Workshop Projects of the Month

• Coffee roaster built from a flour sifter and a Harbor Freight heat gun – Bean capacity: 12oz.
• Brewery shelf – Shelf capacity: nearly all of our brewing stuff.

Wuhan Coronavirus

• A map of confirmed cases – Up to 6,000-some today.
• WaPo: as of 1/27, 60 people had recovered –
• Inside Wuhan’s dangerous pathogens laboratory

Defense

• F-16 shoots down drone during cruise missile defense testing – Like the Air Force, I’m burying the lede by only noting that the kill was scored with a laser-guided rocket rather than a missile here, after you’ve seen the headline.
• The inventor listed on the Navy’s UFO patents speaks to The War Zone – The short version is that he stands behind his work.
• ChTZ fails at their assigned task of building an Armata engine
• Israel makes lemonade with a guided air-to-ground missile based on the Black Sparrow ballistic missile defense test target
• Big Army: we aren’t obliged to let Boeing-Sikorsky catch up to Bell in the FLRAA competition – On the one hand, this is consistent with their behavior in the OMFV competition. On the other hand, the OMFV competition recently failed to produce results because there was only one entrant.
• How do the Zumwalts handle heavy seas? – The tumblehome design leads to minimal roll and rapid self-righting, which veterans of more conventionally-built ships said was a bit unusual, but not unwelcome.
• CDR Salamander: don’t overhype the overpromised – Put another way, don’t count on tomorrow’s systems to fill holes in today’s ships. See long-range missiles and LCS.
• Related story: Russky Zircon cruise missile experiencing teething troubles – Related so much that Sal linked it.
• Hyundais in Poland: K2 a leading contender in Warsaw’s tank trials

Guns/SHOT Show

• New compact hybrid 2011 from Dan Wesson – Hybrid: 1911 slide on a CZ-75 frame. Compact: Now it’s a compact CZ-75 frame.
• As STI sabotages its market share by price hikes and warranty policies, Blackwater steps in – The ammunition company, which, as far as I know, is not related to the private security company.

Science and Technology

• Boeing 737 MAX fix may slip to summer
• This hobbyist build a cold-launch silo-housed model rocket
• Jay Leno owns a Rolls-Royce car powered by a Merlin engine
• Antarctic neutrino detectors detect unusual neutrinos – And other neutrino detectors don’t see the kinds of neutrino sources we would expect unusual neutrinos to come from.
• A projector, a drone, and some clip art of a car can fool a Tesla’s cameras

History

• Guns firing on a Royal Sovereign pre-dreadnought – Also seen in last week’s Winter Wargaming, I think? Unless I forgot to link it.
• Air-launched ballistic missiles: older than you think – Unless you knew about Skybolt already, in which case they are exactly as old as you think. Inter-service rivalry being what it is, the Air Force wanted ballistic missiles of its own so the Navy couldn’t argue that submarines made strategic bombers obsolete.

Grab Bag

• State secession: a legal look – We’re talking part of one state seceding from another but remaining in the Union here.
• Brexit-commemorating 50p coin features quote from Thomas Jefferson – The British finally get to experience the joy of rebelling against an oppressive foreign government.
• Track and ATC comms from the LA helicopter crash – There’s speculation out there on causes, but we’re holding off on that until some more official word comes out.