Happy birthday (and thank you) to Wikipedia
January 15th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
On 15 January 2001, a new online encyclopaedia was born: it was originally called Nupedia. The concept then was to invite experts to contribute articles and, by the end of the first year, they had a grand total of 22. The next year was not that much better.
The plan changed dramatically when the founders decided to use the idea of the wiki which enables any Net user to contribute an article or to edit one. In the first two weeks of the new approach, they had more articles than in the two years of Nupedia.
In October 2007, I wrote a column entitled “Is Wikipedia the best site on the web?” I concluded: “After years of using the site literally every day, I am a huge fan. It is not perfect, it is not brilliantly written, but it is hugely informative and very user-friendly. As a starting point to learn about a topic, it is currently unbeatable.”
At that time, Wikipedia had almost two million articles in English. It now has over seven million. But Wikipedia is a genuinely global resource with material in over 240 languages totalling over 66 million pages.
All this is done by volunteers, anyone can create or edit a page, and the whole thing is free to anyone with an Internet connection.
The inventor of the World Wide Web, the British Tim Berners-Lee, has written in his new book “This Is For Everyone”: “Wikipedia is probably the best single example of what I wanted the web to be” and calls it “an invaluable repository. of human knowledge that I consider one of the modern wonders of the world”.
I use Wikipedia every day. I’m so impressed at its scope and quality and so appreciative of its free availability that I donate to it each month.
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Regulation of the Internet: then and now
January 12th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Once again, we have a fierce debate about Internet content that may not be illegal but could be harmful and is certainly grossly offensive.
In this case, it is sexualised images of people without their knowledge or consent created by the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok supported by the social media site X. In Britain, the matter has been referred to the regulator Ofcom which recently acquired some powers to regulate Internet content through the Online Safety Act 2023.
This debate is not new. Twenty years ago today, I first gave a presentation on why and how the Internet should be regulated. You can study my views here. You will note that, the next day, I gave the same presentation to a meeting of staffers at Ofcom which now effectively has the role which I assigned to “a defined body”.
I didn’t leave it there. In 2011, I actually made a submission to a Communications Review conducted by the Government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport when essentially I made the same case. You can read my proposals here.
It is right that politicians should not rush to regulate a technology that they don’t understand, but politicians do need to listen to those who do comprehend the risks as well as the benefits of new technology and act before the harm becomes too great.
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It’s time for another revolution in Iran
January 10th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
No regime lasts forever. Totalitarian regimes frequently look immovable but often collapse surprisingly quickly. Think of apartheid in South Africa or Communism in Central & Eastern Europe.
What is happening in Iran right now may be the death throes of the current regime. We must hope so.
I visited the country in 2009, a year in which there were massive protests which unfortunately failed to topple the government. My account of that trip includes information on the history of Iran and the nature of the regime.
Then and now the people Iran are crying out for change and justice. But it takes enormous courage to go out on the streets and face the various militias.
After my trip, I was moved to write a short story called “The Man From Iran”. Recently, I viewed an amazing film which will give you a flavour of what is happening in Iran now where there is a news blackout: “The Seed Of The Sacred Fig”.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review pf the new blockbuster movie “Avatar: Fire And Ash”
January 9th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Any film directed by James Cameron is a must-see and any film in his “Avatar” franchise is a veritable spectacular. We had to wait 13 years for the first sequel but only another three years for this third adventure.
As with all the “Avatar” movies, I choose to see this in IMAX and 3D on the largest screen in Britain at the BFI. It’s great fun with lots of action, but the notion of the avatar and the world of Pandora are now much less novel than they were and again the film is far too long. “Avatar 1” was 2:42; “Avatar 2” was even longer at 3:12; and “Avatar 3” has a bottom-numbing running time of 3:17.
Many of the characters are familiar, notably ex-marine, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their possible nemesis Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who was killed in the first film but is back as a Na’vi Recombinant.
But we have a new clan of Na’vi, the Mangkwan, led by the wonderfully evil Vrang (Oona Chaplin). And there are new creatures in the air and the sea. Once more, visually the work is simply stunning.
However, the story is a familiar one: wicked humans with huge military resources, seeking to expropriate the special energy source Unobtainium, are defeated by a combination of nature-loving and spirit-worshipping Na’vi with some help from a variety of Pandora’s wildlife. So a somewhat unoriginal narrative with some pretty leaden dialogue and (did I mention this before?) it is just so long.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the 2021 film “Operation Mincemeat”
January 8th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This is the unlikely – and, for a long time, totally secret – story of a World War Two subterfuge that persuaded Hitler to believe that, in 1943, the Allies were going to make the first invasion of Europe in Greece instead of Sicily.
The film stays close to the true details of the operation, although there is an invented romantic sub-plot to make the work more commercially appealing. This is a war movie with a minimum of action and a great deal of words and, perhaps necessarily, much of the dialogue is expository, but it is all well done with some fine acting, led by Colin Firth as naval officer Ewen Montagu and Matthew Macfadyen as air force officer Charles Cholmondeley.
Note: Mincemeat was based on a 1939 memo, written by Rear Admiral John Godfrey, the director of the Naval Intelligence Division, and his personal assistant, Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, the latter of whom became post-war the outstandingly successful author of the James Bond novels.
Link: Wikipedia page on the Operation click here
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
A review of the popular movie “Crocodile Dundee”
January 8th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
There is a genre of film known as ‘fish out of water’ where the protagonist finds himself or herself in totally unfamiliar surrounding, usually causing much humour and sometimes some fear.
This trope is featured twice in this delightful romantic comedy of 1986: first when New York journalist Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) ventures into the Australian outback in pursuit of a story and then when Mick ‘Crocodile’ Dundee (Paul Hogan)is persuaded to exploit his sudden fame by exploring the strangeness of NYC. The story was inspired by the true-life exploits of Rod Ansell.
The low-budget film was such a major hit that there were two sequels, “Crocodile Dundee II” (1988) and “Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles” (2001), neither of which had the same measure of success.
Note: Sometimes films have real-world consequences. In the making of this movie, Hogan and Kozlowski – in spite of an age difference of almost 30 years – fell in love. He left his wife of 31 years and married Kozlowski, a union which lasted 24 years before she too moved on.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Timeline of major US interventions in Latin America: 1846–2026
January 8th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
- James K. Polk (1846–1848): Mexico. Invasion and occupation during the Mexican-American War, resulting in the annexation of Texas and California. In support of Gringo insurgents, depriving the inhabitants of their land and rights.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1903): Panama. Supported Panamanian independence from Colombia to secure U.S. control of the Panama Canal Zone. Some argue that the previous war with Spain over Cuba was a manufactured invasion.
- William Howard Taft (1912–1925): Nicaragua. Long-term Marine occupation to protect U.S. economic interests and prevent foreign canal construction.
- Woodrow Wilson (1915–1934): Haiti. 19-year military occupation following civil unrest and to secure U.S. financial control.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1954): Guatemala. The CIA-led Operation PBSuccess overthrew democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz after land reforms threatened U.S. corporate interests (United Fruit Company).
- John F. Kennedy (1961): Cuba. The CIA had engineered the replacement of Batista with Castro. Then , the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, where U.S.-trained exiles attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro.
- Lyndon B. Johnson (1965): Dominican Republic. Sent 22,000 troops to prevent a perceived “communist takeover” during a civil war.
- Richard Nixon (1973): Chile. Covert support for the military coup that deposed socialist President Salvador Allende and installed Augusto Pinochet.
- Ronald Reagan (1981–1990): Nicaragua & Grenada.
- Secretly funded Contra rebels against the Sandinista government.
- Launched Operation Urgent Fury (1983) to invade Grenada and oust its Marxist government.
- George H.W. Bush (1989): Panama. Launched Operation Just Cause to depose and capture General Manuel Noriega on drug-trafficking charges. He had previously been a CIA asset, but showed too much independence.
- Donald Trump (2026): Venezuela. Launched Operation Absolute Resolve on January 3, 2026, featuring large-scale airstrikes and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, who was flown to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism charge.
Posted in American current affairs, History | Comments (0)
A review of the 1988 film “Die Hard”
January 7th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This action movie may not be a classic work in the sense of great cinema or of winner of awards, but it has become a commercial and cultural phenomenon. It was immediately a huge box office success, it led to no less than four sequels, and the franchise earned a worldwide total of $1.4 billion. Meanwhile it has come to be regarded as one of the best action films of all time and a requirement of any Christmas television schedule.
John McLane (Bruce Willis) is a New York cop who finds himself in a Los Angeles skycraper when an office Christmas party is taken over by a heavily-armed and ruthless gang led by the German Hans Gruber (the English Alan Rickman). Initially bare foot and wearing just vest and trousers, McLane single-handedly turns the tables on his foes. Essentially the success of the movie was down to its depiction of McClane as a vulnerable and fallible protagonist, in contrast to the muscle-bound and invincible heroes of other films of the time.
The film made a star of Willis, who previously was only known for his television work in “Moonlighting”, and he eventually appeared in all five films in the franchise. How sad that this action hero subsequently fell victim to dementia.
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A review of the award-winning film “Marty Supreme”
January 7th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This is a rather odd story, but it is told with considerable panache at a frenetic pace with an eclectic score. Set in the early 1950s, it centres on the efforts of young, working-class New Yorker Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) to become the world table tennis champion which will require him to beat Koto Endo, the Japanese player who is the current number one. It is inspired by the real-life Marty Reisman (1930-2012), with the Endo character based partially on Hiroji Satoh, but it is more a character study than a sports movie.
I found it to be a rather sad tale because Marty is so consumed with ambition that he will do anything, however illegal or humiliating, to attain his dream which makes him an unappealing character. Yet Chalamet, in the best performance of his short but already outstanding career, is magnificent in a role in which he is rarely off-screen and for which allegedly he spent seven years in training.
Great credit goes to Josh Safdie who both co-wrote and directed this film and there is an enjoyable appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow. In the end though, this is a movie which I admired more than I liked.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A review of the classic film “The Piano” (1993)
January 7th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
An original story told in captivating fashion, this film is a triumph for New Zealander Jane Campion who both wrote and directed it.
The setting is a poor community in a coastal region of 1850s New Zealand. Ada (Holly Hunter), a Scottish widow who hasn’t spoken since childhood, arrives as a kind of mail order bride, with a passion for her piano but no love for her landowning husband (Sam Neill). When he trades the piano to a local plantation worker (Harvey Keitel), Ada is given the chance to win it back, one key at a time, in a fashion which starts as exploitation and becomes something much more amorous with dramatic consequences.
Hunter is mesmerising in a voiceless role where she has to act with her eyes and hands. However, in a film when so much emotion is conveyed in silence, sound is a vital ingredient in the production’s impact: the crashing of the waves, the squelching of the mud and, above all, the music of Michael Nyman. Both behind and in front of the camera, this is an exposition of female will.
Shot on location for a minimal budget of $9M, the film proved to be a great success. Although it didn’t win its Academy Award nominations for best picture and best director, it took the statuettes for best screenplay and best actress.
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