Are you a healthy weight?
March 10th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
To determine if you are a healthy weight, you need to calculate your body mass index (BMI) which takes account of your gender, age, height and weight. You can check out your BMI here:
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Do you know the price of a postage stamp?
March 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The price of stamps for a standard letter up to 100g will rise by 1p on 29 March. The cost of a first class stamp will increase to 64p, and the cost of second class will rise to 55p.
In addition, Royal Mail will increase the price of sending small and medium parcels by 5p and 6p respectively. The price increases for parcels will apply only to people using post offices; customers purchasing online will see no price rise.
Previously there has been no price difference between purchasing Royal Mail postage in a post office and online. The differential in price is currently small and only affects a limited proportion of Royal Mail services; but it sets a new precedent which is an issue of concern. Many consumer organisations are worried about the impact of online and offline price differentials on consumers who are unable or less able to access online services.
The price differential may also impact on post offices, as any increased use of the online channel could lead to a drop in mail services purchased in post offices, reducing post offices’ income and footfall. Citizens Advice will monitor these wider impacts on consumers.
Citizens Advice has raised concerns with Royal Mail about the complexity of Royal Mail prices. It will be continuing to press for a simpler tariff structure for consumers.
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
Word of the day: millennial
March 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In today’s “Guardian” newspaper, there is a major feature on so-called millennials. But what exactly is a millennial?
Wikipedia states:
“Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when the generation starts and ends; most researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.”
The Guardian” article itself begins as follows:
“They are Generation Curling in Sweden, Generation Serious in Norway, and even Generation John Paul II in Poland. The Chinese call them ken lao zu, or “the generation that eats the old”, and the Japanese have a term scolding them for not giving undivided attention to anything: nagara-zoku, “the people who are always doing two things at once”.
More prosaically, in the US they are called millennials and in the UK and Australia they go by Generation Y. Around the world there is no shortage of descriptive epithets for those born between 1980 and the mid-1990s.”
Posted in Cultural issues, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Word of the day: susurrus
March 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I am currently reading a novel titled “The Book Of Strange New things” by Michel Faber and came across the unfamiliar word ‘susurrus’. I checked it out – it means a soft murmuring or rustling sound or a kind of whisper.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
U.S. presidential election (22): how did it come to this?
March 6th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In an article in today’s “Observer” newspaper, the prospect of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate against Democrat Hillary Clinton causes sheer amazement:
“The bombastic, swaggering, sometimes vulgar billionaire has stunned the political world, plunged the Republican party into civil war and, among the pundit class, relegated the prospect of the 240-year-old republic’s first female president to a footnote. His success has also unmasked a Disunited States wracked by fear and anger and fractured by class, culture, race and educational attainment. The outside world, overjoyed by the election of America’s first black president just eight years ago, is asking: how did it come to this?”
Trump vs Clinton ought to be a slam-dunk – as the Americans would put it – for the Democrats, but the “Observer” piece contains a warning:
“One chilling statistic for Clinton stands out: more than 8 million voters took part in the Republican Super Tuesday contests, while the Democratic turnout was around 5.5 million. This is an almost exact reversal of the figures in 2008. Obama and Trump have absolutely nothing in common except their power to enthuse. What Clinton and Trump share is a power to inspire hatred and mobilise votes not for themselves but against each other. “Hope and change, not so much,” former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said, referring to the coming Clinton campaign. “More like hate and castrate.” “
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the new movie “Deadpool”
March 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This is not a film for everyone’s tastes. But, if you like super-hero movies, are broad-minded, and yearn for something a bit different, this could be for you. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the new movie “London Has Fallen”
March 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
American movies love to show US presidents in peril. Three years ago, we had “Olympus Has Fallen” [my review here] immediately followed by “White House Down” [my review here].
The first of these has now spawned a sequel – “London Has Fallen” – which has just been released and you can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How to make a good speech
March 4th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I started public speaking at school and then university with debating competitions, so I’ve about 50 years experience and I’ve tried to distill my advice here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
U.S. presidential election (21): the delegate count so far
March 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Following all the excitement of Super Tuesday, where do the Democratic and Republican candidates for the presidential election now stand in terms of the actual number of delegates secured?
To win the Democratic nomination, 2,383 delegates are needed. Hillary Clinton now has 595 so she is 25% of the way there. Bernie Sanders has 405.
To win the Republican nomination, 1,237 delegates are needed. Donald Trump now has 319 so he is 26% of the way there. Ted Cruz has 226, Marco Rubio has 110, and John Kasich has 25.
It is looking increasingly likely that the presidential contest will be between Clinton and Trump. Seems like a ‘no brainer’ to me, but these are strange times in politics.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
Things I learned on my latest visit to the British Museum (3): the location of the Parthenon sculptures
March 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This week, I visited the British Museum with a family of Czech friends. Of course, I’ve been to the museum on many occasions but, on each such visit, I always learn something new.
The majority of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon are roughly equally divided between the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Other pieces are held by the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Vatican Museums, the National Museum in Copenhagen, the Kunthistoriches Museum in Vienna, the University Museum in Wurzburg, and the Glypothek in Munich.
Posted in History | Comments (0)