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MadMax

Maxime Marquette

Independent columnist · MadMax

MadMax is an independent bilingual news outlet based in Québec, publishing analysis on geopolitics, technology, democracy, and culture.

Our mission: rigorous, source-cited analysis carried out with full editorial independence — no sponsorship, no party line.

Our editorial standards: sources are cited inline, corrections are fixed and logged publicly, and any use of artificial intelligence is disclosed.

Fire first

“Burn rather than rot. Write rather than stay silent.”

Write as if burning

Fire first. Sentences after. No lukewarm takes.

Raw truth

Always answer the strongest version of the opposing point. No strawmen.

Independence

No commissioned pieces. No editorial masters. No compromise.

Columns by Maxime Marquette

4,540 columns published
Reportage· No. 3145

The lost colony of Roanoke vanished, leaving only a single carved word

At the end of the sixteenth century, England attempted to establish its first permanent settlement in North America, on a small island

Reportage· No. 3144

The Rosetta Stone cracked the secret of hieroglyphs after 1,400 years of silence

In 1799, soldiers from the Napoleonic army in Egypt were working to reinforce a fort near the town of Rosetta, in the

Column· No. 3143

The Voynich manuscript, undeciphered for a century despite the best cryptographers

Among the precious collections of Yale University's Beinecke Library sits one of the most enigmatic documents ever studied by historians and cryptographers:

Analysis· No. 3142

Antarctica, not the Sahara, is the largest desert in the world

When we hear the word desert, the collective imagination almost automatically conjures images of scorching dunes and unbearable heat, like the Sahara,

Analysis· No. 3141

This town's border is so tangled that houses change country room by room

Straddling Belgium and the Netherlands, the small town of Baarle forms what is arguably the most complex border configuration on the planet,

Analysis· No. 3140

The world's largest artificial islands are visible from space

Off the coast of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, stand artificial archipelagos whose scale defies imagination: millions of tons of sand

Analysis· No. 3139

The world's shortest international border is under 100 meters long

When you think of an international border, you generally picture long lines running across entire continents, separating countries over hundreds, even thousands

Note· No. 3138

DID YOU KNOW this Brazilian island has up to one deadly viper per square meter

Off the coast of the state of São Paulo, in Brazil, lies a small piece of land that, seen from the sky,

Reportage· No. 3137

The world's narrowest street is only 31 centimeters wide at its tightest point

In Reutlingen, a small city in southern Germany tucked not far from Stuttgart, one of Europe's most improbable urban curiosities is hiding