Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Alman

@davidalman.bsky.social

2.9K followers 1.2K following 71 posts

Airman + consultant + aero engineer interested in national strategy, domestic policy, environmentalism, good food, and all things aviation. Views = mine alone and not representative of anyone I work for. #airpower

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 11h

There to just suck up insane amounts of energy, thereby destroying the earth along with humanity

Reposted by David Alman

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14h

“.. Never before has so much money been spent so rapidly on a technology that, for all its potential, remains largely unproven ..”

@bloomberg.com $NVDA
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Reposted by David Alman

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14h

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 12h

I really do not understand on what basis troops from one state can go perform quasi-policing functions in another state without specifically invoking the insurrection act.

Posse comitatus is a thing...state sovereignty is a thing...the 10th amendment...etc.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 12h

GO, FGO, CGO

Ryan Teague Beckwith @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social · 1d

Editor in chief, city editor, features editor

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 12h

greatest inadvertent troll of all time

Wesley Morgan @wesleymorgan.bsky.social · 16h

Don’t think these Texas National Guard guys are going to be chasing any immigrants around Chicago on foot

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 1d

Obligatory gif

a close up of a man 's face with the words " a dude disguised as another dude "

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with the words " a dude disguised as another dude "

media.tenor.com

Reposted by David Alman

Nick Lloyd @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social · 1d

The last paragraph in the narrative section of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. So powerful, brilliant and prophetic, ending with "... all sleeping the deep, deep sleep of England, from which I sometimes fear that we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs."

Reposted by David Alman

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 1d

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Adam Douglas Thompson. #NewYorkerCartoons

Sign up for our humor newsletter to get Daily Cartoons delivered to your inbox: nyer.cm/0EivDaD

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 1d

We need a national reckoning on uniform wear.

We cannot have police and military wear the same stuff.

Dr Mir @shabana.bsky.social · 2d

The land of the brave

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Me, salty AF having previously owned a bunch of AMD stock................

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Military forces from one state going to another

Masked dudes pulling people off the street

Blacked out helicopters descending on apartments

Massive tariffs

Government shutdown

Stock market hits new high

One of these things is not like the others

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

And environmentalism concerns....

But other than those two things, only joy.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Planes exclusively bring me joy except for noise pollution in the national parks....

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Our standards are so low. Nobody in uniform should be in the background once the speech turns political.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Even civilian orgs and academia suffer from these pitfalls - I think it’s human nature to be somewhat parochial.

Why it is so critical to have the processes and bureaucracy in place to minimize it!

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

That’s the bigger issue, I agree, but I think it happens regardless of career paths and elitism? You always need some neutral arbiter to not get the insane bias.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

But as long as you can become an O-6 and command (20+ years of service) it shouldn’t matter, right? In many cases, the non prestige tracks are easier to promote in

Sure, no 4 star general but anyone who is delusional enough to think they actually have real agency in that process anyways is an idiot

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

If your strategy depends on some unit having all Jason Bourne’s in it, it’s probably an ineffective strategy anyways!

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Fortunately the Army doesn’t matter that much for the Pacific *frag out*

In all seriousness, though, I’m not sure how much it matters?

As long as the *insert branch here* people do their job, which they do, it doesn’t matter if they graduated last in their class.

That’s the beauty of doctrine!

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah I think it’s an insane thing for the USAF to still hype up. It reflects larger institutional preferences for the air superiority mission instead of any sort of reflection on theory or purpose.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

Then again, military organizations are notoriously stupid so it might not even matter how many people are left!

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

And, because the USAF keeps some smart people in the AOC, with intel, in training commands, and other non-rated fields etc I think it is less likely to suffer from brain drain after a few squadrons worth of losses.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

And honestly, the US military in general does a really good job at making fighter pilots remarkably standardized.

You can basically join up with some average joes from a random squadron from another service and execute pretty high level tactics with zero prior coordination.

David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 2d

I think the Air Force does a decent job of avoiding this.

Pilots (within platforms) are largely interchangeable, meaning squadrons are too.

Moreover, the propensity of CSAF to be a fighter pilot notwithstanding, almost every career field can see a path to O-6 and command of some sort.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 2d

usual rates of death and wounding, and so erode more quickly than the
general mass of the force.7
This selection-destruction cycle means that a force with too high a proportion of elites—an army with too many special forces units, a navy that
diverts too many of its most aggressive junior commanders into the submarine arm, or an air force (like that of imperial Japan) with aircrew standards
that prove unsustainable over a long war—can actually damage its adaptive potential. Such a force experiences a brain drain, where individuals
who would have been leaders in regular units (and would likely have
survived to spread their knowledge to others) are instead segregated into
subgroups where, even if they survive, their talents are lost to the wider
force. Meanwhile, major combat formations can cease to be much more
than feeders for specialized units, providing the recruiting base for elite
forces that increasingly usurp normal combat roles, exacerbating both the
brain drain and the selection-destruction cycle that Beaumont describes.