Archive for October, 2010
What’s that baby doing online?
October 21st, 2010 by Roger Darlington
I recently did a posting about how my unborn granddaughter (we think) already has a presence on Facebook. It seems that it is now very much the norm for babies to have an online presence. A recent study published by Internet Security Firm AVG states 5% of babies under 2 have social media profiles, 7% […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Forgotten World (224): San Marino
October 21st, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Landlocked San Marino, totally surrounded by Italy, is one of the world’s smallest countries. In size it is only 61 square kilometre (23.6 square miles) and the population is a mere 32,000. In 1862, a friendship and cooperation treaty with Italy, which has since been revised and expanded, reinforced San Marino’s independence. Tourism dominates the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Why all the cuts may not happen
October 20th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
After five months of waiting, today we have the Comprehensive Spending Review announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. The headline figure is £81 billion of cuts in order to eliminate the deficit by 2015. You can see the details here. My own position is that the Coalition Government is cutting too much […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (2)
Forgotten World (223): Falkland Islands
October 20th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The British – who control them – call them the Falkland Islands, but Argentina – which lays claim to them – knows them as the Malvinas and in 1982 they went to war over them with the British defeating an Argentinean invasion. The fighting cost the lives of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen. London […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
What system should we have for organ donation?
October 19th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
At the moment, I’m reading a very interesting book called “Nudge” which is all about what the authors – Richard H Thaler & Cass R Sunstein – call “choice architecture” or, put another way, how we can ‘nudge’ people into making the right decisions for themselves. One chapter is all about organ donation and five […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (2)
Forgotten World (222): Guinea-Bissau
October 19th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Formerly Portuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau in west Africa won independence from Portugal in 1974 after a long struggle spearheaded by the left-wing African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). Once hailed as a potential model for African development, Guinea-Bissau – a nation of a mere 1.6 million – is now one of […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Get Online Week 2010
October 18th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Are you online? Of course, you are. That’s why you’re looking at this blog! And you love being an Internaut, don’t you? But, here in the UK, a quarter of all homes are still not connected. Put another way, some nine million people are Internoughts. Get Online Week is a special effort to address this […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Forgotten World (221): Cameroon
October 18th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
It’s one of the regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that too rarely feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 220 entries here. The modern state of Cameroon – an African country of some 19 million – was […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Happy 20th birthday IMDb
October 17th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
The web site Internet Movie Database – universally known as IMDb – is 20 years old today and in the world of the web that’s old. It’s a great site and you can check out the 20th anniversary celebrations here. As regular visitors to NightHawk will know, I’m a massive movie fan. I cross-post all […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The world’s 10 greatest attractions
October 16th, 2010 by Roger Darlington
Any such selection must be subjective, but readers of the “Guardian” have voted for this list of the world’s top ten overseas locations. I’ve been very fortunate in my life and been able to do lots of travel, so I’ve been to eight of the ten places in the list. You can see my notes […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)