Jonathan Boff

Strong argument for God having a sense of humour

I love the irony of AI conducting ethical approval

They nearly do, in the shape of the Stoll Foundation

. Yes, even when they (could have) had the Tanker War model to hand.
Part of problem is USN historical dislike of trade protection mission (what’s the USCG for, after all?); part is just Supreme Command Authority not bothering to think anything through properly or let anyone else do so

Inexcusable not to have prepared and planned better for this

Which chokepoint wins in a game of geoeconomic Top Trumps? It depends on its damage to the target, potential for blowback and durability

Which chokepoint wins in a game of geoeconomic Top Trumps? ft.trib.al/ECuLURy | opinion

HMP Wandsworth will take the wind out of his sails.
I don’t think he’ll find Chez Bruce delivers

Looking forward to reading this, sounds ace.
Great cover too!

Yes write it DMO

Oh yes there is absolutely a coherent case to be made for it.
My point was merely that there is little evidence that it was much made at the time.

I say ‘should have have been’ because (despite claims in a recent book) there is no evidence that Churchill & co had any such strategic vision in mind. They pretty much attacked the Dardanelles because they could, not because they had really thought it through. Sound familiar?

Signal boost for Jen.

There is another angle to the analogy: one reason for attacking the Dardanelles should have been to allow fragile ally Russia to earn foreign currency by exporting grain.
Iraq now is a very fragile state and badly needs to be to sell its oil. It is in Western interests to facilitate that asap

Here’s hoping the world does a better job of Hormuz than the Entente made of the Dardanelles.

😂

I live to create through play.
I shall deliver my lecture on the origins of the Cold War later through the medium of interpretive dance.
My body is my tool.

I can think of little that I’d like to do more than in our next Dept meeting than make a raffiawork bookmark inspired by your shoes

It’s almost as if the enemy gets more than one vote….

Adding value all the way. That’s what REF fails to capture

Delighted to hear it has uses beyond propping the laptop up for Zoom calls

Hear hear

Unearthed

Interesting because actually I think airport security has not changed that much since the hijackings of the 60s-70s. There was a few years of intensified paranoia after 2001 and the tech has evolved of course but the main reason the queues have got longer is fewer staff I reckon

Delete ‘expenses crisis’ insert ‘poll tax riots’. Or indeed 9/11

Thursday

America has only won 4 wars that matter in its 250 years of history. And one of those was against itself.
America is not good at winning wars, especially wars of choice.
If it were better, it might not feel it had to try so hard to prove itself

I have quite a few essays that are ‘very complete’ by that standard

Repeat after George W Bush and Lyndon B Johnson:
there is no military solution to this crisis. There are people in Iran who’ll carry on wanting to kill Americans and Israelis until ultimately they can be persuaded not to.

The idea that the King could _not_ make a state visit to the USA on its 250th birthday is barking mad.
How to hint that he is visiting the USA and the President of the USA, not DJ Trump, will be harder to pull off