A review of “Cowboys & Aliens”
September 3rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
A mash-up is a film combining two genres. As an example, the wild west meets sci-fi in “Cowboys & Aliens” which I’ve reviewed here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A cultural map of the world
September 2nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The World Values Surveys were designed to provide a comprehensive measurement of all major areas of human concern, from religion to politics to economic and social life and two dimensions dominate the picture: (1) Traditional/ Secular-rational and (2) Survival/Self-expression values.
These two dimensions explain more than 70 percent of the cross-national variance in a factor analysis of ten indicators and each of these dimensions is strongly correlated with scores of other important orientations.
If countries are positioned on a graph using these two dimensions, one has a fascinating cultural map of the world. You can view the cultural map and check out where your country is located here.
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A review of “Super 8”
September 1st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Remember vintage Spielberg movies from the early 1980s? Well, we’re back on this satisfying territory with “Super 8” which I’ve reviewed here.
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Lichtman’s 13 Keys back Obama to win
September 1st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
American professor Allan Lichtman has developed a series of 13 tests which have enabled him to predict correctly every US Presidential election since Ronald Reagan. This week, he called the 2012 election for Barack Obama. Gosh, I hope so; otherwise I might have to leave you Earthlings to it.
You can check out Lichtman’s analysis here.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
Remembering Nicholas Winton
August 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
The media has dubbed him Britain’s Oskar Schindler but his story is by no means as well-known as that of Schindler. He is Nicholas Winton and he is still alive, aged a remarkable 102.
In the months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, he organised groups of Jewish children from Czechoslovakia on to trains from Prague to London. In the process, he saved some 669 lives from almost certain death in the Nazi concentration camps.
A few days ago, Vee and I viewed a documentary about Winton which featured an interview with him and some of those he saved. One of them was Vera Shaufeld with whom Vee used to work at Brent Language Service.
Some years ago, we saw a film about the ‘kindertransport’ entitled “Into The Arms of Strangers” [my review here].
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Remembering Hans Litten
August 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I think I know a fair bit about the Second World War and then I discover something I never knew. Recently it was the story of Hans Litten, a German lawyer who defended victims of Nazism in the courts in the late 1920s and early 1930s, who has just been the subject of a both a dramatisation and a documentary on BBC television.
Astonishingly Litten managed to compel Adolf Hitler to give some three hours of evidence in a 1931 trial where Litten was able to expose the brutality of the SA – the forerunners to the SS – and the responsibility for this of the National Socialist Party.
Hitler was so outraged by this experience that, on the night of the Reichstag fire in 1933, Litten was arrested. He was savagely interrogated and tortured over a period of years before he committed suicide in Dachau in 1938.
Litten is quite well-known in Germany but not elsewhere. His bravery is a reminder that, all around the world today, independent-minded lawyers are standing up to authoritarian regimes to defend their victims and expose tyranny.
Posted in History | Comments (1)
What is this and where is it? (1)
August 31st, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’ll give you a few days to post your answers.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (2)
How are hurricanes named?
August 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Two of our closest friends flew back from New York to London last night, but their flight was delayed by the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. But why was it called Irene?
The naming convention is a bit more complicated than you might think and has changed over time. You’ll find a brief explanation in this article.
Posted in Miscellaneous, World current affairs | Comments (0)
“Are you there Moriarty?”
August 30th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
In both the novel and the film “One Day” [see my reviews here], there is a scene where middle-class English characters play a parlour game called “Are you there Moriarty?”
I had never heard of it before. Have you?
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (1)
A review of “One Day”
August 29th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Like everyone who read it, I loved the novel by David Nicholls [my review here], but the film adaptation [my review here] – released this weekend – was not as successful as it should have been.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (1)