Michael Allen

This is a great sadness. Let’s get back to 7 seasons with 22 episodes and give times for characters to actually develop. variety.com/2026/tv/news/s…

Sitting on the tarmac in Chicago. Soon #isa2026, I will be there…

No Starfleet Academy tonight, so One Piece s2 is my current fill-in now. What if the Federation was just some rubber kid who thought the Venrai Ral had cool flags?

Nampa is the 3rd-largest city in Idaho and is just outside Boise. At one point, I was going to Nampa weekly for card tournaments. Hogaboam was a town hall and was 47. idahonews.com/news/local/nam…

Bajor goes from occupation to provisional government to republic to petitioning for Federation membership in five years.

But does the AI drive to please also drive it to p-hack?

The forgotten history of Cesar Chavez Lane. A Boise State student newspaper article on why there is a Cesar Chavez Lane that runs along the river on the North side of campus. arbiteronline.com/2022/09/01/the…

While the expanded cuts "exclude public schools," they do hit public higher education. It is hard to see what the 1.3 billion rainy-day fund in Idaho is for besides just a number politicians point to say it is getting bigger. #Idaho #HigherEd idahonews.com/news/local/gov…

Which Simpsons predictions were right, which were close, and which were fake? Not sure how much credit I should give them for the Nobel prediction in a betting pool, but the Disney acquisition and Trump presidency were long shots. sheets.works/data-viz/simps… #TheSimpsons #DataViz

If you are going to release a paper in 2026 about comparing various March Madness bracket techniques, you should also release a predictive bracket before the bracket starts. So I can copy/paste it. arxiv.org/html/2603.1091…

@Cyberpunk_TCG @ALottaFinxVT Right, so the post has an error: "Cyberpunk TCG Booster Packs include at least 2 cards of Uncommon Rarity or higher in every pack."

Our troop dashboard is a neat tool to get an idea of the change of US troop deployments overseas, the US base network, and some of our opinion survey data results: ma-allen.com/troops_dashboa… #ForeignPolicy #SecurityStudies #InternationalRelations #Geopolitics #MilitaryBases

The backbone of the United States' post-War power projection and security network has been bases and troop deployments. If you want to understand globpower, don't just look at capabilities. Look at where those capabilities have an enduring presence.

Overseas military bases don't just prepare for war. They shape international politics before conflicts begin.

I might be writing a chapter on Star Trek right now...

Star Trek can help us to think about the tools of state power projection. We often think of weapons and capabilities, but logistics and access (bases) are important as well. Bajor and Cardassia cared far more about Deep Space 9 than they ever did about the Enterprise.