A primer on Chinese military thought

guanxi = closed system (you scratch my back, I scratch yours, acceptable corruption).

cha bu duo = difference not much (close enough for government work)

face = reputation 

Eastern Philosophers vs Western Philosophers. Epic Rap Battles of History

Thirty-Six Stratagems - Wikipedia

Chengyu - Wikipedia

Seven Military Classics - Wikipedia

Derpetology: Excerpts from a WW2-era US military manual about China

The Good Earth

Dao de Jing

I Ching

Analects of Confucius

I touched the hero stone on the Great Wall of China: 

Hegseth's speech

His remarks in full: 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth FULL REMARKS at the WAR DEPARTMENT ADDRESS

Some thoughts on it and related things:

Right off the bat, all hands meetings are dumb, just send an email instead of tormenting a captive audience. That's the sort of attention whoring I expect from ex-journalists and career bureaucrats.  

His fixation on things that are irrelevant to modern warfare like grooming and waistlines was painful to watch. There were plenty of hairy soldiers and generals in the US Civil War. Very few were obese because they spent a few years walking everywhere with around 40 pounds of gear. Everything else was transported by mules, and it was a mistake to get rid of them later. 

The War Department should never have been renamed, but I'm agnostic as to whether the name change means much. The real problem is we (Americans) keep getting involved in brushfire wars we can't win with a largely conventional military. 

Army Special Forces and suchlike were meant to tip the scales of proxy wars in America's favor. That goal has yet to be achieved for various naive reasons. The US military held the line in South Korea before Special Forces was at its present size (it was founded during the Korean War in 1952). 

It's a bad idea to publicly criticize the organization you're in charge of, and not just for strategic or propaganda reasons. Announcing to the world that our military sucks will not bring about positive change. In any case, the real problem is smart troops get out of the military as quickly as possible once they get fed up with all the reindeer games. 

From a more practical perspective, the USMC has never missed its recruiting goal, probably because they have a macho appeal that isn't found in the other branches. That's fine and dandy, but it's the Army that has always struggled to recruit and retain enough people. There's a widespread belief that soldiers must be trim athletes. But physical fitness stopped being an issue for all militaries during WW1 when machine guns and long-range artillery became the norm.

Hegseth is tired of seeing fat soldiers and generals? I'm tired of seeing flag-draped coffins coming back from wars we didn't need to fight in the first place. If I had a magic wand, we'd never go to war unless at least 10% of our troops, generals, admirals, etc. can speak the language of the enemy military. Not true fluency, but enough to get by, kind of like what the French Foreign Legion requires. 

We tend to romanticize the infantry even though more than 80% of the casualties in modern warfare are from things like landmines, artillery, mortars, etc. Most soldiers kill and get killed by people they never even see.

I have other material here and elsewhere on this topic. Here is my suggested reading list:

Derpetology: Is Marksmanship Obsolete?

Derpetology: Is Camouflage Obsolete?

Derpetology: US Army WW2 Fitness Standards - There was no 2-Mile Run Event

List of undefeated military leaders - Wikipedia

Derpetology: rocket artillery is superior

The Effects of Shell Shock: WWI Nueroses | War Archives

The Anatomy of Courage

World War II America (Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Bamiba

Red Army 1981 (USSR)

The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever

Derpetology: happy warrior

Enemy at the Gates - Nikita Khrushchev

The Science of Victory by Suvorov 

Never fight if you don't have to.

Never fight alone.

Never fight for long.

extra strength hole puncher

Keep your booger hooks off the bang switch until you're ready to rock and roll. 

totem and taboo

Inspired by Fearsome Critters of the Lumberwoods: Fearsome Critter Database

Los Muertos Grandes

Wake Me Up - Mariachi Style Avicii / Aloe Blacc Cover en Español feat. Robyn Adele Anderson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PVLCZE_ov0

Ukraine needs Shmels, not F-16s, Abrams, Bradleys, or drones

This video speaks for itself:

RPO-A Shmel (Шмель)💥 in Action❗

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV3l_6tXb6Y

As far as artillery goes, Ukraine needs Grad launchers and other unguided rocket artillery. 

50 cal machine guns and the Russian versions of such are also needed. 

The Goldbach Conjecture and Dirichlet's Theorem

The Goldbach Conjecture says any even number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of 2 primes. 

Dirichlet's Theorem says that there are infinitely many primes of the form n*a + b, where a and b are coprime (have no factors in common) and n is any positive integer. 

Some examples:

17 + 3 = 20

2*2 + 3 = 7

2*991 + 977 = 2819 

991, 997, and 2819 are all prime, and 991 and 977 are coprime. 

Primes of arbitrary size can be made by using the conjecture and theorem together. 

Dirichlet's Theorem is the key to solving the integer factorization problem in my opinion. 

hard truths about publishing

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/curious/202506/the-participation-trophy-culture-of-adulthood

spirals, primes, conjectures, and theorems

I'm not sure how all these pieces fit together but it seems like they do. More on that here:

Derpetology: The Archimedes, Ulam, and Sacks Spirals, Euler's Prime Formula, and the Non-random Distribution of Prime Numbers

My country tis of thee?

Rammstein - Amerika (Official Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8ljRgcJNM

Who wore it better?

Putin - Woke Up This Morning

The tricks to becoming a charismatic leader are easy to learn. 

 

flags and the sincerest form of flattery

Great minds think alike. 

South Korea

Liberia

Malaysia 

UK

Russia

USA

Cuba

North Korea

France 

Cambodia

Thailand 

Norway

Army of Tennessee battle flag

how to support me

If you enjoy my content and live close to a Western Union, you can send me money that way. 

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500,000 locations

Western Union has over 500,000 locations worldwide, with a combined network of approximately 455,000 agent locations in 200 countries and territories. In the United States alone, there are about 68,458 locations.

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Donors will be anonymous unless they specify otherwise. Also, I'll take suggestions from donors about content (articles, illustrations, etc.). 

My email is: harty.thomas@gmail.com

I want to keep this blog ad free. 

Important Russian concepts: vranyo, lozh, muzhik, kormushka, nichevo

I'd translate vranyo as either a tall tale or bullshit. Vranyo are obvious lies to both the speaker and the listener, but which serve the purpose of building or maintaining a relationship. 

Lozh just means lies, same as English. It's similar to how pravda just means truth.

Muzhik means peasant or serf. In modern Russian slang, it means a tough guy or a real man. Chuck Norris is the ultimate muzhik. 

Kormushka means a feeding trough and has a similar meaning to English. It represents public wealth to which the connected get what they want and everyone else gets what's left. 

Nichevo means nothing, but as a phrase, it means something like "who cares?" or "no sweat" or "meh". 

At my NSA job, I taught myself some Russian while listening to Arabic comms. It's good to keep your brain flexible with multilingualism. 

Fantasia - Russian Flowers

In Russia, they say only idiots and rich people smile in public, and rich people don't walk the streets.

Ukraine can use landmines and grenades to halt Russia

It takes two to tango, and the Russians have been mining for the same reason anyway. Once Ukrainian troops are safely outside the range of Russian artillery, they can focus on air defense. Any Russian troops who make it through the minefields will have a hell of a time advancing or retreating into their own minefields. 

GATOR mine system - Wikipedia

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The GATOR mine system is a United States military system of air-dropped anti-tank and anti-personnel mines developed in the 1980s to be compatible with existing cluster dispensers. It is used with two dispenser systems—the Navy 230 kg (500 lb) CBU-78/B and the Air Force 450 kg (1,000 lb) CBU-89/B. Additionally the mines are used with the land- and helicopter-based Volcano mine system.

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Volcano mine system - Wikipedia

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The M136 Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine System is an automated mine delivery system developed by the United States Army in the 1980s. The system uses prepackaged mine canisters which contain multiple anti-personnel (AP) and/or anti-tank (AT) mines which are dispersed over a wide area when ejected from the canister. The system, commonly referred to as Volcano, is also used by other armies around the world.[1]

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Thoroughly mine the whole front line then pull back 5 km. If the Russians are dumb enough to advance, they'll have to deal with landmines and Ukrainian artillery simultaneously. 

I like Russia, but they are in the wrong in this war.   

On a related note, Ukraine is using the wrong kind of hand grenade. They should be using one with a handle and save the rest for use by drones. 

List of equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - Wikipedia

Take one of these and duct tape some nails or ball bearings on it for shrapnel:

RKG-3 anti-tank grenade - Wikipedia

how to think like robot/computer/machine

Play the music in one tab and minimize it. Then make 2 tabs for the videos below with each video taking up half the screen. Loop the 3 videos. 

Blade Soundtrack #1 - Blood Rave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6VJQZxeWNY

Mechanical Principles (1930) by Ralph Steiner [4min selection]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkQ2pXkYjRM

15 Sorting Algorithms in 6 Minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRA0W1kECg

I'm convinced that machines and the so-called mentally ill think in pictures.

Derpetology: Solving the Bongard Problem

Also, read this book:

America has better computers, but Russia has better computer scientists. Hence the technological superiority of Google over Facebook. 

Another deep thought song:

The Floppotron: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xUEi7Sd9bE

does not compute; GOTO 10

Derpetology: Trakhtenbrot, an Unsung Hero of Computer Science

Boris Trakhtenbrot - Wikipedia

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Boris (Boaz) Abramovich Trakhtenbrot was a Russian-Israeli mathematician in logic, algorithms, theory of computation, and cybernetics.

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I need to know how Skynet gets built (Extended scene) | Terminator 2 [Remastered] - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UZeHJyiMG8

It is not necessary to find room temperature superconductors if the computer is immersed in mineral oil.

If you build something like this, expect a visit from the FBI or whatever your country's secret police is. 

overcoming death anxiety

On a side note, if you've ever beaten a video game, you know more about computers than about 90% of people alive today. Yay us!

Derpetology: How to Win Super Monkey Poop Fight

Derpetology: How to win the 3rd world farmer game

Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Official Audio) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4HA3vUv2c

Food for thought:

1) The worst-case scenario is that death is just a dreamless sleep. Most people would pick hell over oblivion. Some would even pick hell over heaven. 

2) Realize that death is inevitable. It is the price we pay for the gift of life. 

3) Imagine you could build an afterlife that would maximize happiness. You'd need to be flexible about your beliefs of heaven and hell because everybody dies and thus must all go to the same place.

4) Your afterlife needs dogs, because all dogs go to heaven or something. 

5) Your afterlife needs to fair to kids somehow. Kids die early sometimes and have to go somewhere.

6) Your afterlife has to punish the right people somehow. And remember that kids will be around to see it. 

7) Did I say dogs already? "Most dogs go to heaven" is unappealing for some reason. 

8) Ask yourself how your afterlife would handle people with serious injuries or disabilities. 

9) Does your afterlife allow the dead to communicate with the living? If so, how? 

10) What is approximate location, temperature, season, and time of day for your afterlife? Is everybody there going to be OK with it? 

I could go on, but you get the idea. Microdosing LSD, ayahuasca, peyote, mescaline or scopolamine 
might get your creative juices flowing. Even an extra strong marijuana edible might work. Be warned about this method. It can land you in a psychiatric hospital for days or weeks. 

Some other suggested reading:

Derpetology: What is consciousness?

Some more suggested music:

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising (Official Lyric Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQiUFZ5RDw

Spirit In The Sky - Norman Greenbaum (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2msh0jut2Y

More thoughts on the war in Ukraine

I've been monitoring livemap for a while now.

https://liveuamap.com/

Ukraine is holding the line, but they can't do it forever without more soldiers, money, and weapons. Note that Ukraine is not on the offensive anywhere. 

The Russians switched to a Fabian strategy early on. It's basically the same strategy the Taliban used against the US for 20 years. 

The fighting won't stop until:

1) Ukraine gets security guarantees from Russia and NATO. 

2) Ukraine formally cedes the territory already occupied by Russia.

3) Ukraine agrees not to join the European Union or NATO

It's basically Finlandization. 

Finlandization - Wikipedia

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Finlandization (Finnish: suomettuminen) is the process by which one powerful country makes a smaller neighboring country refrain from opposing the former's foreign policy rules, while allowing it to keep its nominal independence and its own political system. The term means "to become like Finland", referring to the influence of the Soviet Union on Finland's policies during the Cold War.

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This is what happens when Sweden and Finland joined NATO. 

Here are visual aids I made to explain Russia's mood:

And here it is in the form of song:

Soviet Anthem 1984

Fun fact, I listened to that song so many times as a teen my parents thought I'd been brainwashed into being a communist. Whoever did my background check for NSA evidently never found out about it. Also, I'm not a communist. Or a Russian spy, etc. 

John Candy Becomes a Communist

The Internationale(Kiswahili)

An tIdirnáisiúnta, as Gaeilge / The Internationale, in Irish - YouTube

The Internationale (Excellent Arabic version)

I volunteered for the Ukrainian International Legion in 2022 but never got a response. My own sister pressured me to join because of my combat training, language skills, and experiences in Africa. 

Derpetology: My appeal to the Ukrainian International Legion from 2022

Respect makes empires fall. It's not my fault that Ukraine and its allies stocked up on drones instead of rocket artillery and cannon shells. 

heat map of my blog readership from 2008 to the present

It's interesting that I have more readers in Russia than Ukraine. And also that I'm a heavy hitter in Asia. 

I estimate that about 10,000 people in Vietnam read my novella which can be found here:

Derpetology: I, Soldier - part 1

https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2024/02/i-soldier-part-1.html

The most popular posts on this blog:

My blog was read on 6 continents this year, and I'm sure it's been read in every country. 

Derpetology: My blog - read on 6 continents

Not sure how to get penguins to read my blog. Maybe with this?

Democratic Penguins Republic - Trade War (Official Music Video)

Arabic comedy

For my readers in Morocco, Saud Arabia, and those in between: 

MAMNOU3! - Episode 2: Sex & Stars / الحلقة الثانية: جنسٌ ونجوم

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArnErU6l-I0

It's based on a popular US/UK sitcom called The Office. 

You can get around blocked sites by typing in the URL (uniform resource locator) as it is. The URL is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArnErU6l-I0

May God make your face white. 

الله يجعل وجهك أبيض

Do not say this in the US, especially to a black policeman (cop). Or anyone really. 

Astrochicken

Astrochicken - Wikipedia

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Astrochicken is the name given to a thought experiment expounded by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson. An Astrochicken is a small, one-kilogram spacecraft, a self-replicating automaton that could explore space more efficiently than a crewed craft could due to its innovative mix of technology.

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Derpetology: 20-Year-Old Student Uses Peacock Feathers to Create Lasers: A Groundbreaking Discovery

peacock fights turkey

Turkey vs Peacock - who will win?

My magical mystery tour

Starting on Friday, October 3rd, until the following Sunday, I had a mystical experience that started with me driving north as if pulled by a magnet and ended with me in a psychiatric ward for 17 days. I'm tempted to believe I was drugged, but the toxicology screen found nothing, and I didn't drink a drop of alcohol before, during, or after the experience.

Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered 2009)

During it, I was convinced I was experiencing a vision of the afterlife, though something told me that there are many afterlives and each one is heaven for one group and hell for another. Basically, heaven, hell, and real life are all happening at the same time, and everybody goes to real life, heaven, and hell, just for different lengths of time. 

I saw it as heaven, as it was night, cool and quiet, and I was able to walk around unbothered and invincible. When I first heard dogs barking, I thought that maybe I was in hell, but then I remembered the movie All Dogs go to Heaven. If I wasn't drugged, then something definitely broke in my brain, at least temporarily. Every afterlife is fair because everybody dies. Some people experience hell in this life, while others experience heaven. 

Turns out in my "heaven", there is no hunger, thirst, or pain. Just the quiet beauty of nature at night and occasional human interaction, mainly with the downtrodden. If it was from LSD, scopolamine, whatever, many people could experience it for themselves and find inner peace. 

These music video sums up the situation well:

 My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade [Official Music Video] [HD]

Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Official Audio)

42

It's impossible to understand everything and if you try, you go nuts and make people mad. This problem gets worse as the number of smart people increases. That's the best answer I have for very smart people. Tone down your intelligence and stop trying to win everything. I feel OK. I'm sorry for all the strange things I said and did. This is not a suicide note or manifesto. I've had a hard, strange life. I wanted to be a "hero" or at least a father and failed past the usual age. Please be patient with me. I feel at peace and time has slowed to a crawl. I had a "mystical" experience Friday afternoon. Share and enjoy. I know that's a line from a comedy sci-fi novel, but it's "scripture" to people like me (ruthlessly/stubbornly logical). If you spread it, all the people like me will calm down even though they can't explain why. The novel Dune also works as a new "religion". Give the HHG to mean people and Dune to ambitious people. They'll understand why after they think about it too long. It involves locusts, and prime numbers. They can figure it out from there. Some people are "robots" and others are "god emperors".  

I don't feel like drinking and am very relaxed. Please be gentle with me. I want to live a long time. Humanity needs mystical peacemakers. You may see me in a strange outfit. Fight the ocean and you will drown. Share and enjoy.

Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot - Final round 4K UHD (2 of 2 rounds, Oct 9 2021) - YouTube 

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Some more thoughts on 42: its prime factorization is 2*3*7. There were 42 generations between Abrahan and Jesus. George Washington was 42 when the Declaration of Independence was signed. 

Many animals, like cicadas, reach sexual maturity in large numbers at the same time. Another term for "cicada" is the 17-year locust.

Periodical Cicadas Overrun the Forest | Planet Earth | BBC Earth - YouTube

Seventeen Years Locust

Animals that have a prime number as their life cycle are less likely to go extinct because they overwhelm with sheer numbers all the predators that might eat them. 

So basically, 42 is the answer to the question of the maximum age of reproduction for the first time. And 70 is about the maximum human lifespan absent modern technology and medicine. The prime factorization of 70 = 2*5*7. 

Douglas (Noel) Adams was reminding his readers of their mortality in a subtle way. The biggest clue is that his initials are DNA. 

At least 15 million people know about the 42 puzzle, but I seem to be the only one who figured it out.

Life, the universe, and everything? It's as simple as survival and reproduction. That message would not be received well by most, so he dressed it up with a funny sci-fi story. Tolkien did the same thing when he wrote about adventures in Middle Earth rather the grim realities of trench warfare he experienced as a soldier in WW1. 

Galaxy Song - Monty Python's The Meaning of Life