Archive for January, 2017


The number of Americans killed annually …

January 31st, 2017 by Roger Darlington

… by Islamic jihadist immigrants: 2 … by being shot by other Americans: 11,737 You can find other relevant statistics compiled by the Huffington Post here.

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My review of “La La Land”

January 28th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

You’ve heard so much already about the new musical which is storming the awards ceremonies and you’ll hear a lot more, but does it deserve the hype? Time for you to read my review here.

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Holocaust Memorial Day – and why we have to keep denying the deniers

January 27th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Here in the UK, it is Holocaust Memorial Day as we remember the six million Jews and other persecuted groups who died in the Nazi concentration camps and killing fields in Europe during the Second World War. Today also sees the release of the new film “Denial” about the 1996 court case in London when […]

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Reviews of the book and the film “The Girl On The Train”

January 26th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Seven months ago, I read the novel “The Girl On The Train” by Paula Hawkins and reviewed it here. I have now seen the film adaptation starring Emily Blunt and reviewed it here.

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Are some people never ill? And 9 ways to keep well

January 25th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

There’s an interesting article in today’s G2 supplement of the “Guardian” headlined “The secrets of eternal health”. Not surprisingly. the broad conclusions of the piece are that the notion that some people are never ill is unproven and the idea of supercharging one’s immunity is pretty meaningless. But the article does conclude with nine pieces […]

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The brain is a truly wondrous thing

January 23rd, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Today, I made another hospital visit to a friend who had a serious stroke almost four months ago. He has lost the use of his right arm and right leg and struggles to put together a coherent sentence although, with physical therapy and speech therapy, he is slowly improving and hopes to be allowed home […]

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Word of the day: Selah

January 22nd, 2017 by Roger Darlington

According to the relevant Wikipedia page, Selah is a word used 74 times in the Hebrew Bible – 71 times in the Psalms and three times in Habakkuk. The meaning of the word is not known, but it is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like […]

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I don’t want to be pedantic about the presidency of Donald J Trump but …

January 21st, 2017 by Roger Darlington

… the media is wrong when it describes him as the 45th President of the United States. The first United States President was George Washington, who served from 1789-1797, so that the current President Donald Trump is the 44th to hold the office. However, there have been 45 presidencies. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and […]

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On the day of President Trump’s inauguration, let’s remind ourselves how many votes he and Clinton won

January 20th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Ii stayed up all night on the day of the US presidential election. By the morning, it was clear that Donald Trump had won a clear majority in the Electoral College, while Hillary Clinton had narrowly won more actual votes nationwide. Over the days and weeks that follwed, the difference in the votes polled by […]

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What is the greatest threat to the world from a Trump Presidency? It might just be his denial of climate change

January 19th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

“Trump is the president that corporate luddites have dreamed of: the man who will let them squeeze every last cent from their oil and coal reserves before they become worthless. They need him because science, technology and people’s demands for a safe and stable world have left them stranded. There is no fair fight that […]

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