“We are Forerunners. Guardians of all that exists. The roots of the Galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun, towards which all intelligence blossoms… And the impervious shelter, beneath which it has prospered.”

Don’t get high on your own supply

Don’t get high on your own supply

A few years back, our good friend The Male Brain brought an internet flame-war to my attention that I thought merited its own post. Normally, I could not care less about such silliness. But the flame-war in question concerned a man who used to be a pretty big deal in...
How to discern the truth

How to discern the truth

The legendary atheist scientist, Stephen Hawking – y’know, the chap who invented time – prefaced his most famous book with an old story about how people can’t see the truth even when it stares them in the face. Here is the version of the story...
Wrong said Fred

Wrong said Fred

Fred Reed’s columns are often good fun to read, as he has a rather acerbic and highly entertaining style. For those who don’t know anything about him, he is quite a prolific writer. He is a US Marine and Vietnam veteran, who was severely wounded in the...
Guest Post: Tame or Be Shredded, by The Male Brain

Guest Post: Tame or Be Shredded, by The Male Brain

Our good friend from Israel, The Male Brain, has very kindly translated another post by a retired Colonel from the Israeli Defence Forces, Tal Braun, for our education and enlightenment. What follows is an abridged and edited version of Col. Braun’s comments on...
Jingoism cannot replace competence

Jingoism cannot replace competence

Former Task Unit Bruiser commander Jocko Willink put out a video recently in which he pretended to be the Commander in Chief of America, and framed a hypothetical correct and proper response to the catastrophe in Afghanistan: View this post on Instagram A post shared...
Wolf law

Wolf law

No, I’m not here to talk about Wolff’s Law, which basically says that if you put the human body under stress in specific ways, the body will react and adapt to it and become stronger. (That, incidentally, is how powerlifters put on vast amounts of muscle...
Didactic Mind, Ep. 82: End of Empire

Didactic Mind, Ep. 82: End of Empire

The Didactic Mind podcast is back to something approaching a sort-of-regular schedule again, and this week’s episode is all about the sudden and quite dramatic collapse of America’s failed Syracuse Expedition in Afghanistan. I talk about the roots of its...
“Apologies for the incontinence”

“Apologies for the incontinence”

Over a decade ago, when I was working for Giant Evil Globobank #1, I went out for a walk to a rooftop party with a colleague of mine who entertained me with stories about all of the hilariously stupid typos made by people dashing off emails in a hurry. Now, I’ve...
Popcorn time

Popcorn time

If you attempted to access the website of Our Beloved and Dreaded Supreme Dark Lord (PBUH) Vox Day the Most Merciless and Terrible, you will undoubtedly have noticed the graphic above when you land on his page. Special thanks to reader and friend JohnC911 for bringing...
Checkmating the Turducken

Checkmating the Turducken

The hottest defence news of the past week has been the unveiling of Russia’s new single-engine fighter jet, the Sukhoi-75 Checkmate. I haven’t commented on it yet, simply because there was a lot of hype surrounding it and it only seems to have died down...