Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

October 3, 1849: Boston-born, Richmond-raised writer Edgar Allan Poe was found lying in a gutter in Baltimore, outside a bar by a passing journalist. He was reportedly “barely coherent”. He was taken to a local hospital, but never regained full lucidity and died October 7, 1849 of "swelling of the brain". However, the actual cause of death remains a mystery. He was also found to be wearing someone else's clothes, which was never explained. All of the relevant medical records have been lost, including Poe's death certificate.


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
                Only this, and nothing more."

First stanza of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (published 1845)

Full reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAdQ3CcPHQU

Poe had a keen interest in cryptography. In his "The Gold-Bug" short story incorporated ciphers as an essential part of the story. Poe had no formal training in cryptography, but some of his cryptic writings played a major role in popularizing cryptograms in newspapers and magazines. His keen analytical abilities are evident in his detective stories.


One such person who was heavily influenced by Poe's cryptography was William Friedman, a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS), America's foremost cryptologist from 1930s through the 50s. Friedman's initial interest in cryptography came from reading "The Gold-Bug" as a child, an interest that he later put to use in deciphering Japan's PURPLE code during World War II. An achievement of the same magnitude as the Polish and British solution of Enigma.


Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942:


Here's a reproduced PDF copy which consisted of seven pages of typescript, printed on poor quality foolscap size paper. It was issued by the United States War Department in 1942 and distributed to American servicemen who were going to Britain to prepare for the invasion of occupied Europe.



October 3, 1952: The rationing of tea in Britain, brought in during the Second World War, finally ended. The Brits were saved! Incredible just how long food rationing lasted after the war. I guess all the cargo ships were busy looting Germany and Italy...Or sunk.


Oct 3, 1993: two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters are shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia. 18 Americans are killed and 73 are wounded during the fight to recover the crews. As many as 500 Somalis perish in the battle.

Battle of Mogadishu / Part of Operation Gothic Serpent
Members of Task Force Ranger
U.S. Army Rangers photo
Image date: 03 Oct 1993
Location: 2.051027, 45.324832




Big strategic news...United Kingdom will agree that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia...

UK and Mauritius joint statement, 3 October 2024


A Diego rant by CDR Salamander...

There Goes Diego...Garcia

another piece of red, left my atlas, today ... effectively

History will judge this for what it is; folly at the highest level, an order of magnitude greater even than the British sending the Soviets their jet engine in the late 1940s. Governments and technology change, geography doesn’t.

As in all things, let’s first go to the chart.



In the middle of that map is Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory and home to one of the most strategic airfields and anchorages on the planet.

I’ve spent some time this century in, on, and working the GWOT importance of Diego Garcia. I distinctly believe those in the British government responsible for this epic own-goal have no clue what they have done—they do and simply do not care—or get a masochist’s thrill from damaging themselves and their nation—perhaps a national security mental disorder of 'self-cutting'.

Join me in an angry little rant.

Diego Garcia was British for the reasons every other bit of land on this planet is owned by this nation or that: it earned it and kept it through discovery and force of arms.

The red circle is 2,000 nautical miles from the island. The purple circle is 1,150 nautical miles, roughly the distance from London to Malta, that represents the distance from Diego Garcia, affectionally known to its friends as “Dodge” and civilized people will defer things on the island to Provisional Peoples' Democratic Republic of Diego Garcia. That circle is also the distance from Diego Garcia to the island of Mauritius, and uninhabited island until discovered by the Europeans a few hundreds of years ago, passing through Dutch, French, and finally English hands, populated by a multi-ethnic mix of people brought there or emigrating there over the centuries—or as the left likes to call them, “settler colonialists.”

Elections have consequences, so does the abandonment of the institutions by conservatives - especially in foreign affairs. We keep hiring from the same leftist institutions and allow them to control the hiring process so their ducks pick ducks, and then we wonder why from Israel to the Indian Ocean, just plain stupid, self-destructive, soft, and myopic decisions continue to be made throughout the West.

Goodness knows the People’s Republic of China would not do this, but they are a serious nation whose decision makers can read a map and history books.

Before we expand on that, let’s do a little history travel. You can read it here or just the screen shot below, but here’s what I wrote on the topic over a dozen years ago:

Continued at There Goes Diego...Garcia


Argentina detected an odor of weakness from Diego Garcia to London...


The Telegraph


This time it wasn't a trip out a window...


Putin Ally Found Dead with Gunshot Wound Near Moscow


After eight years of development, the first fully certified plutonium pit for the future W87-1 warhead has been produced.

W87-1 will replace W78 and be one of two warheads (with W87-0), on the future Sentinel ICBM.





United States nuclear weapons, 2024

W78 thermonuclear warhead has an estimated yield of 335–350 kilotons.
W87-0 thermonuclear warhead has an estimated yield of 3oo kilotons.
W87-1 thermonuclear warhead has an estimated yield of 475 kilotons.

Armaggedon is not cheap. Russia's nuclear ICBM arsenal is further advanced than the US; the missile delivery system, whereas ours is 30-40 years old. Don't know much about the warheads as all of that is classified.