Taiwan 101
Crash course on WWIII.
Society
Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Part I: SPQR
I was tought history of communists so plebeian were always depicted as oppressed. Well. “So, repeat after me: the patrician/plebeian distinction is not particularly meaningful in the Middle Republic. There are rich plebeian families in the Middle Republic who are… Read More »Collections: How to Roman Republic 101, Part I: SPQR
College Sports is Now Just a Monopoly with First-Degree Price Discrimination and a Labor Market with Lopsided Bargaining Power
Sometimes charging less means you make more. “There’s probably some rich guy out there who would be willing to pay $10,000 to see a Xavier basketball game, especially if Jay Wright came out of retirement for the Muskies to play… Read More »College Sports is Now Just a Monopoly with First-Degree Price Discrimination and a Labor Market with Lopsided Bargaining Power
Three ways to solve problems — Andreas Fragnerl
2 and 3 work great if you are wrong. “there are three ways to approach a problem: Move the world towards the desired state Change your perception of the current state Change your desired state” https://andreasfragner.com/writing/three-ways-to-solve-problems
Collections: Fortification, Part V: The Age of Industrial Firepower
In 21st century we are back to roman camps. “I don’t know that US Army planners aimed to reconstruct a modernized version of the Roman playing-card fort, but the concerns of force protection for an army on the move (and… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part V: The Age of Industrial Firepower
Collections: Fortification, Part IV: French Guns and Italian Lines
Gunpowder helped state formation in Europe. “The impacts of the sudden apparent obsolescence of European castles were considerable. The period from 1450 to 1550 sees a remarkable degree of state-consolidation in Europe (broadly construed) castles, and the power they gave… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part IV: French Guns and Italian Lines
Collections: Fortification, Part III: Castling
Castles are just fortified houses. “In short, home defenses respond to local conditions aiming not for absolute security, but for a balance of security and cost: in safe places, home owners ‘consume’ that security by investing less heavily in it,… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part III: Castling
Collections: Fortification, Part I: The Besieger’s Playbook
Battles purpose was to prevent siege. “the battle is, in this equation, a ‘second order’ concern: merely an event which enables (or prohibits) a siege. As we’ll see, sieges are quite unpleasant things, so if a defender can not have… Read More »Collections: Fortification, Part I: The Besieger’s Playbook
The word ‘religion’ resists definition but remains necessary
Do we even know what religion is? “This difference between a term that refers despite error and one that refers to nothing is the difference between a bad map of a real country and a map of Atlantis. Only the… Read More »The word ‘religion’ resists definition but remains necessary
Rap Guide to Evolution
Evolution, murder and rap.