How to fly round the world without using any fuel
March 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I like seeing the world, but I have a low boredom threshold and I enjoy my sleep – so I would be a terrible candidate to fly an experimental aircraft all around the globe.
Swiss pilots André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard will take turns piloting a single seater craft called Solar Impulse 2 for 21,747 miles (35,000 kms) over 12 legs, including five- to six-day stints across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The entire journey will take five months.
These two guys will endure roughly 250 hours each inside a narrow cockpit with no oxygen or temperature control. Temperatures outside will range between -40C to 40C.
Falling asleep for long periods will be impossible as the flight will need constant attention. So Piccard and Borschberg will survive on 20-minute naps every two to four hours.
But I heartily applaud the aim behind the journey which is to pioneer new efficient sources of solar power.
You can read about the planned exploit here.
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)
U.S. presidential election (3): who will be the Republican opponent to Hillary Clinton?
March 8th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
“On the Republican side there are already more than a dozen potential candidates jockeying for position. So 10 months before a single voter will cast a ballot – and 20 months before the 2016 presidential election – the race to succeed Barack Obama has begun.
At the outset of the race the position of the two parties couldn’t be more divergent – Republicans have no clear frontrunner, no candidate of presidential stature and continued intra-party pressure to move even further and further to the far right. Democrats, on the other hand, are united in a way they have rarely been in the past. [Hillary] Clinton is the direct beneficiary of this harmony.
While it is entirely possible that another Democratic aspirant will enter the race between now and the first presidential caucus next January, it is difficult to imagine any scenario in which he or she would supplant her as the party nominee.”
This is the introduction to a piece in today’s “Observer” newspaper on the US presidential election. Almost two years out, it is a most unusual scenario: we are almost certain who the Democratic candidate will be, but have no idea who the Republican candidate will be. This should favour massively Hillary Clinton – but politics often throws up surprises.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
It’s International Women’s Day
March 8th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
There are many forms of discrimination and many cases of inequality but, in the history of humankind, there is nothing that equals the scale and severity of discrimination against women and the inequality which women suffer.
So today. International Women’s Day, I send my love to all the wonderful women in both my personal and professional life and my respect to all women everywhere.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
The naked truth: 11 things you never knew about ancient Greek and Roman bodies
March 7th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
As part of a promotion of a course at London’s City Lit further education college, this interesting list has been prepared:
Well rounded individual
1. The Ancient Greeks were the first to produce free standing, three-dimensional statues. Previously it was more common to carve figures on stone representing only the front or the side.
Poker face
2. Greek statues from the Classical period lack expression, because the Greeks believed that suppressing emotions was a noble characteristic. Public display of human emotion was a sign of barbarism.
Warts and all
3. The Romans didn’t gloss over physical imperfections, and often depicted heroic men as rugged and unconcerned with their looks leading to “warts and all” sculpture.
Measuring up
4. Statues of men often have small genitalia – large or average-sized penises were considered grotesque, comic, or both and were usually reserved for fertility gods, half-animal critters such as satyrs as well as old men and barbarians.
Bronzed beauty
5. Unlike marble, which once broken up has not much use, bronze was always in demand for re-use. As a result, a much larger number of sculptures in marble has been preserved and only twelve bronze ones. Marble was also cheaper than bronze.
Body shop
6. Greek sculptors’ workshops employed cleaners who polished the shiny reddish-brass colour of bronze figures. The Greeks did not appreciate the dark-green patina which occurs from weathering which we are used to seeing today.
Domestic goddess
7. Roman sculptors would knock off miniaturised copies of Greek originals, often in bronze, for keen art-lovers who would show off their collections in cabinets at home.
Waxy wake
8. The Romans used to keep wax funeral masks of deceased family members in the ancestral home, which were worn by mourners at family funerals.
Bathing beauty
9. The ‘Lely Venus’ (housed in The British Museum) is thought to be one of the first sculptures that depicts the goddess of love naked, having been caught out whilst bathing. Soon enough, depicting the goddess naked became the in-thing.
Fun runner
10. The British Museum also houses a rare example of a female runner cast in bronze. Unlike her male nude counterparts, she comes dressed in a short tunic and is shown taking part in the Heraia – a women-only sporting competition akin to the Olympics held in honour of the goddess Hera.
Off your head
11. Some sculptures have been found to have ancient Greek bodies with Roman era heads attached. Sculptors were known make and sell mass-produced, headless, idealised bodies, with portrait heads being attached later.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Middle Name Pride Day 2015
March 6th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Apparently today is Middle Name Pride Day. I had no idea that there was such a name until I heard a reference on the radio.
But … here goes. My middle name is Alessandro which is Italian because my mother was from Naples.
What’s your middle name and why?
Posted in Cultural issues, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
The latest photograph of my granddaughter Catrin
March 6th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Super cute Catrin (just four) models a hat borrowed from a
young Spanish woman whom we befriended at “our favourite cafe”
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Some recommendations for World Book Day
March 5th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I have always loved books and reading and I support World Book Day as a way of promoting writing and literature not just in schools but everywhere. You can read my reviews of a range of fiction works here.
My granddaughter Catrin is going to have a new book for our bedtime reading tonight – our way of celebrating WBD.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
A star is born: the Swedish actress Alicia Vikander
March 5th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
You may not have heard of her but, believe me, you will. After roles in a number of Scandinavian films such as “A Royal Affair” [my review here], she is beginning to appear in English-language movies like “Ex Machina” [my review here].
She is beautiful and talented and has a special relationship with the camera. If you’re interested in the cinema, you’re going to see a lot of her. As explained in this short interview, she has no fewer than eight films scheduled for release this year.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)
British man in secret detention in Ethiopia eight months after rendition
March 4th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I have recently returned from a two-week holiday in Ethiopia, so I am very disturbed about the case of Andargachew ‘Andy’ Tsege.
Tsege, a British national of Ethiopian origin who is Secretary General of the outlawed Ethiopian opposition group Ginbot 7, disappeared at Sana’a airport in Yemen on 23 June 2014 while he was travelling to Eritrea. He had previously been tried in absentia in Ethiopia and sentenced to death for involvement in an alleged coup attempt.
You can read the comments of Amnesty International on the case here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Have you thought of opting for a water meter?
March 3rd, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Today, I chair the last meeting of the Customer Challenge Group at South East Water which has spent three years critiquing the company’s customer engagement programme and resultant business plan for 2015-2020. However, I have signed a two-year contract to chair a successor Customer Panel which will monitor how well the company actually fulfils this business plan.
South East Water is half way through a 10-year compulsory metering programme and Southern Water has just completed a five-year compulsory metering programme. Customers of other water companies can always opt voluntarily for a meter which could cut their water consumption and water bills.
University of Southampton research has shown consumers reduce their water consumption by 16.5 per cent after they receive a metered connection – based on the study of a five-year programme to install nearly half a million water meters in the south-east of England. This reduction is far more than the national average of ten per cent and is mainly achieved very quickly after a meter is installed.
Economists Dr Mirco Tonin and Dr Carmine Ornaghi have been working with Southern Water to examine the impact of the company’s five year universal metering programme (UMP). They examined the consumption habits of more than 200,000 UMP customers over a period of four years from 2010. The researchers found that in total customers were making water savings of more than one and a half times the predicted ten per cent.
Posted in Consumer matters, Environment | Comments (4)