A while ago I annouced that I wanted to read De Re Militari, written by Vegetius at the end of the 4th century. Meanwhile I have to announce that I do not find De Re Militari particularly interesting and that I could not concentrate on reading a lot of it. I looked through it twice over the course of some months, but I could not get into the undertow. So I am going to bring it back to the library today or tomorrow. In any case De Re Militari is more immediately practically oriented concerning military affairs of the ancient Roman Empire and not exactly of the timeless quality as the work of Sun Tzu and the like.

I, however, have not managed to read Clausewitz either, if I remember correctly, because it also did not „take“; at least that was my impression back then. But I have read Herman Kahn´s On Thermonuclear War, and some other books by Herman Kahn. They say Herman Kahn had a 200 IQ though that got deleted from the Wikipedia article although I found that information also in an article of Germany´s Der Spiegel from the 1960s (Duell im Dunkel) a while ago (I don´t know the reason for that but it is true that IQ/intelligence testing becomes wobbly in the higher ranges). At any rate Herman Kahn was able to put a lot of things together, indeed. He (apparently) was one of the role models for Kubrick´s character of Dr. Strangelove btw (others may have been Kissinger and McNamara).

A while ago I read something about the possibilities of using electromagnetic pulses in future warfare. Which made me think of writing a book titled „On Electromagnetic Pulse War“ myself, after I would be done with literature and art (or take a break of it), because there would be nothing left to further explore.

I wrote this Failed Note about Vegetius due to conscientousness, to provide infomation about what has happened alongside the Vegetius project, even if nothing in particular has happened. I reiterate, due to conscientousness. Apart from that to frustrate my enemies with this who think they can spot weaknesses within me. Occasionally I confirm weaknesses of mine or do not mind if the enemies rejoice about them, as well as occasionally I may find it more appropriate to show them who´s the boss in order not to let them become overconfident or dangerous or allow them to make a mess. And in particular, this Failed Note about Vegetius gives me the opportunity to post some of my hitherto collected shotgun girl pics, which is probably the most important of its elements.

However, I have been reading a lot more political stuff more recently than I did over the course of the last years (because politics simply appears as the management of human ineptitude and therefore loses its magic to the scholar once he has achieved Satori), or at least I collect articles for further review, especially those who are posted by the Center for Security Studies of the ETH Zürich. Conventional wisdom among scholars is is that large interstate wars are likely to be a thing of the past and the 21st century is, on the whole, going to be more peaceful than any century ever, but as I see there are also opposing views upon that. I need to read that and meditate about that.

Foresight into 21st Century Conflict: End of the Greatest Delusion?

Global Risks 2035: The Search for the New Normal

A Fractured Way Forward for a Global Peace and Security Agenda

Chinese Military Strategy: A CIMSEC Compendium

Somehow related to that I plan to write a note about stuff that has been vomited up on the global political arena in 2016 by the end of the year. I hope I can manage to do it on time. I am happy to announce that atm I am doing quite well with writing the Notes about Art and Artists. I have so far completed the notes about Duncan Wylie, Edward Hopper, H. C. Westermann and Alice Aycock; and maybe – because Duncan Wylie is interested in having that note published soon – I am going to change my original plans about in what order I would have them published. There has been a plan in my head about that, but now it gets kinda overturned (though not in a chaotic or dangerous way). That will feel good as well, I suspect.