Movie Review: White Noise (2022)

White Noise (2022) written and directed by Noah Baumbach from the novel by Don DeLillo

A mid-1980s academic named Jack (Adam Driver) has a mildly successful career as a Hitler scholar in a small town college. His wife Babette (Greta Gerwig) teaches fitness classes for seniors. They have a mixture of children from a mixture of marriages. The kids are precocious and quirky, having inane conversations with their parents and each other. Jack is getting ready for an annual conference on Hitler that his college is hosting, finally learning German so he won't be embarrassed in front of his international colleagues. The other professors have their own problems, including Murray (Don Cheadle) who wants to become an Elvis scholar but needs Jack's help. All their lives are thrown into turmoil when a nearby train wreck causes a toxic cloud to form. Initially, Jack and his family take a wait-and-see attitude. After a couple of hours, the police drive through and say everyone has to evacuate. The family piles into the station wagon and head off to their designated sheltering area, a nearby Scout camp. Their odyssey eventually leads back home but their experiences bring up issues between husband and wife that need resolving.

While the movie has a lot of interesting elements, it does not put those elements into a coherent whole. The film starts as a winsome family comedy with some jabs at the aloofness of academia. Then it shifts into survival-horror mode though the comedy keeps bleeding back in. Then it changes into an intense dramatic mystery and conflict for the couple. The connecting line of Jack and Babette's relationship is not strong enough to hold things together. Part of the problem is that the film lacks enough focus on any one element to give it a center. Jack's story gets the most time though his character is flat and unengaging. He loves his family in a poor and insufficient way at the beginning. The movie ends like he's changed but the result is not very convincing. Babette has more depth but a lot less time. The fear of dying is another central theme that is the most interesting and what the filmmakers say the most about. It gets drowned out by all the other stuff going on. The film also parallels the mis-handling of the Covid epidemic in its depiction of the toxic cloud incident but doesn't say anything original, coherent, or satisfying.

Not recommended--there's a ton of interesting ideas here that don't get enough attention and aren't fit together well enough for a coherent whole to emerge. 

TV Review Wednesday (2022)

Wednesday (2022) created for television by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on characters created by Charles Addams

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is thrown out of her school for taking revenge on some boys who bullied her little brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez). "That's my job," she confidently states as she drops piranha in the school's pool where the bullies are swimming. She is sent to Nevermore Academy where her parents Gomez (Luis Guzman) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) met as teenagers. Morticia was a star student, so Wednesday has to live in that shadow--not the good kind of shadow. Even though all the other students are "outcasts" (including sirens, werewolves, and vampires), Wednesday has trouble fitting in, especially with her werewolf roommate Enid (Emma Myers). Enid is more upbeat and colorful than Wednesday. She has her dark moments but hardly lives in the black like Wednesday. Things get dicey when Wednesday is drawn into a local mystery--people are dying in the woods from what the local politicians are calling "bear attacks" though the sheriff and Wednesday both suspect something more sinister is going on. 

The show is about one-quarter focused on the academic shenanigans and three-quarters on the murder mystery. The town has a strained relationship with the school. The town's founder was a persecutor of witches and other "outcasts." The Addams' great ancestor Goody Addams was his victim back in the day. The old problems are paired with more recent ones like Gomez's unresolved murder suspicion and Wednesday's prophesied involvement in the school burning down. The murder mystery takes center stage and pulls the various elements together.

The show follows the comedy angle from the original Charles Addams cartoons and the previous screen incarnations of the family (the TV show, the live action movies, the animated films). The humor is naturally dark, especially with Wednesday's penchant for sarcasm and pessimism. She's almost too unlikeable in the first episode--I almost quit the show. Since it is directed (mostly) by Tim Burton and has had such rave reviews, I stuck with it. The show isn't as funny as I thought it would be and the mystery has the usual string of false suspects until the right one is pegged in the final episode (you can't predict that guilty party with making a random guess, so viewers are along for the ride). Going through the string was a little tiresome and undercut Wednesday's competence at figuring out what was going on. In spite of her attempts to be mature and detached, she is a kid with a lot of foibles and in need of lots of friends. Almost everyone else at the school is a better friend to her than she is to them. She finally clues in at the end with a fun wrap-up of the mystery and the academic situation.

Mildly recommended--I enjoyed it and would watch a sequel, but probably won't rewatch unless a friend or the kids are interested.

As I post this (December 2022), the show is only available for streaming on Netflix.

Book Review: Barstool Theology by Trevor Gundlach

Barstool Theology: Crafting the Good Life by Trevor Gundlach

In his monumental series The Theology of the Body, St. John Paul II develops a theological understanding of human sexuality based on Biblical texts and human experiences. At one point, he muses that a Theology of the Body might be developed for other aspects of human life. Although author Trevor Gundlach does not draw a connection between the Theology of the Body and his theology of alcohol consumption, perhaps a link could be found. He certainly follows the example of using Biblical texts and human experiences.

Having worked as a campus minister and a theology teacher, Gundlach has discussed college drinking habits and how they effect students with young people. Developing virtuous habits for drinking alcohol is tricky so Gundlach breaks it down into several categories by doing the popular philosophical thing, asking questions.

The first question is "With whom do you drink?" and gets into Aristotle's division of friendship into three types: the useful, the pleasurable, and the virtuous. A useful friendship is based on reciprocal needs--my car mechanic needs money and I need a fixed car. A pleasurable friendship is based on a common leisure activity, like a tennis partner. A virtuous friendship is based on a common desire for moral improvement, like a book club studying serious texts. If your drinking buddies are strictly there for the alcohol, that's a pleasurable friendship (obviously, you can't be friends with alcohol). Can there be a virtuous friendship that involves alcohol? Gundlach says yes, when the goal is to build communion with friends, not to get hammered. Your drinking partners don't define your attitude toward alcohol but they are a strong indicator.

The second question is "What do you drink?" A lot of college students go for the cheap and the plentiful, not the flavorful and the satisfying. Gundlach argues that drinking craft beers is a better way to go, to appreciate the work that is put into the beer and to savor a richer experience. Tastes can change and expand when drinkers move away from fizzy, cold lagers that are only palatable when they are fizzy and cold. Such a shift already moves away from the goal of getting drunk and toward the goal of appreciating the drink and, more importantly, the comradery it produces.

The third question is "When do you drink?" For college students, the answer typically is "the weekend." Along with drinking one type of beer, college students stereotypically focus on one type of purpose. Gundlach discusses the seasons of beer, with lighter brews being refreshing in summertime and heavier brews being warming in wintertime. On a hot day, a porter or a stout may not fit well. Appreciating changing seasons brings a fuller sense of the ebb and flow of life, with the springtime rejuvenation of the earth and the fall's going back to slumber. This cycle of seasons mirrors the cycle of life and death.

The fourth question is "Why do you drink?" This question is the heart of the matter. Gundlach develops a theology of celebration. Drinking is not to get wasted or experience an altered state. At its best, alcohol enhances a celebration, though a drinker should be celebrating something in particular. Building community by celebrating other persons is a great way to transform the "partying" mentality into a virtuous mentality. 

The book ends with a fifth question, "How can you transform the way you drink?" This section is a list of practical actions or reflections that are referenced earlier in the book. In fact, the earlier points actually say, "Turn to page XX to learn about YY." It's almost more like an extended appendix than its own chapter. I'm not sure of the value in keeping the various exercises separate from the chapters in which they are referenced. I did not re-read the final chapter after having flipped back several times.

The book has a lot of interesting ideas and blends them together in a creative and engaging whole. Gundlach writes especially for the college-aged crowd, but his reflections are valuable for all ages. He does a good job bringing in philosophical and theological concepts. They are wedded to practical attitudes about the consumption of alcohol that foster a much better, more virtuous relationship to intoxicating beverages.

Recommended, especially if you are a drinker.

Book Review: One Punch Man Vols. 3 and 4 by One and Yusuke Murata

One-Punch Man Volume 3 story by One and art by Yusuke Murata

Saitama faces his greatest challenge yet--trying to get registered in the Hero Association. Then he will be recognized as a hero and get credit for all the good he does. At least he'll have some evidence that he is not a bad guy. He and Genos, the cyborg that wants to learn from Saitama, report for the test together but don't come out the same at the other end. 

The story is still very entertaining and the larger culture is coming to light. A lot of other heroes are around and go on assignments from the Hero Association, so Saitama has the chance to expand his experience and maybe finally find a worthy opponent. He needs to get over some other hurdles first, though.

Recommended.

One-Punch Man Volume 4 story by One and art by Yusuke Murata

Saitama and Genos face off against a giant meteor hurtling toward City Z. They team up with the old guy from the cover to fight the good fight, though the fallout is a mixed result for Saitama. He goes up the ranks of the C-Class heroes but other heroes are jealous and try to take him down, both in the public eye and in a literal sense. Later, sea creatures attack City J on the coast, so Saitama and Genos set off to join the fight. Again, other heroes add to the complications.

This is another fun issue of the story. 

Recommended.

Alpha Geocaching Fall 2022

A geocacher with the mysterious name "gvt1985" has placed a series of caches in the Howard County, Maryland, area. The theme is the alphabet, with sets of caches. Three or four caches are regular finds that contain a number. The fourth or fifth cache of the set is a mystery cache, requiring the numbers from the previous caches in order to calculate the location of the mystery cache. The groups are typically in the same park, making it possible to find that particular set in one outing. I've been slowly working on the entire set for a while now.

I did the S-T-U-V set of caches a bit out of order, though in my defense they are laid out with U in between S and T. They are all located on trails in the River Hill part of Columbia, Maryland. The paths wind their way behind houses with the occasional playground tossed in for fun. My first find was Alphabet S - Sticks, which was indeed hidden off a pathway under some sticks. The find was not too hard. The container looked like some animal had tried to bite into it several times with no luck. The container was too small to have food inside, so who knows what motivated the critter.

Big sticks and little sticks!

My second find was Alphabet U - Under. This cache was hidden further off the path and the late September vegetation was still pretty thick. I needed the hint for this one. That put me in the right location.

More sticks, but the hide is under something

The final clue for the series was at Alphabet T - Turtle. This cache is very far off the path. This particular part of the woods had no trails at all going in, making the find a long bushwhack. By the time I made it to Ground Zero, I was determined to find the container. After fifteen minutes of searching around, I finally located the cache. The container is camouflaged with a turtle shell, as in the picture below.

Can you find the turtle? It's an albino.

I bushwhacked my way back out again and found a spot to sit down (one of the aforementioned playgrounds). Then I calculated the location of the final cache, Alphabet V - Very, which was on the way back to my vehicle. That made me happy. What made me even happier was the non-bushwhack to the final location which was just barely off the paved pathway. I made the find in short order. The container had popped its lid, so I bent it back into shape and logged my final find.

The final spot

This set was a bit of a challenge with the vegetation and lack of trails for two of the caches. I enjoyed it but the whole set took way more than an hour to finish.

I started on the A-B-C-D set with the obvious opener, Alphabet-A (Above). The name would lead a seeker to look high, but that's not where the find was. I found a feature that seemed out of place in the area and that turned out to be the key to the hide.

In there somewhere

Then I switched to another set. The caches N-O-P-Q-R are in Gorman Park on two sides of an access road. On a Saturday, I found O and N. Alphabet O - Old was closer to the road so I found it first, though it took a bit of bushwhacking. The area has a lot of trees down. Since I visited in October, the undergrowth was not as bad as summer's peak. The container had water in it and the log was barely signable due to damp.

View from O

I bushwhacked even further into the park to find Alphabet N - New(Replacement) which had to be re-hid due to housing being built nearby. I went straight to the spot that looked like a likely ground zero but there was a lot of moisture and creepy crawlies. I decided to let the phone GPS lead me around for a while. Then I checked the hint and some earlier logs. I went back to my first spot. Most of the crawlies had crawled off, so I looked under a wet wood log and sure enough, there was the container. Happily, the log in the container was dry and signable. 

The run-off creek had no water in it

The next day I came back and started on Alphabet P - Placed. After a pleasant hike through the woods the find was not too hard. I managed to spot a color not normally found in nature (at least on the ground) and made a quick discovery.

Somewhere in there

Further on the trail, I was amazed to see a fire hydrant!

What's that doing there?

The second cache, Alphabet Q - Quick, was a little different. The hike in wasn't too bad except for the massive thorn-growth surrounding ground zero. The area reminded me of Sleeping Beauty's castle. I had to put down the thorns with a trusty branch that I found on the ground. The find was easy once I was inside the circle of pain.

Okay, maybe not the black thorn wall from the castle

Doing some quick field math, I found the coordinates for Alphabet R - Root. At ground zero, there was a spot much like the hiding place for Alphabet V - Very, which was a huge misdirection. Fortunately, a prior cacher left a note on their find that they ran into the same problem. A little more walking around and the right spot was spotted.

The trail is in this picture, believe it or not!

Hiking back to the car, I saw a cool, dead tree.

Maybe it's a signpost?

I went back to the park where the A-B-C-D caches are hidden and found Alphabet-B (Between) Redux. The cacher made the initial set of 26 alphabet caches then decided twelve years later to make another set, the Redux caches. Schooley Mill Park is home to the A-B-C-D caches and their Redux versions. It's a big park. Bushwhacking to B-Redux was not too bad though the cache container was soaked and the log was unsignable. Still, I got the B-Redux number which was in the lid of the container.

Not actually between there

The next cache along that trail is Alphabet-B (Between). This particular cache is hidden across a stream through a section of the forest that has a lot of thorny bushes. I chose to cross the stream using stones in the water. One stone betrayed me and I wound up with a soaked right foot! I did make the find. The container and log were both dry so I was able to sign it.

Ground Zero

With the wet foot, I decided to go home rather than trudge through to the C caches.

The next day, I found Alphabet-A (Alongside) Redux which was by the entrance of the park. The find was easy but the trail was a bit muddy and had plenty of hoof-prints.

The park was on the other side of that creek

Looks more like hoof prints in real life

The weather was colder than I dressed for (30 degree drop in one day!), so I decided to go home rather than freeze while finding the C caches.

About a week later I went back to the park. Again the temperatures were in the 30s but I had a warm hat and proper jacket. Alphabet-C (Covered) - Redux was first along the trail to the non-redux cache, so I found it with relative ease right by a convenient spot to relax.

Nothing fancy but highly functional

With this easy cache, I happily headed off to Alphabet-C (Covered) which was deeper in the park. The trails were well marked until I was 300 feet away from the cache. At that point, there was a wall of thorny shrubs and a small creek blocking my way. The write-up on the cache page recommended a trail further down that switches back, crosses the creek at a shallow point, and gets very close to the cache. I followed those direction and got about 100 feet from the cache with dry feet and a field of tangly thorn bushes to get through. Fortunately, I did make it to the cache and get back out unscratched. It was quite an adventure. With the new numbers from C and C-Redux, I headed home to math out the locations of D and D-Redux.

An easy fording spot

View from the cache

About a month later, I finally finished off the D caches. Alphabet-D (Dig) - Redux was first as it was closer to the parking area. I found it relatively quickly with almost no bushwhacking. Yay for an easy find! Nearby was a trap for spotted lanternflies. I did not see any inside and I did not mess with the trap.

View from the cache

The trap

The walk to Alphabet-D (Dig) was not too far. The bushwhack off the trail was farther but not too bad thanks to the cold December weather. The area is almost outside the park, I could see houses in the distance through the trees.

Almost the end of the park

Alpha sets completed this fall:

A-B-C-D (and the Redux)

N-O-P-Q-R

S-T-U-V

Previously completed:

J-K-L-M (and the Redux)--see this post

Maybe I can finish the rest in the Winter of 2023?

Movie Review: Army of Darkness (1992)

Army of Darkness (1992) co-written and directed by Sam Raimi

Ash (Bruce Campbell) is thrown into the 1300s AD by the evil force (an event that happened at the end of Evil Dead II). He is captured by Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) who plans to execute him as an ally of Arthur's enemy, Henry the Red (Richard Grove). Back at Arthur's castle, they throw Ash into a pit where they expect him to die from the monsters that live inside. Ash beats them and emerges very upset. He orders Arthur to let Henry and his men go, then cuts a deal to get sent back to the future. The castle's wise man (Ian Ambercrombie) knows of a powerful book that has a formula that will send Ash home. It's the Necronomicon, the evil book that started all the trouble for Ash. He quests for the book, having bizarre and silly adventures along the way.

The movie is a departure for the Evil Dead films. While it still has the "splat-stick" gore comedy, the tone is much more comedic and embraces its medieval setting. There's plenty of horseback riding, swords, and arrows. The medieval characters all (or almost all) speak in Shakespearean style (even though Shakespeare was from the 1600s). Ash also develops into more of a hero, though mostly because he is forced to. He is a lot more competent at building things and chemistry (his car also came back in time, luckily he had a chemistry textbook in there!). By the end, he's become a leader/hero of the medieval people, fighting the Deadite army (that's what the locals call zombies) that attacks the castle. Of course, his incompetence at getting the Necronomicon is what caused the Deadite army to rise, so he's not completely heroic.

The plot is a bit haphazard, with many moments not making a lot of sense, even within the world Raimi creates. There is a director's cut of the film that fills in a lot of details and provides some more surreal and bizarre scenes, along with an alternate ending that is more in line with the way things go for Ash. From the commentaries and special features, it seems like the studio wanted a tighter film with a more upbeat ending. 

While the director's cut is more entertaining and makes more sense, the movie still has a lot of problems. The special effects run the gamut from impressive to dated, though the lower-budget effects stand out even more thirty years later. Ash's character arc is loopy, changing him from incompetent bungler to mechanical expert to sword-fighting hero with little credibility. He seemingly changes to suit the comedy or to move the plot along. Campbell gives a delightful performance, with plenty of comedy, often self-deprecating, making me delight in the absurd nonsense rather than chafe at it. Viewers have to be in a casual and indulgent mindset to enjoy the film.

Slightly recommended--when people ask me what my favorite movie is, I usually say "Ran is the best work of art, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the most fun, and Army of Darkness is my guiltiest pleasure." The movie is a big heap of dumb fun.

Game Review: EXIT: Advent Calendar--The Golden Book

EXIT The Game: Advent Calendar--The Golden Book designed by Inka and Markus Brand, published by Kosmos

In the EXIT The Game series, players work their way through a series of puzzles related to a narrative in the individual game. Basically, each is an escape room in a box. This latest innovation has the players opening doors on a custom Advent Calendar, each door revealing a puzzle that has be solved in order to find the next door to open.

In this story, Santa's Golden Book has been stolen. The book contains everyone's addresses and what they want for Christmas, so it is a very important tool for his job. Players follow clues left behind by the thief. The puzzles are themed after many different Christmas things, from that Mariah Carey song to Die Hard to the Magi's Journey to Bob Cratchit's office. Like other EXIT games, sometimes components or images from one puzzle are used for a later puzzle, so never throw anything away! In fact, one of the first puzzles has some components that the players sneak behind another door for a later challenge. The theme is fun and follows both the Christmas setting and the EXIT traditions.

The puzzles use the usual assortment of pieces--cards, pictures, and "odd" objects (one of which is a jingle bell!). The game includes 24 puzzles, so players can start on December 1 and end on Christmas Eve. The puzzles are short enough (five to fifteen minutes) that any missed days can be easily made up. The decoder for the game has sliding numbers that show how to find the next door.

Front of the decoder with "555" as the solution

Back of the decoder

The players follow the arrows from that day's door (Up Left, Down Left, Down in the above picture) to another door and see if the three symbols on that door match (Crescent, Crescent, Star in the above picture). It works well and has a nice, clever feel to it. I would include a picture, but you write numbers on the doors so any photo would have massive spoilers on it. At least the random placement of numbers makes sense on this Advent calendar!

The puzzles are not too difficult. We needed hints a few times and accidentally discovered a component for a later puzzle once. We enjoyed the variety of challenges and the creative ways they used the box and the components. The game is very Christmasy. We will definitely get the next Exit the Game Advent Calendar next year!

Highly recommended!

Book Review: Spider-man and Venom: Double Trouble by M. Tamaki et al.

Spider-man and Venom: Double Trouble written by Mariko Tamaki and art by Gurihiru

Spider-man and Venom are roommates since Venom wants to be a better super-powered person. At least, that's what he tells Spider-man. One night, he switches bodies with Spider-man so he can go on a Ninja-Warrior style TV show that's only for superheroes. Meanwhile, Spidey (who is stuck in Venom's body) has to deal with Green Goblin, who wants to collect a debt from Venom. Things get more comically weird from there.

The story is very light-hearted and wacky. The initial Odd Couple vibe quickly switches into the Freaky Friday plot without the characters learning about each others' lives. They just have some mad-cap adventures. The book is fun and reads quickly.

Recommended.

Book Review: Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! ed. by Otto Pensler

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!  The Most Complete Collection of ZOMBIE Stories Ever Published edited with an introduction by Otto Pensler

This 800-page tome contains dozens upon dozens of stories about the living dead, the unspeakable horrors that rise from their graves and shamble around. The first excerpt is from W. B. Seabrook, who describes practices in Haiti where the dead are brought back to life and made to work on the plantations. The only way for these zombies to return to their graves is if they eat food with salt, then they realize that they are dead and return to the cemetery where they belong. These people are not insatiable cannibals, nor do they have any intellect or will. This first concept of zombiehood dominated the culture until the 1960s, when George Romero introduced a new type of risen dead--the ravenously hungry who had a taste only for human flesh. The whole "brains" thing didn't start until the 1980s with Return of the Living Dead, an uneven horror-comedy with one zombie who explains why they have an insatiable hunger. In the 2000s, the virus/high-speed zombies showed up in movies like 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. This book reflects the cinematic history of zombies, with stories from the 1800s (pre-dating the term "zombie" with stories from Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant--the undead was a thing long before the z-word came along) up to the 2000s.

Like any anthology, the collection is a mixed bag. Some stories are strictly gory (which I don't find interesting), one or two were borderline pornographic (which is also not to my taste). Most were more palatable, focusing on horror and dread. A few were comic, like Robert Bloch's "Maternal Instinct." Some classics are in there, like H. P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West--Reanimator" and Henry Kuttner's "Graveyard Rats." Other famous authors like Stephen King and Harlan Ellison have contributions. My favorite stories were F. Marion Crawford's "Upper Berth" and Hug B. Cave's "Mission to Margal," with at least twenty other ones that I really liked. The book ends with the short novel "Z Is For Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe, which will be reviewed separately. The mixed bag definitely favors stories that I enjoyed. I am hanging on to this volume!

Recommended for a scattershot of zombie goodness and badness, but mostly goodness.

National Cryptologic Museum, Maryland

During the Covid lockdown, the National Cryptologic Museum in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, (which isn't even close to Annapolis) closed. The owners redid many of the exhibits, creating a new and even more enjoyable experience for visitors. The museum re-opened in October 2022. We visited on Black Friday, trying to avoid the crowds at shopping malls. The joke was on us because everyone else that did not want to shop came here. Even with the crowd, it was a fun experience.

Right by the entrance is a large wheel decoder for encrypting your name.

Or you can just keep spinning it

One hands-on exhibit shows encryption in the ancient world. The ancient Greeks had a code called scytale, where a strap is wrapped around a stick of an exact width to show a message. The sample had several leather straps and several sticks, challenging visitors to match the right stick to the right strap.

Information on transposition cipher, old-style

Success

A less complicated cipher is named after Julius Caesar, who used a simple shift cipher to encrypt his messages. All the letters are shifted a certain number. 

Better than a Caesar's Salad?

A major part of cryptology is understanding other languages. A common source for learning obscure local languages is a Bible. Many missionaries put the hard work in to understand the language and translate the sacred texts for the locals to read and understand. 

Bibles in foreign languages

Obscure languages also make for good codes. An exhibit shows items from Native American Code Talkers. The Comanche language was used during World War II as a very strong code.

Code Talker uniforms

A notebook with translations

The room on languages have a lot of interesting information on the walls, explaining family languages and orphaned languages. They even describe how many languages die out and how they can come back from the dead.  

Language relationships

Zombie languages!

The museum has several Enigma machines that were used by the Nazis during World War II. The Allies captured a machine during the war and were able to decode German messages, creating a huge advantage.

Enigma useable by visitors

The HMFS machine was used by the Germans in World War II to decrypt Soviet intelligence communications. Dubbed the "Russian Fish," it was discovered by the Allies at the end of the war and secretly used to decode the new enemy's intelligence. The Allies renamed it CAVIAR. It became a big success after August 25, 1948, when the Soviets changed all their codes and ciphers. CAVIAR still worked, providing lots of intel for many years during the Cold War.

CAVIAR is a better name, right?

The HF/DF (high-frequency direction finder) was used by the Americans to locate Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units in the late 1960s.

 

Does it get the good channels?

The M209 was a field encryption device. Its codes were breakable with a few days of work, which was plenty of time to be useful for tactical situations. It was first used by the Americans in World War II and subsequently saw service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Portability is good

The United States Navy used the ECM Mark II starting in the 1930s. ECM stands for Electric Cipher Machine.

More like a regular typewriter

The NSA enhanced a Droid phone in 2012 so that encrypted calls, emails, and data services can be used. 

They have out-captioned me!

Even civilian government agencies need secure communications, like NASA does when sending military or intelligence payloads into space. This KG-46 encryption system was recovered from the wreckage of the Challenger explosion.

From the Challenger Disaster

The OMI Criptograph was an Italian coding machine similar to the German Enigma that was thought to be lost since the 1950s. This machine was found in 2021 in an NSA warehouse!

Does not look particularly Italian, does it?

This M-9 machine was used to confirm messages in World War II decrypted from German. The wheels have to be in exactly the right configuration to decrypt accurately.

M-9 sounds like a rifle, not a decrypter

The DARPA SSITH Automotive Demonstrator is a simulator where the driver can experience what it's like when a passenger vehicle is hacked. The line of kids to try it out was long, so I just got a picture outside of it.

The blogger and the car

The newly refurbished museum has lots of great stuff to see!