UNIT 731: The Most Horrific Unit of World War II
Officially known as The Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria. Realizing that they would be behind the west in technology for weapons, particularly in the nuclear field, the Japanese turned to experimenting on humans to discover biological and chemical weapons to tip the balance of the war in their […]
Kennedy Assassination Theories 22 November 1963
The Warren Commission determined in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. In the half a century since, polls have never indicated more than 30% of American believe that. Vincent Bugliosi estimates that 214 different people have been accused in various conspiracies ranging across 42 groups with 82 possible gunmen. In 1979, the United States […]
The Great Sphinx
Over 4,500 years ago, the Great Sphinx was carved out of a quarry on the Giza Plateau. It has the body of a lion and the head of a man. It is part of a larger complex with Temples and causeways containing the Giza Pyramids. It is speculated the head bears the visage of Khafre, […]
The STATEN ISLAND PEACE CONFERENCE almost ended the Revolution in 1776
Could the Revolution Have Ended in 1776? Travel back in time to Staten Island, New York on 11 September 1776 A.D. The day Benjamin Franklin and John Adams meet Admiral Lord Howe to discuss the possibility of peace between Britain & the Colonies. There is the slight complication that a few years previously, Benjamin Franklin […]
The Classic ROGER’S RULES OF RANGERING which still apply
Major Robert Rogers in 1759 wrote Standing Orders, Rogers Rangers, from lessons learned in the first 3 years the Rangers were formed. These are at least 17 rules. Simple rules, but learned at the cost of blood. All SOPs are guidelines. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP): A step by step procedure written down that delineates how […]
THE NEW LONDON SCHOOLHOUSE EXPLOSION
Propane doesn’t smell. It’s odorless in its natural state. But if there is a leak, you smell a nasty odor. Ever wonder why? It wasn’t always that way. What caused the changed? It would have been fortuitous if this had been done from the start as more and more buildings began to use propane and […]
What Is Hart Island?
It’s an island off the Bronx in New York City, not far from where I grew up. It’s not very big. Roughly a mile long by a third of a mile wide. Exact acreage is argued: some say its 101 acres and other claim its 131 acres. I put this map together while researching Hart […]
The First Internet Message Was Sent On 29 October 1969
In the late 1960’s, scientists face a fundamental question regarding computing. In what direction will the future go? The big corporations, IBM and others, want to build centralized, large computers that people must go to. Others want computers to be smaller and not centralized and be linked together remotely. The link? A thing that will […]
How The United States Declares War– Or Is Supposed To
How does the United States go to war? It’s not as clear cut as many think. And it’s been a while since we’ve done it as laid out in the Constitution. The last time, as written in the Constitution, War was declared by a joint resolution of Congress and executed by the President was against […]
Pandemic Day 365. What Has One Year Taught Us?
A lot and not enough. We knew a pandemic was inevitable, yet were unprepared. We know many things are inevitable yet prefer to ignore them. We are now over 530,000 official deaths and the real toll, of course, is much higher. Many have died of COVID but no autopsy was performed. Also, we are experiencing […]
How to Prevent Getting Lost & What To Do If You Are Lost
We can get lost in a variety of ways. I work under Daniel Boone’s precept: “I’ve never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.” While I’ve done a lot of land navigation, both day and night, and spent considerable time working off of maps during training and on deployments, there […]
OPERATION PAPERCLIP: A Dark Chapter in our History
Operation Paperclip was an OSS, Office of Strategic Services, program which brought over 1,500 Germans to the United States after World War II. The OSS was in a race with the Russians at the end of the world to reap the cream of the Nazi scientific corps and utilize them. The OSS was the precursor […]
Who Was Sir Richard Francis Burton?
Explorer, soldier, poet, translator, diplomat, spy, linguist, writer, cartographer, fencer, and more. A great and enigmatic person in history. Burton traveled the world, going to places that few westerners had ever been. Most importantly, he wrote about them. He spoke 29 languages. While not the first westerner to make the Hajj to Mecca, he was […]
Your First Reaction Will Probably Kill You If . . .
A gas leak in Bhopal India is considered the worst industrial accident with a death toll that has never been fixed, but was definitely over 5,000. Many died because they tried to escape. Running is the WRONG thing to do. Disasters at plants like the one in Bhopal, train derailments, tanker truck crashes and other […]
The African Burial Ground and the History of Slavery in New York City
We tend to think of the south when we discuss slavery in America. In 1703, New York City had the second highest percentage of slaves in the colonies. After Charleston, South Carolina. More than 42% of households in the city had slaves. Ongoing slavery began in New York City in 1626, when eleven Africans were […]