Archive for July, 2008


Free Wellington Chibebe and Lovemore Matombo

July 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Some weeks ago, I did a posting about Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, the President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). They were arrested on 8 May for speaking out about the state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe – or as Robert Mugabe’s government put it “spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the State”. […]

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A success in the family

July 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The author Michael Carr has stated that: “All kids are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others”. I was reminded of this comment this week when I received some news from my younger brother. We were three kids in Manchester in the 1960s. My sister Silvia and I both did well at a […]

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Half a century for NASA

July 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created 50 years ago today. In my teens in the 1960s, I thrilled to the achievements of the Administration and stayed up all night to watch the first moon walk live on television. I was convinced then that by now we would have permanent settlements […]

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Hatred on the Net

July 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

My web site and this blog seek to promote an inclusive and tolerant world view – but not everyone shares my vision. This recent “Economist” article gives many examples of hatred on the Net and what it calls cyber-nationalism and I have a section on my site which examines “Extremism On The Net”. All the […]

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Travelling around

July 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

This morning, I left the house at 5.30 am and I was not back until 9 pm. This 15 and a half hour day was occasioned by a trip from my home in London to the offices of the Scottish Consumer Council in Glasgow for a series of interviews to appoint the Scottish Director of […]

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Randy Pausch’s last lecture

July 28th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Just over three months ago, I did a posting about the Last Lecture given by Randy Pausch, a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States who had been diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and told that he had months to live. Sadly a few days ago, he died […]

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The American presidential election (52)

July 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The rise and rise of Barack Obama continues … Many comparisons have been made with John F Kennedy and certainly such a reference is not lost on Obama’s chief strategic David Axelrod who was inspired by JFK at the early age of five as explained in this profile. Personally I think that Obama has the […]

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Can Gordon Brown survive?

July 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The fall and fall of Gordon Brown continues … The scale of the decline is well described in Andrew Rawnsley’s column for the “Observer”. It is a slow-motion tragedy that has unfolded over a year now with the end seemingly not far from sight. It is a tragedy because this is a throughly decent and […]

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Seven reasons why people hate reason

July 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

My thanks to Nigel for drawing this feature to my attention – although you’ll need to obtain the “New Scientist” magazine for the full story. For all the limitations to reason, I firmly believe that it should guide our lives and our society much more than it does. It is the best guide to truth […]

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The American presidential election (51)

July 24th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

You can read the full text of Barack Obama’s speech to an estimated quarter of a million Berliners today here. I just hope that the manifest support for Obama of so many non-Americans does not lead to an adverse reaction in the USA. America and the world need him in the White House.

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