Hardcore Strategy

First oil tanker attacked in the Strait of Hormuz according to Oman An oil tanker was attacked off the coast of Musandam in the Strait of Hormuz. Four people were injured and all 20 crew members were evacuated, according to Oman's Maritime Security Centre.

First oil tanker attacked in the #StraitofHormuz according to Oman

Guess it’s time for a classic

Note: what we know about how real nuclear #wargames are played by those with actual high-level experience and responsibilities strongly suggests that escalation to the use of even one #nuclear weapon is very unlikely, and often requires that game "umpires" practically force the players to escalate.

Hypothetical Iran scenario: US launches limited but intense air/naval campaign against Iran (personally, not a fan of limited efforts btw, but....)

Goal: degrade remaining nuclear program, ballistic missiles, and IRGC/Basij command to prevent breakout & deter proxies. Joint US-Israel effort
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Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet.

Oops. Turns out Persona, Discord’s age-verification service, was secretly screening selfies against government watchlists AND accessible by the feds. It's backed by Peter Thiel.

“The state wants to see everything. The corporations want to see everything. And they've learned to work together.”

Opinion | NATO Has Seen the Future and Is Unprepared A simulation of drone warfare shows how far the alliance has to go to learn the lessons of Ukraine.

‼️ Ein einziges Team von etwa 10 Ukrainern, das als Gegner fungierte, führte einen Gegenangriff auf die NATO-Streitkräfte durch. In etwa einem halben Tag zerstörten sie 17 gepanzerte Fahrzeuge und führten 30 „Angriffe“ auf andere Ziele durch.

Die Ergebnisse waren [für die NATO Truppen] schockierend.

Right, another key thing that historians do is working with important records that have not been digitized.

And the vast majority of the world’s records *have not been digitized* and thus do not exist in any format that LLMs/AI can work with.

You may be thinking "wait a minute, the Pentagon is testing taking drones with high-energy lasers??"

Yes, they are. Here's some further reading on the whole drone-zapping-laser.....thing.

“I’m mad I can’t understand Bad Bunny’s lyrics because they’re not in English”

my brother millions of metalheads around the world have been happily listening to incomprehensible Finnish shrieks and Japanese death grunts since we were teens, you’re just boring and racist

The Rise of OpenClaw The growing threat of automated attack infrastructure

OpenClaw gives amateurs the power of nation-states.

This is the best articulation I’ve seen of what OpenClaw is and the dangers it poses, as well as best defense strategies. I’m not sure most organizations are prepared. We are all in for a very wild ride.

www.security.com/expert-persp...

The U.S. was prepared to launch a strike on Iran as early as January 14

Given the assets being moved into the region, it is clear that any strike will be a large-scale operation. A likely objective will be to decapitate the regime, hence the preparation for full Iranian retaliation.

a cartoon of snow white sitting in a cell ALT: a cartoon of snow white sitting in a cell

Sometimes I wonder if my postgraduate education was a well-disguised monkey's paw wish, wherein I can't just switch off and play Genshin Impact at the weekend any more because I now know what shaping operations to bomb Iran look like

Ukraine Gives Drones Vision-Based Navigation to Push Past Heavy Jamming OSCAR enables drones to navigate without GPS by matching onboard camera imagery to mapped landmarks, resisting jamming and spoofing in contested environments.

A new set of eyes for 🇺🇦 drones

‘The Optical System of Coordinates with Automatic Relocalization, or OSCAR, uses onboard cameras to match live imagery with mapped landmarks, allowing a drone to determine its position without relying on satellite signals’.

nextgendefense.com/ukraine-dron...

When the war will end, one of the things that IMO NATO armies should buy in large quantities from Ukrainian companies are decoys - even high-fidelity decoys are very cheap and they massively help preserve very expensive assets, while the enemy wastes ammo on them.

Ukrainian Vampire #drone at EDA conference.

The BM-35 UAV (“Italmaz”) is Russia’s second most significant strike drone by range, payload, and usage. It reportedly uses Starlink and recently struck Kyiv.Not a whole lot has been published on their specs yet. It has a 4‑sensor detonation system with ~99.5% reliability.
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Satellite imagery helps you understand what’s happening on the ground, from above.

There are loads of free tools out there. Here are 6 I actually use (and what each is best for).

Thread 👇🛰️

The Bundeswehr is getting a new system to kinetically shot down small drones. Will be integrated into existing detection system.
Good, small, step forwards.

augengeradeaus.net/2026/01/dron...

Someone just made a digital painting of a JD Vance meme by spoofing Air Force One flight data onto web-service adsbexchange.com.

Look what pulled into Tacoma It's at pct with the green cranes now. For Renee Good. 2K少 D86 RaccoonWillich • 6h ago What's remarkable about this? Does it say something? Edit: Ah I figured this was a colorblindness test. I did not pass. Thanks everyone! • 0 349 ₴ • IncognitoMeanie • 6h ago Oh no! You're colorblind : ( 3 more replies v Handyandy58 • 6h ago The red containers spell "rEnEE" which is a reference to Renee Good, the woman who was murdered by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on January 7 2026. 42 153 a

Renee good containers

The ocean freighting industry is woke now (the containers spell Renee, for Renee Good).

www.reddit.com/r/Tacoma/com...

On Signal:
1. No publicly available comms are completely secure in and of themselves.
2. Never underestimate the ability of someone to do something mind-bogglingly stupid.
3. Never put anything online or on a device you think you own that you would not want to be brought up in court. (1/2)

World-historical batshitness: "We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength & force where we would be frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that. Now everyone's saying 'oh good.' …I won't use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland."

Ryan O'Leary on X: "Ukraine is not losing drone warfare tactically. Ukrainian units still kill large numbers of enemy infantry with FPVs daily. Ukraine is losing operationally and strategically because it never defined depth ownership as the goal." / X Ukraine is not losing drone warfare tactically. Ukrainian units still kill large numbers of enemy infantry with FPVs daily. Ukraine is losing operationally and strategically because it never defined depth ownership as the goal.

An interesting and long thread. While I agree with some parts, I disagree with others (hunting infantry is IMO necessary due to the very sparse infantry coverage of the FLOT)

So, here is my thread on this topic:

x.com/RyanO_Chosen...

Chinese commentators having a lot to be thankful for these days

European staff officers working on NATO's Defence Plans

Ukrainian forces down Russian drone using Starlink for satellite control Analysis of wreckage from a downed Russian BM-35 drone revealed a Starlink terminal providing satellite control, a technological advancement that allows the aircraft to partially circumvent Ukrainian…

Ukrainian air defense intercepted a Russian BM-35 kamikaze drone controlled via Starlink satellite terminal—first confirmed case on this drone type

The system provides stable communications & helps bypass electronic warfare defenses, military specialist says
euromaidanpress.com/2026/01/16/u...

Graphic updated with records within the year:

🇺🇦🦅 The Ukrainian Raybird reconnaissance drone with an electric motor running on hydrogen fuel was involved in carrying out combat missions at the front, - Militarnyi

The production Raybird, powered by an internal combustion engine, allows for a flight duration of over 28 hours.

Michail Fedorov - der designierte neue Verteidigungsminister und ehemalige Digitlaisierungsminister - hat auf Telegram seine “Bewerbungsrede” als neuer Verteidigungsminister publiziert.

Sie ist lang, hat es aber in sich. Es lohnt, sich diese durchzulesen.
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