Finally saw Avatar 3. My favorite part was the subplot about how "touching steel destroys your soul" being resolved in favor of "yes but have you considered how much it rules to strap an RPG to an arrow and yeet it into a helicopter gunship."

Slightly diminish a game Partial Annihilation

Really pleased, thanks to the good offices of @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social, to have this piece that Pavlo Shkurenko and I wrote about Russia's military procurement and what it says about their ambitions in Europe out in the world: foreignpolicy.com/2026/01/07/r...

Day 1 of holiday break with the kids: Danny Go? Sure, we can listen to that. Day 3: You know, some of these songs are legit catchy. Day 5: we can't listen to anything else? You sure? Day 7: when I come to power he's Danny Going to the Hague.

I saw the first Transformers in a crowded Chinatown theatre in DC on a hot summer day in 2007. When Optimus Prime rolled into the warehouse, unfolded and introduced himself in Peter Cullen's voice, the entire cinema got on its feet and cheered.

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @tessaszy.bsky.social and @jparakilas.bsky.social on the day's big stories - and the strange disappearance of the hotel bathroom door - plus @joanamoser.bsky.social meets Heidi Ewing, co-director of "Folktales". monocle.com/radio/shows/...

More new research on Ukraine and defense technology from my colleagues - this one on defense industrial collaboration. Tooling up together: How Europe and Ukraine can improve defence industrial collaboration | RAND share.google/XM9yMYGq5jYQ...

1999 Toyota Camry A Zipcard 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 2019 Volvo V90 2021 Skoda Enyaq iV

My humble contribution to the annual Turkey Discourse is that I think part of the issue is that turkey does not keep particularly well. So even if you enjoy it on Thanksgiving you're likely to find it pretty hard to stomach as your fourth consecutive leftover meal.

My current mood, according to Spotify, can best be described as "seasonally appropriate menace."

The folks at Monocle24 were kind enough to give me a decent chunk of time this morning to talk about our work in Ukraine on emerging technology and military doctrine - you can listen from about 29:40 here: open.spotify.com/episode/1jrr...

So here's the first part of something that I've been working on for the last twelve months. Not every day I get to say that. www.rand.org/randeurope/r...

Boy Diplomat S3 really jumps the shark doesn't it.

Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming Look at my works ye mighty and start running Didn't make sense not to live life fair Your brain gets smart but now you despair Hey now You're king of kings Get your trunk on Its legs Hey now You're colossal But nothing else Re maaains

I've gotta say one upside of being in GMT and having a mostly American follows list is waking up and scrolling backwards through the desperate and unhinged Oh Please Make It Stop baseball posts. Well done everyone, a brief and welcome return to the internet of the Before Times.

CHOTINER: So I want to come back to something you said earlier. You described yourself as "a healthcare provider." MAJOR LIO PARTAGAZ: That's right. CHOTINER: Do you think "healthcare" is the right metaphor for what happened to Ghorman? PARTAGAZ: Look, that's... that's a different situation.

This was a really interesting conversation - thanks so much to @icds-tallinn.bsky.social for putting it together!

God help me I did not realize that there were *six* separate NCIS series. How much boat crime can there be??

So on a scale where 1 is "everything is fine, normal" and 10 is "Swan Lake on every channel," where does the Spotify Calming Classical playlist in the Brixton McDonald's land?

Heaven knows we need something cheering, and this story is utterly delightful:

Today was a Good Day in the office.

This is somehow incredibly Miyazaki codes; it's simultaneously a huge mechanical war machine while also being reminiscent of the boar god from Princess Mononoke.

I think the thing that will stick with me, leaving Kyiv early on a warm summer morning immediately after the largest drone strike yet in the war, is the sensation of a vibrant city wrapped in a pall of smoke and the smell of cordite.

Hear Jacob Parakilas on @theobserveruk.bsky.social's Sensemaker podcast unpacking the recent US strikes on Iran’s underground nuclear sites: strategy, regional implications, and what comes next. Tune in here: open.spotify.com/episode/4Ov2...

I spoke to The Observer's Sensemaker about the airstrikes on Iran and what might happen next: open.spotify.com/episode/4Ov2...

My dad insisted that I watch the Battle of Algiers as a teenager. Took a few years for me to appreciate how good it is (and why he insisted).

Got a new car (an electric SUV for EcoDadMaxxing). Wipers are useless. "I'll replace them, and I'll save the installation money on Serious Wipers and do it myself!" Two failed attempts. Finally figure out the correct adapter was at the bottom of the box, at which point: done in thirty seconds.

A few years ago, walking through Soho, saw a crowd gawping at a parallel-parking Audi R8. Thought, "that's a nice car but it's not THAT nic... oh it's Michael Gambon driving it." Then turned the corner and walked into Ben Whishaw.

Struggling to remember a Friday the 13th that felt quite so Friday the 13thy.

Enjoyed Mission: Impossible: This Is The Last One Seriously We Promise, but if you - like me - suffer from a mild-to-moderate fear of encountering submerged submarines while underwater and/or having to escape tight spaces at risk of drowning you may find it a tiny bit stressful. Fair warning.

Broke my arm playing Ultimate Frisbee, notably a non-contact sport.

Pretty sure the stagehand they're interviewing for this interstitial about the event crew for Eurovision is actually Agent 47.

This except for me it's Trent from Never Have I Ever

I'm an unashamed car guy, and I've got a WhatsApp chat of other car guys (all in London). Yesterday our chat was (1) My friend got a new electric Renault 5 and we're all stoked for him (2) Me getting views on replacing my ICE car with an EV (3) How much more time we spend on our bikes than driving

Not for nothing but if you're doing strategic competition with China you probably need a diplomatic presence in Africa. Trump Administration Draft Order Calls for Drastic Overhaul of State Department www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/u...

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked, "If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?" Allow our scaled diagram to explain...

My (slightly skeptical) overview of AI's impact on geopolitics, originally written for the Danish foreign policy magazine Udenrigs and helpfully republished by RAND in English and without paywall here: www.rand.org/pubs/comment...

I think Zero Day might be the first TV show I've ever seen with a centrist extremist as the villain. Which is also ironic because (in common with most modern political thrillers) it's terrified of letting you believe it might have its own politics.

My three year old daughter grabbed a pair of trousers I was trying to put on her out of my hands and ran away, yelling LET ME COOK!

Canonically, Luke - born at the end of the Clone Wars - is 18 when Obi Wan hands him a lightsaber and tells him it's "a more elegant weapon from a more civilized age." Which is the equivalent, today, of being handed an iPod Touch.

Me, every single February: beware the False Spring, there is always a False Spring. Me, every single early March: it's spring! The sun is out! I can stand outside without a coat! Winter is over forever and I shall never again experience cold!

Steve Earle?! In Star Wars?!! (Watches trailer twice) I'll allow it.

I'm just back from a week in Kyiv, and for all the things I learned and saw I don't think anything will stick with me more than this brief stop we made to the memorial to those lost in the war that's grown organically at the outskirts of Maidan Square.

Goddamn it. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...

Shout out to the woman sitting next to me at a screening of Conclave who, halfway through during a scene where Ralph Fiennes is struggling with his duties, faith and conscience, turned to her partner and loudly hissed, "I don't get it, is he GOOD or BAD?!"

... I've just realized that the next Presidential state car is going to be a CyberTruck, isn't it.

Honestly I think this model needs to be more broadly adopted. Fire trucks. Taxis. Throw some of those bad boys on attack submarines.

The other obvious thing to say about this is that behind the veil of ignorance you really really really want the former, because your odds of being in the group of people who can afford a private concierge-type life in a country with no public services are very, very low.

Some quotes from me here about the ongoing scourge of Russian glide bombs for Ukraine: kyivindependent.com/russias-prim...