Archive for August, 2007
Enjoying your leave?
August 13th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Legal entitlement to leave varies enormously around the world. The USA does not have any legal minimum for paid leave – and even many professionals are only given a couple of weeks by their employer. In Canada and Japan, workers are guaranteed only 10 days of paid leave per year. Here in the European Union, […]
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Should we be worried by the American sub-prime mortgage crisis?
August 12th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Wall Street commentator Jim Cramer is …. This is “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer making a passionate plea to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to consider cutting interest rates and, in turn, help the market and the people who are losing their jobs on Wall Street.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
From secret agent to God’s messenger
August 11th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Seven years ago, I spoke at a conference in London organised by an organisation called the Freedom Forum. I was there representing the Internet Watch Foundation – which I chaired for six years – defending the blocking of access on the Internet to images of child abuse. Another speaker at the event was David Shayler, […]
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A special reason to go to the North Pole
August 10th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point.
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Welcome to the world of spintronics
August 9th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Continuing the scientific theme of this week’s NightHawk postings, let’s consider for a moment what might come after microelectronics which is reaching the physical limits of what can be achieved. The successor technology might be something called spintronics (spin-based electronics) which is also known as magnetoelectronics. This is a science which exploits the spin factor […]
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Discovery of new sub-atomic particle
August 8th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This week, NightHawk seems to be focusing on science. Today’s subject is sub-atomic particles, something on which I touched only recently in this posting. Now it may have escaped your notice – it escaped mine at the time – but earlier this summer scientists issued a statement announcing the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle. […]
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Sorting out a million galaxies
August 7th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
At the weekend, Vee and I were in deepest and remotest Kent to visit our friends Derek and Mandy who live in a little village called Broughton-under-Blean. From the balcony of their house, we watched the sunset behind the orchard next to their home. Derek was a colleague of mine in the Research Department of […]
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The unnaturalness of nature
August 6th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
The variations in nature are simply amazing. We all know that there is a metal that is liquid at room temperature: mercury. But do you know about non-newtonian fluids? These are fluids that do not behave like regular liquids. For example, if subjected to sudden stress, a non-newtonian fluid will solidify. These videos show a […]
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Happy 100 days Joshua
August 3rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Three months ago, our dear Chinese friends Hua and Zhihao had a baby boy whose English name is Joshua. Today he was 100 days old and, in Chinese tradition, this is a special occasion. So Vee and I suggested that we take the family to the Ceramics Cafe at Kew Green to make a special […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (4)
Forgotten World (95): Finland
August 3rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Finland experienced hundreds of years of Swedish rule, followed by a further century of Russian control, before Independence was achieved in 1917. However, so long as the Soviet Union existed, Finland had to handle a difficult relationship with its giant eastern neighbour and indeed the Soviet Union invaded in 1939. The collapse of the Soviet […]
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