Archive for September, 2008
Why are the markets in a such a mess? (1)
September 16th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“The collapse of Lehman Brothers, the swallowing up of Merrill Lynch, the threat to the world’s biggest insurance company, AIG, and the nationalisation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, together with Northern Rock, herald the end of the free-wheeling deregulatory era of finance capitalism that lasted from the early 1980s to 200.” Quote from a […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Should humanism have equal status to faiths?
September 14th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This seems like a good question to pose on a Sunday in a country that still professes to be largely Christian. I think that humanism should be given equal weight in schools to the various religious faiths and there is currently an argument on precisely this subject.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Fun at the festival
September 13th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
For the next few days, Vee and I are hosting a visit by a couple of her relatives from the Czech Republic (Vee is half Czech on her father’s side). The problem is that these relatives don’t speak any English and the little Czech we know we learned 20 years ago when the country was […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Special virus alert
September 12th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Subj: VIRUS ALERT Status: PUBLIC MESSAGE Warning: There’s a new virus on the loose that’s worse than anything I’ve seen before! It gets in through the power line, riding on the powerline 60 Hz subcarrier. It works by changing the serial port pinouts, and by reversing the direction one’s disks spin. Over 300,000 systems have […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Too little too late on fuel poverty
September 11th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
At last the Government has published its package of measures to address the rapidly rising issue of fuel poverty. BCC online has this summary. Is it enough? The consumer watchdog Energywatch issued a statement insisting that: “The lack of political will to tackle fuel poverty is not just disappointing, it approaches negligence. While Government has […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
Winston Churchill travelling fellowships
September 11th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
In 1980, I won a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to visit the USA for five weeks and study that country’s telecommunications system. The Trust is still awarding fellowships and has just advertised the categories for 2008. The closing date for applications is 14 October 2008. More information here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
The American presidential election (64)
September 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
In an earlier posting I commented that:” if the world citizenry was voting in this election, Obama would win by a landslide”. My judgement was confirmed by the news today that a BBC World Service poll found that Obama was favoured by a four-to-one margin across the 22,500 people polled in 22 countries. I agree […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (4)
“The Bleeding Heart”
September 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“Lady Elizabeth Hatton was the toast of 17th Century London society. The widowed daughter-in-law of the famous merchant Sir Christopher Hatton (one-time consort of Queen Elizabeth 1), Lady Elizabeth was young, beautiful and very wealthy. Her suitors were many and varied, and included a leading London Bishop and a prominent European Ambassador. Invitations to her […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (1)
Will the world end today?
September 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Now why would i ask that. Well, today, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva will be switched on. Curving round a vast subterranean chamber, the machine, some 27km in circumference, is the world’s largest particle accelerator. Once it is switched on, it will fire beams of hadron particles in opposite directions at 99.9999991% of the […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (1)
Farewell to the NCC
September 9th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Today the National Consumer Council – which was created by a Labour Government in 1975 – had its last Council meeting and a farewell reception for stakeholders. On 1 October, the NCC will merge with Energywatch and Postwatch to form a new stronger consumer body called Consumer Focus. I am currently on the Council of […]
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)