Mick Cook

The Author’s Corner with Nathan K. Finney Nathan K. Finney is a U.S. Army strategist; a non-resident research fellow at The Duke Program in American Grand Strategy; a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Securi…

Thanks to John Fea and his team for doing a quick interview on “Orchestrating Power”!

thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/01/20/t...

After 4 years of hard work, I’m sinfully pleased that publication of my graphic novel BLACK TIES – IN GODS WE TRUST is approaching.

Gods. Oversized egos. Structural rot with a halo.

Illustrations by @maolyart.bsky.social

(1/4) Read on⬇️

#GraphicNovel #IndieComics
#WritingCommunity

Me, and half of my coworkers, have been laid off. I'm now looking for my next position as gameplay or tools programmer (remote, or relocating within Europe). More about me on my website: pauljoannon.com #gamejobs #gamedevjobs

Episode 119 - On Orchestrating Power | The Dead Prussian

It’s been a while, but this chat with @nathanfinney.com was worth the wait.

open.spotify.com/episode/7njD...

Orchestrating Power by Nathan K. Finney | Hardcover | Cornell University Press Orchestrating Power explores how the expansion of the American state for the First World War reshaped the nature of governance. This wartime state expansion is examined through the creation, structure...

Just finished up a great chat with @mickcook.bsky.social about “Orchestrating Power” for The Dead Prussian podcast…always good to gab with you, mate!

Look for the episode soon…

www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

The difference is primarily from when terms used. Kinetic bombardment a hangover of the 70s & 80s. Kinetic Strike became ubiquitous during the Long War (Iraq & Afghanistan).

It is a term for strikes with lethal/destruction effects that uses kinetic energy common amongst western militaries.

Tolkien is not perfect but he did, in fact, hate the fucking Nazis.

The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?

Attended (online) a writing session run by a local writers’ centre this morning. It was a standard pomodoro structured 2 hour session and it was productive as hell. A great reminder of how helpful it can be to attend group sessions for individual work. #writing

Sorry, I meant the Andean Condor - I learnt on our trip (15 years ago) that is related to the vulture and now always mix them up.

Such a great part of world. Seeing this photo has been a great part of my week!

A great shot of a very cool place. Did you get any of the vultures? Managed to get some on grainy film years ago, but no clean stills.

Does the UK video games industry have a class problem? A non-profit organisation is trying to create more pathways into the sector for working-class people.

The UK games industry has had a huge class problem since its inception. Private school kids with generational wealth were first through the door and overwhelmingly hired people from similar backgrounds. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I’ve always been fascinated by the Plotter vs Pantser debate. I’ve never been what I would consider a super plotter but I plot out the basic structure for both fiction and non-fiction. My current #WIP is plotted fully with characters, locations, plot points etc. How do pansters do it? The vibe?

They’re on my “maybe add to TBR” list.

Nice. Which ones?

Am in a bit of a #HistoricalFiction book binge at the moment. Anyone else book binging?

Woohoo!!!

Getting the dry things out of the way Even though I've left the Foundation a while ago, I hadn't said my goodbyes to the community yet—for the sake of my personal peace as much as wanting to limit the impact on a project I still care about. Hopefully enough time has passed now to safely cut these last ties. Copied from my LinkedIn announcement: My departure is simply rooted in organizational strategy changes, most notably moving away from community engagement on social media. Please understand that this is all I can say on the matter at the moment; further questions won't be answered to maintain professionality. On that note, I'm not involved with nor will I attend GodotFest Munich. I'm happy to meet friendly faces elsewhere in town, including former colleagues.

Moving on to the good vibes Working with a community this involved and diverse has been a blast. Beyond learning the intricacies of open-source volunteering, I got to meet so many of you contributing to the project in your own way. From making successful games and sharing the spoils to creating educational content for new users, from taking charge in fixing issues to being de-facto brand ambassadors for a cause you believe in. The community you are part of is incredibly unique and—in my opinion—undervalued by many players in this field. As a community manager, this kind of professional playground is an absolute dream to get access to; I can assure you that whatever positive impact my work had on you, you repaid it with enthusiasm and feedback tenfold. So despite my career path diverging here, I am certain that the impact of my time with you will remain visible in my future endeavors. For that I am immensely thankful, about lessons learned as well as relationships forged. I invite you to stay in touch if you like, because personally there is no way I would want to turn into a stranger again. Cheering on indie games made with underdog tools like Godot has always mattered to me, that won't suddenly change. Besides, the games industry is only that big ;)

Been a while, dear #GodotEngine people 👋🏼

Just wanted to get these more somber news out of the way, lest they overshadow what comes next when it's time to talk about that ✌🏼

Nat has been a driving force to make the #Godot social channels (most notably the Discord and Reddit) a well moderated space where professionals and newcomers were able to discuss and collaborate equally.

I am saddened to not work alongside them anymore, but eager to see where they will end up!

I am just a simple country historian but isn’t the point of the Cuban Missile Crisis that JFK DIDN’T bomb anybody?

Am in a bit of a #HistoricalFiction book binge at the moment. Anyone else book binging?

This is an important point in my view. From a military technology point of view*, we shouldn’t take Ukraine as “this is what the future of fighting will look like”.

*this is a *miltech* point. Obviously the war is not in the past at all.

Article:
www.forcesnews.com/ukraine/dron...

The workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to engage in discussions and debates about theoretical approaches for studying the intersection of religion, culture, and video gaming.
zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/gameviron...

Imperial Violence: Thinking With and Against ‘Perpetrator and ‘Victim’ The categories of perpetrator and victim are hardwired into how historians have studied the violence of the British Empire. These categories, however, fail to capture the full spectrum of the viole...

Nicolas Sprenger delves into the structural violence of empire in this latest @jich.bsky.social Current Debates essay entitled: Imperial Violence: Thinking With and Against 'Perpetrator' and 'Victim'.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We updated our Starter Pack with even more game developers worth following💥

#gamedev #indiedev #indigames #starterpack

Screen shot from the game The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion Remastered showing a magician dressed in green looking at a snowy mountainside

Screen shot from the game The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion Remastered showing a magician dressed in green wandering a dungeon with a torch in his hand.

Screen shot from the game The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion Remastered showing a magician dressed in green looking at an Aurora borealis in the night sky

Screen shot from the game The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion Remastered showing the city of Anvil and the ocean beyond on a sunny day

It’s not just the epic visuals of the remastered #TESOblivion that has me hooked. The gameplay is as good as it was 19 years ago. Oh to have been a fly on the wall during the design discussions around how to upgrade this classic & avoid “design creep” in adding new features, mechanics, etc

All will be revealed.... Tune in on April 22, 2025, at 11am ET/8am PT.

Very glad to have stayed up to 1am to see the launch of the @bethesda.net TES Oblivion remaster. Purchase made and now time for sleep so I can take on the Daedric hordes tomorrow (today)!

www.youtube.com/live/Ed_E2cr...

The book turns 90 this fall!