Archive for May, 2020
A review of the recent film “Allied”
May 31st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Brad Pitt plays French-speaking Canadian pilot Max Vatan and Marion Cotillard is the French resistance fighter Marianne Beauséjour who team up for an audacious mission in Vichy-controlled Casablanca in 1942. The action then moves to London and occupied France. Apparently inspired loosely by actual events, this film – scripted by the British Steven Knight and […]
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A review of the recent film “The Gentlemen”
May 29th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
You know what you’re getting with Guy Ritchie and this is a quintessentially Guy Ritchie movie: he co-created the story, co-wrote the script, and both produced and directed. So unsurprisingly this crime story, set in London, has a convoluted plot with plenty of violence and bad language plus a fair bit of humour. What makes […]
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A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression, Census Bureau finds amid coronavirus pandemic
May 27th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
One of the countries with the worst record of handling the pandemic is the United States but, as well as a death toll approaching 100,000, there is massive impact on mental health in a nation with poor social programmes and institutions compared to most of Europe. A third of Americans are showing signs of clinical […]
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Which countries are doing best and worst in tackling the coronavirus? Is Britain really doing that badly?
May 27th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Of course, it depends on how you measure this. Do you use the number of confirmed cases which depends massively on the testing regime in that nation? Or the number of deaths confirmed as caused by or involving Covid-19? Or the number of excess deaths over and above what would be expected for the time […]
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A review of the 1941 classic film “Citizen Kane”
May 24th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I’ve just used lockdown to view “Citizen Kane” once more. Widely considered – at least by critics – as the greatest film ever made and nominated for nine Academy Awards, at the time this film actually failed to recoup its costs at the box office and in fact only won one Academy Award (that for […]
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In the age of Covid-19, how far should we be physically distancing?
May 23rd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Ever since the UK started social (or, more accurately, physical) distancing in the face of the coronavirus crisis, we have been observing a 2-metre rule. But where does this guidance come from and is it the ‘right’ measure? In fact, most older people – who are the most vulnerable – are not so familiar with […]
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Who should presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden choose as his running mate? (2)
May 22nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
I have done a posting on this subject before with my own view (Kamala Harris). Now we have the ranking of the “Washington Post” as follows: POSITION POTENTIAL VP CHANGE OVER LAST VP RANKING 1. Kamala D. Harris — 2. Amy Klobuchar DOWN 1 3. Elizabeth Warren UP 5 4. Gretchen Whitmer UP 1 5. Tammy Duckworth UP 4 […]
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The meaningless of so much management and political language
May 21st, 2020 by Roger Darlington
Have you ever heard of … … a problem that was not challenging … a target that was not stretching … a solution that was a silver bullet … a solution that is one size fits all … an organisation that was not on a journey … a situation that was not going forward … progress which was not at pace […]
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Word of the day: anosmia
May 19th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The word means a loss of the sense of smell. This is often accompanied with loss of a sense of taste. One of my grandmothers had this on a permanent basis which meant that she could not smell if she had left on the gas cooker and she did not really enjoy her food. The […]
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A review of the recent film “Jojo Rabbit”
May 17th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
When “Jojo Rabbit” was released at the cinema, I had no wish to see it – for me the idea of a Hitler comedy is an oxymoron. But the film received some excellent reviews and proved popular with viewers. Then I found myself in lockdown during the coronavirus crisis and, with little else new to […]
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