Remembering the earthquake in Haiti five years ago today
January 12th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Exactly five years ago today, the people of Haiti suffered a terrible earthquake that registered a catastrophic 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale. What was the result and what has happened since?
- The death toll will never be known but estimates vary between 90,000-300,000.
- The number of people displaced was around 1.5 million.
- A cholera epidemic which started later that year has killed a further 9,000.
- According to one UN leader, the money needed in international aid is $2.2 billion.
- The amount of money pledged so far by international donors is $407 million – just 18% of the total required.
Source: article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper
Posted in History, World current affairs | Comments (0)
Maggie Gyllenhaal and “The Honourable Woman”
January 12th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
This Christmas, at my request, I was given the DVD box set of the BBC Two mini series “The Honourable Woman” which was screened in the summer of 2014.
This weekend, Vee and I started to watch the series and we were very impressed by the performance of American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal in the eponymous British role.
So it was great to see this morning that Maggie has won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie.
Footnote: We eventually viewed the eight episodes in four sittings over just five days because the mini-series is so good. It is densely plotted, excellently scripted, brilliantly acted and superbly shot.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the film “Taken 3”
January 11th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Liam Neeson can act (think “Schindler’s List”) and late in years has become a surprise action hero, but “Taken 3” [my review here] should be the end of this franchise.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Do you like films that have a political theme?
January 11th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of NightHawk will know, I’m a big film fan. I enjoy most genres except horror and (usually) musicals. I’m very interested in politics, so I’m attracted to movies with a political setting or a political subject.
I’ve devoted a section of my web site to such political films and reviewed 67 of them here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
100 radical heroes who changed Britain
January 10th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I was brought up and educated in Manchester which I left at the age of 23. I regularly return to the city where one of my favourite locations is the People’s History Museum.
The museum has been hit by funding cuts and, as a way of raising new funds, it is inviting funders to sponsor one of 100 radical heroes who changed Britain at a cost of £3,000 a time. It’s a great list – see it here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
My first experience of an audio boom courtesy of the TSI
January 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I’ve recently been appointed by Ofcom to chair the Consumer Forum for Communications and the Trading Standards Institute – a valued member of the CFC – kindly gave me a minute to make what they call an audio boom.
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
The love that lasted 65 years before they died only days apart
January 9th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
It’s a story that sounds too romantic and tragic to be true.
The wife of a World War Two veteran who left his nursing home to go to France for D-Day commemorations has died just days after her husband.
Bernard Jordan sparked a police search when he left the care home in Hove to join fellow veterans in June.
Irene Jordan, 88, died on Tuesday – a week after her husband. They were married for more than 65 years.
You can read more about Bernard and Irene here.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Why 2015 will be longer than 2014
January 8th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
No – it’s not a leap year. But this year is to last a second longer than 2014.
The decision was made this week by the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS). A leap second is to be inserted at the very end of 30 June.
Why? All is explained here.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
#jesuischarlie – remembering the Paris victims
January 8th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
- Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, 47
- Cartoonists Jean “Cabu” Cabut, 76, Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac, 57, Georges Wolinski, 80 and Philippe Honore, 73
- Economist and regular magazine columnist Bernard Maris, 68, known to readers as Uncle Bernard
- Mustapha Ourrad, proof-reader
- Elsa Cayat, psychoanalyst and columnist, the only woman killed
- Michel Renaud, who was visiting from the city of Clermont-Ferrand
- Frederic Boisseau, 42, caretaker, who was in the reception area at the time of the attack
- Police officers Franck Brinsolaro, who acted as Charb’s bodyguard, and Ahmed Merabet, 42, who was shot dead while on the ground
Source: “Le Monde” newspaper and other French media
And, of course, the policewoman shot today.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the film “The Theory Of Everything”
January 7th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
This is an amazing story rendered in brilliant fashion with a simply outstanding central performance.
Read my review here and then go see the movie.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)