Archive for August, 2006


The poor of Asia

August 31st, 2006 by Roger Darlington

One of the themes of this blog is that our country is not the world and we should all be more aware of other countries and other cultures. In that spirit, today I draw attention to a new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) produced for this week’s meeting of the Asia and Pacific […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


Who downed Douglas Bader?

August 30th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

My father was trained as an RAF fighter pilot towards the end of World War Two (although he was too young to see action) which is why I am called Roger. My wife’s father was the RAF’s most successful night intruder pilot and this weblog is called NightHawk in his honour (you can read his […]

Posted in History | Comments (3)


“Snakes On A Plane”: the song

August 30th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

My friends are amused at my enthusiasm for the new movie “Snakes On A Plane. However, as I explained in a recent posting, I’m convinced that it’s going to become a cult classic. I’m the only person I know who stays in the cinema for the end-of-film credits but, in this case of this movie, […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)


Roger in trouble (1)

August 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

It’s not me (this time) – but it has involved me. It’s the case of the South Wales postman Roger Annies who has been suspended by Royal Mail for advising customers on his round how to stop receiving what RM calls door-to-door, that is unaddressed and unsolicited mail. Today I’ve done three media interviews on […]

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (2)


What is Kurdistan?

August 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

It would be a pity if tourists stopped going to Turkey because of the recent bombings. It is a fascinating country as I found when I visited Istanbul a couple of weeks before Islamic militants killed the British Consul General and others. The latest bombings are attributed to a group which calls itself Kurdistan Freedom […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


Celebrating Kokoda Day

August 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

Unless you are Australian (and I don’t suppose I have that many Ozzie visitors), you will have no idea that today Australia celebrates Kokoda Day and you will have no knowledge of the Kokoda Track campaign which the day commemorates. Yet the campaign was a turning point in the Second World War and consisted of […]

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This year’s Emmys

August 28th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

Great to see two of my favourite televison shows winning acting awards at this year’s Emmys. Kiefer Sutherland won Best Actor in a drama series for “24” and at last the series took a Best Drama Emmy (see my comments on the show here). Alan Alda took Best Supporting Actor in a drama series for […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)


It’s a SOAP – but not as you know it

August 27th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

During his six and half weeks living with us in London, my 24 year old Czech mate and medical student Vojta – on a traineeship at the Great Ormond Street Hospital – accompanied me to a numberof films, but he was frankly incredulous when I declared that the last one we would see together before […]

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What is a planet?

August 26th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

Amazingly, until this week, there was no scientific agreement on what constitutes a planet. So, since 1930, Pluto has been called one, even though there has been increasing challenges to this classification. At the Interneraional Astronomical Union meeting in Prague this week, a definition was finally agreeed: a planet is a body that orbits the […]

Posted in Science & technology | Comments (1)


What happened to the ozone hole?

August 26th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

For once, a piece of good news about the environment – the ozone hole has stopped growing. The announcement was made this week by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The discovery of the ozone hole over the Antartic was made in 1985 and, at its worst, it expanded to the size of North […]

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