Category: Uncategorized

The Bear Necessities

A UATV supporter explains the necessity of Big Bear on Instagram.

Et tu, Spacebunny? She added a comment there.

We have had this convo – your ability to make Vox comprehensible is legendary.

To be fair, it is a genuine problem. My idea of what is a sufficient explanation and pretty much everyone else’s don’t tend to have much in common. I see this coming and going, both in what apparently are popularly regarded as my insufficient explanations and everyone else’s determination to give me ten times more information than I need or want. What is so impressive about Big Bear in this regard is his ability to instantly grasp the various levels of detail required to explain a given concept to different people.

I still remember one time on a stream when he asked me to explain something, so I provided what I felt was the requisite explanation in what I thought was all the necessary detail. Big Bear just stared at me for a second, then said: “Yeah, you’re going to need to go two levels deeper for that to make any sense.”

Which was very helpful, because it’s not a problem to do that. The real challenge that most people don’t seem to grasp is that when you do understand something, you seldom know the precise point of another person’s failure to understand, except that it is somewhere between the complete absence of information and the comprehension of the whole. Compounding this problem is that it is quite normal for people to get offended if you begin at the beginning.

“What do you think I am, an idiot?”

Well, yes, at least in relative terms, given that you’ve already demonstrated that you don’t understand something despite being provided everything that is required for you to do so. But it only took a few beatings from fellow elementary school scholars and a lecture or three from teachers and parents to realize that it is never socially acceptable to say what you are actually thinking about anyone.

That’s why I always think it is outright comical whenever people say, in real life or on TV, that honesty is paramount in relationships. It quite obviously isn’t, in fact, I would go so far as to say that at least for the intelligent individual, relentless dishonesty is the basis for all human relationships, from the most casual to the most intimate. Because if there is one skill that is necessary for surviving the endless sea of retardery in which Man must daily swim, it is relentlessly concealing the truth of one’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions from absolutely everyone.

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher, obviously understood that.

Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance…

Do you know what that is? That’s the rock-solid stoicism born of the despair that comes from 19 years of putting up with a son like Commodus and knowing he had no choice but to leave the whole empire in the care of the solipsistic lunatic.

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Cruel Dominions

I found this old mix of THE WORD DESCENDED that I’d forgotten I did back in December, and was frankly kind of blown away by it. I think it’s going to have to go on the Soulsigma CD. Anyhow, it’s up on UATV for the subscribers. If you’re feeling down at all over the Espstein coverup, I think this will prove a salutary reminder that it doesn’t matter what they do, because they will never win.

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A Basic Syllogism

  • MAJOR PREMISE: President Trump promised to clean house on the Deep State and release the Epstein files.
  • MINOR PREMISE: The FBI announced there are no Epstein files.
  • CONCLUSION: ???

This really isn’t that hard. It only requires that you recognize what you believe to be impossible is merely beyond your ability to imagine. But most people trust the Narrative more than they trust logic.

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Satan’s Little Slave

What a wretched little creature. I remember when he used to agonize over being forced to say what he was told to say. Apparently he’s grown more comfortable with that over time. He simply doesn’t have a single original thought in his head. I used to feel some pity for him, but you know, he made his choice to serve Mammon.

And when you bow down before the one you serve, you get what you deserve.

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China Warns EU

For the first time, China has openly sided with Russia and acknowledged that it is in a de facto state of conflict with the USA:

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday that Beijing cannot afford a Russian loss in Ukraine because it fears the United States would then shift its whole focus to Beijing, according to several people familiar with the exchange.

The comment, to the EU’s Kaja Kallas, would confirm what many in Brussels believe to be Beijing’s position but jar with China’s public utterances. The foreign minstry regularly says China is “not a party” to the war. Some EU officials involved were surprised by the frankness of Wang’s remarks.

Wang is said to have rejected, however, the accusation that China was materially supporting Russia’s war effort, financially or militarily, insisting that if it was doing so, the conflict would have ended long ago. During a marathon four-hour debate on a wide range of geopolitical and commercial grievances, Wang was said to have given Kallas – the former Estonian prime minister who only late last year took up her role as the bloc’s de facto foreign affairs chief – several “history lessons and lectures”…

The tone of Wednesday’s dialogue was said to be respectful, if tense. Nonetheless, some insiders were surprised by the harshness of Wang’s message, just three weeks out from an important leaders’ summit in China. Any appearance of a charm offensive is seen to have evaporated.

This is not exactly a surprise. China has been waging asymmetric “unrestricted” warfare against the United States since 1999, although part of that strategy has been assiduously avoiding any direct conflict and any actual military engagement. But it appears that as the NATO-Russian war enters what one hopes will be its final stage before the collapse of the Kiev regime and the subsequent Russian stabilization of the situation, China is preparing itself for the US to turn its attention from Ukraine and the Middle East and toward Asia.

Does this have anything to do with what are still nothing more than rumors of Xi’s weakening hold on power? I doubt it, but it’s important to remember that his successor may not be another Western-influenced liberal, but could be considerably more of a hawk on Taiwan, Japan, and the USA than Xi has been.

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Why You Can’t Trust the Science

The problem isn’t just with the corrupt scientistry, but the mechanism that corrupted them. Namely, the science publishing industry:

It might seem like publishing is a detail. Something that happens at the end of the process, after the real work of science is done. But in truth, publishing defines science.

The currency of value in science has become journal articles. It’s how scientists share and evaluate their work. Funding and career advancement depend on it. This has added to science growing less rigorous, innovative, and impactful over time. This is not a side effect, a conspiracy, or a sudden crisis. It’s an insidious structural feature.

For non-scientists, here’s how journal-based publishing works:

After years of research, scientists submit a narrative of their results to a journal, chosen based on field relevance and prestige. Journals are ranked by “impact factor,” and publishing in high-impact journals can significantly boost careers, visibility, and funding prospects.

Journal submission timing is often dictated by when results yield a “publishable unit” — a well-known term for what meets a journal’s threshold for significance and coherence. Linear, progressive narratives are favored, even if that means reordering the actual chronology or omitting results that don’t fit. This isn’t fraud; it’s selective storytelling aimed at readability and clarity.

Once submitted, an editor either rejects the paper or sends it to a few anonymous peer reviewers — two or three scientists tasked with judging novelty, technical soundness, and importance. Not all reviews are high quality, and not all concerns are addressed before editorial acceptance. Reviews are usually kept private. Scientific disagreements — essential to progress — rarely play out in public view.

If rejected, the paper is re-submitted elsewhere. This loop generally takes 6–12 months or more. Journal submissions and associated data can circulate in private for over a year without contributing to public discussion. When articles are finally accepted for release, journals require an article processing fee that’s often even more expensive if the article is open access. These fees are typically paid for by taxpayer-funded grants or universities.

Several structural features make the system hard to reform:

  • Illusion of truth and finality: Publication is treated as a stamp of approval. Mistakes are rarely corrected. Retractions are stigmatized.
  • Artificial scarcity: Journals want to be first to publish, fueling secrecy and fear of being “scooped.” Also, author credit is distributed through rigid ordering, incentivizing competition over collaboration. In sum, prestige is then prioritized.
  • Insufficient review that doesn’t scale: Three editorially-selected reviewers (who may have conflicts-of-interest) constrain what can be evaluated, which is a growing problem as science becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and cutting edge. The review process is also too slow and manual to keep up with today’s volume of outputs.
  • Narrow formats: Journals often seek splashy, linear stories with novel mechanistic insights. A lot of useful stuff doesn’t make it into public view, e.g. null findings, methods, raw data, untested ideas, true underlying rationale.
  • Incomplete information: Key components of publications, such as data or code, often aren’t shared to allow full review, reuse, and replication. Journals don’t enforce this, even for publications from companies. Their role has become more akin to marketing.
  • Limited feedback loops: Articles and reviews don’t adapt as new data emerges. Reuse and real-world validation aren’t part of the evaluation loop. A single, shaky published result can derail an entire field for decades, as was the case for the Alzheimer’s scandal.

Stack all this together, and the outcome is predictable: a system that delays and warps the scientific process. It was built about a century ago for a different era. As is often the case with legacy systems, each improvement only further entrenches a principally flawed framework.

The system will not, and cannot, be restored in a post-Christian society. Science is not only not incompatible with religion, it is incompatible with irreligion, because no amount of information or technology is an adequate substitute for a collection of zero-trust, amoral, and faithless scientists. When the incentives are askew and the moral brakes are removed, it should not come as a surprise that professional peer-reviewed and published science is already less reliable than a simple coin toss.

Science is just another casualty of the subversion and inversion of Christendom. Which is why the elites have already rejected science and reason in favor of the idol-worshipping, demon-pandering paganism of the pre-Christian world.

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Baen Books is Dead

Larry Correia has finally embraced crowdfunding and independent publishing:

Larry Correia has made waves this year, breaking from Baen Books for his next releases with Ark Press and Aethon Books, diversifying away from a company that seems to be in trouble, and now he’s revealed he’s going to Kickstarter for his new book as well as revealing the name and cover.

While Larry Correia may have been one of the last traditional publishing authors in speculative fiction to make money, he’s now embraced the future of indie publishing in many ways. He’s moved his next releases to two different upstart presses who are making waves in modern fiction, and is now announcing he’s going to be Kickstarting his new book, as so many others have been doing to great success in recent years.

This comes soon after he announced he wouldn’t be working on new Monster Hunter International material anytime soon, the series that has kept both him and Baen Books afloat over the last several years. With Ark Press having poached several editors and Baen Books’ top talent in Larry Correia, it’s created a number of industry rumblings about the future of the company.

Now, Correia has fueled the flame, showing that independent releases and crowdfunding are the future of publishing, adopting the model that many have succeeded in.

It’s obviously not Larry’s intention to harm Baen. And he owes them absolutely nothing. I think he’s going to absolutely crush it, and well he should! But the indisputable fact is that aside from signing Larry, Baen did a terrible job of replacing the previous generation of authors; the authors that it should have pursued, it spurned for political and ideological reasons, while it signed a panoply of mediocrities who could never have even begun to replace the likes of Jerry Pournelle, John Ringo, and other Baen greats.

The usual suspects can posture and bluster all they like, but I would not expect Baen Books to survive as an operative concern for another 18 months.

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How the US Navy Lost the High Seas

In fairness, the US Navy hasn’t actually lost its dominance over the bluewater oceans yet. But it will as soon as it is put to the test, as previous naval powers have before:

No matter what they say, armed forces prepare for the war they want to fight. Before Pearl Harbor, the United States and Imperial Japanese navies built mirrored fleets centered around lines of battleships that would someday meet in mortal combat, which in the space of a single event — a Pacific Clash of Titans — would decide the destiny of nations.

Yet when war came, the efforts of both fleets, try as they might, could not make this happen. Alfred Thayer Mahan’s prophecy of “Seapower” mesmerized the U.S. and Japanese navies with the mutual conviction that a Pacific War could be decided by a single event: Another Tsushima or Trafalgar. Yet even if there were no way to achieve such a choreographed final fantasy, the idée fixe of decisive battle had become a way of life for both USN and IJN. This obsession with almighty battleships locked in a last battle led to the destruction of America’s prewar fleet in the first year of war, and then eventually, Japan’s.

Today, the Navy still pines for a Pacific fleet showdown, this time with China. It is still obsessing over its capital ship idée fixe (with carriers in place of battleships) — when, like 1941, its fleet is simply too small, too old, and too out of shape.

In World War II, the U.S. Navy was saved only by America’s titanic industrial power, which in 1941 was building two backup fleets: A “two ocean” armada, to be followed by and an even bigger one. That second force, 5000+ ships, was built de novo — as though out of nothing — in just four years. The Navy was saved, not by its adaptable resilience, but by American Captains of Industry.

In tragic contrast, the Imperial Japanese Navy — the most powerful fleet in the world in 1941 — had no backup. When faced with a U.S. shipbuilding monster, it was literally ground down by those 5,000 brand spanking new American hulls. In this sense, the Nihon Kaigun is very much like the U.S. Navy today. War came, and it simply could not replace ships lost.

Frankly, the Japanese actually built quite a few new ships during the war — just not enough. Likewise, there are no Captains of Industry to save the U.S. Navy today. China has 200 times the shipbuilding capacity of the United States, and fabulous repair and maintenance that serves the entire maritime world. If America cannot build, repair, and maintain even its current, “incredibly shrinking” Navy, then it is no “maritime nation.”

What happens to the Navy that reaches the acme of power and success, and comes to believe that it will command the seas forever? That would be Great Britain from 1815-1914. For the Royal Navy, it meant atrophy, that invisible sclerosis hardening into an ossified way of life.

As it celebrates its always-triumphant orthodoxies, it also forgets how to think, it takes itself way too seriously, and it believes without a flicker of doubt that, to stay on top, the Fleet simply must keep doing what it has always done, in sufficient quantity and quality, of course. The Royal Navy may have survived on the basis of quantity and quality of ships.

Yet what about quality and originality of thought? A Navy Ethos that punishes new thinking, that throttles innovation, that cashiers criticism — all by the time proclaiming how it celebrates these things — is an ethos chained to its own “Rules of the Game.”

In this sort of culture, only the right people, who say the right things, and put on the right, bright face to the public can expect to move up. This is the sclerosis of success, and it is, for any society of war, the most dangerous disorder: For it cannot be cured from within. Thus, the strategic reckoning of the Royal Navy in World War I will be as nothing to what awaits its American Cousin, very soon.

There isn’t any material reason why a naval power with prodigious resources can’t completely reinvent itself in the new mode that is replacing the old one. And yet, it doesn’t happen, for much the same reason that very, very few business innovations come out of the leading corporations in the industries they dominate.

Too many people and too many organizational processes are too heavily invested in the current way of doing things to make the shift to the newer way before someone else proves its utility and thereby obtains a leading advantage that usually turns out to be conclusive. Unfortunately, unlike leading corporations, leading militaries can’t simply buy out the innovators and incorporate them into their own operations.

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Epstein? What Epstein?

I think we’re about six months away from the so-called “Justice Department” declaring that there never was anyone named Jeffrey Epstein.

WASHINGTON—Trump Justice Department officials are backtracking on a promise to open up the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, attempting to shut down long-simmering questions and conspiracies about the case they once promoted.

Officials said Monday that after an “exhaustive review” they had found no “incriminating client list” or additional documents that warrant public disclosure. The FBI also confirmed a medical examiner’s finding that Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, responding to unproven claims that the disgraced financier was murdered to keep him quiet about other powerful people who sexually abused the young women and girls he trafficked.

“There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the Justice Department and FBI wrote in a memo released Monday. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

This is such an obviously false assertion that one wonders who is supposed to believe it. The NPCs have never paid attention to any of this, and the fact that there have been media reports for years about the massive quantity of information carted away from Epstein’s various properties by the FBI make the claims obviously false.

Epstein isn’t even dead. A report from earlier this year wondered how it was possible that money was still moving in and out of one of his “secret bank accounts”. There is an easy explanation for that, of course.

This is why I am an Omni-Narrational Skeptic. It’s impossible to believe anything the media says about anything because what the media says about any one particular thing is always mutating in near real-time.

I think the recent Epstein-related nonsense is probably related to the Iran-Israel conflict, although I don’t know how or why. But it’s clear that some parties are getting very desperate indeed, based on the fact that Netanyahu showed up at the White House the day after this ridiculous announcement. I assume there is going to be a major media push on US assistance for Israel, although that may not involve war since it’s now apparent to everyone that there isn’t much the USA can actually do about Iran.

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