Archive for September, 2007
Sibelius anniversary
September 20th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Fifty years ago today, the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius died. I first came across his music 40 years ago when I was 19. At the time, I lived in Manchester and started to go to concerts given by the Halle Orchestra at the Free Trade Hall. The orchestra’s conductor was the great John Barbirolli and […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
Bullshit Bingo
September 18th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This is a game that you can play at any meeting or conference – check it out here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (3)
A doubling of my KT collection
September 17th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Kate “KT” Tunstall is a young Scottish singer and songwriter with a distinctive raspy voice. You can check out her official web site here. I enjoyed her first CD “Eye To The Telescope” and this week I’ve been playing her second CD “Drastic Fantastic”. You can sample her CDs here – I especially like the […]
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The New Europe
September 16th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This evening, I watched the first programme in a series of seven called “Michael Palin’s New Europe”. The series is being shown on Sunday evenings on BBC1 and they will cover 20 countries in Eastern Europe. I have an intense interest in this part of the world, mainly because my wife is half Czech and […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Thoughts wing around world
September 16th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
For eight years now, I’ve been sending out by e-mail a “Thought For The Week” – usually on a Sunday. More than 400 have now been dispatched and you can read them all here. I started the practice when I was Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union and at first it only went […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
Are mobiles harmful to health?
September 15th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This week saw the publication of a 64-page study from the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme. The programme is funded to the tune of £8.8M and has taken six years. It collated the work of 28 studies it has backed as well other research from around the world. And the conclusion of the report? […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Another “Cry In The Dark”? (2)
September 15th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
A week ago, I blogged here about how the increasingly feverish speculation over the alleged involvement of missing Madeleine McCann’s parents in her supposed death reminded me of the Australian case of Lindy Chamberlain. Today it is reported that the Australian mother herself, now 59 year old Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, has spoken out in support of […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Who built Lord Ram’s bridge?
September 14th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Lord Ram’s bridge links India with Sr Lanka and the name would suggest that it was built by Lord Ram, the Hindu God. Indeed this video clip shows the construction by the God and his monkey friends. The trouble is that, in support of a project to develop a shipping canal in the area, Indian […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Remembering Tomas Masaryk
September 14th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Outside of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, few people have probably heard of Tomas Masaryk but, in those two countries, he is warmly remembered as the founding father of the state of Czechoslovakia which existed from 1918 to 1993. Today is the 70th anniversary of his death and an opportunity for a wider audience to […]
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Renovated station on track
September 13th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I recently had occasion to use St Pancras station in London in order to visit my sister in Leicester. Now this station used to be one of the worst in the city but, in two months time, it will be formally re-launched and display the results of a mammoth renovation process. It’s going to look […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)