A review of the new movie “Ready Player One”
April 13th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
The much anticipated and hugely hyped latest directorial offering from cinematic wunderkind Steven Spielberg is visually stunning, set substantially in a fantastical virtual world of 2045 called the OASIS. An early visit to the OASIS involves a race and the experience is genuinely thrilling. The movie is also visually rich with an unbelievable number of allusions to (mainly 1970s and 1980s) pop culture – by some estimates around 300 so-called Easter eggs. It seems that every scene, every wall, every item of clothing features some (often subtle, even opaque) reference.
This is an enormous artifice to place on the shoulders of a largely young and under-known cast, notably Tye Sheridan as Parzival/Wade and Olivia Cooke as Art3mis/Samantha and the only stars in the work are British actors Mark Rylance and Simon Pegg who are hardly recognisable in their roles. Above all, this is a film which needs a more engaging plot as the discovery of three keys is just so, well, like a video game.
The problem could be that I’m not in the demographic at whom the movie is pitched and with whom it is doing so well: I’ve never played a video game and a lot of the pop culture appearances simply passed me by (for instance, I haven’t see “The Shining” and don’t want to). The clue is in the source material, since the movie is based on a young adult novel by Ernest Cline. But I acknowledge that for many cinemagoers – especially younger ones – “Ready Player One” is going to be a smash that will need to be seen several times.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The government’s recognised markets aren’t working — now it’s time to fix them
April 12th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is the headline of a blog posting by Citizens Advice about the Government’s Consumer Green Paper published this week.
Citizens Advice highlights four issues especially:
- Consulting on creating an independent consumer advocate for telecoms. Telecoms is increasingly critical to our lives and our economy and yet — unlike all other essential markets — there’s no statutory independent advocate. We look forward to the government taking necessary steps to address this.
- Developing scorecards for suppliers in essential markets to hold them to account for outcomes, and name and shame poor performers.
- Giving the Competition and Markets Authority a new direction, signalling a shift in what good markets look like. The government wants to see them focus more on protecting consumers, incorporate behavioural economics and help fix the country’s productivity crisis.
- Considering new standards for how people with mental health conditions and cognitive impairments are served in essential markets.
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
British political institutions (1): the constitution
April 11th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I like to attend short courses at the City Literary Institute in central London and I’ve just started a six-week course on “British Political Institutions”. I already know quite a lot about this subject and have written a website essay on the topic, but there is always more to learn.
The first session of the course was delivered by American lecturer Dale Mineshima-Lowe and covered the British constitution or lack of it. Among the things I learned were the following:
- Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia are the only countries in the world without a codified constitution.
- The oldest constitution is that of the United States which dates back to 1789.
- The least frequently amended constitution is that of the USA – 27 changes in almost 230 years.
- The most frequently amended constitution is that Mexico – more than 500 changes in around 100 years.
- The shortest constitutions are those of Jordan, Libya and Iceland, each of which is just 2,000-4,000 words.
- The longest constitution is that of India at 146,000 words.
You can read more about the British political system in my guide here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
It’s National Siblings Day
April 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Well, at least in most parts of the United States, its is – see here.
I’m blessed with a great sister Silvia in Leicester and a great brother Ralph in Manchester and a great half brother Chris near Winchester, so today I’m going to declare publicly how much they mean to me.
Siblings are very special.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Another visit to Prague to see my Czech mates
April 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
One of my best friends, before his premature death, was a Czech doctor from Prague called Pavel who died in a London hospital 24 years ago. You can read my obituary for him here.
I have kept in touch with his wife and three children and seen them regularly in Prague and sometimes in London. Over the years, I’ve attended the wedding of the eldest son and the wedding of the daughter and this weekend I’m going to Prague for the wedding of the youngest son.
Pavel would be so proud of his children: the two sons have both become doctors while the daughter did an economics degree. It is wonderful to see each with a partner who makes them happy.
As for me, this will be my 28th visit to Prague in a period of 30 years and you can read my notes on this wonderful city here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Ever heard of the African revolutionary Thomas Sankara?
April 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
My second granddaughter is named Kara Jo – the second name after the Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered and the first name after the African revolutionary who was assassinated. I confess that I had not previously heard of Sankara.
However, as it happens, there is currently a play in London called simply “Sankara” and earlier this week I went along to a performance. The venue was a small, fringe theatre called “The Cockpit”. There is no stage but four flights of seats around a floor-level square where the actors perform.
The play has been written and directed by Ricky Dujany and the largely black cast is headed by Ike Chuks as the eponymous soldier/politician. It is a fascinating story although the play itself is quite heavy-going politically.
Thomas Sankara came to power in a coup in 1983 in the former French West African colony of Upper Volta which he renamed Burkina Faso which means “land of upright man”. He pioneered a raft of radical economic and social reforms but became increasingly dictatorial and was himself overthrown in a coup of 1987.
You can learn more about the play here.
You can learn more about Sankara here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
Could China invade Taiwan?
April 4th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
As if the world needed any more to worry about, the “Guardian” today has an article which begins:
“China could do to Taiwan what Russia did to Crimea if Beijing’s relations with Washington, strained by an expanding trade war and military rivalry in the East and South China seas, deteriorate further. The warning from maritime security experts follows a series of recent Chinese moves to put pressure on Taiwan’s pro-independence government.”
The piece concludes:
“The worry now is that China, aware of Trump’s vulnerability over North Korea, angry at his tariff war and sensing his lack of interest in the western Pacific’s military balance may be tempted to test US resolve over Taiwan. Inviting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to the White House in a phone call last week, Trump appeared to have forgiven and forgotten all about Crimea. So how safe, really, is Taiwan?”
You can check out the article here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Antarctic melting underneath much faster than we thought
April 3rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Most of the news in the media is about specific events involving specific people, but often what’s going on underneath – sometimes literally – these headlines is a more significant story. An example is this “Guardian” news item which begins:
“Hidden underwater melt-off in the Antarctic is doubling every 20 years and could soon overtake Greenland to become the biggest source of sea-level rise, according to the first complete underwater map of the world’s largest body of ice.
Warming waters have caused the base of ice near the ocean floor around the south pole to shrink by 1,463 square kilometres – an area the size of Greater London – between 2010 and 2016, according to the new study published in Nature Geoscience.”
Posted in Environment | Comments (0)
It’s the centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force
April 1st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I suppose it was inevitable that I would grow up with a lifelong interest in the RAF and aircraft because my father was a fighter pilot in the service at the end of the Second World War although he was too young to see action.
Many years later, I married the daughter of a famous Czech night intruder pilot of the Second World War and wrote his biography entitled “Night Hawk”.
If you’re interested in the RAF and the Second World War, including the role of the Spitfire and the Hurricane, you might like to check out the aviation section of my web site.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
What proportion of Americans have a passport?
March 30th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
We know that it is low compared to most other developed countries – but how low? and is it still that low? I found myself asking these questions when, earlier this week, the actor and activist Sean Penn was interviewed by Trevor Noah on “The Daily Show”. He quoted a figure of 28% for the proportion of Americans with a passport.
I’ve now checked and actually Penn is way off. The current figure is 42%. Thirty years ago, the figure was a mere 3%, but it rose gradually so that, in 2007, it was 27%.
The pace of growth accelerated further in January 2007 when U.S. citizens travelling by air between the USA and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda were required to have a valid passport. Previously, it was possible for them to enter those countries without one, but the law was changed in the aftermath of 9/11.
At 42%, the US figure is still much lower than the UK which is 76%, but the USA is a huge landmass and Britain is a small island. At 42%, the proportion is still low – but it’s probably not as low as you thought and, in the next few years, a majority of Americans should have a passport. Now they need to travel abroad more often and more widely to gain some appreciation of the wider world and the States’ place in it.
More information and a graph here.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)