Archive for August, 2018
A review of the new independent film “Apostasy”
August 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
The title refers to the renunciation of a faith and in this case we are concerned with the Christian denomination of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. As adherents of The Truth, they do not accept blood transfusion, they do not associate with former members who have been disfellowshipped, and they believe that the destruction of the present world […]
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Word of the day: arctophile
August 9th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
It means: someone who has a fondness for teddy bears, usually a collector of them. I saw the word in reference to the new film about Christopher Robin, the friend of Winnie The Pooh.
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A review of the movie “Ant-Man And The Wasp”
August 8th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
After the mega movie that was “Avengers: Infinity War” – a canvas the size of the universe, a team of super-heroes the size of a small army, and a villain the size of Thanos – the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes miniature with this movie – most of the action in San Franscisco, only two super-heroes, […]
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Will Colombia’s peace settlement survive the change of president?
August 7th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Today a new president takes office in the South American state of Colombia. On 17 June, Ivan Duque, the conservative candidate of Democratic Centre – who is alleged to be under the control of the former president Alvaro Uribe – beat the leftist Gustavo Petro (a former member of the guerilla group M-19) standing for […]
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Our universities need to start teaching economics differently
August 6th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
“Despite the pressure on universities to feed the financial industry with young, focused minds, there are efforts under way to broaden the outlook of economics graduates. The Core project was adopted by 13 UK universities last September and has won £3.7m from the Economic and Social Research Council. It is an improvement, albeit an incremental […]
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The rise and fall of the Weimar Republic
August 4th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
In the last couple of weeks, I have attended a set of two lectures at London’s City Literary Institute on the rise and fall of the Weimar Republic in Germany from 1919-1933 delivered by Alison Appleby. Below are some brief extracts from my notes: What were the achievements of the Weimar Republic by 1926? Attempted […]
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A review of the summer blockbuster “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”
August 3rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
For Tom Cruise (now 56) as Ethan Hunt, this is his sixth impossible mission in 22 years while, for writer and director Christopher McQuarrie, this is his second successive contribution to the franchise which previously has always had a new director for each episode. But Cruise and McQuarrie have worked on nine movies together over […]
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Ofcom reports on a decade of digital dependency
August 2nd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Ofcom study shows how a decade of technological revolution has transformed our behaviour One in five people spend more than 40 hours a week online Brits now need constant connection to internet, and are checking their smartphone every 12 minutes Most people in the UK are dependent on their digital devices, and need a constant […]
Posted in Science & technology | Comments (0)
Does anyone else remember the “I’m Backing Britain” campaign of 1968?
August 1st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I’ve recently attended two lectures at the City Literary Institute in central London which took a 50th anniversary look at some of the events worldwide in 1968 when I was a 20 year old university student. Those events included the Vietnam War (especially the Tet Offensive), the assassination of Martin Luther King & Robert F […]
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