Author: VD

Provocations

One can’t help but notice that it is the US Navy that is invading Russia’s territorial waters, and not the other way around:

A US Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine has been detected and chased away in Russian territorial waters off the Kuril Islands, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The vessel was found submerged off the small uninhabited island of Urup while Russia’s Pacific Fleet was holding exercises in the area. Russian vessels contacted the submarine, warning it was in the country’s territorial waters and ordering it to surface immediately, the military said.

The submarine, however, did not respond to the messages, and destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov was deployed to chase it off. The Russian vessel used “appropriate means” against the US sub, the military noted without providing any further details.

Following the run-in with the destroyer, the Virginia-class submarine used an active radar decoy, sailing away from Russian waters at full speed.

Remember, any US military action is customarily preceded by a false flag of some kind. Don’t be fooled by the mainstream media narrative.

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Empire’s End

Empires tend to end in farce. The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets is no exception:

The UK will remove all of its troops from Ukraine amid fears that Russia could invade its neighbor, Britain’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, said on Saturday. “All of them will be withdrawn,” Heappey told BBC Radio 4’s Today show. “There will be no British troops in Ukraine if there is to be a conflict there.”

One wonders what the victors of the Crimean War would have made of such an ignominious and farcical series of maneuvers on the part of the British Armed Forces. The heir to that fallen empire, the Imperial USA, shouldn’t laugh too hard, though, after its own debacle in Afghanistan. The end of the US empire is already in sight.

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Speed Up Those Mutations

Biologists can’t do the math, but apparently they are beginning to understand that the mathematical critique of their evolutionary mutational model is posing a genuine threat to the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis and the theory of evolution by natural selection.

New study suggests for the first time that genetic mutations are NOT always random and may evolve to respond to environmental pressures. Researchers tracked the appearance of a malaria fighting mutation in genomes. They tracked these mutations throughout populations in Africa and in Europe. The team found the genetic mutation was much more prevalent within Africa. It also evolved much faster than would be expected in individuals and groups.

Darwin’s theory that genetic mutations are always random is wrong, suggests a new study which found evidence that mutations can be a response to environmental pressures.

For more than a century, scientists have held to Charles Darwin’s theory that all genetic mutations are random and accidental, with the most beneficial traits being passed on through the generations of breeding.

Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel say that isn’t the case, finding that the generation of the human hemoglobin S (HbS) mutation is not random… The findings challenge a core assumption at the heart of Darwin’s theory of evolution, showing that a long-term directional mutation response to environmental pressures is possible, and that mutations are not just random phenomena. 

Translation: the Prometheans who direct what presently passes for “science” are now prepared to throw out Darwin and natural selection in order to preserve whatever will permit them to deny the logic of a Creator God who designed humanity.

He hasn’t claimed their discovery discredits the theory of evolution, and both studies suggest randomness still plays a big role in mutations, however, it isn’t the only mechanism at play in evolution.

This is late-stage epicycle construction, as they’re trying to add additional mechanisms that will permit a faster rate of mutation, and therefore a faster rate of gene fixation, in order to account for the obvious, and undeniable, impossibility of random mutations being naturally selected prior to being fixated in the population. But these attempts to retroactively salvage the Neo-Darwinian model of evolution is an obvious confession of what I’ve been pointing out for years now, which is that the model simply does not work.

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And Morgoth Smiled

The Dark Herald explains why there is no chance that the Amazon demolition of The Silmarillion is not going to make the execrable Disney Wars trilogy, the abysmal Godfather III, and the tedious final season of A Game of Thrones all look like entertaining cinematic masterpieces in comparison:

Christopher Tolkien was the good son of a great man; he steadfastly protected his father’s legacy and works. But he is gone now. The estate now belongs to Tolkien’s grandchildren and ALL of them are trust fund babies who act like trust fund babies. They want their other friends with money to stroke their asses and tell them how brave they are being for letting Bezos bastardize and soil their grandfather’s work. They are completely blind to the fact that this pile of fetid garbage is going to stain people’s memories of his masterpiece.

This whole catastrophe started with Jeff Bezos saying he was determined to have his own Game of Thrones. Which means that this abortion is going to be a derivative work of George R.R. Martin, not JRR Tolkien. The producers are denying this with tears and oaths but the fact that they hired an Intimacy Coordinator (AKA Sex Arranger) tells you what books this show is based on.

The truth is, this show isn’t based on any of Tolkien’s books. What Amazon has the rights to are the background notes. No joke, that is what they own the rights to and that is what Bezos has spent hundreds of millions on.

While the contract they had with Christopher Tolkien had some very strict limits with regards to what they couldn’t do with regards to JRR Tolkien’s overall story arc, it had a major loophole in that they could create new characters. And boy, did they ever.

In addition, they have undeniably altered established characters significantly. Galadriel, Commander of the Northern Fucking Armies. No, I’m not kidding they got her that wrong.

It’s not just the SJW wokery. It’s the complete disrespect for the source material and the author.

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Reflections on Organizational Success

Dominic Cummings shared some practical thoughts on his commenter’s notes on the obstacles that organizational Machiavellians always pose to the core objectives of the organization:

  1. Boris types [self-servers with zero interest in the mission – VD] are everywhere.
  2. difference with Groves, Mueller, Bob Taylor et al is that they align talent with a goal and squeeze Boris types out, with extreme prejudice. some of those environments are relatively civilised, some (e.g S Jobs) less so, no doubt.
  3. near everybody is calculating about themselves but the situation around them changes calculations – if people think ‘leadership is great and i agree with the goal and i love being here and others are here for the mission’, like at PARC, then selfish calculations shrink (not disappear) to being overwhelmed by what’s important
  4. the organisations that really change the world POSITIVELY have other things that dominate – boris d stuff was in no10 in 2020 when i was there, but people knew there was something else. now they know there’s nothing else.
  5. think you’re right about a tendency to entropy! as you say… groves, mueller, taylor… all pushed out… and the succession problem…
  6. the widespread failure even to see these problems provides opportunity, but… if it were easy everyone would do it…

The succession problem to which he refers is tremendous, and it is one to which I have given considerable thought over the years. The three primary challenges that I have identified concerning it are as follows:

  1. The loyal lieutenants are never candidates to succeed the leader. The skills involved in building and leading an enterprise seldom have anything whatsoever to do with being an effective long-time loyal subordinate. History has demonstrated this again and again and again, and yet very few loyal lieutenants ever grasp that they are literally some of the worst possible successors or that their skill set is entirely inadequate for the task to which they aspire. It is imperative that they understand this: deserve’s got nothing to do with it.
  2. The leader must not hang on too long. I’ve personally witnessed several organizations go down the tubes because the leader simply couldn’t bear to give up the status of being in control, even though he observably no longer had any interest in being responsible for actively running things.
  3. Equality among successors is futile, dangerous, and counterproductive, in both management and ownership terms. About the only thing more destructive a man can do than divide the ownership of an organization equally among his heirs is to leave it to his wife or to a charity organization.

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This Bodes Well for the Future

I, for one, welcome our future AI overlords.

Get inspiration for a story from an Al, just write two themes and see the first paragraph come alive.
Themes: Vox Day
and Otters
Story: There once was a man named Vox Day, and he was a very controversial figure. Some people loved him, and some people hated him. But no one could deny that he was a powerful speaker and writer. One day, Vox Day met an otter named Otter. They started to become good friends, and Vox Day taught Otter about the importance of freedom and liberty. Otter was so inspired by Vox Day that he decided to become a strong advocate for these values, too. This story is about how Vox Day and Otter helped to change the world for the better. They showed us that there is nothing that can stop us from achieving our goals if we are willing to work hard enough for it. Thanks, gentlemen, for your inspiring example!

They clearly like me a lot better than our current quasi-human rulers do. Chew on that, Charles Stross!

UPDATE: The AIs don’t leave much doubt as to why I am so widely feared. It’s all about the skulls.

There’s a movement afoot, a group of people who believe that the future of the human race rests on the shoulders of young people. They call themselves Vox Day’s Children and they believe that only through the propagation of our kind will the future of humanity be secured. Vox Day is a controversial figure, but he’s got a point. Skulls, skulls everywhere. And not just any skulls, but the skulls of the great and the good. The skulls of the thinkers, the scientists, the inventors. The skulls of the people who have made the world a better place. The young people of Vox Day’s Children believe that these skulls are the key to our future. They believe that by venerating them, by studying them, by understanding what they represent, we can secure the future of humanity.

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We Wuz Alfs

Amazon is blackwashing Tolkien’s elves in Tha Rangz a Powwa:

Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is set to take the franchise in a diverse new direction, featuring the first ever black elf in Middle Earth’s history. New images for the much-anticipated series, which has a reported budget of $465 million, have been released by Vanity Fair, and show Ismael Cruz Córdova taking on the role of silvan elf Arondir…. The series is set to feature the most diverse cast in the franchise’s history, and along with starring a black elf, Lenny Henry will star as a harfoot elder. Sophia Nomvete also stars as a dwarven princess named Disa – making her the first black, and female, woman to play a dwarf in the Lord of the Rings universe.

Black elves, black hobbits, and black dwarves. This grotesquerie is going to redefine the concept of “epically bad”.

For a considerably more Tolkienesque take on elves, you may wish to consider reading the comic series A THRONE OF BONES on Arktoons.

(gets back to work finishing A SEA OF SKULLS)

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How We Succeed

A comment on Dominic Cummings’s site offers an illuminating insight into why this community has successfully executed multiple projects and exceeded expectations:

When I was at business school, we once played a week long strategy game in random teams of 5. The game was played in 10 rounds and teams had to decide on maybe 50-80 parameters for each round, there were 2 rounds per day. All of the other teams made their decisions in the typical Machiavellian manner and as with any MBA cohort this is ruthless stuff to behold. Everyone was using teams decision making as an arena to position for dominance within their small team of 5.

This was fascinating to me. All of the energy in the building was focused on the “self” v’s 4 colleagues rather than my team v’s the other 40 teams.

Now everyone at business school studies dozens of business failures and turn-arounds and various other textbook examples. I was obsessed with studying hyper success, I was alone in this and people thought it was a bit wonky and naive of me. But I didn’t care for all the reasons that organisations failed. It seemed to me that failure was a bottomless pit of various reasons. Whereas the really hyper successful teams would have succeeded not only at the thing they set out to do, but I believe they would have succeeded at anything you asked them to do. People like Gene Kranz of mission control also believed this. Anyway, I brute forced the entire game with various methods which required much spying other teams and reverse engineered much of the game engine in the 3 practice rounds. We won the whole competition easily and by a huge margin… The game could have been rerun many times and I know that we would have always won every time. It wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t luck.

Interestingly hyper successful teams always seem to dissolve with entropy once their binding objective is completed. <- a discussion for another time

But they all really focused on three things i). objectivity ii). learning iii). executing

The first casualty of Machiavellianism is objectivity, AKA the truth. The truth is not useful to the individual, it is only useful to the team. The individual benefits from asymmetric information, the team benefits from universally symmetrical information.

There are so many mechanisms at play here, so many tools and control surfaces that can be abused by the Machiavellian careerist types that unless you play the game you cannot compete with them. But the result at the macro level is mediocre organisations.

You can build hyper performance teams, there is a blueprint. But you either need an intersubjective fiction (a shared mission) that is so powerful it is effectively a cult/religion, this was the case with Manhattan, Apollo and a few other cases.

Or you need a supremely powerful guardian figure a kind of god in the machine, much like Steve Jobs or more recently Elon Musk who is obsessed with the three pillars i). objectivity ii). learning iii). executing.

Both the Dread Ilk and the Bears are occasionally accused of being cults. But apparently, it is that very cognizance of a shared mission that enables both communities to effectively accomplish various activities. Although the utility of the policy of ruthlessly removing every volunteer who fails to perform even the most simple task for any reason also tends to increase the odds of success, as it weeds out most of the self-serving Machiavellians from the start.

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