Archive for December, 2011
Waiting for the arrival of The Spaniard
December 23rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In the course of 2011, my most joyful times have been seeing our first grandchild – the beautiful baby Catrin. If you’re a regular reader of NightHawk, you’ll know about Catrin. If not, try putting her name into the search box on the right. Meanwhile my most anxious moments have been reading the blog postings […]
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Discovery of a new sub-atomic particle
December 22nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Physics used to be much simpler. When my parents were at school in the 1930s, they were taught that there is nothing smaller than an atom. When I was at school in the 1960s and studying Physics ‘A’ Level, we were taught that there were three sub-atomic particles: the neutron, the proton and the electron. […]
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Word of the day: ratiocination
December 22nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As explained here, this is the process of thinking rationally and deductively – like Sherlock Holmes in fact.
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A review of “Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows”
December 22nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The cinematic reinvention of the English sleuth in 2009 was such a success that it was clear we had a new franchise in the making and so two years later the old team are back for a second outing with the same leading actors – the brilliant Robert Downey Jr as the eponymous detective and […]
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When ACE became NCU
December 21st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In 1985, I was a national official with a trade union called the Post Office Engineering Union, although most of our members did not work for the Post Office (they were then in newly-created British Telecom) and they were not engineers (they were technicians who liked to think of themselves as engineers). We were about […]
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
When the front door was underground
December 21st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In the mid 1980s. the bitter miners’ strike was over and the headquarters of the National Union of Mineworkers had moved north to Sheffield. At the time, I was a negotiating official with the then National Communications Union and had a meeting at the new NUM offices in Sheffield. When I reached the building, I […]
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Farewell to our special cat
December 20th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In this year’s Christmas letter sent out over the last couple of weeks, we wrote: “In February, our cat Honey will be 20 years old – that’s 96 in human years! She is clearly feeling her age and is happiest when she is within stroking distance of Vee – very high maintenance.” Well, sadly, Honey […]
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The human cost of the Euro crisis
December 19th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Like us, a number of our friends enclose newsletters with their Christmas cards. We enjoy catching up on events in the lives of friends whom we may not have seen for some time – but some of the news can be sad. The most tragic news this year has been from an old friend from […]
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Remembering Vaclav Havel
December 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
As reported here, the playwright, dissident and statesman Vaclav Havel has died aged 75. He was a remarkable man who went from prisoner to president in a matter of months when then Czechoslovakia overthrew communism in the ‘Velvet Revolution’. My wife Vee met him in 200o during his term as President of Czechoslovakia. In a […]
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Labour and unions in the movies
December 18th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I love the movies and, like everyone, I enjoy the escapism that they provide. But some cinema at least should – like all art – reflect reality and show people as they are, so a work that features working people and perhaps even trade unions is to be welcomed. This weekend, I saw a rare […]
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