Archive for February, 2013
Word of the day: metonym
February 11th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
This is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. For instance, Hollywood is used as a metonym for the US film industry and Westminster is used as a metonym for the […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The main contenders for the BAFTAs
February 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
As a massive movie fan, tonight I’ll be watching the BBC1 coverage of the British Academy Film Awards. Seven films have dominated the nominations and I’ve seen them all: “Lincoln” has ten nominations – my review here “Les Miserables” has nine nominations – my review here “Life Of Pi” has nine nominations – my review […]
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How inequality is growing in the UK
February 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“… the top 1% of earners have seen their slice of the pie increase from 7% in the mid-1990s to 10% today, while the bottom half have seen their share drop from 19% to 18%.” This is the headline message from a report to be published this week by the Resolution Foundation, which is trailed […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the film “Lincoln”
February 9th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Two of my great interests are history and politics and so I looked forward to seeing the Steven Spielberg-directed “Lincoln” which I’ve reviewed here.
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The assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich
February 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
The killing of the SS leader Reinhard Heidrich by Czechoslovak parachutists in 1942 was the most high profile assassination of the Second World War. Who took the decision to mount the operation and why? How was the killing carried out and what were the consequences? These questions are answered by historian Callum MacDonald in an […]
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Our travel plans of four years ago: what happened?
February 7th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Exactly four years ago today, I did a posting on this blog about our possible future travel plans. At the time, I had visited 52 countries, but the total is now 57. In that posting, I speculated about five possible future trips. So, what actually happened? Easter 2009 – return trip to Prague to see […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
“Good morning, Viet-nam!”
February 6th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
A good American friend of mine has just started a tour of Vietnam and Cambodia and sent me these observations on the first country: “Vietnam is a country of nearly 90 million on a land mass about one-third the size of Texas, putting it the top 15 of the most populous nations in the world. […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The discovery of King Richard III
February 5th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
In our household, we’re quite excited by the public confirmation today that the body located in the Leicester car park is indeed Richard III. Vee loves television programmes on history and archaeology and has been following the news on this discovery for some months. I’ve always liked the name Richard so much that I gave […]
Posted in History | Comments (1)
A review of the new movie “Flight”
February 4th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Two of my great interests are the cinema and aviation and they come together in the new movie “Flight” starring the brilliant Denzel Washington. You can read my review of the film here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Why capitalism needs fundamental reform
February 3rd, 2013 by Roger Darlington
One of the most frequently occurring political themes of this blog is that we live in societies where income, wealth and power are distributed massively unevenly and unfairly and this creates poverty and unhappiness at the individual level and terrible social outcomes at the national and international level. Therefore I was pleased to see a […]
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs, Social policy, World current affairs | Comments (0)