I feel as if we should congratulate voters in Austria for – on the balance – refusing to vote the Far-Right ‘Freedom Party’ to power. In what was a very closely and nervously watched election in Austria yesterday, the Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer (who had won the first round of the election, with 35% […]
I’ve been fascinated by historic letters and correspondence for some time; and I wrote a post covering some of this a while ago. Letters, particularly communications never meant for public consumption, provide a fascinating insight into significant historic or cultural events, times or figures. They also can help to humanise certain figures – both historic […]
Whatever we may or may not think about Fidel Castro and his long era in Cuba (all of which is difficult, complex and debatable), it has to be said that there is something poetically pleasing about the fact that he survived some 634 assassination attempts, outlasted nine US Presidents and became the third longest- serving […]
A couple of days ago, media outlets in the UK were filled with opinion pieces about the case of a girl who had died from cancer. The reason a media fuss was made about it was because the young woman had won a legal claim to be allowed to be cryonically frozen upon her tragic, […]
Before commenting on the protests still going on around America, I want to establish two things first. Firstly, Donald Trump won the election: eventually that will simply have to be accepted. Second, I really don’t have a clear sense of what’s going on at the moment behind the scenes or of what is going to […]
As it is that night of the year, I figured now was the time to have a bit of fun and talk about ghosts. This is actually a long-time favorite subject area for me, as I was fascinated by ghosts, the supernatural and anomalous activity and para-science in general throughout childhood – largely because of […]
The situation around the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, which has been largely glossed over by much of mainstream US news media, appears to be disturbingly and dramatically indicative of the true dynamic – between citizenry on one hand and law-enforcement and state powers on the other – when the giant corporations (i.e: […]
So Hillary is being investigated again by the FBI? The FBI just announced the relaunching of its investigation into Hillary’s emails and personal server, apparently after discovering more emails “that appear to be pertinent to the investigation”. It is hard to tell whether this move really is the serious threat to Hillary’s presidential hopes that […]
As a few days ago marked the fifth anniversary of the murder of Muammar Gaddafi, I decided to mark it with a more low-key, fun-ish look back at Libya’s former national figurehead. A more serious piece on the life and character of one of the most controversial world figures of the 20th century will follow […]
The passing of Peter O’Toole in December 2013 was a sad moment for me. I had a strong personal affection for the man and his work, stemming primarily from my undying love for the film Lawrence of Arabia, which I consider a contender for the greatest movie ever made. But, such was his length of […]
