Linkfest 2020-11-20: Metahistorical Models

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Peak Oil Never Went Away

Peak Oil is something I’ve often had cause to discuss on With Both Hands. It is of the class of theories that John J. Reilly loved, metahistorical theories using simplified assumptions like Henry Adam’s energy predictions, Moore’s Law, Eroom’s Law, and of course Spengler. The power and weakness of such analysis is that you can see big trends pretty well, but small deviations from the larger trend are almost impossible to capture accurately. Eventually, we will run out of oil, but things like the introduction of fracking can alter the prediction enough that it seems like the day will never come.


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The Long View: Earthly Powers

The 18th and 19th centuries were a time of rampant nationalism in Europe, and the Pope was the head of the last institution that could effectively resist the nation-state.


The McCarrick Report

I find this an absolutely fascinating bit of forensic document work, combined with reflexive bureaucratic CYA. A difficult read, given the subject matter, but I think an important one, for it gives you a clear vision of just how quickly something can go from a salacious conspiracy theory to a publicly demonstrated matter of fact.


The Revenge of the Yankees

Michael Lind argues that Woke politics are not something fundamentally new in America.


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The Last Children of Down Syndrome

One of the saddest things about killing children with Trisomy 23 in utero is that it isn’t even good eugenics. You can’t reduce the size of the next generation of Down’s Syndrome children by killing them now, because it is almost always a de novo mutation. If you go down this path, you are going to keep doing it again and again until we are willing to support even the inconvenient.


Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Following up on last week’s post on why Gremlins worked when it shouldn’t have, a post on how Gremlins 2 exceeded the original in every way.


https://wastelandandsky.blogspot.com/2020/11/skin-for-game.html


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The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling

S. M. Stirling’s alternative history homage to King – of the Khyber Rifles.