The truth about obesity: 10 shocking things you need to know
June 24th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
- Nearly two-thirds of the UK population is either overweight or obese.
- Obesity is shortening our lives.
- Obesity could bankrupt the National Health Service.
- It’s an unfair fight between anti-obesity & food industry marketing.
- Obesity took off in the have-it-all 1980s.
- Snacking is a newly created behaviour.
- The food industry is behaving as the tobacco industry did.
- Your brain, not your stomach, tells you when to stop eating.
- By the age of five, it is almost too late to intervene.
- Obese children are increasingly being taken into care.
Each of these facts is expanded in this article.
Posted in British current affairs, Social policy | Comments (0)
England gleaming in the afternoon sun
June 23rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Great weekend weather – and great photo from Reid Wiseman on the International Space Station here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
Today is Manchester Day and here are 10 reasons for Mancunians to be proud
June 22nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I spent the first 23 years of my life in Manchester, going to school and university there, and still have close relatives in the city.
So today we celebrate Manchester Day and here are 10 reasons why Mancunians are so proud of their city.
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
The two new movies I’ve seen this weekend
June 22nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
They were very contrasting in subject and style:
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
The long and the short of it
June 21st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
If you live in the Northern hemisphere – and the majority of the world’s population does – then today is the longest day of the year. So enjoy the daylight, as I will in London.
If you’re an England football fan (football is not my thing), you’ve just witnessed the shortest World Cup run of the national side in the history of the tournament. Expectations of the England side were low and they lived down to them.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
The other D-Day: Operation Bagration launched on 21-22 June 1944
June 21st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
“There were two D-days in June 1944. The landings in Normandy on 6 June, Operation Overlord, recalled so movingly a fortnight ago, are part of British national memory. The other D-day remains virtually unknown both here and in America. Yet it was equally important in ending the second world war. And it also marked the dawn of cold war Europe.
On the night of 21-22 June 1944 the Red Army launched its summer offensive in Belorussia, three years to the day after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. In 1941 the Germans had achieved total surprise, encircling millions of Russian troops and thrusting right up to Moscow and Leningrad. In 1944, however, the tables were turned. Operation Bagration, named for a Tsarist marshal who had fought Napoleon, hit the Wehrmacht with no warning.
In five weeks, the Red Army advanced 450 miles, driving through Minsk to the outskirts of Warsaw and tearing the guts out of Hitler’s Army Group Centre. Nearly 20 German divisions were totally destroyed and another 50 severely mauled – an even worse disaster than Stalingrad.”
Now read on …
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Which company are we talking about?
June 20th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
“the most influential company in the world”
“the world’s most admired company”
“the only company that really mattered at all”
“his system had overtaken the web and the world”
So, which company are we talking about? Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon?
It’s actually a fictional company called “The Circle” which is at the heart of a novel of the same name by the American writer Dave Eggers. I’ve just started to read it.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The consummate storytelling of Khaled Hosseini
June 19th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini has now written three best-selling novels and I have just finished the third of them.
Having admired “The Kite Runner” [my review here] and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” [my review here], I love his latest work “And The Mountains Echoed” [my review here].
“The Kite Runner” was made into a film which I have, of couse, seen [my review here].
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Out of 11 of the major industrialised countries, which has the best health system and which has the worst?
June 18th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The countries are Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.
The best health system is that of the UK which is publicly funded but spends the second lowest amount of money on health care – £2,008 or $3,405 per head.
The worst health system is that of the United States which is privately funded but spends the highest amount of money on health care – £5,017 or $8508 per head (that is two and a half times the UK figure for much worse outcomes).
Who says this? An international panel of experts gathered by the Commonwealth Fund, a Washington based foundation which is respected around the world.
More information here
Posted in Social policy, World current affairs | Comments (0)
As the World Cup runs its course, John Oliver takes apart its governing body FIFA
June 18th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)