Archive for April, 2011
Could you be the first Ambassador to Meerkovo?
April 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Full details here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
My heart is still in Syria
April 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
When my wife and I set off for a trip to Syria & Lebanon early last month, some friends thought that we were crazy. But we’d booked the holiday long before the successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the civil war in Libya, and the turmoil in Yemen and Bahrain. Also Syria was quiet with […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
18,000 days of diary
April 15th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
After several failed attempts, I managed to start keeping a diary when I was 12 and my first entry was on Sunday 31 December 1961. Since then, I’ve never missed a single day. This means that now I’m in the 50th year of diary writing and that today marks my 18,000th entry. For eight years, […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
Forgotten World (240): Saudi Arabia
April 15th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
While revolutionary fervour sweeps the Arab world, one country so far hardly affected – except for its intervention to support the ruler of Bahrain – is Saudi Arabia. It sits on more than 25% of the world’s known oil reserves and it is capable of producing more than 10 million barrels per day and rising […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
How much radiation is harmful?
April 14th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The problems with the Fukushima plant in Japan are causing worry around the world about the risk of increased levels of radiation locally but, of itself, radiation is not necessarily harmful. Radiation is a fact of life and present even in the human body. The level of harm is related to both the dose and […]
Posted in Environment, Science & technology | Comments (0)
Forgotten World (239): Sao Tome & Principe
April 14th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Previously a Portuguese colony and now one of Africa’s smallest countries, with a population of a mere 165,000, Sao Tome and Principe consists of two islands of volcanic origin and a number of smaller islets. It is trying to shake off its dependence on the cocoa crop, since falls in production and prices left the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Word of the day: futz
April 13th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As a noun, the word means fool or simpleton. As a verb, it means to pass time in idleness. I was introduced to the word by young kids in our crescent who apparently use it as a substitute for another four-letter word with the same two first letters – and it seems that this is […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A new record: over 7,000 visits in one day
April 13th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Three months ago, I did a posting explaining that, whereas previously, the number of visits to my web site only exceeded 6,000 a day on odd days, that week it had exceeded 6,000 every working day. Yesterday a new record was achieved: the site had more than 7,000 visits. Thank you so much for visiting […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (1)
Forgotten World (238): Howland, Jarvis & Baker
April 13th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Howland Island, Jarvis Island, and Baker Island neighbour one another in the Pacific Ocean. They were claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856. Guano, composed of phosphates, was used as fertilizer in the 19th century, and its collection was highly lucrative. Through the Guano Act, the U.S. gained 79 tiny territories […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
“We’re gonna need a bigger buggy”
April 12th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I was in central London this morning attending a seminar on media literacy at the London School of Economics, so I sought the opportunity to see my granddaughter Catrin again, since her parents live in town. In fact, today Catrin joined her mother at her consultancy company Aequitas which has its office just off Trafalgar […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)