How millions will be able to live longer
September 22nd, 2025 by Roger Darlington
In a world awash with depressing news, it is wonderful to learn that we have an AI tool that can predict the chances of any particular individual developing a whole range of diseases which will enable lifestyle changes and medical interventions to extend the lives of millions.
One of the two health databases on which this AI tool has been trained is the British Biobank survey of which I have been a participant for 15 years.
Further information here.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
A review of the new film “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey”
September 21st, 2025 by Roger Darlington
This romantic fantasy is worth seeing for the cast. Good-looking, talented and eminently watchable Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie play David and Sarah, strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and there are cameos from Kevin Kline and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Unfortunately, aside from the cast, there is too little to commend this work from Korean-American director Kogonada (real name Park Joong Eun). The fault is the script by someone called Seth Reiss. The idea is that the GPS from a rented car takes the protagonists to a series of doorways that enables then to revisit and revise earlier memories. Sadly the notion comes over as too slow and too fragmented to work effectively.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the novel “You Are Here” by David Nicholls
September 18th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
The author of the outstandingly successful “One Day” has done it again, crafting an immensely readable and thoroughly enjoyable romantic novel. In the case of “One Day”, the stylistic device was a series of chapters set exactly one year after another. This time, the device is alternating chapters – each very short – from the respective viewpoints of the female and male characters as day by day they traverse the Northern England coast to coast walk popularised by Alfred Wainwright.
Marnie is 38, a copy editor living in London, divorced for many years. Michael is 42 a geography teacher in York, separated for a couple of years. Both have been damaged by their earlier relationships, are alone and lonely, and have not had sex for years. But they are very different: she the more free-spirited and funny, he the more introverted and obsessive. And trudging up hills and down dales in all weathers, all the while staying in indifferent accommodation, presents its own challenges.
Our intrepid middle-aged walkers have long ago left behind “the golden age of friendship, when having a supportive, loving community around you was a far greater priority than the vexed business of family, the strained performance of romance or the sulky obligations of work”. Now they fear that “The risks involved in romantic love, the potential for hurt and betrayal and indignity, far outweighed the consolations”. And yet …
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Populism is gaining traction even in Japan
September 12th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
A disturbing new phenomenon in Japan is the rising popularity of a populist party called Sanseito which loosely translates as “Do It Yourself Party”. In the 2025 upper house election, Sanseito made a significant breakthrough, winning 14 new seats to bring their total in that chamber to 15. They also hold a few seats in the lower chamber.
The party holds many policy positions similar to other populist parties in the democratic world: anti-immigrant, vaccine-sceptic, , nationalistic ideology, anti same sex marriage and LGBT.
You can read my guide to the Japanese political system here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A narrative account of a fascinating trip to Japan
September 4th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
It was April when I went to Japan for a two-week trip, but only now have I pulled together and edited all my blog postings of that time into a continuous narrative.
Reading over my account now, I’m reminded of how much we visited, how much we saw, and how much we learned about this extraordinary country.
You can read my account here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Ever heard of the Overton Window?
August 28th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse. The key to the concept is that the window changes over time; it can shift, or shrink or expand. It exemplifies “the slow evolution of societal values and norms”.
The term is named after the American policy analyst and former senior vice president at Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Joseph Overton, who proposed that the political viability of an idea depends mainly on whether it falls within an acceptability range, rather than on the individual preferences of politicians using the term or concept. According to Overton, the window frames the range of policies that a politician may recommend without appearing too extreme, in order to gain or keep public office given the climate of public opinion at that particular time.
More information here.
It’s an interesting concept that you might like to apply to your own country in recent times. Here, in the UK, ideas like a wealth tax or increased tariffs or a return to EU membership are not currently in the Overton window, but ideas like assisted dying and renationalisation of the water sector and withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights have moved into the window.
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
A review of the book “The Laws Of Connection” by David Robson (2024)
August 19th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Let’s be honest, there is some hyperbole here, starting with the title (social sciences, like psychology and sociology, do not have ‘laws’ in that the sense that physical sciences, such as physics and chemistry, do) and continuing with the subtitle “13 social strategies that will transform your life” (it will take more than reading this book to transform, rather than to improve, your life.)
Having said this, there is an enormous amount of practical advice in this work about building connections and maintaining connections and it is all evidenced, not just with anecdotes from some famous individuals but, more importantly, by an enormous amount of recent research (mainly American), all of which is carefully referenced by this British science writer.
A lot of the problem in connections is misunderstanding:
we overestimate how well we are understood by others in our conversations and how well we think we understand them; we overestimate the difficulty of starting a conversation with a stranger and underestimate how rewarding this connection is likely to be; we overestimate the difficulty in providing a compliment and underestimate how good those receiving a compliment will feel; we overestimate how difficult we would find it to ask for help and underestimate how pleased people would feel to provide help; we overestimate how hard it would be to ask for forgiveness and underestimate how liberating it can be to make amends for our transgressions.
Often small changes in how we express ourselves can make all the difference:
when the message matters, check that you’ve been understood and/or that you have understood; when you want it to be understood how you feel, make an effort to articulate your emotions; to deepen a conversation, ask more questions; value honesty over kindness (but practice both, if possible); practice confelicity which is sharing of joy at another’s success or wellbeing; address disagreements through dialogue rather than diatribe; show compassion (not just to those close to you) and be willing to express vulnerability; reach out to the people who are missing in your life.
Robson has organised his material really well: each chapter deals with one ‘law’ and there are plenty of subheadings; each chapter concludes with a summary and suggested action points; there is a final chapter listing all the ‘laws’; there is is a glossary and references to all the research quoted.
Reading this book may not transform your life, but it can hardly fail to enhance your social connections and therefore make you a little happier.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
The dramatic poverty reductions in Mexico
August 18th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
So much of the news could lead one to think that we live in the worst of times, so we sometimes need to be reminded of good news. We’re told that all politicians are the same and that governments never achieve anything.
Well, the last president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as Amlo), achieved a substantial reduction in poverty levels in his country during his time in office, as evidenced by the most recent data.
In 2018, there were nearly 52 million people living below the poverty line: by the time he left office six years later, that number had dropped by 13.4 million, a decrease of almost 26%. Extreme poverty also dropped from nearly 9 million people to just 7 million. You can read more here.
You might want to understand the political context in which Amol achieved this success. You can read my short guide to the Mexican political system here.
You might wonder why I’m so interested in Mexico. I visited this fascinating country in 2016 and you can read an account of my trip here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the new rom-com with an edge “Materialists”
August 17th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
“Past Lives” (2023) was written and directed by Korean-Canadian Celine Song as a wonderfully-assured debut feature film. I loved it and have now seen it three times. In her second work, Song is again writer and director and, for me, it is another delight.
The structure of the two movies is essentially the same: a young woman makes a choice between two men who each have their attractions. What made the first film so distinctive was that the choice rested on two very different cultures. This time, the choice is fundamentally between two markedly different life styles.
“Past Lives” featured a cast of appealing unknowns, but now Song can deploy the attractions of some winsome stars: Dakota Johnson as a New York matchmaker and Pedro Pascal (“Gladiator II”) and Chris Evans (“Captain America”) as rivals for her affections. The film is a kind of rom-com, but the humour is really a light satire on materialism and, along the way, there is discussion of why we date and what we can expect when we marry.
Once again, Song’s work is loosely autobiographical in that she was herself briefly an NYC matchmaker. Once more, we have a meditation on the nature of relationships. Here she provides an rom-com that, while hardly unpredictable, is thought-provoking about the choices we make and the consequences we face. Recommended.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the latest “Superman” blockbuster movie
August 11th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
If since the 1980s, three actors can portray Spider-Man and no less than six can play Batman, then I guess we can have four representations of Superman: Christopher Reeve (1978-1987), Brandon Routh (2006), Henry Cavill (2013-2021) and now David Corenswet. More significantly, we have a new writer and director James Gunn, who did such a fine job with the “Guardians Of The Galaxy” trilogy, and has done a major rebranding of the caped crusader.
We are plunged straight into a geopolitical crisis with Superman controversially supporting the fictional nation of Jarhanpur against the much stronger fictional invader Boravia (more than a shade of Ukraine and Russia here), while somehow losing a fight for the first time and being rescued by a cute addition to the world of Krypton.
Rachel Brosnahan plays a feisty Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult is the baldy nemesis Lex Luthor in an extensive, and sometimes confusing, character line-up which includes various super-powered men and women and a range of winsome robots (look out for one designated 4 who would rather be called Gary).
It’s all rather silly, but fast-paced and witty with plenty of action and special effects, so I enjoyed it well enough and it’s been successful at the box office.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)