leading to the end of the United States as we know it.
I won’t tell you if he succedes – after all, that would spoil the film for you, wouldn’t it? Anyway our hero is doing fine inserting letters and numbers in the code but falters when he’s instructed to enter a hashtag.
I know the problem. I still use HTML for my web site and a lot of HTML codes use a hashtag. When I converted to a Mac computer, I found that the keyboard had no hashtag on it. You have to use ALT+3.
Does the hero in “Olympus Has Fallen” know this? If not, will somebody tell him in time? See the film and find out.
I liked the joke in the movie at a time of tension. Clearly the scriptwriter used a Mac.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (4)
A short history of coffee
April 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I am in my favourite cafe – “Gaby’s” in central London. I am drinking my favourite drink – cappuccino. I am browsing the web on my iPhone and I found this.
Posted in History | Comments (2)
A new photo of my granddaughter Catrin
April 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Did I mention that I have a granddaughter called Catrin? I did?
Well, I haven’t posted a picture of her for two months and, while I was away in Australia & New Zealand, I did not see her for a month. Believe me, she is growing fast and chattering away.
She is now two and a quarter years old. I love seeing her and I thought that you might welcome an updated photo.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Happy 10th birthday to funkypancake
April 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Dave Simpson is someone I got to know through my telecoms work when he lived in London and I recently touched base with him in his now home city of Auckland on the other side of the world.
Dave never goes anywhere without a camera and everyday he puts at least one photo on his blog which goes by the delightful name funkypancake. He calls the site “an eye for the mundane”.
The project is 10 years old today which is a very special achievement. Check it out here.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
A review of the film “Lawless”
April 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This is not a movie that will appeal to everyone because it is exceptionally violent, but I found it a really impressive piece of film making and you can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Tories still 6% behind in the polls
April 15th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
For all the publicity around the death of Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron’s self-evident wish to cloak himself in the Thatcher garb, the latest political opinion poll still shows the Conservative Party 6% behind in the Labour Party – but, of course, the General Election is not for another two years.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Do we need a religion for atheists?
April 14th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The notion might seem at first to be bizarre and I am someone who has profound problems with much of religion as I have explained in this essay.
But a fair-minded review of religion would have to acknowledge that religion meets some fundamental human needs at an emotional level in ways which are very much lacking in the secular world which can often seem overly materialistic, individualistic and selfish.
Would it be possible to take the essence of some of the rituals and practices of religions and, without subscribing to any of the religious beliefs or metaphysical concepts, translate them into arrangements and institutions which better meet the emotional needs of people in the modern world?
This is the question examined by Alain de Botton in his recent book “”Religion For Atheists” which I have reviewed here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)