Monthly Archives: December 2025

White paper: How Czech Beads and Belgian Rifles Reached Chadron, Nebraska—and from there the Plains tribes—in the 19th century

Executive summary In the 19th century, “trade goods” moved on a long, predictable conveyor belt: European manufacture → Atlantic shipping to U.S. ports → U.S. wholesale hubs → interior transport by river/road/rail → frontier posts and agency towns → Indigenous … Continue reading

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White Paper: The History and Approach of African Martial Arts: A Comparative, Cultural, and Functional Survey

Executive Summary African martial arts represent one of the world’s oldest and most diverse bodies of combat knowledge. Rather than forming a single codified “martial arts tradition” in the modern East Asian sense, African systems developed organically across ecological zones, … Continue reading

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White Paper: The Mothers of the Kings of Judah: A Biblicist Examination of Maternal Backgrounds, Status, and Theological Significance

Executive Summary The biblical record of the kings of Judah is unique among ancient Near Eastern royal annals in its consistent naming of the king’s mother (Hebrew: ’ēm hammélek). Far from being incidental genealogical detail, this pattern signals theological, moral, … Continue reading

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White Paper: Darfur: A Social and Political History from Regional Polity to Humanitarian Catastrophe

Executive Summary Darfur, a region in western Sudan roughly the size of France, has a long and complex social and political history that predates colonial boundaries and modern nation-states. Far from being an inherently violent or stateless zone, Darfur was … Continue reading

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White Paper: Resentment as a Substitute for Formation: How Frustrated Longings for Power and Respect Corrupt Ambition

Executive Summary Across political, religious, academic, and organizational contexts, there exists a recurring pattern in which individuals who view themselves as visionary, exceptional, or uniquely insightful experience deep frustration when recognition, authority, or influence does not materialize as expected. When … Continue reading

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A Typology of Reasons Why Animals Are Worthwhile to People: A White Paper on Instrumental, Relational, Moral, and Civilizational Value

Executive Summary Debates about the value of animals often collapse into narrow frames: economic utility, emotional attachment, environmentalism, or animal rights. Such reductions obscure the reality that animals matter to people for multiple, overlapping, and historically persistent reasons. This white … Continue reading

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White Paper: Why Polk County, Florida—and Sheriff Grady Judd—Became a National Flash Point in America’s Crime Debate

Executive summary Polk County sits at a crossroads of American cultural politics about crime: fast growth, suburban–exurban churn, and an “I-4 corridor” media ecosystem that turns local incidents into national content. Sheriff Grady Judd has amplified that effect through an … Continue reading

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White Paper: The Central Role of Comparative Reference Frameworks in Online DNA Ancestry Testing

Executive Summary Online DNA ancestry testing services present themselves as tools for uncovering personal heritage through genetic analysis. However, the ancestry results they provide are not direct readings of genetic “origin” in any absolute sense. Rather, they are comparative inferences, … Continue reading

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White Paper: Evidence That Would Support or Contradict “Coulter’s Law” in Crime Reporting

Executive summary “Coulter’s Law” is commonly described as a claim about delay: the longer it takes the news media to identify a perpetrator (often framed around mass shootings or notorious incidents), the less likely the perpetrator is to be a … Continue reading

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Rejoicing in the Birth of Jesus Christ Around the Feast of Trumpets: A Biblicist White Paper on Timing, Theology, and Liturgical Meaning

Executive Summary This white paper argues that rejoicing in the birth of Jesus Christ in connection with the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah) is biblically defensible, theologically coherent, and spiritually fruitful—particularly within a biblicist framework that prioritizes scriptural patterns over … Continue reading

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