In Foreign Policy, my colleague John Kennedy and I took stock of the war, with enormous thanks to @nicholasdanfort.bsky.social for commissioning and editing. foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/07/u...

Still for my money the greatest piece of political rhetoric of all time: --- Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Sorry to report that Disclosure Day is a dud. Whole film premised on the idea that dropping some video footage of UAPs would make the entire world stop dead like the soldiers & guerrillas in Children of Men, ignoring the fact that that *happened* and the public reaction was 'oh wow... anyway.'

I made something (with Claude's help). How about a nice game of chess? Just... normal chess. Totally normal. totallynormalchess.netlify.app

Haldeman's Forever War

Was trying to figure out what this reminded me of and then it hit me:

(A) I'm pleased to have been able to contribute to this BBC World Service interview about the robotization of the Ukrainian battlefield and what it means. (B) I managed to work in the term "pointy rock" in a contextually appropriate fashion, which I'm proud of. www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Xp...

Android Auto on my phone recently updated to include Gemini. The voice switched to a man, it got worse at finding things and it started to give long winded answers instead of doing what I'd asked. Google, if that was the service I wanted, I'd hire a first year grad student to ride shotgun instead.

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, DC, Marvel, Disney, Pixar, Spielberg, Cameron, Wachowskis, or Ghibli.

Ok, can someone explain a transatlantic cultural difference to me: crinkle a candy wrapper slightly too loudly in the Amtrak quiet car and you'll get glared at and shushed. Whereas the quiet car signs on British trains might as well be in Sanskrit for all the heed people pay to them. What gives?

File the impressive Ukrainian achievement of "enemy position captured solely by UGVs" in the crowded category of "significant milestones that can nevertheless easily be over-interpreted" - a few thoughts on why from me here: theconversation.com/robots-just-...

Sad to learn that my alma mater is going to be closing its doors permanently this year. I had a mixed experience at Hampshire - I think I was the odd student there who probably would have been better served by a slightly more conventional place - but for a lot of people it was transformational.

Genuinely weird to look up at the moon this morning and realize that for the first time in my life there are people out there.

Nice chat with The Globalist's Georgina Godwin this morning around the difference between types of "drone warfare" in Ukraine and the Gulf and the ways the two are and aren't interlinked. open.spotify.com/episode/48bC...

Probably DC to Maine, which I soloed a couple of times. But in terms of how long it *felt*, DC to Western MA, given that it was in a friend's 1996 Camry which vibrated madly between 50-65 mph. "It's fine, if there was something really wrong it'd tell me." Two months later the front wheel fell off.

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @terrystiastny.bsky.social and @jparakilas.bsky.social on events in Mexico and the day's other stuff, plus @jmacrodgers.bsky.social on his terrific new book "The Return Of Russia", which you should all read. monocle.com/radio/shows/...

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.