Archive for June, 2017


A review of the book “Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991” by Orlando Figes

June 30th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

This is a work that covers a century of revolutionary history in a main text of just over 400 pages written by the well-known British academic Orlando Figes who teaches at Birkbeck University in London. It has the strengths and weaknesses of any non-fiction book that seeks to cover so much ground in such concise […]

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Word of the day: unicorn

June 28th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

This week, I chaired part of a seminar discussing the impact of Brexit on the UK tech sector. A speaker referred to unicorns and I could not see any and did not know what he was talking about. As always, Google came to the rescue. It seems that he term unicorn has different meanings in […]

Posted in Cultural issues, Miscellaneous | Comments (0)


How much does it cost to elect one member of the US House of Representatives?

June 24th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

This week, Jon Ossoff for the Democrats and Karen Handel for the Republicans faced each other in an electoral contest in what became the most expensive House of Representatives race in history. The candidates, their parties and super Political Action Committees (PACs) poured more than $50 million (£39 million) combined into the effort to win […]

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A review of the newly-released film “Churchill”

June 23rd, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Winston Churchill had a long and complex military and political career but this film – it could just as easily have been a play – concerns a mere few days in that rich life: the last five days of preparation for Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings in June 1944. As a young minister, Churchill had […]

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Thoughts on life from an American friend as he becomes 80

June 22nd, 2017 by Roger Darlington

This is from my good friend Arthur Shostak: From the vantage point of my 80 years I like to think I have learned six lessons worth pondering by others of all ages: First, recognize time passes faster than anything save perhaps the speed of light (and I am not so sure about that calculation anymore). […]

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A review of the new film “Gifted”

June 21st, 2017 by Roger Darlington

The title is a reference to seven year old Mary who has outstanding mathematical skills inherited from her British grandmother and American-British mother. When her mother commits suicide, her uncle Frank spirits her off to Florida in an effort to give her a normal life. The narrative may be a bit trite and the conclusion […]

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What is this thing called the Internet of Things?

June 20th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

You might have heard of something called the Internet of Things or IoT. You might have wondered what it’s all about. My 94th column on IT issues looks at the current state of IoT in the UK and beyond. You can read this short piece here.

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A review of the Tom Cruise movie “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”

June 19th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

The original Jack Reacher movie in 2012, starring Tom Cruise in the eponymous role, was not a huge box office success but it did reasonably and clocked up a lot more revenue in the home entertainment market. I certainly found it enjoyable enough to welcome a return of the Lee Child creation of an American […]

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Never heard of Kamala Harris? You will …

June 18th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Kamala Harris is the  daughter of an Indian American mother and Jamaican American father, She was raised in Berkeley, where she was introduced to civil rights activism from a young age. She served two terms as the district attorney of San Francisco, the first woman to hold the position, before being elected the first female […]

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25 photographs of my recent holiday in Sri Lanka

June 17th, 2017 by Roger Darlington

Last month, I spent two weeks on holiday in Sri Lanka. I blogged on this site about the trip; then I pulled all the blog postings together into a continuous narrative for my web site; now I’ve added 25 photographs to break up and illustrate the narrative. Check it out here.

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