Nightcap

  1. Extending human habitability to outer space Claire Webb, Noema
  2. A widow on imagination Victoria Ritvo, Bat City Review
  3. Assigning blame for the blackouts in Texas (h/t Mark from Placerville) Judith Curry, Climate Etc.
  4. The failure of Welsh devolution Rhianwen Daniel, spiked!

Nightcap

  1. In search of the writer-diplomat tradition Robert Fay
  2. Trump is plenty capable Will Wilkinson, Open Society
  3. The case against Mars Byron Williston, Boston Review
  4. Against human colonies Daniel Deudney (interview), LH

Nightcap

  1. Toward scientific civilization Nick Nielsen, Grand Strategy Annex
  2. We colonize the sun first Robin Hanson, Overcoming Bias
  3. What it means to me to be an American Ken White, Popehat
  4. Nationalist conspiracies Siniša Malešević, Disorder of Things

Nightcap

  1. On the new conservative movement in the United States C Bradley Thompson, American Mind
  2. The sense of shame and the politics of humiliation Thomas Laqueur, Literary Review
  3. Money, modern life, and the city Daniel Lopez, Aeon
  4. Space exploration, and comparative coranavirus lockdowns Scott Sumner, MoneyIllusion

Nightcap

  1. Report from suburban Wichita Laura Field, Open Society
  2. Winning the argument? (public spending) Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
  3. Space exploration escalation Nick Nielsen, Grand Strategy Annex
  4. Machiavelli’s The Prince as libertarian canon Barry Stocker, NOL

Nightcap

  1. Great analysis of Turkish-Saudi cultural war Semih Idiz, Al-Monitor
  2. Trump has reminded the West why it preferred US hegemony Janan Ganesh, Financial Times
  3. The “Redemption Arc” of criminal justice Maria Farrell, Crooked Timber
  4. The new map of Saturn’s moon, Titan, explained Caleb Scharf, Scientific American

Nightcap

  1. A German history of the Balkans Tony Barber, Financial Times
  2. A Brazilian history of the Atlantic slave trade Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Not Even Past
  3. A conservative history of America at its peak Ross Douthat, New York Times
  4. The emotional lives of others Andrew Beatty, Aeon

RCH: “10 Worst Space Disasters in History”

My latest at RealClearHistory:

When I think about space disasters, I am reminded of the space battle between Earth and Trisolaris in Liu Cixin’s fantastic sci-fi novel. Stay with me here. Liu Cixin’s Dark Forest novel needs to be read. In the novel, humans make contact with a nearby alien civilization, who proceed to make plans to invade earth, wipe out its human population, and re-populate it with themselves. The first battle between Earth’s space forces and the would-be invaders ends badly for Earth, as thousands of space warships are destroyed in a matter minutes by a Trisolaran probe. The novel brings up an uncomfortable theory that humans have been all-too-willing to neglect: what if the universe is a hostile, deadly place instead of a curious one?

Please, read the rest.

Nightcap

  1. Exquisite Rot: Spalted Wood and the Lost Art of Intarsia Daniel Elkind, Public Domain Review
  2. Classic books: Like ice in children’s hands Alberto Manguel, Times Literary Supplement
  3. Our aquatic universe Tim Folger, Aeon
  4. From eternity to here: the Rome we have lost Ingrid Rowland, Commonweal

BC’s weekend reads

  1. Cairo’s Chinatown
  2. Informational post on Turkish grand strategy
  3. Free speech for me, but not for thee (SPLC edition)
  4. Experts and the gold standard and, really, a big key to continued economic development
  5. A bunch of new earth-like planets have been found. The Long Space Age (peep the dates)