A year ago today, my father died. If you are reading this for free, please get a paid subscription in his memory. I need grassroots support if I am going to convince Substack to mitigate the anti-Ukrainian disinformation on this platform.
My father was a warfighter. I am not. I am good with ideas, however.
Here’s an idea: Substack is a business. It needs financial incentive if it’s going to soften the blow of the damage people like Glenn Greenwald and Mike Tracey do to the Ukrainian cause here — because Greenwald and Tracey make Substack more money than I do.
Why do Greenwald and Tracey make all of this money? Because fascist propaganda works. It worked in the times of Nazi Germany as surely as it does now. It’s simple. It’s attractive. It lacks nuance — and nuance is scary in times of war.
How do you defeat it? There are many ways. Better propaganda, obviously, but also the idea that knowledge is cool.
Here’s some knowledge: It was my father who first got me to pay attention to flight paths. Long ago, we walked in the woods outside of Kyiv, the same woods recently desecrated by troops from what is now a fascist Russia.
There, my father taught me to take notice of animal tracks, different types of paths, which mushrooms were edible — and where the shadows fell and what direction the planes flew so that I could orient myself well even if I lost my compass. This was years before I ever heard words such as “geolocation” and “chronolocation.”
It was with dad in mind that I recently posted this:
The first correct answer took a bit more time than usual, half an hour, which was the idea:
As you will see in just a bit, Robb quickly realized that the time of day could also be determined once he zeroed in on the location. First, however, I present his method for finding the location:
As usual, he started with a good guess, and went from there. Remember, in geolocation, if your guess turns out to be wrong — all you have to do is backtrack. You have to keep eliminating possibilities.
Here is how the location looks on Google Maps:
Find Navy Memorial on Google Maps, enter street view, and give it a whirl if you’re not sure how to orient yourself.
Now we can move on to the airplane in the sky.
Brant’s first guess is absolutely correct:
How did he do it?
Well, Robb had the right idea when he asked his question:
Flights are very easy to track. The activity up there may seem random if you’re just glancing up at the sky, not mulling the realities of modern aviation, but check out this beginner’s guide from my former colleagues and you can see how you can do it.
At this point, all you need to do is look at the direction the picture was taken (plane was flying north), look at the light and the shadows in the picture, and you can isolate the time of day:
Good job, Brant!
Please note how Brant was careful to use the altitude in his favor. That plane was way up there. That too can help you filter the results. Here is a visual aid:
You don’t need to be an aviation expert to note just how very high that plane is flying.
While my newsletter focuses on online safety, the truth is, you may never know when the skills laid out above may come in handy.
I have personally found them very helpful when doing digital forensics on some images of Russian atrocities in Ukraine, which is my native country. Again, I am not a warfighter. Yet I believe that ideas also shape the outcome of wars.
I believe that if we give people the tools to analyze pictures and footage, they can more easily understand what is and isn’t a factual narrative.
Then, they will be less likely to fall for Russian propaganda — the propaganda of a nation that seeks to destroy another nation, make no mistake about it — and the aggressive doomerism of the people who have fallen for it.
It’s why I want you to stick with me, and to get a paid subscription. I can’t do this alone, no one can.
Thank you 💛💙
Fascinating all around. You're so smart about so many things. So sorry about your father. Слава Україні! 💛💙🇺🇦
Great article, as always!