Archive for March, 2017


Welcome to International Happiness Day

March 20th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

The International Day of Happiness (known as Happiness Day) is celebrated throughout the world on the 20th March. This Happiness Day was founded by United Nations adviser Jayme Illien on 28th June 2012, when all 193 member states of the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted UN resolution 66/281 The International Day of Happiness. As […]

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What do you do when your computer crashes?

March 18th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Anyone who knows me in the real or the virtual world appreciates that both personally and professionally I depend massively on being connected to the Internet. So, if there is one thing which is guaranteed to raise my stress levels, it is a problem with IT. Five and a half years ago, I switched from […]

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Word of the day: abiogenesis

March 17th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Currently I’m reading a fascinating but challenging book by Sean Carroll, an American theoretical physicist. It has the title “The Big Picture: On the Origins Of Life, Meaning Anad The Universe Itself”. One of the subjects discussed is abiogenesis which the origin of life. The truth is that we do not have a single agreed-upon […]

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A review of the new film “Hacksaw Ridge”

March 15th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Even 70 years after the end of the Second World War, there are amazing stories to be told. Hacksaw Ridge was the nickname for the Maeda Escarpment, a location on Okinawa Island defended ferociously by the Japanese against American attack, and this film depicts the heroic tale of Desmond Doss who saved an incredible number […]

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The remarkable story of a four year old Russian girl

March 14th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Think you have problems? Four year old Saglana Salchak woke up to a family crisis in freezing Siberia and trudged five miles in thick snow to reach her nearest neighbour. You can read her astonishing story here.

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“Love Actually” revisited – love it! (2)

March 13th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Some weeks ago, I did a blog posting about the 12 minute follow up to the film “Love Actually” which is being made for Red Nose Day on 24 March 2017.  Today the “Guardian” newspaper has a report from the set of the mini sequel which includes this observation: “[Hugh] Grant sips water and tries to […]

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A review of the new film “Kong: Skull Island”

March 12th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

It seems that you can’t keep a giant ape down and this is at least the fourth Kong movie that I’ve seen following the versions of “King Kong” released in 1933, 1976 and 2005. What makes this one different? It channels “Apocalypse Now” big time, setting the action just after the Vietnam War and deploying […]

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A review of the new film “Manchester By The Sea”

March 12th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

I spent the first 23 years of my life living in what i regard as the original Manchester in north-west England, so I was always going to be intrigued by the title of this film. The small fishing town in Massachusetts is a character in itself and different scenes feature prominently in the cinematography. In […]

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Mindfulness – and the reason for the raisin

March 11th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

A friend of my mine has become a trainer in mindfulness and wanted to try out a session with me. One of the exercises she used involved a raisin as explained in this short video: The experience was strangely peaceful but a bit weird.

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What do you think is the most popular section of my web site? It’s quite a story.

March 7th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

My web site – including my two blogs – receives around 4,000 visits a day or 120,000 a month or almost 1.5M a year. The blogs are actually the most popular locations, but which section on the actual web site do you think is the most visited? It is, in fact, the section titled “Stories […]

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