Colin Campbell

Chris Cornell turned Nothing Compares 2 U into something hauntingly his own with that SiriusXM performance.

@archeohistories This is a terrible post. Suggesting there is some noble moral in this story is frightening.

'Look, to show you what kind of man we Romans are, I'm going to put my hand in this fire and let it burn off. That's your proof' ... In 508 BC, a young Roman named Gaius Mucius walked into the Etruscan king's tent, failed to kill him and then gave a demonstration of willpower so extreme that the king surrendered on the spot. We still tell his story 2,500 years later. What have you done today that anyone will remember in 2,500 years? Rome was under siege. The Etruscan king Lars Porsena had surrounded the city with his army, and Rome was slowly starving. A young patrician named Gaius Mucius decided that one man could change the outcome. He sneaked into the Etruscan camp, made his way to the royal tent, and raised his dagger—only to kill the wrong man. Instead of the king, he stabbed the royal treasurer. He was captured immediately. When Porsena interrogated him, threatening torture and death, Mucius did something that still haunts military history. He walked to an altar where a fire was burning for a sacrifice, thrust his right hand into the flames, and held it there without flinching. As his flesh sizzled and burned away, he looked at the king and said: "Watch, so that you may understand how cheap the body is to men who have their eyes fixed on glory." He told Porsena that 300 other Roman youths had sworn the same oath, and that one of them would eventually succeed where he had failed. Porsena was so shaken by this display of absolute, unbreakable resolve that he negotiated peace with Rome and withdrew his army. Mucius was given the cognomen "Scaevola" - meaning "left-handed" because his right hand was permanently destroyed. He became a symbol of Roman courage, proof that willpower could win wars without a single sword stroke. "He burned his hand off to prove a point. And that point was: some people cannot be broken, no matter what you do to their bodies. We don't know what happened to most of the men who fought in that siege. But we still remember the one who stuck his hand in the fire. What does that say about what we actually value?" © Tales Of Past #archaeohistories

14 Brutal Mistakes New Authors Make in 2026 1. A bad book cover. It will kill your sales before anyone even reads the first sentence. 2. A bad first sentence. Or first paragraph. Or first page. Or last page. Or any page. Don't write shit. 3. Trying to find an agent. Don't waste the time and energy. I had 500 rejections before I found my agent. This was in 1997, ten years before Amazon created the Kindle. If it's a good book, self-publish it on Amazon. Sell a ton and agents will seek you out. 4. Entering writing contests. Don't. Just don't. You should never spend money to be read, especially by folks who make money running contests. I say this as a former Writer's Digest judge. 5. Signing deals with vanity presses. A real publisher doesn't charge you for anything. If a publisher wants money, run. Which circles back to: 6. Don't pay for help. Self-pubbing on Amazon is free. Formatting can be challenging, so pay for that if needed, or take a day and learn how to do it yourself. Exception; unless you are a graphic artist, you should find a pro to do your cover art. Everything else is a slippery slope. Editors for hire? Join a local writers' group instead. Proofreaders? They're helpful, but AI is free. Manuscript doctors? If they were good, they'd be making money selling books, not charging authors. 7. Reading your reviews. I've had thousands of bad reviews. Everyone has an opinion. Don't take it personally. But if you aren't averaging at least 3.5 stars on Amazon and Goodreads, then maybe your book isn't ready for readers and you need to work on getting better. 8. Going wide. You should stick with Amazon KDP and enroll in KDP Select. You earn more than selling on all the other platforms combined. It's annoying that Amazon KU requires exclusivity, but that's the way it goes. 9. Going to writing conventions and conferences and expecting to sell enough books to pay for the trip. If you want to travel and get on some panels and hang out with peers, have at it. They're fun. But unless you are already a name author, you're not going to move many books. 10. Book signings. They are soul crushing. If fans want an autograph, offer signed books for sale on eBay. I signed at over 700 bookstores. It was great to meet readers and booksellers, but it was brutally hard and did not move the sales needle much. 11. Hoping for awards. You don't need the approval of your peers. Respect the fans you make, treat everyone with kindness, but don't worry if the cool kids clique doesn't accept you. They actually aren't that cool. They are frightened, needy, and riddled with self-doubt; just like you. 12. Making bookmarks. No one wants your bookmark. Have you ever bought a book because the author gave you a bookmark? No. Stop spending money on bookmarks and postcards and business cards and giveaways. They don't work. 13. Comparing yourself to other authors. Envy is the enemy of self-worth. You are unique in the world, and your journey is yours alone. The only one you should compare yourself to is the person you were a year ago. Are you a better writer? Have you gotten more words on the page? Are you working even harder? Compete with that person, not your peers. 14. Giving up. Life is hard. Everyone has been telling you that your whole life, because it's true. Writing is a brutal career, and it has ups and downs... mostly downs. You only lose if you stop trying. Don't be a loser. Work like this shit matters, because it does. You can't expect readers, and the world, to care if you don't care. Fight like hell.

My doctoral advisor, Katherine Aaslestad, studied the Napoleonic Era. She argued that one of the era’s central lessons was that regimes rarely achieved the objectives they set before hostilities began. In her mind, war had a way of changing the environment, so that priorities which seemed paramount before war began faded into the background by the time the war ended. This wasn’t an argument to never go to war, rather an observation that even if you win, the landscape will be so altered you’ll have a different set of outcomes than you anticipated.

An anti-war ad from a decade ago is going viral. Because the same wars keep happening-for the same interests, at the same cost, with the same lies

Man’s ‘disbelief’ after five-year quest for rare book ends in local Oxfam shop news.stv.tv/scotland/mans-…

Who are we? Let me tell you, America! We are the Kurds you betrayed in Rojava, north-east Syria, your anti-ISIS coalition partners. You sold us to Turkey in 2018, which annexed our Kurdish city of Afrin for allied jihadist factions. Then again in 2019, when our cities of Sere Kaniye and Gire Spi were handed over to Turkey for “security concerns,” even though not a single bullet from Rojava had been fired toward Turkey. And once more in 2026, when you handed us over to the former ISIS and al-Qaeda Syrian regime under the extreme hardliner al-Jolani. Thousands of us were massacred, ethnically cleansed, hunted street by street. Our women fighters were beheaded, their braids cut as war trophies by jihadist men. We are the Kurds you betrayed in Basur, northern Iraq, who held a popular referendum in 2017, winning by 92% to separate from Iraq, a country that had ethnically cleansed and murdered us for years, only for our freedom to be denied. The Iraqi central government, encouraged by your condemnation of our referendum, attacked us and forcibly took over our Kurdish city of Kirkuk. Our peshmerga forces were run over by Iraqi tanks. Even now, Iraqi forces continue forcing Kurds out of their homes, as they have since the 1960s, because the city is oil-rich. We are the same Kurds in northern Iraq whom you urged to stand up against the Saddam regime in 1991, only to abandon us when we rose up. We were massacred, and 2 million of us were displaced. You were shamed into Operation “Provide Comfort,” but only after thousands of us had already been killed following your call to rise. We are the Kurds in Bakur, western Turkey whose lives and bodies have been sacrificed because of your economic and military ties to Turkey- your NATO allies who built a jihadi corridor and openly supports ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Nusra. We are the same Kurds in Rojhilat whom you betrayed during the 1975 Algiers Agreement. The Kurdish uprising collapsed overnight; tens of thousands were displaced. Iraqi forces launched severe reprisals—those who witnessed what had happened to our fellow Kurds in Basur and Rojava now refuse to be your foot soldiers. We know who you are, America. But it’s no wonder- despite this long and painful history of betrayal- that YOU still don’t know who we are. The oppressed carry the memory of every wound, but the oppressor forgets the scars it has inflicted.

An Iranian man left this comment on my YouTube channel. This is without a doubt the single best explanation of the reality facing Iranian people today👇 "As an Iranian, I can tell you the situation is no longer just political—it's existential. We are trapped between two collapsing structures: one internal, one external. On one hand, we face a deeply dysfunctional government, led by the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic’s unelected institutions. Decades of economic mismanagement, suppression of dissent, and brutal ideological control have alienated multiple generations. No one believes in reform anymore—because every attempt has either been co-opted or crushed. But here's the paradox: We are also terrified of regime collapse—because we've watched the aftermath of Western intervention in countries like Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. Each was promised freedom; each descended into chaos, civil war, or foreign occupation. So no, we don't trust the U.S. or Israel. Not because we support our regime—but because we know how imperial powers treat ‘liberated’ nations in the Middle East. Freedom, in their language, often means vacuum, fire, and permanent instability. Right now, many Iranians live with three truths at once: The Islamic Republic is morally and politically bankrupt. The alternatives offered by foreign actors are not liberation—they’re collapse. A bad government is survivable. No government is not. We are not silent because we agree. We are cautious because we’ve learned—too well—what happens when superpowers decide to "help." In a sentence: Iran is a nation held hostage by its own regime, but haunted by the fate of its neighbors. We are stuck in a house we hate, surrounded by fires we fear more."

On old sticker on a lamp post at Glasgow Green. I have no idea why it is there, but this is a slogan which has, over the years, been used in a variety of forms to highlight the importance of education, reading and gaining knowledge. #glasgow #glasgowlibraries #glasgowgreen

@all90saltrock Malibu

What’s your favourite song by Hole?

@Newaiworld_ @PeterDiamandis Scarcity is already a policy choice.

@PeterDiamandis Every physical constraint is eventually just an information problem. We are moving from an era where power is determined by geography to an era where power is determined by compute. Once you solve the math of the material world, scarcity becomes a policy choice.

AI discovered 25 NEW magnetic materials that work at high temps—could eliminate China's rare earth monopoly for EVs. This is how technology creates abundance: making the 'scarce' obsolete. sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/…

@adamndsmith @ScrtDrugAddict What about recovery routes for addicts?

Having a memory is illegal in Britain. Teachers, and parents, in 2005: “children should learn about drugs when they’re about 9 or 10, in primary school” The Green Party, in 2026: “children should learn about drugs when they’re about 9 or 10, in primary school” And people are screaming that this is controversial, lying that the Green Party will teach your 4 year-old to take cocaine. And they think people are stupid enough to believe them.

Brian Quail was my old Classics teacher at St. Ambrose RCS Coatbridge, where he endeavoured to make us think about the world from first principles. I was so delighted to encounter him later in life, as the most gentle but most radical activist against nuclear weapons. That’s a “first principle”—humans shouldn’t destroy themselves by means of their own inventions—which Brian landed with me. Rest In Power, Mr. Quail bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/02/20/mak…

@RoughTrade Midlake - The Trials of Can Occupanter. Someone I knew told me it was album of the year. He was not wrong.

What’s the best record you bought on instinct alone, without listening to it beforehand?

@lloydy7777 @RoughTrade @tommcrae Absolutely. A great singer-songwriter record

@RoughTrade Tom Mcrae @tommcrae

@ScrtDrugAddict @RoughTrade Yaass

@RoughTrade Probably Gulag Orkestar By Beirut

In the meantime there is no project in British government. No direction or ideas, just reaction. We’ve all become habituated to drift and aimlessness. The government’s objective is the survival of a handful of careers for a few months more. After that, the flood.

@MacFarlaneNews Link If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live | Carlos Hernández de Miguel theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

@trygraptor Was it any good?

guy who’s really behind on new release (me): now seated for 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

@HowlerDude @RupertLowe10 Asylum seekers can't vote in UK elections. Entry to the country by asylum seekers jumped under the Tories and since Brexit and have continued to climb. Asylum seekers often wait over a year for a decision on their claim. Also 'THE signal'... do not be so gullible

@RupertLowe10 The are basically being hired just to come here to wait for election day...or THE signal. And the government doesn't jail their own employees.

The most striking thing reading through all of these migrant hotel contracts? It's the care, the dedication, the level of service provided to these men. These men from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Albania, Eritrea, Sudan - who have broken into our country. The Home Office goes to painstaking lengths to ensure their comfort. Every angle you could possibly imagine is covered - hundreds and hundreds of pages dedicated to providing for them. I just cannot get my head around it. Billions and billions of OUR tax spent on accommodating these men. Not our own people, but these third world criminals. Everything is focused on caring for them. Meticulously so. It is remarkable, and I absolutely detest it. This is all to line them up to claim refugee status, through which they can rinse the taxpayer for even more. It is one giant scam, and we're all paying for it. I absolutely HATE it. We must abolish the entire asylum system, and deliver mass deportations on a scale that would make Trump blush.