Archive for January, 2022
What are the assets of the Cayman Islands?
January 14th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
As you might of guessed, this is trick question. Currently I am reading “Seven Ways To Change The World: How To Fix The Most Pressing Problems We Face” by Gordon Brown. In the chapter on tax havens, he reveals that the the territory’s foreign assets are valued at an astonishing 1,500 times the size of […]
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How many passport holders are there on St Kitts and Nevis?
January 14th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
As you might of guessed, this is trick question. Currently I am reading “Seven Ways To Change The World: How To Fix The Most Pressing Problems We Face” by Gordon Brown. In the chapter on tax havens, he reveals that the population of St Kitts and Nevis is a mere 50,000 or so, but that […]
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Three-fold increase of abuse imagery of 7-10-year-olds as IWF detects more child sexual abuse material online than ever before
January 13th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the UK body established by industry to combat child abuse images online. It has just published its annual report and the headline messages are: Record amount of child sexual abuse material taken down after action by IWF. More reports investigated in 2021 than in the whole first 15 years […]
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In American politics, what is the filibuster and why does it need to change?
January 11th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Historically, activity in the Senate has tended to be less partisan and more individualistic than in the House of Representatives with a degree of cross-party co-operation called working “across the aisle”. But this situation has changed dramatically in recent decades with most voting now strictly on party lines. Senate rules permit what is called a […]
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A review of the “The King’s Man”
January 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Following the commercial success of “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2015) and “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” (2017), five years later we have “The King’s Man” which claims to be an origin story for this secret service of English gentlemen. However, none of the characters in the earlier movies feature in this prequel which is set in […]
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A review of the new film “House Of Gucci” – set to win awards
January 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Any film directed by Ridley Scott – now in his mid 80s – is worth seeing and he has given us some absolute classics such as “Alien”, “Blade Runner”, “Thelma & Louise” and “Black Hawk Down”. Most of his movies are action stories but “House Of Gucci” is different. This is a film about character […]
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Here’s some good advice: beware of my holiday destinations
January 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The joke among our family and friends is that, when I choose to visit a particular part of the world for a holiday, something dramatic often happens there. The latest incidence of this recurrent pattern follows my recent posting that this year I’m hoping to visit five of the -stans of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, […]
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Just how common are pandemics? You might be surprised.
January 4th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Currently I am reading “Seven Ways To Change The World: How To Fix The Most Pressing Problems We Face” by Gordon Brown. In his chapter on ‘Preventing Pandemics’, he writes: “Lest we think COVID-19 is a ‘black swan’ and that global pandemics are one-offs, it is worth examining the evidence. Throughout history, more people have […]
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A review of the successful Indian movie “3 Idiots”
January 3rd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This Hindi-language film was released in India in 2009 but I only caught up with it on Netflix on a quiet New Year’s Day over a decade later. The three eponymous characters are far from idiots: they are students at Delhi’s prestigious Imperial College of Engineering but they do have an unconventional approach to life […]
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A review of the new blockbuster “The Matrix Resurrections”
January 3rd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“The Matrix” (1999) was a brilliantly original movie; “The Matrix Reloaded” (mid 2003) was enjoyable but lacked the originality of the first segment; “The Matrix Revolutions” (late 2003) was a disappointment with much of the same and no satisfactory explanation of what it was all about. Now 18 years later we have “The Matrix Resurrections”. […]
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