Thursday, March 13, 2008
Such Fun at the Lager
The handy thing about these gay frauleins is that they had already been vetted for racial purity. So if one were in wont of a wife or a girlfriend, the typist pool was (racially speaking) Kosher.
A Good Day for Gold Buggers
Gold surpasses (if even for a brief moment) the magical US$ 4 digit mark. The barbarous relic would appear to have some life left in it, alas. What next, shells?
France Loses Its Last World War I Veteran
Italian-born Lazare Ponticelli was feted at the National History of Immigration Museum in Paris last Dec. 16, shortly after his 110th birthday.
The link that provided us an unbroken chain between France today and France of the First World War is now broken.
The Zimmerman Telegram
The decrypt and translation:
On the first of February, we intend to begin unrestricted submarine warfare. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep the United States of America neutral.
In the event of this not succeeding, we propose an alliance on the following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and make peace together. We shall give generous financial support, and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details of settlement are left to you.
You are instructed to inform the President [of Mexico] of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States and suggest that the President, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence with this plan; at the same time, offer to mediate between Japan and ourselves.
Please call to the attention of the President that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England to make peace in a few months.
More info on this great story here.
The National Cryptography Museum; Don't Feel Bad You Didn't Know About It. I think that's the point.
No. It's not a museum about the CRY-baby of a company cryptologic, but of Cryptography, an ever fascinating, fiendishly complex, and ever necessary practice. The farthest I have ever gotten into the subject was a visit to Bletchley Park and reading Alan Turing's harrowing biography. But when I am next at the NSA, I'll be sure to give a look in. Directions can be found here. In an unrelated matter, I met someone who had actually met Sir. William Stephenson and not just his biographer William Stephenson.
When Iraq Really Was Preparing Weapons of Mass Destruction
The reporting is a bit jingoistic (in a way that still, I am afraid, raises deep Zionist feelings in me) but the story is the most part 'true.' Give me a bunch of overladen fighter jets any day over a ground invasion.
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