Archive for December, 2014
A review of the new movie “St Vincent”
December 18th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Sometimes I have little choice over the film I see. This happens when I have a few hours between meetings in town and I have to find a movie that is on at a nearby cinema in the current time slot and that I haven’t already seen. This is how I came to view Bill […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Cuba comes in from the cold – at last
December 18th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
As a friend of and visitor to both the United States and Cuba, I am really pleased that, after 54 years, we have the news of a planned normalisation of relations between the two countries. When I had a holiday in Cuba almost seven years ago [my account of the trip here], Fidel Castro had […]
Posted in American current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
What now for Russia? Three possible scenarios to resolve the current crisis. None of them is attractive, some are dangerous.
December 17th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Commenting on the sharp rise in interest rates in Russia, Anastasia Nesvetailova, Professor of International Political Economy at City University London, says: “In the middle of last night, the Russian Central Bank made a desperate attempt to shore up support for the rouble, a move that is unlikely to save the currency or the economy […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (2)
Ever heard of the manic pixie dream girl?
December 16th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
No, neither had I until i was talking to a young woman who has done film studies. It’s a standard character type in certain movies – see here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The Dane who wants to visit every country in the world – without flying and without frills
December 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I love travel to new countries, but 35-year-old Danish Torbjørn Pedersen has taken global travelling to a whole new level. He wants to visit every nation on earth – 193 member states of the United Nations or 203 countries including additional territories. He plans to do all this travelling without taking an aircraft and on a mere […]
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
It’s way time for corporations to pay their fair share of tax
December 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In an article in today’s “Observer” newspaper, Will Hutton puts the case very clearly and concisely: “If companies in Britain paid, proportionally, as much tax as they did in the last year of Mrs Thatcher’s prime ministership, the country would be £30bn better off. There would still be a deficit, but the fiscal situation would […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the best children’s film of 2014
December 13th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, Vee and I took our granddaughter Catrin to see “Paddington” and we all loved it. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (4)
Trouble at the manger
December 13th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
At my granddaughter’s nursery, casting is now complete for the nativity play. She has been cast as an innkeeper but she wants to be an angel (figures). Her best friend has been cast as a donkey but she wants to be Mary (diva). I feel another religious war coming on …
Posted in My life & thoughts, Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Word of the day: disambiguation
December 11th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This week, i had occasion to have a fascinating time with an American academic who has just received a PhD from a British university and is currently studying the whole area of privacy (or lack of it) on the Internet. He is from New York and, on the morning of 9/11, he was working some […]
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
What does your password say about you?
December 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I write a regular column on IT matters for a trade union magazine and the latest piece looks at the fascinating subject of passwords. How people choose their password often tells us something interesting about them. Check out my column here.
Posted in Internet | Comments (4)