This Joe Rogan interview of Palmer Luckey is self-recommending:
Joe Rogan interviews Palmer Luckey
Sunday, October 26th, 2025The Antichrist is a Luddite
Saturday, October 25th, 2025Peter Thiel recently delivered a series of four lectures on behalf of ACTS 17 Collective — a nonprofit dedicated to Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society (ACTS) — about the Antichrist:
Thiel kicks off the lecture series by identifying himself as two things in his private life: “A small-o orthodox Christian” and a “humble classical liberal.” Thiel claims his fears about the Antichrist are his only “deviation from classical liberal orthodoxy,” and his analogy between the Antichrist and one-worldism, one of the central motifs of his lectures, is unmistakably libertarian.
While the rapid rise in AI and other advanced technologies has led many to believe that the Antichrist will use technology to accomplish his goals — the New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat has even suggested to Thiel that the surveillance technology provided by Palantir could be a tool for the Antichrist — Thiel says in his first lecture that, “in the 21st century, the Antichrist is a Luddite who wants to stop all science.” In his second lecture, Thiel goes on to identify “the legionnaires of the Antichrist [as people] like Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nick Bostrom, and Greta Thunberg [who] argue for world government to stop science.”
Although Thiel doesn’t explicitly reference Crisis and Leviathan (1987) — the celebrated book by American historian and economist Robert Higgs — he warns that the former precipitates the latter. In his first lecture, Thiel cites Matthew 24:6 to insist that “the Antichrist will come to power by talking about Armageddon non-stop” and 1 Thessalonians 5:3 as evidence that the Antichrist will rise to power by promising “peace and safety.” In his second lecture, Thiel explains how “a new, reformed government called ‘Leviathan,’” as described by political philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his 1651 political treatise, that wields supreme power to cow men into peaceful cooperation, will be ridden by the Antichrist “to take over the world.”
Opposition to totalitarianism aside, not all of Thiel’s comments fit comfortably within the libertarian worldview. Thiel criticizes “zombie liberalism” and “lame libertarian abstractions,” preferring an anti-communist ideology where “you could do some pretty bad stuff because the communists were so much worse.” For example, Thiel praises the CIA of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, for being “sort of this rogue thing outside the State Department,” which he says was full of communists.
Still, Thiel recognizes state power as a double-edged sword, identifying the American empire as simultaneously “the natural candidate for Katechon” — the entity that delays the emergence of the Antichrist — “and Antichrist; ground zero of the one-world state, ground zero of the resistance to the one-world state.” In his third lecture, Thiel names “tax treaties, financial surveillance, and sanctions architecture” as defining features of the international “Antichrist-like system” of international governance. Thiel explains how “it’s become quite difficult to hide one’s money” in the wake of the Patriot Act, the “extensive” administrative state (the Treasury Department, in particular), and the centralization of payments on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications system — an international messaging network better known as SWIFT, which banks use to process global payments. All of these factors make it impossible to “escape from global taxation if you’re a U.S. citizen,” he says. Thiel links this erosion of financial freedom to Revelation 13:16-17, which prophesies about a society where an individual’s ability to engage in commerce is contingent upon brandishing the mark of the beast on one’s body.
If they ran 100 missions like that, 95 would fail
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025The average wait for an evacuation from the Ukrainian front is a week, with some taking as long as a month:
Wounded soldiers have died waiting despite being supplied with intravenous fluids and pain relief, he says.
Evacuations are dangerous, and commanders are constantly weighing the risks. In one case, the driver of an M113 armored vehicle sent to rescue a casualty was killed when it was hit by a drone. Six more soldiers were then injured in subsequent missions to rescue the same soldier.
[…]
“We never send people closer than 5km [3 miles] to the front if a robot can do the job,” Eugune says. “We navigate at night using landmarks like trees, towers, and roads. It’s like orienteering.”
[…]
Engineers from the unit have adapted one of its TERMIT ground robots, now known as “Mr. Hook,” to recover marooned UGVs.
“Sometimes it’s simple — an electric cable or debris caught in the tracks, even abandoned village power lines can be a hazard, tangling in the vehicle’s running gear,” Eugene says. “This one’s going to be more difficult, though, the UGV weighs about 120 kilos [265lbs], and with the load it’s carrying, nearly 270 kilos in total.”
[…]
Ruslan uses a Turkish-made Hatsan 12-gauge shotgun for defense against enemy drones.
Once the UGV is on the ground, Vitalik takes control, with Serhii as co-pilot and navigator, and in less than an hour, the robot reaches the frontline, where soldiers quickly emerge from a dugout to retrieve the supplies
[…]
All the hardware and software are built in-house, and it takes about a week to adapt manufacturer-delivered UGVs so they can operate in frontline conditions, Eugene says. GPS often drops out due to Russian jamming, for example, so operators have to navigate visually using the feed from a nearby Mavic drone.
Custom software reduces delays in communication with the vehicles, but there is no standardized national system. Government-issued software is proprietary and slow to obtain, so the unit develops its own to maintain flexibility and adapt quickly to battlefield changes.
Operating UGVs is far more time-consuming than flying First-Person-View (FPV) drones, Eugene says. But while FPV drones can reach their target in minutes, they can only carry light loads.
Baba Yaga drones, for instance, can only carry about 10 kilos and wear out after roughly 100 missions. UGVs move slowly and must navigate terrain obstacles, but can deliver heavy payloads. They cost about $10,000, and Eugune says prices remain high because they are not mass-produced.
“Right now, there are only two viable roads in this sector, which the Russians patrol with drones,” he says. “UGVs are harder to detect because they’re electric and have a low thermal signature.”
The front is no longer a single trench line but, in places, a contested zone up to 15km deep with multiple layers of positions. Eugene says his team can’t cover some forested areas, forcing troops to carry supplies by hand for the last stretch. And the inconsistency of Starlink’s satellite internet connection doesn’t help.
On this mission in the Kharkiv region, the robot is running on a decentralized so-called mesh network rather than solely on Starlink, and the unit sometimes deploys a separate “bicycle penetrator” robot, which carries Starlink or mesh nodes as a forward relay. Typical signal range is about 7km, though a small aircraft carrying a transmitter can extend that to 30km.
On one mission working as a navigator for another unit that relies solely on Starlink, Eugene recalls guiding a UGV carrying a casualty over 1.7km of hostile territory. The trip took two-and-a-half hours because the Starlink connection dropped every five meters, he said.
The route was entirely within the kill zone, where no one could remain in the open, yet the injured soldier had to be moved along a regular road. “It’s just luck the UGV wasn’t destroyed,” Eugene says. “If they ran 100 missions like that, 95 would fail.”
The natural porous structure of the wood has been collapsed and toughened
Wednesday, October 15th, 2025“Superwood” has just launched as a commercial product, manufactured by InventWood, a company co-founded by material scientist Liangbing Hu:
While working at the University of Maryland’s Center for Materials Innovation, Hu, who’s now a professor at Yale, found innovative ways to re-engineer wood. He even made it transparent by removing part of one of its key components, lignin, which gives wood its color and some of its strength
His real goal, however, was to make wood stronger, using cellulose, the main component of plant fiber and “the most abundant biopolymer on the planet,” according to Hu.
The breakthrough came in 2017, when Hu first strengthened regular wood by chemically treating it to enhance its natural cellulose, making it a better construction material.
The wood was first boiled in a bath of water and selected chemicals, then hot-pressed to collapse it at the cellular level, making it significantly denser. At the end of the weeklong process, the resulting wood had a strength-to-weight ratio “higher than that of most structural metals and alloys,” according to the study published in the journal Nature.
[…]
“It looks just like wood, and when you test it, it behaves like wood,” Lau added, “except it’s much stronger and better than wood in pretty much every aspect that we’ve tested.”
[…]
“In theory, we can use any kind of wooden material,” Lau said. “In practice, we’ve tested with 19 different kinds of species of wood as well as bamboo, and it’s worked on all of them.”
InventWood says Superwood is up to 20 times stronger than regular wood and up to 10 times more resistant to dents, because the natural porous structure of the wood has been collapsed and toughened. That makes it impervious to fungi and insects. It also gets the highest rating in standard fire resistance tests.
The intricate design is known as a gyroid
Saturday, October 11th, 2025Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have 3D-printed a lightweight ceramic fuel cell:
The new process involves 3D printing and results in what the team refers to as the “Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cell” (or just “The Monolith” for short).
[…]
The team implemented a custom design inspired by the natural construction of coral. This shape optimizes surface area while the material composition allows for a much lighter-weight end product. Most fuel cells are comprised of metal, which contributes greatly to their weight. This fuel cell is apparently completely ceramic.
The intricate design is known as a gyroid and is a type of triply periodic minimal surface (shortened to TPMS). These surfaces are intended to provide as much surface area as possible. It’s beneficial, particularly in this case, as the surface provides more optimal heat dispersion. According to the development team, the cell is capable of producing more than a watt of power for each gram of its own weight.
The material also has a surprisingly noteworthy amount of durability. When testing the fuel cell’s ability to withstand temperature fluctuations, it managed to handle temperatures as high as 212° F (100° C). It also maintained its structural integrity when alternating between both power-storing and generating modes.
The fuel cell also features something called “Electrolysis Mode” which increases the hydrogen production rate almost tenfold compared to standard fuel cells. The 3D printing aspect of the design also helps make the manufacturing process easier than regular fuel cells.
Ukrainian troops are using Latvian-built electric scooters
Friday, October 3rd, 2025Ukrainian troops are using Latvian-built electric scooters to move quickly, quietly, and off-road:
The Mosphera military e-scooters used by Ukrainian operators are made by Latvian firm Global Wolf Motors, are about twice the size of a regular scooter, and have motorcycle tires, Klavs Asmanis, the founder and CEO, told Business Insider.
These nimble, off-road e-scooters can hit 62 mph, cover up to 186 miles on a single battery charge, and weigh just 163 pounds, making them easier to handle than heavier bikes.
Asmanis said they can make deliveries to the front lines, do reconnaissance in Russia-held territory, and quickly evacuate lightly wounded troops, among other missions, and Ukraine is putting them to work.
[…]
Asmanis said the scooters offer advantages over other vehicles being used in this war. For instance, they are smaller and lighter than traditional vehicles, they don’t drown out the buzzing sound of drones, they’re easier to quickly bail out of in an emergency, and the scooters don’t require risking a car, truck, or other vehicle that could be packed with gear for other missions on quick, daring dashes.
He said they excel in forested areas. “Its e-scooter-style wheelbase makes it easy to weave between trees” and trails, while its 163-pound weight “means that if it does get stuck, it’s far easier to pull out compared to a motorcycle.”
They’re also far easier to hide when not in use, in bushes or under branches.
[…]
Asmanis said his vehicles are better suited to conflict than typical e-scooters, describing them as “in the middle between scooter and motorcycle” because it has much larger wheels, like motorcycles do, than regular scooters.
The team’s innovative solution rotates the printing platform
Thursday, October 2nd, 2025“This process is ideally suited to rocket nozzles, rotating engines, and many other components in the aerospace industry,” Michael Robert Tucker, PhD, a lecturer at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, said. “They typically have a large diameter but very thin walls.”
A team of bachelor students in Switzerland has designed a 3D high-speed multi-material metal printer well suited to rocket nozzles, rotating engines, and other aerospace components have a large diameter but very thin walls, because it uses a rotating laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) system:
Traditional LPBF printers operate in a stop-start fashion by sequentially applying and fusing each layer. In contrast, the team’s innovative solution rotates the printing platform, allowing powder to be deposited and fused continuously.
[…]
This high-speed rotation slashes production time for cylindrical components by more than two-thirds. It can also print with two different metals simultaneously, which current 3D printers can’t achieve without multiple printing stages or complex post-processing.
The student-led project, named RAPTURE, was initially designed to help ARIS (the Swiss Academic Space Initiative) build bi-liquid-fueled rocket nozzles capable of surviving spaceflight conditions.
According to Tucker, what sets the machine apart is its rotating powder delivery and gas flow system, which proved critical to the quality of the printed parts. The mechanism blows inert gas across the fusion zone, preventing oxidation during the printing process.
At the same time, soot, spatter, and other by-products are continuously extracted through a dedicated outlet, ensuring a cleaner build environment and higher part integrity. “At first we underestimated the extent to which the gas flow mechanism affects product quality,” Tucker explained. “Now we know it’s crucial.”
Our country would have been much better off in the immediate postwar years if we had had a group of officers who were thoroughly experienced in all the problems of this type of work
Sunday, September 28th, 2025
General Groves believed strongly, as he explains in Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project, that in time of war every possible regular officer should be in the combat area:
I was undoubtedly influenced in this belief by my personal knowledge of the disappointment suffered by many regular officers who were kept in this country during World War I, with no chance of combat experience. In my own case, I was already a cadet when the war started, and remained at West Point until a few days before the Armistice. Had my own experience been different, I would quite probably have had a considerable number of regular officers assigned to the project throughout its duration.
As I look back now with a full appreciation of the tremendous import of the development of atomic energy, I think it was a mistake not to have had them. Our country would have been much better off in the immediate postwar years if we had had a group of officers who were thoroughly experienced in all the problems of this type of work—not only in problems of atomic energy but in all the manifold problems involved in technical and scientific developments that have played such an important part in our national defense since 1945.
While I am on the subject of my own mistakes, I perhaps should add that there was another consideration, similar to this, to which I did not give adequate attention. That was the necessity of having replacements available if either Nichols or I died or became disabled. Many serious problems would have arisen if anything had happened to either of us, and it was not proper for me to have placed such great reliance, fortunately not misplaced, upon the physical and mental ability of both of us to stand up under the strain, to say nothing of the possibility of accidental death or injury, particularly since we did so much flying.
This was brought very vividly to my attention in December of 1944, when Mr. Churchill suggested that I should come to London to talk over our problems, and particularly our progress, with him and other members of his government. In discussing his request with Secretary Stimson, I said that while I would like very much to go to England, I was afraid that it might take me away from my work for a considerable period of time, especially if something developed that would make it impossible for Mr. Churchill to receive me immediately on arrival.
Mr. Stimson told me that if I went, I could not go by air, because of the hazards involved. When I said, “Well, I don’t see what difference that would make,” he replied, “You can’t be replaced.” I said, “You do it, and General Marshall does it; why shouldn’t I?” He repeated, “As I said before, you can’t be replaced, and we can.” Harvey Bundy, who was also present, said he had heard that I had previously urged flying when air safety dictated otherwise, and then asked, “Who would take your place if you were killed?” I replied, “That would be your problem, not mine, but I agree that you might have a problem.”
I went on to say that if anything happened to Nichols, I felt that I could continue to operate, though it would mean a very strenuous period for me personally, but that if it were the other way around, while Nichols was thoroughly capable of taking over my position, I thought because he was not so familiar with my responsibilities as I was with his that he could not do both my job and his.
Mr. Stimson said, “I want you to get a Number Two man immediately who can take over your position, and with Nichols’ cooperation, carry on in the event that something happens to you.” He added, “You can have any officer in the Army, no matter who he is, or what duty he is on.”
I drew up a list of about six officers who I thought would be satisfactory, keeping in mind that it would be all-important for the man selected to be completely acceptable to Nichols, since success would depend on the utmost co-operation between them. I particularly wanted someone who would not attempt to overrule Nichols in any of his actions or recommendations until he had had time really to understand what the work was all about, and I doubted whether it would be possible for anyone to accumulate the essential background for this before the project was completed.
Having made up my list, I discussed the matter with Nichols. I asked him to look over the names and to strike from the list anyone whom he would prefer not to have in such a position. He struck several names. I always suspected he struck the first one just to see if I really meant what I had said, because it was the name of a man whom I had known for many years, and who was a very close friend. When he struck that name, I did not bat an eye, but merely said, “Well, he’s out.”
After he had crossed off the names of the men he considered unacceptable, I asked him if he had any preference among the remainder. He replied, “You name him and I’ll tell you.” I said that I felt that the best one on the list was Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, and Nichols replied, “He would be my first choice, too.”
All of these factors are strong predictors of change in military technology
Thursday, September 18th, 2025Peter Turchin and his colleagues ask, What have been the causes and consequences of technological evolution in world history?
Many have argued that the evolution of military technologies is just one aspect of a much broader pattern of technological evolution driven by increasing size and interconnectedness among human societies. Several cultural evolutionary theories, conversely, highlight military technologies as a special case, arguing that steep improvements in both offensive and defensive capabilities of technologies along with accompanying tactical and organizational innovations resulted in “Military Revolutions” (note the plural), which in turn had major ramifications on the rise and, of particular concern here, the spread of state formations globally and the evolution of religion and other cultural phenomena.
[…]
We empirically test previously speculative theories that proposed world population size, connectivity between geographical areas of innovation and adoption, and critical enabling technological advances, such as iron metallurgy and horse riding, as central drivers of military technological evolution. We find that all of these factors are strong predictors of change in military technology, whereas state-level factors such as polity population, territorial size, or governance sophistication play no major role.
The Barrett SSRS is a recoil-operated, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle chambered in 30×42 mm
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025During DSEI UK 2025 in London, Barrett Firearms introduced its 30mm Squad Support Rifle System (SSRS). developed in cooperation with Mars Inc., to the public outside the US:
The weapon recently won the U.S. Army’s xTech Soldier Lethality Competition and secured USD 2 million in funding, confirming its relevance in the ongoing Precision Grenadier System (PGS) program.
[…]
The Barrett SSRS is a recoil-operated, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle chambered in 30×42 mm. The system is compact and ergonomic, with an overall length of 861 mm and a 305 mm barrel, while its weight remains approximately 6.3 kg with the integrated fire control system. Feeding from five-round detachable magazines, the SSRS provides dismounted units with the ability to engage targets up to 500 meters in less than three seconds, offering a much flatter trajectory than traditional 40×46 mm low-velocity grenades. With an effective range greater than most current squad-level grenade launchers, it enhances both precision and lethality in medium-range engagements.
A distinctive feature of the system is its advanced Direct Fire Control – Precision Targeting (DFC-PT) unit, developed by Precision Targeting LLC. This electro-optical fire control system integrates a laser rangefinder, ballistic solver, environmental sensors, and a disturbed reticle, significantly improving first-round hit probability. The SSRS is also designed for compatibility with remote weapon stations, expanding its application beyond individual infantry use to vehicle-mounted platforms.
Development has been rapid. Within eleven months, Barrett and Mars Inc. designed, built, and tested the SSRS, demonstrating its effectiveness under the U.S. Army’s Precision Grenadier System requirement. This achievement led to its recognition as the winner of the Army’s Soldier Lethality Competition in May 2025. Ammunition developed by Amtec Corp. further broadens its operational spectrum, with multiple natures including High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP), Close Quarters Battle (CQB), anti-drone rounds, and training practice slugs. This variety makes the weapon adaptable to both urban combat and counter-drone operations, two of the most pressing challenges on today’s battlefields.
We’ve discussed the SSRS before.
Every physical element of Edison’s 1877 tinfoil phonograph was within reach
Monday, September 15th, 2025What’s the earliest someone could have made a phonograph if they’d understood the basic principles involved? Quite early, ChatGPT says:
A screw-cutting lathe drawn in 1483 shows that late-medieval instrument makers already had a leadscrew, treadle/hand-crank drive, and slide rest accurate enough to carry a stylus slowly along a rotating cylinder.
With beeswax — ubiquitous and soft enough to take fine impressions — and thin metal or animal-skin diaphragms coupled to a simple horn, every physical element of Edison’s 1877 tinfoil phonograph was within reach; nothing required steam power, electricity, or metallurgical advances later than the 15th century. Wax itself was later used in commercial cylinders.
So, had someone grasped the “vibrate-stylus-in-groove” idea, a crude yet understandable recorder-player could have been built in Western Europe around the end of the 15th century — almost four centuries before Edison.
The company is able to produce each episode for $1 or less
Saturday, September 13th, 2025Inception Point AI is attempting to build a stable of AI talent to host podcasts :
“We believe that in the near future half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that’s bringing those people to life,” said CEO Jeanine Wright, who was previously chief operating officer of podcasting company Wondery, which has recently had to reorganize under the changing podcast landscape.
The company is able to produce each episode for $1 or less, depending on length and complexity, and attach programmatic advertising to it. This generally means that if about 20 people listen to that episode, the company made a profit on that episode, without factoring in overhead.
Inception Point AI already has more than 5,000 shows across its Quiet Please Podcast Network and produces more than 3,000 episodes a week. Collectively, the network has seen 10 million downloads since September 2023. It takes about an hour to create an episode, from coming up with the idea to getting it out in the world.
The company produces different levels of podcasts. The lowest level involves weather reports for various geographic areas or simple biographies and higher levels involving subject-area podcasts hosted by one of about 50 AI personalities they’ve created, including food expert Claire Delish, gardener and nature expert Nigel Thistledown and Oly Bennet, who covers off-beat sports.
As for how it stacks up against human podcasts? “I think that people who are still referring to all AI-generated content as AI slop are probably lazy luddites. Because there’s a lot of really good stuff out there,” Wright said.
[…]
The idea behind the company came after Corbin accidentally developed a hit podcast during the pandemic in which he read daily CDC reports, and then branched out into weather reports and other shows that took off, including A Moment of Silence (an actual minute of silence). At the time, they were not using AI.
80,000 cameras pointed at highways and parking lots
Saturday, September 6th, 2025Since its founding in 2017, Flock, which was valued at $7.5 billion in its most recent funding round, has quietly built a network of more than 80,000 cameras pointed at highways and parking lots across the U.S.:
Growth has been explosive, with revenue up some 70% from the estimated $175 million it booked in 2023. It’s not yet profitable and has no imminent plan to be as it prioritizes growth, backed by a $275 million March funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Those numbers were more than sufficient to land Flock on Forbes’ 2025 Cloud 100 list of the top private cloud computing companies. Langley says turning Flock into a $100 billion business is “very within reach.” Ilya Sukhar, an early investor and partner at VC firm Matrix who sits on Flock’s board, agrees. “It’s a bit cliché, but it does feel like we’re just getting started,” he says. “It’s not hard for me to project to a place where we get to that level.”
Each Flock license plate reader cam costs between $3,000 and $3,500, with an additional fee for FlockOS, the operating system that makes all the data Flock collects accessible via a browser or a mobile app, based on either the number of users or cameras. Dunwoody PD, for instance, pays around $500,000 annually for its array of 105 cameras, gunshot detectors, that skittering DJI drone and the software that controls it all.
Flock’s growth isn’t solely fueled by its 5,000 law enforcement customers across 49 states (it hasn’t yet installed its cameras in Alaska). It has 1,000 corporate customers, including blue chips like FedEx, Lowe’s and Simon Property, America’s largest mall owner. Then there are housing and homeowner associations, small businesses, schools and organizations like the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, which has installed 64 Flock cameras across different properties in the city, including a community center that has reported a recent spike in antisemitic threats to Dunwoody police. All these customers can choose to grant the police access to their camera feeds, further expanding the surveillance coverage Flock can offer law enforcement. Many do.
Langley had no experience in police tech when he and fellow Georgia Tech alums Matt Feury, 36, and Paige Todd, 40, started the company in 2017. Previously they’d worked together on an app Langley cofounded for upgrading sports or concert seats to VIP-status events, where Feury and Todd were early employees. (It was acquired by Atlanta-based conglomerate Cox Enterprises and no longer exists.) Inspired by an unsolved robbery in Langley’s neighborhood, the trio started work on the first Flock prototype, an Android phone camera in a waterproof box that took pictures of cars and picked out license plates that could then be searched via an app.
The modern battlefield requires split-second decision-making, seamless coordination among distributed teams, and processing vast amounts of information, all under extreme pressure
Thursday, September 4th, 2025The modern battlefield requires split-second decision-making, seamless coordination among distributed teams, and processing vast amounts of information, all under extreme pressure:
As I have learned over the last year, as an advisor to August Interactive, a gaming studio, these are exactly the skills that well-designed military gaming programs can develop and refine.
Unlike traditional military wargaming — which typically involves structured, turn-based exercises on maps or models to explore campaign plans and strategic concepts — the gaming discussed here draws heavily on digital interactive platforms, including modified commercial titles and purpose-built military simulations. These environments — ranging from real-time strategy games to tactical shooters, flight simulators, and cyber-themed games — emphasize rapid continuous decision-making, high-pressure coordination, and immersive skill development. While both approaches aim to sharpen judgment and prepare leaders for complex scenarios, this form of military gaming leverages the speed, interactivity, and scale of modern gaming technology to cultivate competencies that are difficult to replicate in traditional wargaming formats. And they are also more engaging and fun, which is a good thing.
The U.S. military should formally embrace and invest in advanced digital gaming as a core training tool, leveraging its ability to build critical cognitive, coordination, and technical skills for modern warfare.
[…]
I visited the gaming center at West Point last spring. I was impressed with the setup and technological capabilities, but I was even more impressed by the insights shared with me by combat-experienced officers and non-commissioned officers overseeing the program. The positive impact on cadet leadership development was remarkable: improved communication skills, quicker decision-making, and faster adaptability to change. Notably, many intercollegiate athletes there are involved in military gaming.
Latest driver death rates highlight dangers of muscle cars
Monday, September 1st, 2025The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been calculating driver death rates approximately every three years since 1989, and also calculated the best and worst models according to the number of drivers in other vehicles killed in crashes with them on its last study:
Six of the 21 vehicles with the highest driver death rates for model year 2020 are variants of the Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and Ford Mustang, while eight others are small cars or minicars. Eighteen of the 23 vehicles with the lowest driver death rates are minivans or SUVs, and 12 are luxury vehicles.
“We typically find that smaller vehicles have high driver death rates because they don’t provide as much protection, especially in crashes with larger, heavier SUVs and pickups,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “The muscle cars on this list highlight that a vehicle’s image and how it is marketed can also contribute to crash risk.”
That might not be how I’d phrase it.
But three Dodge muscle cars with excessively high driver death rates also rank among the worst performers when it comes to other-driver deaths, suggesting these vehicles are driven in an aggressive manner.
Seven of the 20 vehicles with the highest other-driver death rates are large or very large pickups, and four more are midsize SUVs — categories that aren’t represented among the models with the worst track record for protecting their own drivers. Seven of the vehicles with the highest other-driver death rates also rank among the worst for driver death rates: the Dodge Challenger two-wheel-drive, Dodge Charger two-wheel-drive, Dodge Charger HEMI two-wheel-drive, Kia Forte, Kia Optima, Kia Rio sedan and Nissan Altima.
The list of vehicles with the lowest other-driver death rates include two small, two midsize and one large car, as well as six small and 10 midsize SUVs. Ten models are luxury vehicles.
The rates include only driver deaths because all vehicles on the road have drivers, but not all of them have passengers or the same number of passengers. The number of deaths is derived from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Registration data come from IHS Markit.
The latest rates are based on fatalities that occurred from 2018 to 2021 for vehicles from the 2020 model year, as well as earlier models with the same designs and features. The numbers represent the estimated risks for 2020 models, but the data include models from as far back as 2017 if the vehicles have not been substantially redesigned over the intervening period. Including these older, equivalent vehicles makes the sample size larger and therefore increases the reliability of the results. To be included, a vehicle must have had at least 100,000 registered vehicle years of exposure from 2018 to 2021 or at least 20 deaths.
[…]
The lists of vehicles with the lowest driver and other-driver death rates have nine models in common. These include the Acura MDX four-wheel-drive, Audi Q5 four-wheel-drive, Chevrolet Traverse four-wheel-drive, Lexus RX 350 four-wheel-drive, Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan four-wheel-drive, Porsche Macan, Subaru Ascent, Toyota C-HR and Volvo XC60 four-wheel-drive. Notably, six of those are luxury vehicles.
“The models that rank among the best and worst performers on both lists point to the unfortunate fact that vehicle cost remains a factor in road safety,” Harkey said.
Vehicle cost — or driver income?
Minicars had the highest driver death rates, averaging 153 deaths per million registered vehicle years. Very large luxury cars had the lowest, averaging only 4 deaths. In contrast, very large pickups had the highest other-driver death rates, averaging 121 deaths, while small sports cars had the fewest other-driver deaths, averaging only 11 per million registered vehicle years.
The average other-driver death rate for all 2020 and equivalent models was 53 deaths per million registered vehicle years. There are more other-driver fatalities than driver fatalities because these newer models are more crashworthy than many of their crash counterparts, which come from the wider U.S. fleet, made up of mostly older vehicles.
(Hat tip to Grasspunk.)