Archive for September, 2017
A review of “Reality Is Not What It Seems” by Carlo Rovelli
September 19th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli seems to have replaced British academic Stephen Hawking as the foremost exponent of the latest thinking on basic physics in terms which are generally accessible to a non-specialist readership. For those of us who access Rovelli’s work in English, his first popular work was “Seven Brief Lessons On Physics”, but […]
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A short guide to comparative religions
September 18th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Taoism Shit happens. Confucianism Confucius say, “Shit happens.” Buddhism If shit happens, it isn’t really shit. Zen Buddhism What is the sound of shit happening? Hinduism This shit happened before. Mormonism This shit is going to happen again. Islam If shit happens, it is the Will of Allah. Stoicism This shit is its own reward. […]
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Visit to Georgia (5): Sighnaghi
September 16th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Our third day in Georgia was full of more new experiences. Most of our group took a day trip east of Tbilisi out to the Kakheti region which is the wine-growing district of the country. It was another day of 33F/91F. Our guide was Lasha who had studied at King’s College in London and sported […]
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Visit to Georgia (4): Gori
September 15th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Another day in Georgia and another set of fascinating experiences. Five of us – Silvia and I plus Jim, Leslie and David – hired a car to take us to Gori. This is about 80 km (50 miles) north-west of Tbilisi and around an hour’s drive if (as proved to be the case) your driver […]
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Visit to Georgia (3): Tbilisi
September 14th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Our first day in Georgia was very enjoyable indeed. We are all staying at the Mirabelle Hotel, a small place of just 14 rooms located very centrally on the north side of the river and very close to the imposing, new Sameba Cathedral (built 1995-2004). The group – all friends of Eric and Cindy – […]
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Visit to Georgia (2): the journey out
September 13th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
The journey from London to Tblisi took all day, partly because there are almost no direct flights between the two capitals and partly because there is a three hour time difference between them. So we left home at 7.30 am London time and arrived at our hotel in Tbilisi at 1 am local time. The […]
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Visit to Georgia (1): the country
September 12th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Top of my bucket list is the wish, so long as I have sufficient health and wealth, to have visited as many countries as my age. I am now 69 and I am about to experience my 71st country thanks to the invitation to attend the launch of a book by my good friend Eric […]
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How much and what sort of television do you watch?
September 11th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
Over the past 15 years, I’ve written a regular column on IT issues for a trade union and my latest piece (the 95th) looks at television viewing habits in the UK. Do you watch more or less television than the average Briton and do you watch the channels most popular with UK viewers in real […]
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What are the links between climate change and all these devastating hurricanes?
September 10th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
“Climate change cannot be blamed for the hurricane count in any single season, nor for the occurrence of any single storm, but there are three ways in which it is making the consequences worse. First, although the intensity of a hurricane depends on many factors, warmer seawater tends to promote stronger storms. Average sea surface […]
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A review of the recent Holocaust film “Denial”
September 9th, 2017 by Roger Darlington
When British history writer David Irving sued for libel the American historian and academic Deborah Lipstadt, because she had accused him of being a Holocaust denier, I assumed that he had no chance of winning and that, having been defeated in a court of law, the cause of Holocaust denial would be irredeemably damaged. I […]
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