Archive for August, 2016
Why is it Team GB and not Team UK?
August 14th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
It’s been ‘super Sunday’ today for the British in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with the nation storming into second place in the medal table. But why are our competitors called Team GB and not Team UK? Surely Northern Ireland should not be missed out? If only it was that simple. Technically our […]
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A review of the film “Son Of A Gun”
August 14th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Australian filmmakers rarely try to make a crime thriller movie for the international market, but “Son Of A Gun” is an effort that is modestly successful. You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Word of the day: Bildungsroman
August 14th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I came across this word for the first time as a comment on “My Brilliant Friend”, the first of the four Neapolitan novels by Italian writer Elena Ferrante. My summer project is to read the whole series. I learned that the German word is a term of literary criticism referring to a novel of formation, […]
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How long would you like to live? Welcome to the Blue Zone …
August 13th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
“Four areas of the world have been designated as Blue Zones by scientists: Okinawa island in Japan, parts of central-eastern Sardinia, the Nicoya peninsula in northwestern Costa Rica, and the Greek island of Ikaria. Certain traits link most of these areas, where exceptional longevity has been proven. First, most of the populations have been isolated […]
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My heart bleeds for the people of Aleppo
August 12th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Just a couple of weeks before the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, we visited the country for a holiday. The Arab Spring had engulfed Tunisia, Libya and Egypt but, on the surface, all seems quiet in Syria. Every time I see a news item about the situation now in Syria, I remember our […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
As if the Brexit decision wasn’t bad enough, now tea sales have fallen
August 11th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
We can’t blame younger people for the referendum decision – apparently most of them voted for the UK to remain in the European Union. But it seems that we can blame them for the fall in sales of teabags – they drink less tea than older people. In a short feature in today’s “Guardian” newspaper, […]
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U.S. presidential election (31): what about the other candidates?
August 10th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I suppose that either Hillary Clinton or (perish the thought) Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. But these are very strange times politically, so who knows? However, there are other candidates for the White House. There is the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson who is currently polling around 8% – […]
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
Was there really only one Renaissance?
August 9th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I recently read a book called “Age Of Discovery” written by Ian Goldin & Chris Kutarna. This impressive and inspiring work is sub-titled “”Navigating The Risks And Rewards Of Our New Renaissance”. The theme of the book is that, since around 1990, we have been living in a time which is in effect a New Renaissance […]
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A review of the impressive book “Age Of Discovery”
August 8th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
There are not many books that are so wide-ranging in subject matter and optimistic about the present and future of humankind as “Age Of Discovery”. It argues that, for most people in most places on the globe, this is the best time to be alive in the whole of human history. You can read my […]
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U.S. presidential election (30): has Trump finally gone too far?
August 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Donald Trump has just had what pundits are calling the worst campaign week of any presidential candidate in living memory. It may be that we look back on this week as the turning point in Trump’s seemingly unstoppable march on the White House and the time when he lost the race to the relief of […]
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