Archive for May, 2014
OMG. Jack’s back – and he’s here in London
May 7th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just watched the first two episodes of the new series of “24” entitled “Live Another Day”. I saw the first four series but then dropped out. I was attracted to the current series because it will only be 12 episodes and it is set in my home city of London. So far, it’s pretty […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Which was the largest empire in world history?
May 7th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Recently I watched a television programme about Genghis Khan and this raised in my mind just how large was the Mongol Empire whose creation he started? I had assumed that the largest empire in history was the British Empire and, on checking out the relevant Wikipedia page, i find that I am not wrong. In […]
Posted in History | Comments (0)
South Africa goes to the polls tomorrow, so here is a short guide to the country’s political system
May 6th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
South Africa is the 12th country – the first in Africa -about which I have chosen to write a short guide to its political system. You can read it here. I will update it when the results of tomorrow’s general election are known. If you are interested in the political systems of other major democratic […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
How three remarkable women of whom you have never heard produced our modern classification of the stars
May 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Edward Charles Pickering (1846-1919) was an American astrophysicist who worked to capture the spectra of multiple stars simultaneously, supported by the so-called Harvard Computers or “Pickering’s Harem”, a team of women researchers under Pickering’s mentorship, to catalog the spectra. This team included Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941), who developed the stellar classification system, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921), who […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Two reviews of “Pompeii”
May 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
You can read the novel [my review here] or see the film [my review here]. They are actually different stories but it’s the same volcanic eruption. Footnote: My late Italian mother was born and brought up in Naples overlooked by Vesuvius and experienced the last major eruption in March 1944.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Two reviews of “The Book Thief”
May 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
You can read the novel [my review here] or see the film [my review here]. It works better on the page than on the screen.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Thomas Piketty: the French economist bringing capitalism to book
May 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I have previously done a posting about “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” by the French economist Thomas Piketty which is a stunning critique of the capitalist system. I explained that few lay people will read it because it is more than 700 pages long with footnotes, graphs and mathematical formulae. So it is good that […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Why is there no limit to the size of the House of Lords?
May 3rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I was recently asked this question by an Australian observer. I explained that there is no fixed number of members in the House of Lords, but currently there are almost 800 active members – many more than in the House of Commons, more than the combined houses of the American Congress or the Indian Parliament […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Thomas Piketty’s “Capital”: everything you need to know about the surprise bestseller
May 2nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I have previously done a posting about “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” by the French economist Thomas Piketty which is a stunning critique of the capitalist system. I explained that few lay people will read it because it is more than 700 pages long with footnotes, graphs and mathematical formulae. So it is good that […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Two wonderful days with my adorable granddaughter Catrin
May 1st, 2014 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of this blog will know, I try to see my granddaughter Catrin – now three and a quarter – once a week and usually I collect her from nursery on Thursday and babysit her that evening while her parents are busy. This week has been different though because her nursery was closed […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)