“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.”

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...
Train CrossShit, lose wars

Train CrossShit, lose wars

I’ve been banging on for a while now about how the US military couldn’t win so much as an egg-and-spoon race at this point, much less an actual shooting war with China or, especially, Russia. Few, if any, of my readers disagree with me – including...
What a man-made daemon looks like

What a man-made daemon looks like

That picture there is of a mentally ill homosexual Brazilian man named Rodrigo Alves, who gained considerable notoriety as the “Human Ken Doll” and spent over $800K on various surgeries. Those surgeries include repeated rhinoplasties that have destroyed...
Armed and fabulous

Armed and fabulous

Does anyone remember a hilarious low-budget 90s comedy film called Down Periscope, starring Kelsey Grammer and Lauren Holly? I do – quite well, actually. It’s a funny, if inconsistent and somewhat badly acted, film: The trailer is actually almost as funny...
Because it’s IDIOTIC, that’s why

Because it’s IDIOTIC, that’s why

Our good friend Dawn Pine sent over an interesting link the other day, from a website in India, of all places – seriously, he reads more from Indian news than I do – about why people who attend CrossFit gyms are quitting the fitness fad: It’s not just...