When is a novel not a novel?
January 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Apparently when it’s an “infranovel” which is what French writer Laurent Binet calls his work “HHhH”, the story of the 1942 assassination of the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich.
You can read my review of this unusual book here.
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
Don’t you just love Jodie Foster?
January 15th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I’m a big fan of Jodie Foster.
She’s incredibly bright (a degree from Yale and fluent in French), she’s great looking (ask Cydney Bernard), she’s the parent of two boys, she’s a fine actress (“The Accused”, “Silence Of The Lambs”, “Contact”), she’s an accomplished producer and director, and she has chosen to deal with her sexuality – an open secret for a long time – in her own way.
And she gave a terrific speech at this week’s Golden Globe Awards where she was given a Life Time Achievement Award.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Why is the freezing point of water 32F and not 0F?
January 14th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Believe it or not, this was a question put to me by a colleague today. She had been asked by one of her children and did not know the answer. Neither did it – but I resolved to find out.
The short answer is that the Dutch-German-Polish physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736) chose to make the zero point of his scale the stable temperature of brine: a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride at a 1:1:1 ratio. The second point, at 32 degrees, was a mixture of ice and water without the ammonium chloride at a 1:1 ratio. So, now you know.
If you’re interested in a bit more detail on how the Fahrenheit scale was constructed and evolved, you can find the information here.
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
At last … I obtain the iPhone 5
January 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I must be the only person in Britain who has used the original iPhone for more than five years. I took possession of the iPhone 1 on 13 November 2007 and it has served me brilliantly ever since. I have looked after it and someone in my local O2 store called it “immaculate”.
But, for years, I’ve been thinking that I should up-grade my iPhone to a newer version. The trouble is that Apple kept introducing better and better models and I kept postponing my up-grade.
Until the iPhone 5 came along. Then I knew that it really was time to up-grade – but it has not been a straightforward project.
The first problem was actually obtaining an iPhone 5. Every time I went along to a store or phoned the store, they were out of stock. Finally a friendly O2 member of staff came up with the solution: change my contract and, as part of the process, place an order for the latest iPhone. This worked – and, within a week, I had my black iPhone 5 plus screen protector and case. Thanks, Ketan.
The second problem was transferring all the data from my iPhone 1 to my iPhone 5. I was assured that this was a simple operation and, if I could not do it myself via iTunes, an O2 Guru would talk me through it on the phone. But I was not confident. Fortunately I managed to find a slot with the Guru at my local O2 store this morning. It took him an hour and a quarter, but he successfully transferred everything, including my 1,658 contacts. Thanks, Upul.
I have to say that the iPhone 5 is a thing of beauty – so slim, so light, so fast. Of course, I’m already familiar with the basic operation of the iPhone, but I’m going to love discovering the extra functionality of the 5. I am indeed a jolly Roger.
Posted in My life & thoughts, Science & technology | Comments (2)
How many redundant phrases are there to begin a sentence in conversation?
January 12th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
- “The thing is …”
- “To be honest with you …”
- “To tell you the truth …”
- “Don’t get me wrong …”
- “At the end of the day …”
- “When all is said and done …”
- “When push comes to shove …”
- “In this day and age …”
- “Going forward …”
Please can we have a national agreement that nobody will use these phrases?
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How many redundant phrases are there to end a sentence in conversation?
January 12th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
- “… you know”
- “… you know what I’m saying?”
- “… you know what I mean?”
- “… so to speak”
- “… so to say”
- “… right?”
- “… innit?”
- “… going forward”
Please can we have a national agreement that nobody will use these phrases?
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
How American capitalism sickens and kills its citizens
January 11th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Americans are dying and suffering at rates that we know are unnecessary because people in other high-income countries are living longer lives and enjoying better health. What really concerns our panel is why, for decades, we have been slipping behind.”
This a is the comment of the chair of a panel in the United States which produced the report “US Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health” which was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health. It compares the US with 16 affluent democracies, including Australia, Canada and Japan and many in Europe including Britain.
You can read a short commentary on the report here.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (1)
Beware the next destination of the Darlingtons
January 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of NightHawk will know, Vee and I are enthusiastic travellers around the world. However, in recent years especially, we have had a habit of visiting places which, just before or just after our time there, exhibit troublesome events of either a meteorological or political nature. What do I mean?
- In June 2001, we went to Bolivia [my account here]. In Sucre, we ‘lost’ our flight to La Paz because the airport was closed by fog, so the group rented an old coach, only to find that we could not get out of the city for hours because farmers were mounting a political protest and had blocked the roads with boulders. By the time we were able to depart Sucre, most of our journey to La Paz had to be in the middle of the night when the temperatures at that very elevated altitude were truly bitter in the coldest June on record.
- In March 2008, we went to Cuba [my account here]. A few weeks before our visit, Fidel Castro had to step down from the leadership of the country due to ill health. All the time we were there, people were expecting his successor, his slightly younger brother, Raúl Castro, to announce sweeping economic and political reforms. In fact, reforms came later than anticipated and have been less dramatic than hoped.
- In November 2009, we went to Iran [my account here]. A few months before our visit, the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked off massive street demonstrations classed as the ‘Green Movement’. Some demonstrations – and the repression of them – were still happening when we were there months later and we managed to make contact with a Green activist, whom I had met online, and we had dialogue and dinner at his home.
- In March 2011, we went to Syria [my account here]. In between booking the holiday and making the trip, the ‘Arab spring’ revolutions took pace in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt – nobody had warned us of this eventuality. While we were actually in Syria, things were eerily quiet. A mere week or so after we left, the demonstrations and killings started, leading inexorably to a full-scale civil war with enormous death, destruction and displacement.
- In May & June 2012, we went to Washington DC and New York City [my account here]. Four months later, Hurricane Sandy savaged the north-east of the United States with major power outages and significant flooding.
So, you might ask, where are the Darlingtons going next and what on earth could happen there? I’m glad you asked. We are off to Australia in a couple of months. As you may have noticed, the whole country is currently experiencing record temperatures of up to 40C and above and uncontrollable bush fires in lots and lots of locations.
Ah well, travelling outside Europe is often a challenge.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (3)
10 films that were released in 2012 that you should see in 2013
January 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Over the Christmas/New Year period, I saw a relative who enjoys films but has no time to go to the cinema because of her family and work commitments. She knows how much I love movies and asked me to compile a list of 10 recent releases that she should rent or buy.
I didn’t find this an easy task and started with a much longer list than 10. But here, in no particular order, are 10 films from last year that, if you’ve not seen, you should really enjoy (click on the title to read my review):
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
What a diarist chooses to record on a particular day
January 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This is the time of year when people start a new diary and one finds references to diaries in the media. Since I have kept a diary for 51 years and never missed a day, I’m always interested in the subject of diary-keeping and I was really amused by this letter in the “Guardian” newspaper:
There’s nothing like teenage diaries for putting momentous historical events in perspective (Banalities and bathos, 31 December). This is my entry for 20 July 1969. “I went to arts centre (by myself!) in yellow cords and blouse. Ian was there but he didn’t speak to me. Got rhyme put in my handbag from someone who’s apparently got a crush on me. It’s Nicholas I think. UGH. Man landed on moon.”
Dinah Hall
Lustleigh, Devon
A friend of mine, who drew my attention to Dinah’s lovely diary entry, asked me if I had mentioned the moon landing in my diary entry for that fateful day. I checked and found that this is what I wrote:
Arrived at U.M.I.S.T. at 7.30 pm to watch the Apollo 11 moonflight on TV. With the permission of the Institute, I had arranged for the Union to be kept open all night for the event and Dan had published it with an emergency copy of “What Gives”.
The landing was at 9.17 pm but this was witnessed in sound only and the exact second of touching the moon’s surface was not apparent at the time. At 3.56 am, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon and he was joined by Edwin Aldrin for a moonwalk lasting 2 hours 47 minutes 14 seconds. Meanwhile Michael Collins circled the moon in the Apollo Command Ship.
This was history in the making and on a grand scale, and i watched and listened to every minute of it mainly on I.T.V. It is is difficult to comment on an event of such magnitude and everything that can be said seems to have ben said. But I found the whole episode so unreal, as ghost-like figures floated across the screen like cartoon characters, and it was difficult to work up any genuine excitement. Nevertheless it is a day I will always remember.
I should explain that, at the time, I was 21 and serving a year as sabbatical President of the Students’ Union at the (then) University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology.
Posted in History, My life & thoughts | Comments (1)