Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 9h

Should have noted, I'm not taking this as indicative of nationwide opinion, but of the state of public opinion in the heart of Trump voter country.

1 2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 14h

Or, Bret's aggregate partisan advantage analysis is underestimating the racial component to public sentiment.

3

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 15h

Here in W TN, comments on the local news FB page are all cheering Trump's deployment of federal forces to Memphis.

1

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 4d

Want a bright spot to your day?

Two hours ago, the faculty at my institution voted to approve launching a new major and minor in Classics!

What? An institution, in the year 2025, launching a Classics program instead of closing one down? Yes indeed. And I'm proud to be part of making it happen.

1 4

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 4d

Regrettably, I think it's going to get worse: bsky.app/profile/cwjo...

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 4d

Historical misunderstandings derived from playing World of Tanks are starting to make their way into serious policy publications.

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 4d

Like this is such a wrong statement that anyone making it should not be taken seriously at all (this piece annoyed the shit out of me at the time and I have not had the opportunity to litigate it lol)

2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 4d

Historical misunderstandings derived from playing World of Tanks are starting to make their way into serious policy publications.

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 4d

Like this is such a wrong statement that anyone making it should not be taken seriously at all (this piece annoyed the shit out of me at the time and I have not had the opportunity to litigate it lol)

1 1 12

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

If one is worried about standards sliding, I would be more concerned with the massive amount of cocaine SOF seem to be consuming.

1 3

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

Back in 2016-17 I remember reading a revealing article about one of the first US training missions sent to Ukraine, who quickly found that the Ukrainians had more to teach them than the reverse.

No US soldier then serving had fought an enemy with artillery superiority, air support, UAVs, etc.

1 3

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

It started in USSF ODA's whose jobs required fighting alongside foreign forces like the Northern Alliance and being culturally sensitive.

It became a signal that one was doing high speed stuff and therefore the normal rules (about facial hair, but also other things) didn't apply to you.

1 1 8

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

Yet somehow, the US is now far behind on deploying UAVs compared to militaries with much lower budgets.

1 1

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

One could argue that the SOF parts of the war actually went better than the rest. Disrupting terrorist group networks, leadership, & supplies, FID/local partnerships, etc.

It was the part about trying to radically transform societies through conventional military occupation that didn't go well.

1 1 2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

No one seems to have thought about what war would look like when swarms of cheap UAVs give both sides near total real-time information about each others' movements.

1 22

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

The unforeseen emergence of tiny, cheap, mass-produced UAVs has really thrown a wrench in US planning.

Since the 1990s, US planning has focused on irregular conflict where information, speed, and decisive action worked together. This is where SOF excel. GWOT was primarily a SOF War.

2 1 31

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 5d

I deeply regret not being able to see this when I was in Oslo back in 2023!

1

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 7d

How much did the 1990s Air Bridge Denial program also play a role in opening these doors?

1 2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 8d

Edouard Will, Histoire Politique du Monde Hellenistique

Talbert, The Senate of Imperial Rome

1 2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 8d

What are the 'pillar tomes' of your field? The bricks of a book that are undertheorized yet are basically a directory of every source on a topic that exists, and are therefore indispensable?

A few that come to mind:

Frame, Babylonia 681-629 BC
Younger, A Political History of the Aramaeans

1 5

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 8d

Sometimes a text is so well known, no one feels the need to produce an updated edition.

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 8d

Richard Kohn was a master of this, back in the day.

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 8d

Update: The Elamite inscriptions were published in Vallat, Corpus des inscriptions royals de elamite achémenidé (1977) while apparently the most recent Akkadian edition was published in Bezold, Die Achämenideninschriften (1882).

1 2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 8d

Feel like I'm going crazy this morning tracking this down, so I'll ask:

Has anyone published the Akkadian & Elamite portions of Darius I's trilingual inscriptions from Naqsh-i-Rustam?

1 2

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 9d

It's AI.

1 1

Reposted by Christopher W. Jones

Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 11d

Last night, we watched an episode of Zillow Gone Wild wherein a young girl in the 1970s convinced her parents in Lake Tahoe to paint her bedroom like the palace at Knossos and I have never felt closer to a small child.

A house in Lake Tahoe that has a very Minoan theme.

8 64 270

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 11d

Wow, this is a Frankenjob caused by shrinking tenure lines if I've ever seen one.

1

Christopher W. Jones @cwjones.bsky.social · 12d

Those are made up numbers.