Is matched only by the astounding stupidity of Western politicians — A very long time ago some friends begged me to go with them to a nightclub — a venue I had zero interest in experiencing — and reluctantly I acquiesced. During the course of the overly-loud evening I witnessed an interesting event. At the time, I’d just gained nidan (2nd…

Finally, a diet that delivers consistent results for everybody — The Coating Fat diet is based not on whimsical fads such as the so-called Paleo diet or the nutrient-deficient Atkins Diet, nor on harmful short-term “hacks” such as the metabolically disastrous Keto Diet. Instead, the Coating Fat diet is based on solid empirical science. Everyone knows fat is the body’s…

Why the Western posture over Ukraine encourages the worst possible outcome — Recently US President Biden responded to the question of what the USA would do if Russian forces use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Presumably imagining that “strategic ambiguity” would keep him out of trouble, Biden didn’t respond directly. He merely said that his advice to Putin is “don’t.” Let’s pause…

What will the 45th and soon-to-be 47th President do in his second First Hundred Days? — When Trump begins his second term as President in January 2025, he will immediately tell the nation how a great wrong — the stolen election of 2020 — has been put right. With the aid of a supine Republican-dominated Congress he will instantly proclaim that he’s going to serve two…

We should all be having moving experiences — First of all, why exercise at all? Only around 3% of the population takes any meaningful form of regular exercise, so clearly it’s a minority pursuit. This is due to the fact that during the vast majority of our evolutionary history calories were scarce and uncertain, so we evolved to…

The energy crisis has provoked a populist response — Thanks to ineradicable Western passivity in the face of Russian aggression, and thanks to an insane policy of relying on Russian hydrocarbons for 40% of its energy needs, Europe (which despite the stupidity of Brexit still necessarily includes the UK thanks to the unchangeable reality of geography), Europe is experiencing…

As the UK transitions between one old fixture and another, we can ask: why do so many ordinary people yearn for someone to stand over them? — Few people in the world who have any access to the Internet will have failed to notice that Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and Head of the Commonwealth, died a few days ago. When Diana, quondam Princess of Wales, died in a car crash…

Better outcomes by design — It’s easy to see that representative democracy is an approach to governance that is abjectly unfit for purpose. I’ve written some articles here and here on Medium that briefly explore a few of democracy’s problems, and a book that goes into greater detail. …

Representative democracy is analogous to allowing tiny children to decide what the family will eat for dinner — The Athenian philosopher Plato observed more than 2,500 years ago that democracy — in his day, direct rather than representative — must always end in tyranny because the great mass of people are ignorant and foolish and thus easily gulled by any semi-capable demagogue who chooses to pour honey into…