Archive for September, 2007
What a crazy – but improving – world
September 12th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
The richest 225 people in the world earn the same as the poorest 2.7 billion or some 40% of humanity. The annual takings of criminal gangs around the world are roughly equal to Britain’s GDP or twice the world’s combined defence budgets. Up to 27 million people are held in slavery which is more than […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Happy new millennium
September 12th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
What do you mean, the millennium was almost seven years ago? Not in Ethiopia, it wasn’t. How come? Well, in around AD525, the Roman church amended its calendar, placing the birth of Jesus eight years earlier than had previously been accepted and the Gregorian calendar, as it eventually became known, is the basis for the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
“Atonement” – the book and the film
September 11th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Over the years, I have read some wonderful books and seen some marvellous films – but I cannot recall when I last enjoyed so much both a novel and the movie version of the written work. I refer to “Atonement”. Read my review of Ian McEwan’s book here. Read my review of Joe Wright’s film […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Anyone for a game of conkers?
September 10th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
One really notices the change of seasons by observing the trees and, in my part of London, there are fortunately quite a few trees. On the main road near my home, there are some particularly fine horse chestnut trees and I noticed today that they’ve just started to shed their conkers. I wonder if children […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A really taxing business
September 9th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
In 1972, I was awarded a Political Fellowship from the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust to enable me to work full-time as a researcher in the House of Commons for Rt Hon Merlyn Rees MP, the Labour Party’s Opposition spokesperson on Northern Ireland. I had to sort out my own tax and national insurance. Ever […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
Another “Cry In The Dark”? (1)
September 8th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I was in Leicester all day yesterday visiting my sister who lives in the city. As we wandered around the city centre, the headlines on newspaper hoardings – declaring the mother of missing Madeleine McCann to be a formal suspect – seemed particularly poignant, since the family lives in the village of Rothley near Leicester. […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Not exactly Page Three
September 7th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
If you live in Britain, you’ll need no explanation for the reference to Page Three. However, if you live outside the UK (as many of my readers do), some explanation will be necessary. We have a Right-wing, populist, mass-circulation daily newspaper called “The Sun” which is infamous for featuring each day on its third page […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (6)
Is Wikipedia the best site on the Web?
September 6th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just contributed my 40th column on Internet issues for the communications trade union Connect. This one looks at the outstanding growth and success of Wikipedia. You can read it here.
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
What is a gamma-ray burst?
September 5th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
You may not have heard of the phenomenon known as a gamma-ray burst (GRB), but these things – short-lived bursts of gamma-ray photons, the most energetic form of light – are the most luminous events known in the universe since the Big Bang and they shine hundreds of times brighter than a typical supernova and […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Astride the meridian
September 4th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This week, I revisited the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Greenwich with a very good friend who’s lived in London for decades and never been there. One of the famous features of the place is the location of 0 degrees longitude and one can stand astride a line marking this special […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (7)