An interesting note in True West magazine is that the cowboy hat was a product of white immigrants to stealing everything they could from Mexicans. As Texian cattlemen appropriated Mexican cattle and land, they adopted elements of the vaquero’s working…
Tag: history
Europe, Global Security News, North America
China Claims U.S. Aircraft Carriers Can’t Hide From New AI on Satellites
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A new report out of China suggests it’s using AI on satellites to find and constantly track U.S. aircraft carriers, rendering them easy prey. When USS Harry S. Truman was heading to a strait transit drill off the coast of Long Island in New York on Jun…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Definition of “bad war”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Professor Stevenson at the LSE, perhaps the best WWI historian in the world, has a quick note on why that war was “bad”. The First World War was the first modern industrial war. Millions of shells were manufactured, and millions of troops were enlisted…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Battle of Singapore: “Broken Down Bicycles Were an Unexpected Psychological Weapon”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The 1942 Battle of Singapore after the Malay campaign by the Japanese is perhaps the worst defeat of British arms in history. A core technology in the battle was the bicycle, used by Japanese troops in the jungle — despite little to no prior relevant e…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Tank-Busting Electric Bikes in Ukraine are Predictably Awesome
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Daniel Tonkopi, the Ukrainian CEO of Delfast, says permission has been granted to officially discuss deployment of his product into war: Delfast has been providing electric bikes to the Ukrainian Army since the first day of the war. We transferred elec…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
American Cities Finally Start to Acknowledge “Death Corridors” Were No Accident
by Davi Ottenheimer •
It’s been documented extensively how the Nixon administration coldly and cruelly used “freeway” planning for cars to destroy non-white neighborhoods across America. Many don’t realize an “Eisenhower” interstate system was in fact spearheaded by VP Nixo…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Tesla Safety Negligence Finally Goes to Court: “Sore Thumb” of American Roads
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Quality of Tesla vehicles has been notoriously bad for years, and has been trending worse, which should be little surprise given how poorly it treats human life (from its workers and its customers to anyone in or around their product). Now top experts …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Rivian penalized for price hike as market awards Tesla “prize” for price hike
by Davi Ottenheimer •
File this one under why markets clearly are not even close to rational. Here’s one headline from March: Tesla raises prices across entire range The March 15th price hikes are purely speculative to “protect” the company from consumers demanding value fr…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
New Chinese Poems Naturally Express Frustration and Dissent
by Davi Ottenheimer •
China, not to mention pretty much everywhere else in the world, has a long history of poetry representing encoded or even open frustration and dissent. The Washington Post correspondent nonetheless wrote a post about surprise at poetry doing what it al…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Hidden Genocide in Arkansas Cadron Settlement
by Davi Ottenheimer •
While researching the President Andrew Jackson’s genocidal “Trail of Tears” campaign I noticed that sites in Arkansas completely ignore their part in the tragedy. Worse, Arkansas history groups downplay or desecrate the national records. Here’s the NPS…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Fascinating Twist in Discovery of 200-year-old Sunken American Ship
by Davi Ottenheimer •
NOAA has posted an interesting write-up of deep sea excavation for the “Industry”, a whaling ship that sank centuries ago. The remains of the 64-foot long, two-masted wooden brig opens a window into a little known chapter of American history when desce…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Russian Military “Utterly Failing” in Historic Defeat by Ukraine
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A new chapter on how to lose is being written into war history, according to some experts. “It’s stunning,” said military historian Frederick Kagan of the Institute for the Study of War, who says he knows of no parallel to a major military power like R…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
1964 Introduction to Distributed Communications Networks
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Here’s the initial RAND memorandum (RM-3420-PR), as prepared by Paul Baran in August 1964 for the USAF. …one in a series of eleven RAND Memoranda detailing the Distributed Adaptive Message Block Network, a proposed digital data communications system ba…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Let’s Do Something Worthy of Mike Murray
by Alan Shimel •
By now, everyone who knew him—and even those who did not—know that we lost a giant in the security world last week; our friend Mike Murray. There have been some great articles, countless tweets, LinkedIn and Facebook/Meta posts that attest to what a g…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Let’s Be Honest, Nice Means Ignorant
by Davi Ottenheimer •
“Be nice” is nothing like saying “be kind”. They are world apart. First, however, consider how a British man living in Holland says the culture there seems “rude” because of an egalitarian approach (data sharing) to risk management. The constant need t…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
How Racist is Elon Musk?
by Davi Ottenheimer •
As I wrote recently, this question is really about being anti-racist. When we ask how vulnerable software is, it would sound wrong for someone to defend themselves with “how dare you call software vulnerable”. Software has flaws, so we constantly look …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Metaverse is a throwback to the Commodore 64
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Recently I wrote a quick note about Apple users believing that removing a monitor from their computer with an integrated keyboard was something novel or new. It reminded me of the amazing Commodore VIC-20 of 1980s fame, and also how easily people overl…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
All-Women Cycling Teams in 1896
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The Petaluma Historian has posted a fascinating look at the face of cycling a century ago. On July 4, 1896, Petaluma found itself anointed the new “bicycling Mecca” of the West Coast, as a reported 6,000 people turned out at the city’s new Wheelman Par…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
1864 Concentration Camp of Andersonville, Georgia
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The “Deadliest Ground of the Civil War” officially was recorded as a concentration camp run by “Rebels” who tortured and killed mass numbers of American POW. Purposeful concentration camps (to cruelly torture and murder captured American soldiers) was …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Consumers Reject Apple MacBook Pro design for 1980s Commodore instead
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A comment on Twitter seems completely divorced from basic computer history, and it’s gathering a lot of misplaced attention as something new. Similar attempts at false “new” ideas can also be found on other platforms and channels. I’ve discussed here b…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Significance of Russia’s “All Lives Matter” Campaign Bombing Kyiv Holocaust Memorials
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The BBC offers sharp insight into why Russia is firing missiles at memorials to victims of Nazism, killing civilians. Babyn Yar is now a place of quiet contemplation, where thousands of people travel to every year to remember those who died. That it co…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Russian Elites On the Run, Trying to Hide Ships as Ports Close
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The usual placid sailing waters of Russian billionaires has abruptly given them the boot. UK Transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said that he “had banned all ships with ANY Russian connection whatsoever.” And while some people focus on Russian private p…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Colonial Pipeline Spills Details on First CISO
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Let me begin by saying the first, first chief information security officer (CISO) hire anywhere ever was a PR invention of Wall Street back in 1994. This position was officially rolled out in a news campaign by Citicorp to offset panic when they disclo…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
“Military Telegraph During the Civil War: The Federal and Confederate Cipher System”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
William Plum published a book in 1882 called “The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States: an Exposition of Ancient and Modern Means of Communication, and of the Federal and Confederate Cipher System“. Inside you will find gems of …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Research “probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Buried in a 2020 report called “Māori Perspectives on Trust and Automated Decision-Making” is the following insightful commentary on authorization and consent related to big data collection: In the context of Aotearoa, Pool (2016) notes how research an…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
A 1864 Cracked Cipher Confirmed the Infamous Bishop Polk Was Dead
by Davi Ottenheimer •
General Sherman’s campaign of 1864 to expediently end the Civil War blew straight through an infamous Confederate General on June 14th northwest of Atlanta, near a small rise known as Pine Mountain. Bishop Polk was dead, and it was a cracked cipher tha…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
American Revolutionary War Was About Profit, Not Liberty
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A Smithsonian exhibition lays bare the fact that America was granted independence by Britain as a global business decision, rather than ideological conflict. …the American Revolution was largely a war about trade and economic influence—not ideology. Fr…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Wired Magazine: “History of Black Androids”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Virginia Heffernan, writing for Wired, has published an “ideas” piece for the March 2022 issue that calls out the Tesla bot as “a racist phenomenon dating back to the 18th century.” I couldn’t agree more, and in fact am quoted in the article. At least …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Ethics Flareup: Ground troops Claim Superiority to Aerial Munitions
by Davi Ottenheimer •
One of the greatest myths of American military history is that the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan were superior to sending ground troops. In reality it was Soviet ground troops advancing on Japan that should be credited with an end to combat, given mon…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Kansas Missile Silo For Sale: $380K
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A 7,000 square foot missile silo under wide-open acreage in rural Abiline, Kansas (near the childhood home of President Eisenhower, and just north of Eisenhower Highway 40 — Interstate 70) is up for sale on Zillow. Built on 11 acres of land, this prope…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Ho! Ho! Jefferson D
by Davi Ottenheimer •
From “Poet’s Corner” in the Third Cavalry Division Chronicle” of Monday, March 6th, 1865. How do you like it as far as you’ve got? Jefferson D, Jefferson D, Are you glad you began it, or do you wish you had not? Jefferson, Jefferson D. People say, thou…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
US Embassy in Georgia Explains Russian False Flag Operations
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A nice history angle is provided by the US State Department “share” service in an official embassy post about Russian false flag operations. Russia’s false flag operations date back decades and take many forms. In 1939, the Soviet Union shelled its own…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Billionaires Fund Campaigns to Ban Books in American School
by Davi Ottenheimer •
First, the Guardian makes it clear that a conspiracy is real: …groups involved in banning books are in fact linked, and backed by influential conservative donors. Second, a racist motive is obvious: In Pennsylvania, the Central York school board banned…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Can You Trust Free COVIDtests from US Government?
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The COVIDtests.gov site has launched ahead of schedule and has a “Here’s how you know” link at the top to explain “official website” trust: Does it seem safe? Can you trust a .gov? I am reminded of the launch of the US government “healthcare.gov” websi…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
30m Financed by Wall Street to Fund US Vets to Revolt
by Davi Ottenheimer •
From an article aptly named “Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?” comes this spotlight on American history: Butler’s reputation was impeccable. He got rousing ovations when he claimed that during his 33 years in the marines…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Armies Around the World Testing Electric Bikes (Yet Again)
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A nod to military bike history can be found in a new article about the British military called “Charge of the light brigade: Army Parachute Regiment trial electric bikes” Eighty years ago, wartime necessitated the introduction of the Royal Enfield WD/R…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
Best of 2021 – Tom Cruise is a Fake. For Real This Time.
by Davi Ottenheimer •
Something I’ve always known about Tom Cruise is that he is a fake. Literally. He is a paid actor, who makes a living from being a fake. He is highly paid because apparently his fakes are so good. Now comes a stark warning that evidence has been found …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
USS Pueblo Capture by North Korea: Weak Translation to Blame?
by Davi Ottenheimer •
An inability to translate clear signals is perhaps the most interesting lesson I’ve found from an analysis of North Korea’s 1968 capture of the USS Pueblo spy ship. The following paragraph comes from unclassified CIA files: Studies in Intelligence Vol …
Europe, Global Security News, North America
“He seemed to find it surprising soldiers would have good things to say about him”
by Davi Ottenheimer •
A fascinating profile of the US Army’s top enlisted leader, Sgt Maj Michael Grinston, reminds me very much of the brilliant modesty found in American heroes like President Grant. …while much of Grinston’s motivation over the years stems from his belief…
Europe, Global Security News, North America
NSA Finds Lost “Rare Italian Cipher Machine” in its Collection
by Davi Ottenheimer •
The NSA in October 2021 posted a headline with the interesting title “Long lost and rare Italian cipher machine found“. That sounds innocent enough, yet check out the wobbly history they published along with it: At the outbreak of WWII in 1939, Nazi Ge…