Archive for February, 2009
Understanding the Holocaust
February 13th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve done a number of postings mentioning that I was reading “The Nazi Holocaust: Its History And Meaning” by Ronnie Landau. I’ve now finished this excellent work and you can read my review here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Darwin’s bicentenary
February 12th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Today is the bicentenary of the birth of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882). Darwin was the creator of the theory of evolution which has now been proved beyond any reasonable doubt and which has transformed our vision and understanding of the natural world and our place in it. […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (1)
How religious is your country?
February 12th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Based on a recent Gallup poll of 143 countries (China is the most notable exception), there’s some fascinating data and commentary from an American perspective here. A few key points are: “A population’s religiosity level is strongly related to its average standard of living. Gallup’s World Poll, for example, indicates that 8 of the 11 […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Is UFO report a wind up? (2)
February 11th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
A month ago, I did a posting about media reports that a wind turbine in Lincolnshire operated by Ecotricity had broken as a result of being hit by a UFO. At the time, Dale Vince, Ecotricity’s managing director, told the BBC that the UFO theory was “the best … that we have currently got”. I […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Media scrum at Portcullis House
February 10th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I attended a meeting at the House of Commons today and found the entrance to the building besieged by the media. The meeting – convened by the UK Internet Governance Forum – was held in Portcullis House and the strong media presence was not for us but for the bankers about to appear before the […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
Could you read 1,000 novels? (2)
February 9th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I did a posting recently about the difficulty of reading 1,000 novels. I’ve now found the answer.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
Return to “The West Wing” (3)
February 8th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
In this posting, I explained how Vee and me had received for Christmas DVDs of series six and seven of “The West Wing”. Then, in this posting, I reported that we had watched the 22 episodes of series six in just 12 days. We’ve just finished watching the 22 episodes of series seven which took […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
Ten years without my mother
February 8th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
Ten years ago today, my mother died. She was aged 78 – but she had a serious stroke a decade before and her deterioration over the next ten years was terribly sad to behold. Today, I’m travelling up to Leicester to join my younger sister Silvia and my younger brother Ralph and together we will […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
Where to next?
February 7th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I love travelling – the chance to experience different cultures and meet different nationalities and to see the world in a more informed and enlightened way. I’ve been very fortunate and so far managed to visit 52 countries all around the world. You can read about some of my travels here. But I always have […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (4)
The remarkable case of Rudolf Vrba
February 7th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of NightHawk will know, I’m currently reading “The Nazi Holocaust: Its History And Meaning”. The book mentions in passing the case of a Slovak Jew called Rudolf Vrba and I recently saw a television programme about this remarkable story. Together with his friend Alfréd Wetzler, Vrba managed to escape from the Nazi […]
Posted in History | Comments (1)