Archive for October, 2008
How high can inflation in Zimbabwe go?
October 18th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
In the mid 1970s, I served as a Special Adviser in the Labour Government led by Harold Wilson and Jim Callahgan. I remember that in 1975 inflation in the UK reached an annual rate of 25%. It was suggested by the media at the time that no modern nation state could survive such a rate […]
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The American presidential election (80)
October 17th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
In the (unlikely) event that Barack Obama does not become President of the United States, he could become a comedian:
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Surfing good for you
October 17th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Apparently new research suggests that, for middle-aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power. A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex reasoning. More information here. So looking through my web site would actually be good for […]
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Who – or what – caused this financial crisis?
October 17th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
There are lots of candidates for blame over the crisis facing the world’s financial markets: the bankers, the speculators, the regulators, the politicians, or all of us for racking up debt and being so greedy. But there’s another possible culprit: computer software. Apparently calculating whether to buy or sell shares – and especially derivatives – […]
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The American presidential election (79)
October 16th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This evening, I spent one and a half hours watching a recording of the third and last debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. This was the liveliest debate of the three because it was up close and personal. McCain kept referring to some character called Joe the Plumber but Obama was once again the […]
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The American presidential election (78)
October 16th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This is a fun page with all sorts of little delights for you to discover as you move and click your cursor.
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First flight in Britain
October 16th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Today is the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in this country – a distance of just 1,390 feet – which was actually made by an American and you can find some information here. Thanks to my father, who trained as a fighter pilot with the RAF, I have a lifelong enthusiasm for aviation […]
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Behind every great Minister ..
October 15th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Let’s forget for the moment that Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during his decade as Chancellor of the Exchequer, presided over the deregulation of the financial markets that has now cost us all so dear. In the last couple of weeks, he and the current Chancellor Alistair Darling have put together an impressive rescue package that […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
The American presidential election (77)
October 15th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“Thanks particularly to the month-long financial crisis, Republicans are in extremely poor shape with the election three weeks away. This means the worst case scenario is now a distinct possibility: a Democrat in the White House, a Democratic Senate with a filibuster-proof majority, and a Democratic House with a bolstered majority.” Sounds great to me […]
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What do you believe?
October 14th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
There’s an article in today’s “Education Guardian” about why people believe in alien abduction based on the work of psychology professor Chris French whom I have heard speak [see posting here]. The piece includes figures from an opinion poll on the beliefs of a representative sample of 1,000 British adults (the figures in square brackets […]
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