Archive for February, 2007
The Milgram experiment
February 16th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I’m currently reading the book “Tricks Of The Mind” by the British magician Derren Brown. This is a really interesting – if badly-written – book. I have just come across his account of the Milgram test – something I’ve heard of before but thought it would be useful to revisit. The Milgram experiment of the […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (1)
How to use punctuation
February 15th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
It’s all Nick’s fault. Nick – who is one of the cleverest and most frequent visitors to my blog – sent me a fun photograph of a misuse of the apostrophe. I used this on the page of my site entitled “How To Use Punctuation”. He in turn posted a comment on the web site […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
It’s John Frum Day
February 15th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Just how easy is it for a new religion to emerge? In his controversial work “The God Delusion” [my review here], Richard Dawkins shows how easy it is by refering to so-called “cargo cults”. According to the Wikipedia explanation: “A cargo cult is any of a group of unorthodox religious movements appearing in tribal societies […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (1)
Can I have your permission?
February 14th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
From time to time, I’m approached by individuals and organisations who wish to use material from my web site, usually for educational purposes – and, of course, I always agree. The latest request comes from a UK organisation called Taecanet Springboard. This service was founded in October 2003, to provide teachers with a easy to […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (1)
How to be healthy
February 13th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
The Life Skills section of my web site is one of the most popular and has become the largest, with today the addition of a 22nd item entitled “How To Be Healthy”. If only I could follow my own advice – but, as family and friends know all too well, I do love my desserts.
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Who is Ganesha?
February 13th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I recently visited London’s Royal Academy where I viewed a special exhibition called “Chola: Sacred Bronzes of Southern India”. Each afternoon, a member of staff gives a short talk on one of the exhibits and, on my visit, I heard an explanation of the statue of Ganesha. He is one of the many Hindu representations […]
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What is Web 2.0?
February 12th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Theer’s a neat little video on YouTube here.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Something you didn’t know about the Chinese
February 11th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Every time, Vee and I see our dear young Chinese freinds Hua and Zhihao – as we did yesterday evening – we learn something new and fascinating about Chinese life and culture. This time, it was how to count to ten using the figures of just one hand. You can see this illustrated here.
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Something you didn’t know about the Czechs
February 11th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
My wife is half Czech and I’ve visited the Czech Republic 20 times, so I notice little cultural differences between the Czechs and the British. For instance, the Czechs do not cross their fingers for luck; they hold their thumbs in a closed fist. You can check out some other cultural differences here.
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Something you didn’t know about Hebrew
February 11th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I’m making my first visit to Israel at Easter, so I’m learning Hebrew. The first part of that sentence is true; the last part is of course a joke. But I am always learning from my Jewish friends and something I discovered this week is that written Hebrew – as well as being constructed from […]
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