Some music ages like milk. Other music ages like iron. I am not entirely sure which quality I expected when I returned to Master of Puppets after all these years, but I suspect I did not expect to recognize myself in it. In 1986, when the album was released, I was ten years old and nowhere near … Continue reading The Puppets Still Dance
Author: Jeremy B. Blevins
Jeremy Blevins writes and speaks at the intersection of cybersecurity, technology, and society. An Army veteran, cybersecurity practitioner, and educator, he brings more than two decades of experience in governance, risk, compliance, and technical workforce development.
The Laws of Human Systems
Every profession accumulates its own small collection of proverbs. Sailors have sayings about wind and weather. Farmers accumulate aphorisms about soil and seasons. Soldiers develop blunt little rules about leadership and survival that rarely appear in official doctrine. Organizations produce their own proverbs as well.They often masquerade as jokes. Sometimes they appear as cynical observations … Continue reading The Laws of Human Systems
The Bag of Winds
There is a small moment in The Odyssey that I find myself returning to more often as I get older. I am not entirely sure why this one has stayed with me. It is not one of the famous scenes; it passes quickly, as if Homer knew its meaning required little elaboration, or perhaps as … Continue reading The Bag of Winds
You Thought It Was Free
There is an old saying—updated for the digital age—that if something is free, you are the product. It is a useful warning, though I am no longer sure it is sufficient. Because now, it seems to me, you may also be the labor. I am reminded, as well, of the older phrase from The Moon … Continue reading You Thought It Was Free
The Land Remembers
Some landmarks enter your life quietly. You pass them often enough that they stop being curiosities and start becoming prompts for reflection. For me, one of those is a tree along a Highway 33 through Bankhead National Forest. I drive past it nearly every day. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, you … Continue reading The Land Remembers
The Economics of Modern War: Factories, Drones, and the Fragile Ecology of Trust
The Price of Interception Modern warfare has developed a strange economic imbalance. A missile interceptor costing several million dollars may be launched to destroy a drone assembled from a few hundred dollars’ worth of electronics. The exchange is tactically successful yet economically unsettling, revealing how the structure of war may be changing. In some recent … Continue reading The Economics of Modern War: Factories, Drones, and the Fragile Ecology of Trust
Attributed Arms in the William Blethyn Pedigree Roll, Part I
Walk into any medieval manuscript or early armorial roll, and you might do a double-take: King Arthur’s shield, a harp-bearing King David, or a double-headed eagle for Charlemagne. How could these figures — many centuries before heraldry existed — have a coat of arms? The answer lies in a fascinating medieval practice: attributed arms. What … Continue reading Attributed Arms in the William Blethyn Pedigree Roll, Part I
