The Danish PM is back in the news following the deal between Greenland, Denmark and the United States. The latter will be responsible for Greenland’s security. The right to self-determination is supposed to remain in the hands of the Greenlanders, however, with large numbers of US troops set to take up residency it seems like a conflict of interests. Frederiksen is a fascinating personality, having a Master’s degree in African Studies but being tough on immigration as a left-wing politician. She’s also argued for the prohibition of prostitution.

Regarding her physiognomy, the squareness of her skull is quite striking. The protruding nose and long neck all look quite balkanesque. Could it be a high proportion of Haplogroup I? Another possibility is Balto-Slavonic R1a, which certainly has a presence on both sides of the Baltic Sea. She’s got the deep-set eyes for something Eastern.

A photo from when she was 24 years old reveals how she was already sporting a short hairdo. Not the kind of direction I would have advised her to go in if I were her stylist. But overall not too masculine for it to stand out. The mother of two is one of the best leaders in Europe, so voters are hardly fussed if her cranium came right out of LEGO headquarters.

Lucy Letby

British nurse Lucy Letby is currently serving life in prison without parole for murder (7 counts) and attempted murder (8 counts). I’ve included her in this series because she counts as successful in the sense that she managed to get away with her crimes for so long and continues to convince many people that she’s an innocent victim of the system. Conservative commentator Peter Hitchens is one fanatical sympathizer. I thought she was guilty from the get-go, based on visual clues and the statistical probability. Learning further details (like the inappropriate comments to colleagues, internet searches, confession notes, etc.) has solidified my view.

Regarding her physiognomy, I’ve always thought it signalled some kind of abnormality. Her chin is huge, her nose is rather large and her neck is very long—so she likely developed from a young age with too much testosterone. These are common among female criminals, not to mention lesbianism. But another detail recently caught my eye: the corners of her mouth taper out like a Joker’s smile. You can actually see right through to the back of her mouth in photos where she is smiling naturally. I have noticed this trait among others, usually Western Europeans, but hers is an exaggerated instance.

I looked up Letby’s height and was surprised to learn that she is only 5’5 (165 cm). This makes her long neck and masculine head even weirder. I present one last photo for those who are still not convinced. I am of the opinion that masculinity comes out more strongly in a sideview than from other angles…

Lillias Campbell Davidson

In the early 1880s, it was still taboo for women to ride bicycles. Lilly Davidson would help change that. She appealed to her fellow kind by telling them that cycling “is a door that leads to many paths of pleasure,” and “the lives of women have been unnaturally cramped and contracted within doors.” Quite avant-garde for her time, but she also warned women against racing, because “a woman’s nervous system suffers a hundred times more than a man’s from this excitement.” Likely just strategic moderation on her part.

In 1892, she founded the world’s first women’s cycling organization in England. She did that alongside her career as a novelist, writing about women who are unorthodox in their youth but who circled back to traditional motherhood. No doubt a reflection of her own confusion and regret. There is only one photo of Davidson, which is not clear, but looks male-proportioned. She died a spinster.

Earlier this month, the BBC ran a story on the problem of so-called “genital theft” manifesting across Africa. This truly is a social panic exclusive to Black Africans, as I’ve never heard of Haitians or Black Brazilians descending into such superstitious paranoia (in spite of some history of voodoo). More than 80 people have been killed across six countries over a nine-month period, but the problem is actual far greater, because at least 26 African countries have experienced outbreaks.

The BBC (often lampooned for sharing its initialism with something pornographic) describes how a simple tap on the shoulder or hand-shake can cause men to believe that their genitals have disappeared or been shrunk, following which the perceived victim then proceeds to rouse a mob to seek violent vigilante justice. One of the profiled victims, Tanzanian mechanic Boniface Mgala, was beaten to within an inch of his life after going out of town for a job with a friend and getting ambushed while in a restaurant. He now suffers chronic headaches, can no longer work, and, to add insult to injury, he is the one who is now limp (well, the insensitive BBC used that description for his gait).

Back in 2008, “genital theft” was mostly confined to Congo and Ghana, as this Reuters article reports. So why is it getting worse? Social media is to blame (just when you thought access to modern tech might help the underprivileged). I briefly discussed the issue in my book under the term “penis snatching” - a label which seems to have deflated in popularity among news editors.

In another section of my book, which later got edited out, I actually mentioned another psychosomatic phenomenon that existed among Australian Aboriginals: bone-pointing. This act was considered to be a kiss of death, and because people believed it, it usually worked. As late as the 1980s, an Aboriginal man died an excruciating death in a hospital in Darwin because he believed he was the recipient of such a bone cast hex. Doctors confirmed that there was nothing physically wrong with him.

Now, having said that, are people in more developed countries immune from such collective psychoses? Of course not, but it’s a large difference of degree. In South-East Asia, there have been outbreaks of koro, which is the paranoid belief that the genitals are retracting into the body. China had multiple epidemics, including a big wave in 1985, Singapore had hundreds of cases in 1967, Thailand in 1976, India had many epidemics in its Eastern states, Malaysia and Indonesia were also gonad no-go-zones at some point. But the key difference with koro is that it isn’t connected with black magic spells, touching or mob violence.

As for Whites and other less primitive cultures, psychosomatic illness can certainly manifest, but it works through the prism of extreme authority and sophisticated apparatuses. The best example is when people are given a diagnosis of a terminal illness like cancer from a medical professional. Their condition often rapidly deteriorates because they believe that they’re done for. But diagnoses aren’t always correct, and many people can recover from cancer if they change their diet/environment and have hope in a recovery. The placebo effect, as with the nocebo effect, are well attested in science.

I’ll conclude with a somewhat relevant story from last week, the death of Nigerian-British businessman/influencer Igho “Tiny” Ubiribo. A coroner ruled that his death was from a hyaluronic acid injection that he received while getting a penis enlargement (his fifth) in Bangkok (no really). His son has been left to defend his father’s honor (and indirectly his own)—claiming that Igho did not have a micropenis. In other words, he died in vain and because he was vain. And that is the general summation one can make when it comes to Blacks and this aspect of masculinity—whether it’s pointing the bone or stealing the boner, they’re a-head of the rest.

֎

P.S. In the linked BBC article for the main news item, readers might be amused to see that the author Mungai Ngige is part of the “BBC Global Disinformation Unit”—yet another ambiguous appellation from the geniuses at the beeb. Sometimes one wonders whether it’s incompetence or schadenfreude. It’s Orwellian in either case…

Miriam Margolyes

Ms Margolyes has been in the news quite a lot lately, so who better than her to be the headline act for this edition of MPSW? Margolyes is almost a caricature of Jewish-lesbian-progressive tendencies, so let’s try to make light of this overweight oddball of the media’s fancy.

Margolyes is an 85-year-old actress and writer best known for playing Professor Sprout in two Harry Potter films. Her total onscreen time amounted to less than two minutes, for witch she earned a staggering £60,000. She recently decried this sum as “fucking rubbish.” Then, earlier this week in a morning television appearance, she candidly admitted that she “did everything for money” (which wasn’t even a laugh line).

Margolyes is promoting her new book, Miriam’s Full English—which was written to counteract all of the pessimism about the current state of the UK and where things are headed. For decades she has been promoting diversity, migration, tolerance, etc., and so with classic cognitive-dissonance she is instructing the general public to not believe their lying eyes. Yes, this overpaid and overexposed celebrity knows best about what it means to be English—she the spawn of Russian Ashkenazi migrants who gave their daughter a Hebrew first name to match the family name.

The self-deprecating (and self-defecating) performer is marketed as having a quick wit and speaking her mind, though frankly I see only evidence of the latter. For a taste of her potty mouth and toilet humor, readers can soil their ears with this gross anecdote from the Graham Norton Show. An actually hilarious anecdote, though to her it was more like kvetching, involves her time working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the film End of Days. She claims Arnie farted in her face. Keep in mind that Arnie’s father joined the Nazi Party and volunteered in the Sturmabteilung, so it was gas chambers 2.0 for Margolyes.

I will make a brief note of disambiguation about a certain Cindy Margolis, the model who was marketed as the most searched woman in the early days of the internet. She really wasn’t anything special, so I assume her ethnic networking and crafty agents catapulted her to that position, but she was effeminate nonetheless. Miriam Margolyes, on the other hand, is a self-declared dyke, which she announced live on tv in front of another rumored dyke Julia Gillard (former Australian prime minister). As for Margolyes’ physiognomy, she has strategically managed it with a hairstyle that curtails the masculinity (similar to Angela Merkel). As evidence, I provide the following photo, which lays the physiognomy quite bare.

Harriet Adelaide Brown

Harriet was an inventor who patented a dress cutting/making system. Born in 1847 to Scottish Americans (a very inventive people), gender roles were very much universally inculcated in her time. She nevertheless found a way to combine her masculine side (technical thinking, entrepreneurship) with her feminine side (dresses). Her noble intention of wanting to help low-paid and overworked seamstresses led her to open a college.

There appears to be only one portrait of Brown, and it reveals a rather masculine-contoured head—which was not exactly helped by her choice of hair style. Some unusual neck lumps as well.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

It’s early days in this series, but if I had to guess which vocation has the most masculine looking women, I would choose politician. High-T women seem to naturally want to cut their teeth in the political arena. In the case of Priyanka Gandhi, however, she is part of a hereditarian dynasty (being the granddaughter of Mohandas Gandhi). She truncated her name upon marrying businessman Robert Vadra, who, interestingly has some Anglo-Scottish blood, but is not fair skinned like Priyanka.

As for physiognomy, Priyanka has pretty much all of the signs of elevated testosterone. A long neck, a square jaw, a large forehead, a large nose, and a long fourth finger. She even crosses her arms in a way that I really only see men do, presumably because the limb to body-frame ratio makes it natural and relaxing for men to do.

Priyanka reportedly has two biological children, but, maybe we should take that with a grain of salt. After all, her grandfather Mohandas considered salt public property, like air or water, and aren’t they just in pristine condition in modern India?

Ta-ta for now.

A quick look at polling data shows groups generally voted as expected. City-dwellers, left-wingers, women and university-educated (indoctrinated) all supported opening talks with the EU, according to local polling. Luckily Iceland has 10,000 more men than women, which is a lot in a country of 396,000. The big surprise was that the 70+ age bracket heavily supported the EU (58%), which seems to be indicative of some kind of older boomer / legacy media effect. The youth vote also apparently swung from 63% pro-EU in June to just 40% by election day, so survey reliability is questionable.

Nevertheless, it is by a whisker or two that this cosey and quaint Arctic island avoids the disaster that the EU is (for the rest of Europe). The scary thing? It was just one policy issue that made the difference… no, not migration but FISHERIES. This industry represents close to 40% of exports, so joining the EU would enforce catch quotas unfavorable to Iceland and open up the sector to foreign ownership.

Iceland is still a peaceful, high-trust society with enviable living standards and democratic values. They famously jailed some of their bankers. The country has plenty of firearms but usually experiences only 2 homicides per year. In 2013, the BBC ran an article attempting to answer this great paradox—arriving at the conclusion that it was because of the “education system, social welfare, egalitarian culture and the fact that 97% of inhabitants identify with the middle or working class.” All correlations, of course, not causation.

Iceland rightfully has one of strongest country brands in Europe (along with Switzerland and Norway—all non EU countries). It also has, in my opinion, the most esthetic national flag. Readers in the UK might be somewhat confused right now because there is an actual supermarket chain called Iceland that tried for years to trademark the Iceland name. Ironically, they were the lowest tier of supermarket and I question whether half of their produce would “pass muster” in any country with better regulations. They thankfully lost their court case this year, though I was surprised to learn that they are hugely successful with stores in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and even three in Iceland (the country).

Iceland is a small country but at times they have been able to mix it with the superpowers when it comes to football/soccer. They performed exceedingly well at Euro 2016, beating England and only losing to hosts France. An astonishing 12% of Icelanders were in France for the tournament. It was at this event that I first became acquainted with the “Viking clap” that their supporters perform—not to be confused with the “Viking row” that the Norwegians introduced at this year’s World Cup. I’m not sure what the Danes do but the reason I bring them into this conversation is because I recall, with irony, that Iceland and Denmark have the highest rates of chlamydia in Europe—known as the clap in some street lexicons although gonorrhea is the real clap.

The only other Icelanders I am somewhat familiar with (since I don’t watch Game of Thrones or listen to Björk) are the members of the electronic music group Daði & Gagnamagnið, who competed at Eurovision 2021. Their schtick is being awkward, quirky nerds, but the music is still fun and catchy. The frontman is exactly that: 6'10" Daði Freyr, whose lanky frame looks even more ungainly next to his chubby wife and fellow group member, Árný.

So kudos once more to the voters of Iceland. Regrettably, this will not be enough to preserve Icelandic identity and sovereignty. After all, symbolic non-membership in the EU has not exactly saved Switzerland and Norway from becoming migrant magnets and neoliberal/civic-nationalist satrapies. Their compliance with key treaties such as the Schengen Agreement means that, in practical terms, they might as well have joined the Union.

Iceland is following suit in terms of population growth, with the past decade witnessing the steepest increase on record. The conclusion, therefore, is that the EU represents only a small and conspicuous part of the much larger iceberg facing the West.

Angela Merkel

The AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) is surging in the polls under the leadership of lesbian Alice Weidel (perhaps I’ll profile her eventually), but the woman I want to feature today Angel Merkel, because her name is being thrown around as a potential comeback savior against AfD rule. This of course makes no sense, because Merkel is the biggest culprit of Germany’s decline, which caused the rise of the AfD in the first place. I doubt she will make a return (she must know what would need to be done) but then again she is delusional enough to have written a self-aggrandizing autobiography and enjoys walking around in public feeling important with security protection (the irony).

You can see from her earlier days just how masculine she was, but with some clever hair-styling she hid it well once coming to prominence. Merkel went into STEM (of course) and got a physics degree and then doctorate in quantum chemistry. She worked in the field for some time, but as I pointed out in The Post-Darwinian Zoo, she obviously got bored and turned to atomizing German society instead—a life goal that she succeeded in like no other. She has no biological children, so who knows how deep this goes.

Marie Curie

Remaining on the topic of physics and chemistry—what better time than to profile Marie Curie, who won a Nobel Prize in each of those fields. The Warsaw-born prodigy was only mildly masculine, though I do think the broad face, nose and square jaw are worth pointing out as evidence for higher testosterone. She had two biological children with her French husband and fellow laureate Pierre Curie. She became an atheist following the deaths of her mother and sister, which is more of a masculine way of dealing with things.

Lexie Alford

Sometimes all it takes is just one trait to get noticed by the Aggressive Observations “head” physiognomist. I won’t be covering many influencers in this series, but I had to cover this adventurer, who holds the Guinness World Record for visiting every country before the age of 22. No surprises that both of her parents are travel agents.

She is rather photogenic, so it’s only her incredibly long neck that I would classify as masculine. Well, that includes the bulge around the larynx, which is not normally present for women. She’ll need that muscle power in the throat, because after the Ford sponsorship deal she is the one laughing all the way to the bank. But if I could give her one piece of advice, it would be to change her marketing sobriquet “Lexie Limitless”—which sounds like something an adult film star would trade under. She is from California after all…

If the death of Jason Arday is tragic, then so is the death of all other fraudsters, liars, cheats and scammers whose comeuppance cost them their life. Conman Nicholas Alahverdian who faked his own death for life insurance money in 2020 but was caught and convicted actually died in custody a couple of months ago at the age of 38. The real tragedies are when DEI and other affirmative action policies elevate unqualified persons to positions and responsibilities that they never should never have gotten—resulting in the deaths of innocent people. Pilots and air-traffic controllers, for example, are an industry where this is happening. It’s been 18 months since a black-piloted helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, killing a wealthy family from Spain, yet the official cause has still not been made. Jason Arday was absolutely a fraudster who benefited from his lies to the tune of millions, plus social prestige. He took academic positions from others who deserved them and got book deals he shouldn’t have. Not every form of fraud is illegal, but that should hardly be the standard in a high-trust society.

Kudos to Nathan Cofnas for bringing the whole affair to light, though as he says it was already an open secret at Cambridge. He should have received some sort of recognition or reward for being a whistle-blower. Or a Pulitzer Prize-type award. Well done to the Jolly Heretic Ed Dutton as well for publicizing the scandal. Dutton also pointed out today that another professor, Mike Adams of UNCW, died of suicide as a result of being outed for racist and sexist tweets.

If anyone has blood on their hands, besides Arday himself, it is the staff of Cambridge who were involved in hiring Arday, or pushing DEI policies in general. It is also the cowards at his previous institutions, as well as the various extra-curricular engagements that inflated the myth with almost no oversight and quality control. Usually leftists and women are the ones blinded by an infatuation for p.o.c. (pets of color) underdog stories.

I will conclude with an as yet ignored aspect of Arday’s image in which I suspect counterfeiting also played a role. In my opinion, Jason Arday artificially lightened his skin, using a product or technology that I cannot identify. He also modified his African nose through surgery and his eyebrows through regimen. I was honestly surprised to learn he was straight and had two children. But so much of the man’s life has been revealed to be fake, so who knows what else was about to come out of the closet.

The cheeks especially look much too lightly pigmented. Finally, I will add just one more photo, not of Jason but of his brother Joe Arday, for the difference really becomes quite stark. Shades of Baron Samedi, no?

I am starting a series that will document cases of successful, famous, influential and brilliant women who have masculinized faces and or bodies. I am sure that other keen eyed observers have noticed the correlation in question, though I don’t think anyone has written a book or compiled something like what I will in this format.

Some may find this distasteful, controversial or hateful (lol!), but the only real agenda here is to explore a working hypothesis: women who were masculinized in the womb or experienced some abnormal hormonal event in early life are much more likely to become a notable figure (be it in academia, business, politics or the social world). And I will prima fasci reject any environmental/social treatment of masculinized girls’ faces as being relevant to their success. I will avoid calling any of the profiled persons masculine, but rather use the relative term masculinized. About three profiles per post should do it, perhaps with some interesting biographical data if I come across it.

Amelia Earhart

The aviatrix was the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight. Some biographers said that she was a tomboy in her youth. Note the unusual bow around the neck (likely to hide her long neck and or Adam’s apple). Her body build seems quite lanky and boyish as well.

Janet Reno

The first female to be chosen as Attorney-General of the United States. One of the most masculinized jaws and necks I’ve seen on a woman. Note the 4D to 2D ratio (long ring finger, masculine trait). An interesting anecdote about her mother is that she decided to build a new house when the family home was too small. She learned masonry, electrical work, and plumbing for the task.

The 6’4 Will Ferrell played Janet Reno on SNL. Luckily she was a good sport about it, judging from her appearance on set.

Bettina Anderson

This American socialite and model recently became Donald Trump Junior’s wife. While her face is very balanced, note again the longer than usual ring finger (for a woman), the long neck and height in general.

I suppose long limbness is part and parcel of being a model, and for some reason men like to marry models. The pretty face and slimness I suppose. Though in Don Jr’s case he might want those height genes for future children—after all, as the shortest male Trump he can always be seen unnaturally rigid in group photos. And that long finger of Bettina’s? Well it could come in handy for fishing out the booger sugar from his pocket, as he’s known to sometimes do. She supported Black Lives Matter before meeting Trump. Says it all really.

On the other hand, those who know a bit of early European history might recall the various adventures of the Goths in Eastern Europe, the yoke of Attila the Hun’s rule, the various other nations present that they may have fraternalized with, like the Iranic Alans, Slavs and Avars.

Iceland was settled in the 9th century, and while it’s tempting to assume that the Scandinavian peninsula was rather pure-blooded Nordic at this time, the record suggests otherwise. The most obvious source for miscegenation would have been with the Finns/Saami. The less obvious source would have been from those Goths who mixed with the Huns, Avars and Bolgars in Eastern Europe before backward migrating to Scandinavia. We can be fairly sure that this happened because the Icelandic sagas preserve tales from the era of Attila, Theodoric the Gothic King and Ardaric the Gepidic King. These various rulers were subjects of Attila and sent their daughters (like the beautiful Ildico) to become one of the many wives of Attila. In turn, they may have occasionally taken noble Turkic women as wives.

What do DNA studies show? Surprisingly, Haplogroup N (Finnic) does not even register. Neither is there anything from the Far East, like Haplogroups C or Q. While some Turks carry R1a, even this is only at about 20% among Icelandic men and is not properly Turkic. Something isn’t adding up. I say this because I clearly see Asian features among Icelandic people, in fact 3 of the most well-known ones. Could they really be so unrepresentative of Icelanders?

1. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (Strongman, played Thor)

   

2. Björk Guðmundsdóttir (Singer)

   

3. Ólafur Waage (That Nordic Guy, YouTuber)

   

   This last guy is the mildest example, but for me the eyes and nose are a bit Asian. Or is this more Haplogroup I? He also has a bit of a garbled way of vocalizing some sounds, kind of more like how Finnish people speak. At any rate, the original pure-blooded Finns and Saami, who no longer exist, could absolutely have been considered Turkic adjacent from their physiognomy and Altaic genealogy.

Before remarking about the World Cup, I will briefly comment on the forever-war between UK/England and Argentina over the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas), because recent years have actually hinted at British decline when it comes to territorial matters. Firstly, the Chagos Archipelago (BIOT) was scheduled to be handed over to Mauritius and was only prevented by President Trump. Secondly, last week the border control between Gibraltar and Spain was decommissioned by agreement, in spite of Brexit taking the UK out of the EU. Some interesting points:

• 96% of Gibraltan voters opposed Brexit

• the Gibraltar side is very rich but the Spanish side is among the poorest

The deal will effectively integrate Gibraltar into EU customs laws and the Schengen Area, so what may happen ten years from now remains to be seen.

The case of the Falklands is of course very different, but the UK position has never been weaker. This is a shame, because the Falklands are the most British place on Earth (in the demographic sense)—a social time capsule of what has been lost on the British mainland. But the UK cannot even protect its young girls from grooming gangs, and ethnic tensions are only growing as the non-British share of the UK burgeons. Advantage Argentina.

Regarding the World Cup, whose games I watched very little of, it can be said that the most interesting aspects were off the pitch. Norway was the feelgood team who went a long way and showed that a small and homogenous country does not need to sell its soul for sporting success. In fact, other countries did that and are struggling on the sporting scene. The runic touch to their jerseys (which sold out) and Viking row were sublime. The babyface was of course Erling Haaland, who possesses more charisma than the entire German team. Someone commented that his unique phenotype is indicative of old European ancestry (haplogroup I), which is indeed present in the region. I tend to think it is more Uralic (Saami). His famous doppelganger (a Russian model) likely has Karelian or some other Uralic admixture.

As far as non-PC observations go, it was hard to miss the whitest team in the tournament: New Zealand. What’s ironic is that they are actually called the All Whites as a team name (their rugby team is the All Blacks). A real stereotype breaker was however NZ forward Sarpreet Singh, who is Indian on both sides.

Kudos to those who pointed out the hypocrisy of the Egypt coach using FIFA’s crossed-arms anti-discrimination gesture in the match against Argentina. It has now come to many people’s attention that Coptic Christians have been greatly discriminated against from playing for the national team. Having said that, the refereeing decisions were ridiculously biased in favor of Argentina and it has tainted the tournament, in addition to Iran’s shabby treatment. Trump’s intervention and corruption speaks for itself, but this tournament was Americanized like no other. The water breaks and 30 minute halftime for the final were just all about money.

I’ll conclude with a little fun, because let’s face it: soccer isn’t exactly a hair-raising entertainment. Unless of course you are one of the players, who sometimes get mown some of the strangest scalp pitches in pro sports.

A special congratulations to Canada for contributing 3 players to my rough selection of finalists in the grid above. Thanks again to the Guardian for compiling the photos. But the winner simply has to be Julian Ryerson of Norway. This snow leopard look should be the design for next World Cup’s official ball.

I’m therefore going to take a look at the lighter side of the tournament, now that I’ve taken a closer look at the catalogue of overpaid and overemotional players.

Overnight there was a rather interesting duel in the Switzerland vs. Colombia penalty shoot-out. The final penalty kick featured Camilo Vargas defending Colombia’s goal from Ruben Vargas (Swiss mother, Dominican father). The latter succeeded. The Swiss team is one of the least “endemically derived” teams in the tournament. Another player is Mohameth Djibril Sow, who I assume is Muslim from his name and Senegalese father, rather than his Swiss mother. It’s good to see that he isn’t bothered by his porcine surname or the fact that there is a crucifix on his country’s flag, because I’ve seen Muslims protest over much less.

The legendary French-Algerian Zinedine Zidane made a return to the tournament this year, at least in the form of Algerian goalkeeper Luca Zidane and defender Zineddine Belaid. Luca is the son of Zinedine and was born in France, but chose blood over water it seems. The Zidanes are very white for Berbers, which probably indicates a high degree of Vandal and Carthaginian ancestry.

As far as other fish out of water, Alexis Mac Allister deserves a mention for representing Argentina. Scots migrated to Patagonia to farm sheep in the late nineteenth century.

Meanwhile, the country of Uruguay has a reputation for being South America’s most European country. While Diego Forlan certainly lived up to that billing in his time, the current squad falls rather short. Some of their names, however, do sound very right-wing: Darwin Núñez and Rodrigo Zalazar.

Other fantastic names that just roll off the pitch in this World Cup are: Moïse Bombito of Canada, Pervis Estupiñán and John Yeboah of Ecuador, and the rather poetic Carl Starfelt of Sweden.

Perhaps not so elegant is Sphephelo Sithole from South Africa, as well as Aaron Hickey from Scotland. The most unfortunate name association, at least from an American perspective, is the Haitian player Duke Lacroix, due to the close homophony with the Duke lacrosse rape hoax of 2006.

A contender for the most bad-ass name would have to be Jordanian defender Mohammad Abu Hashish, along with Swedish forward Benjamin Nygren. The cheekiest sounding name might just belong to the Dutch-born coach of Curaçao: Dick Advocaat. Eat your heart out, Roy Cohn.

As always, Africa and its diaspora offers up the most sentimental, quaint and old-fashioned names for the rest of the world to enjoy: Chancel Mbemba and Fiston Mayele (DR Congo), Evidence Makgopa (South Africa), Martin Expérience (Haiti), Promise David (Canada) and Auston Trusty (USA).

There’s a healthy dose of religious evocations in this year’s cup, especially among goalkeepers: Zion Suzuki of Japan (who is half black) and Aymen Dahmen of Tunisia. English defender Jarell Quansah resembles (at least superficially) the made-up African American alternative to Christmas: Kwanzaa. As far as Christian names go (literally), a trinity of players appeared to spread the word: Cristiano Ronaldo, Christian Pulisic and Christ Inao Oulaï (Ivory Coast).

I’ll conclude with an amusing possibility for the upcoming clash between Spain and Belgium on Friday. In goals for Spain is Unai Simón, while coming off the Belgian bench is Joaquin Seys. It is rather unlikely, but a “Simon—Seys” moment could happen in a penalty shoot-out. And that is every tied match’s final say.

*Thanks to the Guardian for their extensive player profile presentation of all 1,248 players.

Subscribe now

For those who don’t know

I wrote “The Post-Darwinian Zoo” — one of the densest, high-protein works of prose in the dissident’s library of recent years. It still has a perfect rating on Amazon, though I never promoted it. My new venture, completely free for the time being, will see me post on a wider range of issues. The style will be richer, funnier, edgier.

By chance this inaugural post is falling at the calendar’s midpoint, July 1st, which I deem rather auspicious. Not for tax reasons, though I think my satire, reporting and sundry Aggressive Observations will be some of the best value on this platform. Side note to creativity scavengers: I own the .com URL already.

Upcoming articles: musings on physiognomy, psychology, low-brow politics, high-brow gossip, and of course the contemporaneous World Cup, of which there are more than a few interesting side notes.

Stay tuned subscribed.