Part the First: Predatory or Not? Over the past six years the biomedical literature has accumulated 494,547 scientific “publications” with “COVID” (case insensitive) somewhere in the paper. A search using “AIDS HIV” as the query returns 204,559 papers over the past forty-five years. Something does not add up here. And that something is the nature […]
Read more...What the Epstein scandal reveals about the conflict for digital sovereignty, currency and the shift between Carl Schmitt’s ‘central domains’
Read more...Elon Musk, on paper the world’s wealthiest human, threatens to go supernova under the pressure of his appearances in the Epstein Files, his suit against OpenAI and Microsoft, the merger of SpaceX and xAI (formerly Twitter), and Tesla’s ever-changing business model.
Read more...Escalation advocates argue that bombing Iran could extract concessions, collapse the regime, or permanently secure Israel. History suggests otherwise. Strategic bombing has repeatedly failed to produce regime collapse, even under extreme destruction. More importantly, even the most maximal hypothetical “success” against Iran would not resolve Israel’s deeper strategic dilemma. The Middle East is not a two-player system, and force cannot substitute for a political end state. Without defined limits and durable arrangements, military action merely resets the cycle of conflict—accumulating risk over time rather than producing security.
Read more...Trump’s mask of unreality is slipping as the narrative collides with inconvenient realities like the Epstein files and election results.
Read more...Part the First: Whalers in Brazil 5,000 Years Ago. Whaling rightly has become anathema in this modern world, except in certain, very limited, circumstances. But the historical origins of whaling remain an interesting question. It turns out that whalers were active in southern Brazil 5,000 years ago: Some of the oldest harpoons ever found reveal […]
Read more...The drive to remake the Middle East runs through Iran. Power shifts, oil markets, and hegemony explain why conflict is escalating.
Read more...The notion that Trump Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and his allies may be falling out of favor with Trump is a delightful distraction, but we shouldn’t let palace intrigue take our focus off the looming civil conflict.
Read more...Silicon Valley’s entry into defense contracting is often framed as a long-overdue modernization of a bureaucratic Pentagon. This article argues that the venture capital model is structurally misaligned with the requirements of strategic defense systems engineering. The rise of a Military–Industrial–Venture Complex risks collapsing governance into product design, accelerating technological deployment without corresponding institutional capacity, and increasing escalation and democratic accountability risks.
Read more...Oracle has financial problems that threaten the Ellison media empire, while technical problems at TikTok complicate the transition to total info control.
Read more...After one full year the grim news on the science front – all fronts really – this Coffee Break is devoted to why science is interesting and fun. And useful, even if its use value cannot be predicted before the fact. Part the First: Ancient Travelers. Or, social networks (not this kind) have always been […]
Read more...Davos 2026 points to a new world order—technocratic, executive and corporate—powered by AI and digital currencies
Read more...American Democrats continue to entangle themselves in issues like ICE and Israel, where their supporters have moved dramatically to their left.
Read more...Emerging Middle Eastern alliances are often dismissed as inconsequential because regional states have a long record of weak and fragmented cooperation. This article argues the opposite: it is precisely the fragility of these alliances that makes them dangerous. Ambiguous commitments, existential threat perceptions, and nuclear capabilities combine to magnify escalation risks, even from routine military incidents.
Read more...Bari Weiss’ CBS tenure so far shows that for Larry and David Ellison, buying a media empire is one thing, imposing total information control is another.
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