Iran Rolls Barbary – Habsburgs, Blink Lab Quiet, and a Frontier IQ Thought

If you are confused, here is Life in a paragraph:  We begin life as World Observers and “live” shooting our own “game film.”  Then we die and play back the whole thing.  Called judgment day in some religions or the Life Review in science.  [Notes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.]

Now, as an aware “lifematographer” you begin to notice recurring “scenes” and “players” (archetypes).  You evolve a set of “templates” which can offer hints about the “next scene” to be coming along.  With me so far?

Now we can look at the local, noisy, pseudo-news and apply templates.  Let’s do this one after a quick jump into the Way Back Machine to the 1500s:

Core Elements of the Barbary Template

The Barbary States (Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli operated as semi-autonomous Ottoman regencies; Morocco remained independent). Barbary corsairing functioned as a semi-autonomous maritime extension of Ottoman power.

• Attack merchant shipping in key waterways.
• Demand tribute (protection money) or ransoms.
• Enslave captives or use them for labor/galleys.
• Justify actions through religious framing (naval jihad against Christians).
• Exploit geography (Mediterranean chokepoints) while maintaining plausible deniability.

This created a parasitic economy based on predation rather than conventional trade or production.  As a result, many observers argue Iran follows a modernized version of this model through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, proxies (Houthis, Hezbollah, etc.), and control/influence over strategic chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz (and secondarily Bab el-Mandeb via Houthis).

Which Gets Us to the Habsburgs

The Habsburg struggle against the Ottoman world ran hottest from the early 1500s through the late 1600s, beginning around the Ottoman victory at Mohács in 1526 and the first siege of Vienna in 1529, then turning decisively after the second siege failed in 1683 and ending with major Ottoman territorial losses at Karlowitz in 1699.

This was not abstract imperial rivalry. Barbary was a branch of Ottoman operations.  So let’s back up: Ottoman armies pressed through Hungary toward Central Europe while Ottoman-backed Barbary corsairs, especially Hayreddin Barbarossa, raided Mediterranean shipping and the coasts of Spain and Italy, carrying off cargo, ships, and captives.

Now we get to the house of Habsburg: Charles V answered with the seizure of Tunis in 1535. Do note that Charles V also answered with the failed Algiers expedition of 1541. His Spanish Habsburg successors joined the Christian coalition that won at Lepanto in 1571. The Habsburg military system was therefore built across two connected fronts: holding the Danube against Ottoman land power while contesting the western Mediterranean against its corsair extension.

You know where this leads, right?  Besides Barbary Iran and Trump-led Habsburgs…

The Modern Template Collision Stack

• Continued or intensified proxy harassment is our model standout — Houthis resuming Red Sea attacks on shipping/Israel-linked vessels, IRGC actions in/near Hormuz (mines, fast boats, seizures), and efforts to impose “tolls” or cause economic pain. This mirrors Barbary raids to force tribute-like behavior (e.g., negotiations, eased sanctions). As of mid-2026, this is already playing out amid the Iran war, with Hormuz disruptions and Houthi threats.
• Testing resolve gives war correspondents something to cover — Probing for weakness (e.g., hoping U.S./allies tire of protecting shipping or prefer deals). Historical Barbary rulers repeatedly miscalculated when powers shifted from appeasement to force.
• Decisive backlash phase spreads on both sides — Stronger naval powers (U.S., allies, possibly Israel) escalate with direct strikes on proxies and Iranian assets: destroying IRGC naval units, coastal missile sites, command nodes, or even limited ashore operations. Analyses invoke U.S. Marines heading “to the shores of Tripoli” again (e.g., USS Tripoli deployments) and the need for actions that make the strategy too costly.
• Endgame  eventually — Erosion of the model. Sustained pressure could lead to internal strain in Iran (economic collapse, regime legitimacy loss), proxy fatigue, or forced negotiations on unfavorable terms. In the extreme historical parallel, it ends with major loss of autonomy (though full “colonization” is unlikely today).

For now, all of this is in the pending column, so markets today are trying to sort it out along with our home players.  Everyone is asking “Gee, what really changed this weekend?  As luck would have it, we have an answer.

News Compressor World Scan

Not much, frankly.

The main thing that changed overnight is that U.S.-Iran negotiations moved from a weekend meeting into a claimed 60-day technical roadmap, enough to push oil lower and restart limited Hormuz traffic, but not enough to make the route dependable. Qatar moved LNG carriers through and other vessels crossed, while Iran still claims authority to close or condition passage and fighting around Lebanon continues.

At the same time, the Russia-Ukraine strike campaign widened into another large drone exchange affecting Moscow airports, fuel infrastructure, Black Sea shipping, and civilian areas. American households will first feel the Middle East shift through fuel prices; shippers and markets will feel it through insurance, freight timing, and risk appetite. Place a “likely” bet on talks and limited transits, medium wager that de-escalation will hold.

That’s why early markets are a bit squishy from Friday, but that still leaves the matter of Japan.  Which has a screaming market rally underway as the Bank of Japan cautiously raises rates.  Not enough to blow up all the Yen-Carry Trades, but you know what happens when financial engineering gets it wrong.

Bitcoin is wavering around $64,000 while watching the herd and trying to figure out scamper plans.

Pending News Outlook

Here’s where the World Observers should be looking next, if planning to use “world events B-roll” in their Life Review.

NEXT 12 HOURS

Event: Supreme Court order list and possible opinions.   Expected timing: This morning after I go to breakfast. Court session at 10:00 a.m. ET.
Why it may matter: Late-term rulings can alter criminal, regulatory, business, and constitutional rules immediately. What could change the outcome: The Court may issue only orders or opinions with narrow reach.Confidence: High. Headlines will roll, hands will ring, and I’ll be having more toast.

Event: Severe-weather corridor from the central Plains into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Expected timing: It’s a maybe for tonight.  If it happens? Sure, damaging wind, travel interruption, localized power loss, and agricultural damage are possible; heat remains hazardous across the South and builds in the West.  But what could change the outcome: Storm initiation, frontal timing, and overnight weakening. Confidence: High on the hazard area; medium on local impacts.

Event: U.S. markets price the Iran roadmap and the Fed’s harder rate signal.
Expected timing: We will see over the trading day.  Headlines out of Europe may drive here. Lower oil offers relief, while higher-rate expectations pressure bonds, housing-sensitive shares, and richly valued equities. B roll should look for a Hormuz incident, contradictory diplomatic statement, or a sharp move in Treasury yields. Confidence: High.

12-24 HOURS

Event: Congress returns to appropriations, housing, small-business, cybersecurity, AI, and privacy measures.
Expected timing: Congress votes this afternoon.  This may matter: National-security and energy-water appropriations can shift agency funding, contracting, and infrastructure priorities.
But don’t hold your breath. Leadership scheduling, amendments, or a hold on floor action.
Confidence: High that Congress is in session; medium on passage timing or doing actual productive work.

24-48 HOURS

Event: U.S.-Iran technical negotiations and ceasefire implementation signals.
Expected timing: Continuing during the next one to four days; no firm public completion time found.  This will be blah-blah and drags out: The practical test is sustained commercial passage through Hormuz and reduced Israel-Lebanon fire, not another diplomatic adjective.
What could change the outcome: New strikes, vessel detention, disagreement over nuclear terms, sanctions waivers, or Iranian transit conditions. Confidence: Medium.

48-72 HOURS

Event: May new-home sales. Comes out Wednesday.
Why it may matter:  Because it’s a somewhat clean read on mortgage-rate damage, builder incentives, and household demand.  We expect revisions and regional volatility. Confidence: High that happy talk will be in the mix.

Event: EIA weekly petroleum report.  Wednesday around 10:30 a.m. ET.
Here’s where we get a “Barbary Template: read. Inventories, refinery runs, and product supplied will show whether falling crude is reaching the domestic fuel system. Which all ripple out to the global level. What could change the outcome: Reporting revisions, refinery outages, or another Hormuz disruption.  Confidence: High that the report will happen but the other stuff is still in the blender and hands move toward the frappe button…

72-96 HOURS

Event: GDP third estimate, corporate profits, state GDP/personal income, May durable goods, and personal income/outlays. Coming Thursday, June 25, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Sleep in today and maybe snooze. Then wake up for the week’s largest U.S. macro cluster. It can reset growth, inflation, rate, and earnings assumptions at once.  We will be looking for large revisions, transportation orders, or conflict-driven energy effects. Events are near certain, outcomes a little less so.  OK, a lot less, then.

Bye Britain

Since they lost the American Revolution, I have been stymied trying to understand the whole “American thing” with the Brits, the accents, the “royals” and the endless streams of hubris.  So try to forgive me point this out:

UK PM Starmer resigns as Britain faces its seventh leader in 10 years.

As I have mentioned before – but it bears repeating – Britain is in the process of blowing itself up. Taking a perfectly good Empire and squandering it.  The only sense I can make of it is that it’s a great use use for British gin.

At the Ranch: Does Field of View Drive IQ?

Here is a question that began with three minutes of red light therapy plus a cup of coffee, and then wandered out to the frontiers of human intelligence and AI design.

I regularly use an ArunaLight red LED system for the eyes. We’ve been quietly working in this area since 2016 with some of it chronicled on the Peoplenomics site. Including Elaine’s reversal of early age-related macular degeneration.  Key thing? The system is used eyes closed and takes three minutes.

There is credible research suggesting that carefully dosed 670-nanometer light can improve some measures of aging retinal performance, particularly color-contrast sensitivity. The theory is that older retinal cells suffer declining mitochondrial performance, and deep red light may temporarily improve cellular energy production. A small human study found that a single three-minute morning exposure improved color-contrast sensitivity for about a week, although this remains an emerging field rather than settled ophthalmology.

But something else happens during my treatments.

Expanding Visual Perimeters

I push and hold the button on the glasses-like frame.  When the red lights first come on, the illuminated area I perceive seems concentrated around the center of my vision. That makes sense because the fovea, the high-resolution patch of retina we use for reading and inspecting things, is pointed directly toward the light.

Today I decided to try moving my eyes through a compass rose: up, down, hard right, hard left, then along the four 45-degree diagonals. After making the circuit, the red illumination seemed more evenly distributed across the whole visual space inside my head.  In other words, the “dark perimeter” was brighter and more even.

Optically, this is not magic. When I move my eyes away from the source, its image falls on different parts of the retina. I am effectively painting the retinal surface with light instead of holding the beam on one central neighborhood.

But that led to a much more interesting question: If human thought depends heavily on visual processing, could deliberately exercising the edges of vision expand the mental scratchpad on which we think?

The answer appears to be: perhaps functionally, but probably not in the way an IQ test measures intelligence.

The brain does not passively record everything that falls on the retina. It constructs a working model of the world using vision, eye movements, memory, and attention. Much of this begins in the visual cortex at the rear of the brain, but spatial awareness also involves parietal, frontal, and eye-movement networks. What we experience as one continuous visual world is actually an assembled product.

Psychologists even have a term remarkably close to what I was wondering about: the Useful Field of View, or UFOV.

Your anatomical field of view is everything your eyes could theoretically detect while pointed forward. Your useful field of view is the portion from which you can actually extract information quickly while concentrating on something else. You may physically see a truck approaching from the side, for example, yet fail to process it soon enough to matter.

UFOV commonly shrinks with age. Processing slows, distraction becomes more costly, and attention tends to narrow toward the center. That is one reason an older driver may still read the smallest line on an eye chart but have difficulty coping with traffic entering from several directions.

This is not a failure of eyesight alone. It is a reduction in the amount of visual territory the brain can use at once.

Bigger FOV, Bigger IQ?

Here is where the idea becomes more than morning speculation. Controlled Useful Field of View training has improved visual processing speed and attention in older adults. A systematic review covering 44 studies from 17 randomized trials found benefits in processing speed, attention, and some functional measures.

That does not mean looking eight directions twice a day will add five points to anyone’s IQ. UFOV training normally requires identifying something at the center while simultaneously locating peripheral targets, often among distractors. It exercises divided attention and processing speed, not just your aging eye muscles. That set bells to ringing…

Working memory, visual attention, and eye movements are closely coupled. The same attentional machinery used to select information from the outside world also helps keep visual information active inside working memory.

That internal workspace is sometimes called the visuospatial sketchpad. It is where we mentally rotate a fitting before cutting metal, picture how furniture will fit through a doorway, imagine a circuit layout, or rehearse the route from the shop to a distant pasture gate.

Could regular peripheral-attention work enlarge its absolute capacity? The research does not establish that. But it could make the existing workspace more accessible, faster, and less likely to collapse into tunnel vision.

That distinction matters. Intelligence is not simply what the brain “contains.”  It’s what you “do” with it.  IoW: functional intelligence is what the brain can bring into play (domain walking powers) at the moment a problem arrives.

A pilot may possess enormous technical knowledge, but if attention tunnels onto one instrument during an emergency, the rest of that intelligence has temporarily disappeared. In high adrenaline conditions, I have noticed this tunneling in my own FOV.  (Said the adrenaline junkie…)

The same thing happens in driving, machinery work, markets, and arguments. We become centrally fixated and stop sampling the wider field. So, in that sense, expanding useful vision might not raise intelligence, but it could reduce the number of times intelligence becomes unavailable.

My little red-light compass rose may be doing three different things. It spreads the light across more retinal territory. It exercises the eye-position system. Most interestingly, it reminds the brain to inspect the edges instead of living entirely in the center.

A more serious experiment would add cognition to the movement. Fix the eyes on a central object while noticing something above, below, left, and right without looking directly at it. Then identify a peripheral object, return to center, and recall where it was. This is much closer to established useful-field training than simply rolling the eyes around.

No promises of instant genius. No claim that the anatomical visual field can be stretched like a tarp. And visual-field loss from glaucoma, retinal disease, or neurological trouble requires an eye examination, not a home drill. But I think the working hypothesis survives:

Field of view probably does not drive IQ. Useful field of attention may determine how much of our IQ is available for use. So, can that be “worked out” at home?

In a world increasingly designed to hold our eyes six inches wide and eighteen inches from a screen, deliberately looking up, down, sideways, diagonally, near, and far may be one of the cheapest cognitive maintenance programs around. Sometimes broadening the mind may begin by broadening the look.

Could this be another way humans are learning about ourselves by building AI? Because as modeling space increases, so does contextual depth.  Leaving my morning ponder to fall out as “Can peripheral eye work expand my visual processing capacity?”

Guess we’ll see…

Write when you get rich,

George@Ure.net