Since 2022, Matthieu Aikins and I have been investigating the CIA’s Afghan surrogate commandos, known in Afg as the Zero Units but officially called the CTPTs by the CIA. These units’ existence has been publicly known since 2010, but their relationship with the CIA is still an official secret...
Hi, just want to share my latest essay that looks at AI for counterterrorism.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New research from Costello, Pennycook, and Rand. Can conversations with AI help reduce belief in conspiracy theories? Quite possibly. What’s the mechanism? Evidence production. Let me explain my little-t theory about how this might work.
I will never claim to "know ball," but if there's anything I feel comfortable doing in this space, it's metabolizing Russell Westbrook's ethos as a point guard across his many eras. This was my latest foray: www.theringer.com/2025/01/21/n...
I think continued reform around foul baiting would go a long way. Just kills the flow of the game when there’s a whistle for all form of soft contact. That’s why 12 minutes per quarter seems eternal imo
Super offended by the Minor Threat erasure
RIP Professor Gerber. Was an absolute privilege studying and learning from him. Just a generous, kind, and loving person - we lost a great one.
wapo.st/4fFXE33
People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random.
Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea
Yeah, sometimes plain and simple advice like that is necessary. Academic writing can be so tedious with its formality and structure and sometimes, you just need to write, rules be damned.
I swear I’m going to screenshot my favorites, turn them into a collage, print it on fancy paper, frame it, and place it above my desk haha - they’re always so helpful after long days where I’m absolutely exhausted
Dude, everytime I’m demotivated from PhD writing, your posts always appear to keep me going. Thanks for posting these!
Here’s a list of what I was reading about Generative AI in 2024 that didn’t make it into the Slop Infrastructures pieces. The rest have been sorted into categories with questions — covering AI’s anti-human streak, AI & imagination, environmental impacts, shared myths and more.
People have been clamouring for a rebuild and now that we’ve got it, people don’t like it. Honestly, prefer this than the mediocrity of aspiring for an 8th seed only to get swept. Yes, it sucks, but it’s not like the team had a strong foundation to sustain it ala spurs.
Tanking always looks terrible. Look at Detroit and whatever happened with the Process. Me personally, I’m enjoying it. The team finally has a vision for rebuilding out of mediocrity. And tix are cheap too.
Not really but Wizards never had a solid core so that the rebuild could be painless. JP and Kuz are the best we have. Should’ve started the rebuild back in 2019, but hey, this tanking might lead to Cooper Flagg. Flagg + Coulibaly would be a solid young core.
That was always the plan though. Team is finally tanking so they can embrace the rebuild. Kuz and JP were there to mentor younger players and then in a few years, they could be traded for assets to further help the rebuild. Personally prefer a vision, even if bleak, than more decades of mediocrity
I have this in mind with that data mesh
defensescoop.com/2024/12/03/a...
Yes! While drones and unmanned platforms will get cheaper, power comes from data platforms or meshes that collate data from myriad sensors to coordinate and optimize fires. These are costly and require infrastructure only available to nation-states.
I’m trying to finish my dissertation and your writing advice has felt like veritable mana. Def helps me manage the anxiety of off days.
Coaching feels most significant on the margins, as the coach can control line ups and set up plays to exploit the other side’s weaknesses. For instance, Darvin Ham and Scott Brooks suck at that whereas Spo and Pop excel at it.
I’d actually be interested TBH. I got into Pinegrove because of a random post of yours. Mine are too chaotic to share with the masses.
Jake Shapiro’s argument in the Terrorist’s Dilemma. Bureaucratization improves a principle’s control at the expense of increased risk of detection. Also FBI’s least intrusive method + UCs deters organization. Not sure that’ll hold with more militant organizing and changing nat sec priorities.
I feel you need to distinguish between early minimalist dubstep artists influenced by UK garage and jungle and American bro-step that turned the genre into a loud, messy, contrived sound. Someone like Burial is vastly different than Skrillex, despite being packaged under the same genre.
My other hypothesis is tied to Ron Inglehart’s post-materialist societies. With global political and economic uncertainty between 2016-2021, prime Gen Z socialization years, they’ve returned to materialist values that emphasize economic security.
Regardless, it’s a multi-causal phenomenon.
I think the missing variable in that survey is ideal family structure. Assuming a family of four, I figure housing costs contribute to these beliefs given slowdown in housing construction post-2008 and rising childcare costs. And perhaps downstream psychological effects of the Occupy Movement.
The article itself is as bonkers as the title
What correlations did you find? Third-party COIN is such a complex, non-linear phenomenon that I’ve always found deterministic answers to be wanting and I imagine non-obvious correlates matter more than simply overwhelming violence.
Are you exploring Hazleton’s arguments that governance didn’t matter as much as violence for successful COIN cases? I never found much analytical purchase there and it’s something I’m trying to disentangle in my PhD research.
End the Fed at your own peril.
Alesina and Summers (1993):
That game remains nearly unbeatable with those patches. I played Bethesda’s rerelease, and the only way to make progress is with a defensive save strategy. Even then, you’ve gotta navigate those automated dungeons without level scaling or floors that suddenly disappear beneath you. Fun game though!
