Archive for February, 2007
Blogging can be dangerous
February 22nd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
An Egyptian court has today sentenced local blogger Abdel Kareem Soliman to prison. During the five-minute court session, the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and one year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak. There ought to be worldwide outrage at this news. You can view […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Michael Meacher declares
February 22nd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
So former Environment Minister Michael Meacher finally declares publicly that he will run for the Labour Party leadership against Gordon Brown. But the BBC
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
Tackling road congestion
February 21st, 2007 by Roger Darlington
The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to “Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” – which I did not sign – has now closed. Below is a response from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
Is your boss a psychopath?
February 21st, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Apparently there are eight personality traits that will tend to confirm your suspicions. Try the test here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
What’s it really like to live in Baghdad?
February 20th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
It’s easy to beome weary with the daily media reports of violence and suicide bombings in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. Nobody knows just how many have been killed since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and there are varied estimates. Dr Saad Eskander, the Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive – a […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
What happened on 9/11?
February 18th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
There was a good programme on BBC2 television this evening examining and debunking some of the conspiracy theories around the 9/11 attacks. Future programmes will examine the Oklahoma bomb and the deaths of Princess Diana and Dr David Kelly. Of course, every country has those who believe conspiracy theories, but it seems to me that […]
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Sego v Sarko
February 18th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
In the summer, both Britain and France will have a new political leadership, but currently it’s much easier to be sure who will be heading the UK than our Continental neighbour. The race for the French presidency – with ballots on 22 April and 6 May – is between the Right-wing Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy […]
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新年快乐 Happy Chinese New Year
February 18th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
To all my Chinese visitors – and most especially our Chinese ‘son’ and ‘daughter’ Zhihao and Hua – a very happy Chinese New Year. I hope that the Year of the Pig will be auspicious for you. There is so much tradition and supersition surrounding this festival and you’ll find a good explanation here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
How to customise your home page
February 17th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
From the very earliest days of the web, browsers had something called a ‘home page’. This was the default web page that would come up when you’d launch your browser and connect to the Net. Most people never change their home pages; they use whatever they were given. This could be the home page of […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Rethinking Trident
February 16th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
In the week of the news that the courts have insisted that the Government needs to conduct a new, more genuine consultation on the future of energy policy in the UK, the democratic Left organsiation Compass has launched a campaign for a proper debate before we rush to renew the Trident nuclear weapon system. A […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)