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8月27日 Bob Davis and Fred ThompsonBob Davis and Fred Thompson
Laurie and I were at the Minnesota State Fair today and managed to get ourselves front row seats to KSTP 1500's 'Bob Davis Show'. Every state fair we try to do this; we have become quite the fan of Bob's unique show and commentary on politics. Bob does have a different spin on most things in life and his show is never dull.
This year was very special though. Bob hinted that he had a special guest who might show up in the eleven o'clock hour but he wouldn't say who. We could tell it had to be somebody interesting because there was a noticeable increase in both security and media wonks as the eleven o'clock hour approached. There was also a bit of house-cleaning going on as the KSTP house prepared for the mystery visitor.
Shortly after eleven, surrounded by local and national media, none other than possible Presidential Candidate Senator Fred Thompson showed up! I would say Laurie and I had the best seat in the house, probably 20 feet from Bob and Fred. It was not a long interview but it was an interesting one. Bob had obviously done his homework before the meeting and had some good questions prepared. Thompson really didn't say a lot to show a firm platform for his potential campaign but he did essentially refute a lot of the Democratic positions on both immigration and foreign policy. I will be interested in hearing what his actual plan is someday but just about anything has to be better than what I'm hearing presently spouted out by most of the active candidates.
I will say this for Thompson. He does present a physical energy and eloquence that I think is sadly lacking in the White House right now. One of the biggest problems facing the United States right now is a lack of leadership and vision. I don't see anybody on either the right or the left who offers that right now. Today, maybe for about 15 minutes, I saw something of that.
8月25日 Where have I been?Where have I been?
I imagine some of you have noticed that my updates here have not been quite as regular as promised. The fact of the matter is that my efforts are currently spread out a little bit more over the web. While Laurie and I were at the LBHA conference last month a rather interesting situation came up. During the conference they brought up to the attending membership that there was some sort of problem with the organisations website and message board. The Board of Directors apparently thought the message board was putting the LBHA in a risky liability position. Their solution to this problem was going to be taking down the website and message board entirely.
Now this whole thing struck me as sort of odd. I am not immediately aware of any situation in which a message board has been held liable for the postings of the board's users? I'm not saying it wasn't possible but they seemed very concerned over the protests they had recieved from one user. This actually kind of amused me when you consider all the protests some of my posts have probably gotten on various blogs!
One member of the board even approached me about offering assistance. They seemed to be looking for technical knowledge that they lacked. The fact of the matter was the more I learned the more I realised that this really wasn't an issue about either security or liability at all. It was a political struggle within the LBHA and the website and message board was just another piece of turf to be squabbled over.
The fact of the matter is that as of this date Diane Merkle has found a solution for the whole problem presented by the Board of Directors. She has broken both the website and message board away from the LBHA. As I understand it she has reserved the URL and paid for it herself. The title of the Little Bighorn Association has been removed from the main website and the message board. It would seem to me that no liability risk now exists for the LBHA.
The sad problem I now see for the LBHA is that both the website and message board represented an incredible public outreach potential. Right at the meeting where they discussed taking down the website one member stood up to protest and stated that it was the website and message board that brought him into the LBHA. They also discussed at the meeting how to increase membership! It amazed me how they couldn't grasp the potential of the website and message board.
It is my understanding that the LBHA is working on setting up another website. I haven't seen any sign of it yet. It really isn't that hard to obtain a URL or set up a website but to maintain one as fine as the site created by Diane Merkle represents a lot of tough work and diligence. Maybe the Board of Directors will eventually see that it would be better to work with the website than against it.
Me? My personal position is that it is a mistake to shut off discussion whether it is face-to-face or on the internet. I don't support either slander or name-calling but the web is capable of incredible things. Hypothetically if the LBHA effectively used the internet they could not only solve their membership problems but expand the topic of their historical discussion in a meaningful way. In the meantime I will do the little bit I can to keep the Little Bighorn Alliance website and Little Bighorn info board up and running.
See Bill, I helped you do what you wanted. You no longer have a liability problem... 8月20日 Talking about Levy: How to Hook the Elusive Phisher - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.comWhile we are on the subject... Quote Levy: How to Hook the Elusive Phisher - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com A little bit of hacker history dies...a little bit of hacker history dies...
I never had a lot of personal dealings with Joe. I only talked to him twice some years ago. He was a living legend then and, in the hacker community, he is still. While Qwest was still U S West Communications I remember some of my coworkers joking about getting calls from 'Joybubbles'. He was always a nice guy. Some of the people I know outside of Qwest also insist he was more than just a genius of phreakdom; he was rock of goodness amidst the chaotic community of hackers, phreakers and outright tech rebels. I regret I never got to know him well enough.
Goodbye Joybubbles... 8月13日 Jay Cooke's GambleJay Cooke's Gamble
I picked this book up at the LBHA conference last month and I'm already thinking of getting a second copy! So very often when you buy a book on history it is essentially telling the tale of a specific person or event all over again. This was particularly true when I was reading the history of the American Civil War; I seldom found a book offering anything new in terms of facts.
'Jay Cooke's Gamble' is a wonderful book for presenting new information. Now I'll admit right now that I'm not the expert on Custer or the Plains Indian Wars that some people are but, so far, I have not heard anything about this particular episode. This book also shines a bright light on the influence of the Northern Pacific railroad company and Jay Cooke in particular on some of the national decisions of the time.
Essentially Cooke planned on building a new transcontinental railroad line across the northern plains states. The critical leg of this venture starts in Minnesota and is quite the story in itself. The bogs and lakes of Minnesota turned out to be more of a problem than anybody expected. The real heart of the book comes in the telling of the crossing of the Dakotah territories. This was going to be a crossing in which at least a hundred miles of the rail line would pass through land that none other than Sitting Bull was willing to contest.
The whole story revolves around Jay Cooke's efforts to drive the railroad through, come Hell or high water or a thousand angry indians. It involves characters such as ex-Confederate general Thomas Rosser and George Armstrong Custer. This is a story of some little known fights between the army and the indians as the survey crews attempted to plot a trail west. The book is not only interesting in the new facts it reveals but the writer, M. John Lubetkin, demonstrates himself as a excellent writer.
'Jay Cooke's Gamble: The Northern Pacific Railroad, The Sioux, and the Panic of 1873', M. J Lubetkin, 2006, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-3740-1
8月5日 The Springfield Carbine on the Western FrontierThe Springfield Carbine on the Western Frontier
If a person plans on gaming the Plains Indian Wars there are quite a few different weapons to be studied. You are really looking at a time period of over 40 years if you start with the indian conflicts during the Civil War and conclude with the very little known battle of Leech Lake ( http://www.forttours.com/pages/leechlakefight.asp ). Probably one of the most famous or infamous weapons during most of this time was the Model 1873 Springfield Carbine.
I have developed quite a personal obsession with this weapon and the variations derived from it. I have also a genuine respect for the venerable 45-70 cartridge it fired. I have compiled a pretty extensive library on this weapon as well as many of the other weapons of the 'Old West' but this is the one I will start with.
The first step of such a project in any type of simulation analysis environment is to gather all the quantifiable data available to each subject. The first piece of information was taken from the book I took the title of this entry from:
'The Springfield Carbine on the Western Front', Revised, Author Kenneth M. Hammer, 2002, Little Buffalo Press, ISBN 0-9708549-0-0
This slim little volume, all of 24 pages, has some amazing information in it. The following chart is off page 14.
TABLE 1 COMPARISON OF SPRINGFIELD CARBINE
AND THE WINCHESTER RIFLE
MEAN VELOCITIES
Springfield with 10 rifle cartridges ..............1363.5 ft./sec.
Springfield with 10 carbine cartridges ..........1166.6 ft./sec.
Winchester with 10 Wincester cartridges ......1127.4 ft./sec.
MEAN DEVIATION (inches) 100 200 500 900 yards
Springfield with rifle cartridge 3.17 8.36 14.03 35.12
Springfield with carbine cartridge 2.48 7.97 19.05 36.52
Winchester 2.27 12.27 21.56 Not obtainable
PENETRATION IN WHITE PINE AT 100 YARDS
Mean of Bullet Powder
5 shots Weight Weight
(inches) (grains) (grains)
Springfield 10.075 405 55
Spencer, .50 caliber 6.95 348 59.5
Spencer, .50 caliber 8.25 430 55
Winchester 4.9 200 40
These comparison tests were made by Lieut. John C. Greer at the Springfield Armory, August 11, 1876. The Springfield weapon used was the U. S. Carbine, Model 1873. .45 Caliber. The Winchester Rifle, Model 1873, was tested. This rifle weighed 8.6 pounds empty and 9.27 pounds with 15 cartridges.
Another wonderful book I found was:
'Guns of the Western Indian War', R. Stephen Dorsey, 1995, Collectors Library, ISBN 0-9631208-5-9
This book has a much broader coverage of the small arms used during the entire historical period of the plains indian wars. It also allows for a broader set of comparisons between various weapons. It also goes greatly into the documentation and debate about the merits of various weapons as they would potentially be used by the army against the indians.
The National Armory seemed primarially concerned with long range accuracy and the stopping power of the various weapons. Page 61 of the Dorsey book has a letter concerning the recoil and lethality of the Springfield Carbine being addressed in a Department of Dakota letter 16th of December 1878 by Captain of Ordnance O. E. Michaelis to the Ordnance Office of the War Department. This letter is of particular interest when you remember it was written two years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
" Our carbine can safely use our 70 grain cartridge, and no carbine of equal weight could use a heavier charge without great danger and intolerable recoil. Complaints have already been made in regard to the severity of the recoil of our present arms using the standard cartridge. What, then, would be the result were we to increase the charge without augmenting the weight?
" The longest-ranging Indian arm I have seen is the octagonal barreled Sharp's rifle, a piece manifestly too heavy to be used as a military arm. If weight is not objected to, an arm can be made at the National Armory that will outrange any gun yet tried. Our rifle at 1,650 yards, using the service ammunition, will penetrate two inches of pine and therefore kill. Is not this enough for all military purposes? If we attempt to accomplish more than this without increasing the weight of the piece the recoil becomes impracticable."
The problems with the Model 1873 Springfield Carbine are pretty well known; slow rate of fire compared to the repeating arms of the time and cartridges jamming in the breech. None other than Marcus Reno reportsafter the Battle of the Little Bighorn, on pages 7-8 of the Hammer book, one of his indian scouts finding the bodies of many of the men in Custer's command with broken knives near them suggestive of attempt to clear their carbines under fire.
I have yet to find any definitive information on the fouling rate of the 1873 carbine but I still haven't gone through all my materials yet. I have found information indicative that veteran troopers would often purchase knives at their own expense to better allow them to clear fouled weapons. I am also doing research to establish the rates of fire the 1873 carbine was capable of over a sustained period. My goal is to establish some statisical comparison between the various arms and then translate them into terms usable for different game systems.
Right now I will take a break from typing for awhile...
8月4日 Dog Soldier Justice by Dr. Jeff Broome'Dog Soldier Justice: The Ordeal of Susanna Alderdice in the Kansas Indian War' by Dr. Jeff Broome
Laurie and I picked up a lot of books at the Little Bighorn Association conference in North Platte last month. I haven't got a firm count on the number of books but it is easy to see in our checkbooks that we spent a little over a thousand dollars. Quite a few of these books are not going to be easily found elsewhere. Some are hardcover editions that you just won't find anymore. I intend on reviewing as many of these as possible as I read them; 'Dog Soldier Justice' is just the first book that I've finished.
Dr. Broome's book represents one of the finest pieces of historical research I have ever seen. Now this is coming from a guy who reads a lot of history! Laurie and I have twenty-eight bookcases in our house right now that are filled exclusively with history! I like Dr. Broomes approach to history; he tries to restrict his personal judgements on what he writes. He does not try to color the past with his judgements based on present day standards. He is even careful in the words he picks. It would be easy to sensationalize some of what happened but he tend to avoid this. On the other hand he does not avoid the terrible facts of what he is writing about. This, in itself, is what makes this book exceptional.
'Dog Soldier Justice' puts the reader's attention on the tragic fate of one young pioneer woman who was taken captive by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. She was witness to the brutal murder of her children and suffered horrific treatment at the hands of her captors for a period of months. Dr. Broome avoids going into graphic detail on much of this but leaves no question on the documentation he relies on for the account. He does not write this book as a history of the indian wars in Kansas but provides the reader with excellent historical background. It is amazing how this book brings everything to a very human level by the focus on the events around this one victim. The greatest tragedy of the whole book is how close Susanna Alderice came to rescue at the Battle of Summit Springs to only be murdered within minutes of her salvation. I can only commend Dr. Broome for how objective he remained during his account even though the reader can feel his personal involvement with the subject. You get the idea as you read that Dr. Broome was trying to do some justice for Susanna Alderice and her family in this account.
Dr. Broome's book also gave me some perspective for some of what I learned when Laurie and I visited Fort Phil Kearny. It was a very uncertain time for the army garrison of the isolated post and there was a very real fear after the Fetterman Massacre that the Sioux and Cheyenne would manage to overrun the fort. At one point the decision came to move all the women and children in the fort into the powder magazine. Now the powder magazine was a sort of underground bunker and represented the best protected location within the fort. It also contained all the black powder and munitions for the fort's garrison. The soldiers guarding the magazine were given explicit orders that if it looked like the indians would capture the fort they would blow up the magazine along with the women and children inside. When you read about how captives were treated by the indians this all makes a grim logic.
I have been on other historical forums where Dr, Broome's research has managed to piss a few people off. There are those who don't like this part of history revealed, much less published, but the facts are the facts. How can we understand the actions of our forefathers if we don't know the whole story? 8月2日 I-35 Bridge CollapseI-35 Bridge Collapse
I think everybody in the world knows by now about the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. Laurie and I have gotten more than a few E-mails and phone calls trying to find out if we are okay. The fact is we are just fine. We only work a few blocks from the now infamous bridge and even drove over it the day before it fell. The spooky thing is that I've driven over that bridge for the better part of twenty years.
When it did collapse both Laurie and I were at work. The first word of the disaster came from one of our coworkers. At first we were not really sure which bridge it was but within minutes it was all over the news. It was so very strange to see all the destruction on the news and know that it was only a few blocks away. When we were walking to our car after work we could see the smoke in the air and hear the helicopters and sirens. It was a bit like a bad dream in some ways.
I'm afraid that as tragic as it was there will be a lot of politicians trying to make capital of it within a few days. They won't even have all the bodie up from the bottom of the river before both the Democrats and the Republicans are trying to blame each other for what happened. Personally I do find it odd that we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a light rail system that only a small fraction of the metro will use and let one of the busiest highway bridges in the country decay.
Well, Laurie and I will deal with the inevitable traffic hassles from all this. At least we know we are safe and waiting for a body to come up from the river. |
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