The Endpapers of Empire

As Castalia Shipping reminds us that WAR AND PEACE is starting to ship out from the warehouse and flexes its new pallet jack, Castalia Library has both revealed the unique endpapers for THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF BYZANTIUM Volume One as well as shown off the newly bound-and-warehouse-bound STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS.

The HYPERGAMOUSE campaign is within sight of its third stretch goal and John C. Wright has published the first book in his 12-book Star Quest series, Space Pirates of Andromeda. You can also watch the recent Arkhaven Nights in which we discussed his new book.

Space Opera must be Great! Gallant! Gigantic! Grandiose!
This tale told by a Grandmaster vows to return the glory that was lost!
Remember the days gone by, when science fiction was fun?
Now new hope is here!
If you are weary of weak, wan, woke and wasted works, your wait is ended!
Here is an epic, as grand as any tale of old — here you will hear wonders told!

Of course there is a Space Princess, and Space Pirates galore, and an Evil Galactic Empire.

Of course there is a super-weapon known only as the Great Eye of Darkness!
Here meet Athos Lone, Ace of Star Patrol, in his one-man mission of vengeance!
The Ancient Mariner, like an iron ghost, when slain, seems to rise again!
The mysterious spymaster called Nightshadow walks in dark worlds but serves the light!
An Imperial Deathtrooper must reverse his loyalties, and fight his own clone-brothers!

Fate has set these unlikely heroes against the Four Dark Overlords
An utmost evil the unwary galaxy thinks long dead!
Can Darkness fail and Light prevail?
Read On! For All True Tales are but Part of a Greater!

DISCUSS ON SG

On the Phenomenon of Male Flight

Martin van Creveld has pointed out the phenomenon of male flight from education and entire professions, repeatedly, for decades. But only now that the higher education system is on the point of complete collapse is anyone else beginning to recognize that it poses a very real and serious problem:

  • In 1969 almost all veterinary students were male at 89%.
  • By 1987, male enrollment was equal to female at 50%.1
  • By 2009, male enrollment in veterinary schools had plummeted to 22.4%

A sociologist studying gender in veterinary schools, Dr. Anne Lincoln says that in an attempt to describe this drastic drop in male enrollment, many keep pointing to financial reasons like the debt-to-income ratio or the high cost of schooling.

But Lincoln’s research found that “men and women are equally affected by tuition and salaries.”

Her research shows that the reason fewer men are enrolling in veterinary school boils down to one factor: the number of women in the classroom.

“There was really only one variable where I found an effect, and that was the proportion of women already enrolled in vet med schools… So a young male student says he’s going to visit a school and when he sees a classroom with a lot of women he changes his choice of graduate school. That’s what the findings indicate…. what’s really driving feminization of the field is ‘preemptive flight’—men not applying because of women’s increasing enrollment.” – Dr. Anne Lincoln

For every 1% increase in the proportion of women in the student body, 1.7 fewer men applied. One more woman applying was a greater deterrent than $1000 in extra tuition!

This points to the underlying flaw in feminism and sexual equality. Men and women are not the same, they do not possess the same average strengths and weaknesses to the same degree, and most importantly, their preferences are different.

Every society faces a fundamental choice. Either deny men what they observably and actually prefer or deny women what they think they prefer in theory. Across the West, the last 60 years have been an experiment in the latter. Women have been given the red carpet treatment in the corporations, in the universities, and even in the men’s locker rooms. Divorces and custodies have been granted on demand. Pregnancies have been prevented. Babies have been aborted. Obesity and ugliness have been celebrated. The churches have been de-doctrinated and literally neutered. Refugees have been welcomed. The insane have been liberated from their asylums.

And yet, not only are women unhappier than they were before being granted their collective societal bucket list, men are increasingly opting out of every form of participation in society. So, unless women are both as willing and as capable as men of performing most of what historically had been male duties, or men are forcibly denied the right to exercise their preferences and conscripted to perform the tasks that women won’t, the choice is between a) societal collapse and b) denying women the right to fully exercise their preferences.

It appears what passes for society in the West has uniformly opted for (a). It’s a bold move, historically speaking. And we can already see how it’s working out for us.

DISCUSS ON SG

An Intriguing Escalation

The IDF is bombing banks in Lebanon:

The Israeli military launched airstrikes on branches of a bank in Lebanon that the U.S. and Israel have linked to Hezbollah, escalating its military campaign to strike institutions that are part of the group’s far-reaching network of economic and social influence.

The Israeli air force hit branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a U.S.-sanctioned bank that was established in the 1980s and that offers financial services, including loans and ATM deposits and withdrawals, to the Shiite community in Lebanon. The Israeli military says the bank is also central to Hezbollah’s economic functioning.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a series of Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs and elsewhere in the country on Sunday night, local time, including three strikes on branches of the bank.

The strikes mark an expansion of Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah to target an institution that has no overt military purpose. In the past Israel has said its strikes focused on Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, though its attacks have also destroyed residential buildings and hit municipal and other civilian infrastructure.

Israeli officials said the strikes aimed at harming Hezbollah’s financial assets as well as weakening its ties with the community. The strikes took place on Sunday evening, when the bank branches were likely empty.

It would certainly be fascinating to see the outrage if Russia and Iran started responding in kind and bombing banks in New York and elsewhere that are central to the war efforts against them. This is potentially a very dangerous escalation, particularly in light of the coming BRICS announcement about its alternative to the SWIFT banking system.

DISCUSS ON SG

Moldova Rejects EU

This may mark the death knell for the EU. Once every Central and Eastern European state was desperate to join. Now, a number of existing members want out and formerly-prospective members no longer see any benefit to joining:

Voters in Moldova have rejected the government-backed proposal to enshrine eventual integration with the EU in the former Soviet country’s constitution. During Sunday’s referendum, held simultaneously with a presidential election, voters were asked whether the constitution should be amended to reflect the “irreversible European course” of the country and affirm the “integration into the European Union as a strategic objective” of the nation.

With more than 86% of the ballots counted, 54.55% voted against the proposal, while 45.45% voted in favor, according to the preliminary results cited by the news channel TVR.

BRICS is the smarter bet anyhow. But staying out of the EU is paramount. Never trust anyone who wants you to sign on to something “irreversible”. It’s almost as obvious as requiring you to sign in blood.

UPDATE: And now it looks as if this “vote” is about as legitimate as the faked 2020 US Presidential election. The referendum was suddenly turned around at the last minute with a flood of YES votes being found in the final hours. Democracy is increasingly nothing more than a flat-out fraud that inverts the genuine will of the people.

Potrivit rezultatelor preliminare, după prelucrarea a 98,74% din buletinele de vot din cadrul Referendumului constituțional 50,24% au votat DA și 49,76% au votat NU.

This probably means that Russia will have to invade Moldova sooner or later to free its people from Clown World.

DISCUSS ON SG

16 Million and Counting

Arktoons has now passed 16 million views! Thanks to all of the supporters, creators, and readers who have made it possible. And special thanks to the devs and the production team, who keep cranking out episodes every single day. We’re pleased to be able to say that GHOST OF THE BADLANDS will be coming to Arktoons soon now that its digital edition has been released.

In other comics news, HYPERGAMOUSE is approaching its third stretch goal and DC Comics has been reduced to turning to its critics to provide inspiration for its new villains, with Jeremy Griggs from Geeks + Gamers being the latest to see himself lampooned in a DC-published comic.

Even though DC Comics says they’re All In with this new initiative from Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson, it appears they’re just all in on the same tired, woke nonsense. With Absolute Batman race-swapping Barbara Gordon in a bizarre virtue signal, there was already too much politics in their recent comics, but now they’ve turned Jeremy Griggs into a rambling villain in the new Blue Beetle YA Graphic Novel… It’s not the first time DC Comics has done this, either. Just last year, they did the same to Eric July, turning him into some Alex Jones rant to presumably attack his Rippaverse imprint as it was getting off the ground.

I don’t think that I’ve been provided with a DC Comics stand-in yet, although it would appear that Marvel’s Vox Supreme was at least partially inspired by your favorite dark lord. The resemblance is certainly striking.

DISCUSS ON SG

Pixel Artists Wanted

A very small team and I have been working on a game project. We’re at the point where we need some art, so if there are any pixel artists interested in volunteering – this is a labor of love, not a business project – please get in touch. It’s a very cool game; imagine being able to play MMO-style battlegrounds without the MMO.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Leak was Real

Apparently Israel was genuinely observed making preparations to attack Iran on October 15th and 16th, but appears to have cancelled the attack for reasons that remain unknown, but are presumably related to the “earthquake” that was observed earlier this month.

The US has launched an investigation after highly classified intelligence reports about Israel’s preparations for possible strikes on Iran were leaked online, CNN reported on Saturday, citing three people familiar with the matter. The apparent security breach occurred amid an intense standoff between Iran and Israel – which has vowed to respond to a barrage of missiles fired by Tehran earlier this month.

On Friday, two documents were posted to the anonymous Telegram channel Middle East Spectator, which covers events in the region and is critical of Israel.

The first of the files, apparently prepared by the Pentagon’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, says the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “continued key munitions preparations and covert UAV activity on October 16 almost certainly for a strike on Iran.”

The second document contains a detailed report about a “large-force employment exercise” conducted by the Israeli Air Force on October 15-16.

An unnamed US official confirmed the authenticity of the documents to CNN, describing the leak as “deeply concerning.” The official told the network that the ongoing probe is aimed at determining who had access to the top secret files that eventually made their way to social media.

The plan reportedly involved a combination of ballistic missiles and air-to-surface missiles, although considerably fewer than were involved in the Iranian attack on Israel. Which, of course, tends to raise suspicions that some of them may have been armed with nuclear warheads, and may explain why the US intelligence source decided to try to stop the attack by leaking news of it.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Digital Ghost

Now available on Kindle and Kindle Select: THE GHOST OF THE BADLANDS

Arizona Territory, May 1896

Canyon Diablo is a reascendant Gomorrah.

With rail bridge construction halted by hellfire and tragedy, and railroad companies warring with local land owners to complete it, the town becomes an open boil on the Arizona Desert.

Gamblers proliferate. Prostitutes ply their trade. Brigands roam on the roadways, waylaying the innocent for an unknown purpose.

But the bandits are not alone.

Something stirs in the Painted Desert. Someone systematically exterminates coach robbers and murderers. Dealing out a deadly reckoning to all who assail the weak.

Gunfight after gunfight. Coffin after coffin. Legend soon grows of this phantom of the high desert.

A lone pistolier dispensing God’s judgment. A one-man vendetta ride, wielding a strange mechanical weapon of the Old World. Baptizing the heathen in hails of gunfire.

Eventually, folk find a name for this masked missionary of death…

The Ghost of the Badlands

UPDATE: So that was fast.

  • #1 in Supernatural Graphic Novels
  • #1 in Western Graphic Novels
  • #1 in Pulp Graphic Novels
  • #19 in Graphic Novels

DISCUSS ON SG

Play to the Whistle

Whether it is the so-called Prevent Defense in the NFL or the various tactics used to waste time in international football, these are counterproductive tactics that serve absolutely no purpose except to allow the other team back in the game.

Have some confidence in yourself! If you’ve dominated the game for 80 minutes, or three-and-a-half quarters, keep doing what you’re doing! Don’t let up the gas and let the other team back into the game!

This season, our team had a problem with this. We’d go up one or two goals and the midfield would go passive while the defense would go to sleep. We lost three games we absolutely should have one before the guys seemed to get the message and keep pressing; we won the next game 10-0. The final game of the season, we were up 3-0 when the defense relaxed again; at one point one attacker went right through three defenders without any of them making a serious effort at stopping him. Fortunately, after going into halftime 4-4, we went back on the attack and ended up winning 8-5.

The key is that the team leaders need to stress the need to keep attacking, and the scorers need to keep taking their shots rather than getting cute and clever with their chances as they often do when the game – or the practice – start to feel easy. The best teams always blow out the bad teams instead of relaxing and playing down to their level. In those two high-scoring wins, our star striker took control and scored 9 goals in the two games.

The problem is that the human psyche doesn’t permit simultaneous passivity and aggression. If you start trying to waste time, you’ve stopped trying to actively win the game. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t practice wise clock management, and sometimes injuries force you to take off a key player and implement more defensive tactics. But the best defense is always a good offense; a team that is constantly rocked back on its heels isn’t one that is likely to get back into the game.

Every sprinter is taught the importance of finishing strong. Run THROUGH the tape. Save the celebrations for after the race. Always focus on finishing strong, never be content to just hang on.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Second Phase of WWIII

Didactic Mind explains the significance of the BRICS Pay card announced last week:

Each individual BRICS+ nation is at a different stage of development along the path of having a proper banking system. Therefore, trying to create a unified messaging and money transfer platform, is COLOSSALLY difficult. The back-end infrastructure of global payment systems IS NOT easy to build – take my word for it on this – and nor is it a trivial matter to get different national payment systems to work together. I have barely even begun to describe the problems involved, and I am by no means a deep-knowledge subject matter expert on the issue.

But… we are now seeing the beginnings of a new financial order coming together. And that BRICS payment card prototype, is the first demonstration of the front-end technology. Whether the back-end is fully operational, is very much open to question – but it does seem to be getting there.

The importance of this development cannot be overstated. If the architects of the Western financial system are paying any attention whatsoever to the upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan’, which starts very soon – in fact, the BRICS Business Forum wrapped up just today – then they should be sweating bullets.

The advent of a true globally scalable, secure, stable, and reliable BRICS+ payment system will allow for rapid digital settlements between BRICS+ central banks. That was one of the original ideas behind this system – to use some sort of digital currency backbone to settle in national currencies between different countries. I had heard many different idea proposed, ranging from a stablecoin of some kind, to a gold-backed and metals-backed currency, to a new currency built on a basket of currencies, like the old “bancor” idea that John Maynard Keynes proposed as the fundamental unit of exchange within the old Bretton Woods system, or the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that the IMF has the ability to issue.

If, or rather, in my opinion, WHEN, this becomes a reality – in whatever form it takes – the dominance of the dollar is DONE.

This is not hyperbole. Think about it. Why would anyone want to use SWIFT, and pay the (quite exorbitant, in relative terms) fees to send money through a literal cartel of correspondent banks to transfer money overseas, when they could go through a digital system with far lower fees, and transact directly in local currencies, with local exchange rates? And if people can do this peer-to-peer, or business-to-business… what need is there for the dollar?

I think this is why we’re seeing the Clown World provocations heating up everywhere from the Korean Peninsula to Ukraine. The end of military supremacy is bad enough, but the direct undermining of the international dollar system spells out the end of Clown World. And desperate people accept very low-probability odds…

DISCUSS ON SG