Archive for March, 2020
Some people on social media are claiming that coronavirus is just like flu and that governments and the media are over-reacting
March 27th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
CV is not just flu – it is a new virus and we still have much to learn about it CV is not just like flu – it is much more contagious and will probably prove to be much more deadly. It is far too soon to be sure which measures were most effective and […]
Posted in Science & technology, World current affairs | Comments (0)
How the coronavirus lockdown introduced me to online home schooling
March 26th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
This CV crisis – and especially the resultant UK lockdown – is leading to a much more intensive use of a variety of online communications services by me and very many others. In this first week, I have had a FaceTime chat with one friend, a Skype lunch with another friend, and a Facebook Messenger […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A year of living on London’s South Bank – now such a different experience
March 25th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
A year ago today, I moved home for the first time in 35 years. I went from a four-bedroom house in London’s suburbs to a two-bedroom flat on London’s South Bank. It was a major downsizing operation which involved a substantial process of decluttering. It was stressful but it was a great move. Yet how […]
Posted in My life & thoughts, Uncategorized | Comments (0)
In other news … there is still a ferocious conflict in the Middle East
March 22nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just finished reading a new book called “Black Wave” by Kim Ghattas. Ghattas is a Lebanese writer and Emmy Award-winning journalist who covered the Middle East for 20 years for the BBC and the “Financial Times”. The ‘black wave’ of the title is the tsunami of Islamic fundamentalism that has flooded the Middle East and […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
“I’m still standing”
March 20th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Where does your country come in the World Happiness Report?
March 20th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Since the first World Happiness Report in 2012, four different countries have held the top position: Denmark in 2012, 2013 and 2016, Switzerland in 2015, Norway in 2017, and now Finland in 2018, 2019 and 2020. With its continuing upward trend in average scores, Finland consolidated its hold on first place, and is now significantly […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
If you would be interested in tracking in real time accurate data on the spread of coronavirus worldwide, there is a web site that is doing that
March 18th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Amazingly the site has been set up by an American boy of just 17, Avi Schiffmann, a high school junior from Mercer Island outside Seattle. But the site is using reputable sources such as the Word Health Organisation. You can access the site here. As I write this posting, the global number of confirmed cases […]
Posted in British current affairs, Science & technology, World current affairs | Comments (0)
What was the greatest film ever made? Let me make a nomination.
March 17th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Readers of this blog will know of my love for the cinema. At the weekend, I ‘braved’ the coronavirus to go to the British Film Instiute and see my all-time favourite film on the big screen. Since it was first released in 1962, over a period of almost six decades, I’ve viewed “Lawrence Of Arabia” […]
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“Parasite” becomes highest earning subtitled film
March 14th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The Oscar-winning horror-thriller “Parasite” has become the highest earning foreign language film at the UK box office, overtaking the 2004 Mel Gibson-directed film “The Passion of the Christ”. Curzon, the South Korean film’s UK distributors, has reported that “Parasite” has passed “Passion”’s cumulative total of £11,078,861 on 6 March. “Parasite” was released on 7 February […]
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Coronavirus (or Covid-19): where and who was patient zero?
March 13th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Whenever there is a global pandemic, it is natural to wonder how it all started. We still don’t know for sure where the Black Death of the mid 14th century originated although, in October 2010, medical geneticists suggested that all three of the great waves of the plague originated in China. Similarly there are different […]
Posted in History, Science & technology, World current affairs | Comments (0)