Archive for January, 2007
If you like jazz …
January 26th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
… you should check out an excellent new radio station, which opened less than a month ago, called The Jazz.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
Is your computer a botnet?
January 25th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Of the 600 million computers currently connected to the Internet, between 100 and 150 million are already part of botnets. Botnets are made up of large numbers of computers that malicious hackers have brought under their control after infecting them with so-called Trojan virus programs. This alarming picture was described by no less than Vint […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (2)
Who’s using the Net?
January 25th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
When I first went on-line in 1995, the Internet was dominated by English speakers but, over the years, this has changed dramatically. Although all the material on my web site and blogs are in English, I’ve always endeavoured to address subjects covering a wide range of countries and cultures. Indeed the latest additions to the […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Ever heard of the serial comma?
January 24th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I know that this may seem strange but I’ve just had an e-mail from someone in the USA asking my view on the serial comma. This arises from my web page “How To Use Punctuation”. So, what is the serial comma? The serial comma is the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (5)
How much tax should we pay?
January 23rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Tax returns and outstanding tax have to be in by the end of this month and today I was in telephone dialogue with Revenue & Customs to establish how much I owe them (it turns out that they owe me). After ten years of a Labour Government and in the run up to a leadership […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
“The God Delusion” (1)
January 23rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
My first book of 2007 is “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins which I’m enjoying enormously. You can read the first chapter here. When I’ve finished the work, I’ll be reviewing it for my web site and incorporating some of the ideas into my web page on “The Trouble With Religion”.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
What do critics know?
January 22nd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Once a week, the “Guardian” nwspaper carries a review of reviews of various current cultural events. This week, among the films considered, is the new release “Babel” starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The “Guardian” gives the movie 3/10, while its sister newspaper the “Observer” rates it 8/10. The […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Only the little people pay taxes
January 21st, 2007 by Roger Darlington
“Large corporations and wealthy individuals are increasingly avoiding their obligation to contribute to society through taxation. With the aid of governments, they are shifting the tax burden further onto ordinary citizens and smaller businesses. Governments claim that revenues are too low to achieve social justice through decent public goods and services; privatisation and cuts in […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
“The Threat To Israel’s Existence”
January 19th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This was the title of a lecture that I attended last night – the sub-title was “Why it’s back and what it means”. The address was given by the American academic Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum and author of 12 books on the region. The event was held at the School of […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
Forgotten world (60): Iceland
January 19th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Dominated for centuries by Norway and Denmark, Iceland became an independent republic in 1944. It only has a population of 292,000, but its citizens enjoy a standard of living among the highest in the world. For many years, the country’s prosperity depended on the fishing industry. While fish still makes up a large proportion of […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)