Alex Hollings

Alex Hollings Alex Hollings writes on a breadth of subjects ranging from fitness to foreign policy, all presented through the lens of his experiences as a U.S. Marine, athlete and scholar. A football player, rugby player and fighter, Hollings has spent the better part of his adult life competing in some of the most physically demanding sports on the planet. Hollings possesses a master's degree in communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as a bachelor's degree in Corporate and Organizational Communications from Framingham State University.

Navy SEALs and backpack nukes: US special operators once carried the fury of the atom in a sack

Thanks to decades’ worth of cultural pressure on the international stage, most nations view the use of nuclear weapons in war as a reprehensible act. Today’s nuclear nations, by and large, ascribe to a model of deterrence: Put simply, our nukes stop them from using their nukes. Although posturing can get quite a bit more […]

Get your wings to go: Surveillance footage shows KFC exploding

When it comes to being prepared, a lot of us always have two competing voices in our heads: one that’s constantly warning us about impending danger, and another that’s constantly dismissing those dangers as the products of our own paranoia. This threat-assessment schizophrenia is a product of our environment, of course — the United States […]

Russian Romance: Guy hires commandos for marriage proposal at gunpoint

Anyone with an internet connection and access to YouTube already knows that Russia is like the Upside Down from “Stranger Things,” in that it looks like the developed world but seems to operate under a very different set of rules. Watching crazy dashcam footage from inside Russian boarders has long been a great way to […]

High speed video of rare firearms malfunctioning will make (or ruin) your day

A firearm malfunction has never made anyone’s day better. At the range, it’s cause for a frustrated immediate action drill or worse and in combat it could cost you your life. Serious malfunctions also have a habit of causing lasting damage to your firearm (and potentially to you), making them the sort of thing you […]

Insane footage shows US Coast Guard boarding mini-sub smuggling 17,000 lbs of cocaine

The U.S. Coast Guard will be offloading a massive haul of seized drugs in San Diego on Thursday, including more than 39,000 pounds of cocaine and 933 pounds of marijuana worth a combined estimated $569 million. All of the drugs were seized in international waters during routine operations in the Eastern Pacific. Vice President Mike […]

Don’t try this at home? Guy builds homemade “fire vortex cannon” and lights up his backyard with it

It may come as a surprise to most folks, but here in the United States, owning a flamethrower actually isn’t banned by federal law — that means you can technically own your own in the 48 states that haven’t passed their own restrictions on these sorts of weapons. As for “electric ducted fan jet powered […]

The end of flat tires? Michelin plans to sell airless tires by 2024

We’ve all been there — stuck on the side of the road swapping out a flat tire for our spare in the pouring rain. For a fair number of us, that rainy flat tire happened to come on a day when you were wearing your best duds for an important meeting or your finest uniform […]

Anger doesn’t win fights: Learn to lose with your head on straight

All too often, we tend to associate anger and aggression with masculinity. It’s an excusable mistake, the same hormone cocktail that made me a big, hairy lug also serves as chemical encouragement any time I feel the need to punch my way out of a situation… but if you ask me, a far more appropriate […]

How to throw a punch like a Marine

The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program has been the basic hand-to-hand combat system employed by the United States Marine Corps since 2002, and as I’ve written about in the past, it tends to get dragged through the mud by young guys with limited experience and a lot of bravado. In order to complete recruit training, […]

Getting your hands dirty: The practical value of impractical hobbies

You take a rusty piece of scrap metal, a hack saw, a file, and you get to work. After hours of cutting, grinding, and sanding spread out of a week’s worth of days, you’re left with a knife that’s probably not quite as good as one you might buy at Walmart for just less than […]