Archive for February, 2008


Why a leap day?

February 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

You’ll find an explanation here.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)


When will Earth end?

February 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

There’s a new estimate here.

Posted in Science & technology | Comments (4)


Switching off for E-Day (2)

February 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

I blogged about E-Day yesterday. Regrettably the initiative failed. The web site puts it this way: “E-Day did not succeed in cutting the UK’s electricity demand. The drop in temperature between Wednesday 27 Feb and Thursday 28 Feb days probably caused the amount of electricity use to be higher than expected, as a result of […]

Posted in Environment | Comments (0)


In what country is Berwick?

February 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The location of Berwick-upon-Tweed might seem to be a simple matter. It’s in the UK, right? Yes, but which part of the UK? Between 1147 and 1182, it changed hands between England and Scotland no less than 13 times. Although it has been part of England for five centurie now, a local poll found that […]

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)


Back to Sderot (2)

February 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

A couple of times in the last few weeks, I have blogged about Sderot, small town in Israel that is attacked by Qassam rockets from Gaza on an almost daily basis. In the first posting, I mentioned that I knew two students at Sapir College in the town. Today one of their fellow students was […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)


Switching off for E-Day (1)

February 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

A theme of the entries on this blog this week has been energy. So it’s appropriate that E-Day has just commenced and that I should highlight it on my blog. Energy Saving Day (E-Day) is happening between 6pm today and 6pm tomorrow. Everyone in the UK is being asked: (a) To leave off electrical items […]

Posted in Environment | Comments (1)


Power failures in South Africa

February 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

In the last couple of days, I’ve blogged about the rising price of fuel in Britain but, down in South Africa, they are experiencing regular power cuts as the publicly-owned electricity provider Eskom fails to keep up with demand. Since the African National Congress came to power in 1994, South Africa has doubled the percentage […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)


Reinterpreting the Hadith

February 26th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The most sacred text is Islam is of course the Koran. However, another extremely important text for Muslims is the Hadith, a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad. Therefore it is really interesting to hear that Turkey’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)


Smart meters a smart idea

February 26th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Yesterday, I blogged about how the recent increase in fuel prices is forcing more and more UK households into fuel poverty. One way of reducing fuel usage – which saves money for consumers and reduces damaging emissions – is to install smart meters. The cost is variously estimated at between £6 billion-£13 billion, but the […]

Posted in Environment | Comments (0)


Fuel poverty growing worse

February 24th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

I am now a member of the Board of the New National Consumer Council which, in October, will take over Energywatch, Postwatch and the current National Consumer Council. So I’m really concerned by the recent rises in UK fuel prices to consumers. Fuel poverty is defined as occurring when a household spends more than a […]

Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)