Reverse Tax Day edition! (Your correspondents got their economic stimulus payouts today. If you’re due one and don’t need it, consider sending it, or some of it, to a local food bank.)

Books and Other Media

• I read Under the Eagle, which I found at a library sale a while ago. It’s the first in a long line of historical military fiction set in Imperial Rome. I’m likely to try to find some others.
• I will be reading the next two Jim Butcher books, which are due out this year. Finally.
• I’m presently reading the My Hero Academia manga, because I enjoy the show and have a lot of time on my hands.
• Parvusimperator is reading entries in the Australian Army Journal.

The Game’s Afoot: Tactical Decision Game #1

• TDGs are miniature exercises to develop your ability to understand and react to tactical situations on a short timeline – This is a fun one. We may do something of a similar nature as a monthly feature, perhaps backed by a scenario in some wargame or another. (Maybe Armored Brigade, which has sufficient resolution to get down into the weeds like this.)

Wuhan Coronavirus

• Journalists among the non-essential – Unfortunately, this is likely to disproportionately fall on local reporters who might actually contribute something to society, as opposed to the glorified celebrity bloggers in the White House press corps.
• State Department cables warned of dangerously-lax procedures at Wuhan labs… in 2018

Defense

• Is it rude to stare at a ship’s well deck?
• Remember the carrier window puzzles from last time? The Ford class has a fancy digital version
• The story you’ve been waiting for: Venezuelan patrol boat fires upon, rams cruise liner; subsequently sinks
• Photo gallery: Bonn, replenishment ship of the KriegsDeutsche Marine.
• One of China’s LPDs-under-construction caught fire
• OMFVv2 requirements are out, and they listened to parvusimperator – Transportability by aircraft is a subitem under priority #7.
  • Here’s the requirements document
• The Navy needs more frigates – Endorsed!
• Air USA buys 46 Hornets – Old RAAF birds, except ‘old’ undersells them. They’re well-specced and have been well maintained. Between this and their other planes, by my reckoning this makes Air USA the 57th largest air force in the world.
• Royal Canadian Navy paints a frigate in dazzle camo – I like it.
• The Drive with an article on modern torpedoes – With the exception that it glosses over firing transients, it seems like a pretty good look. On the topic of submarines and subsims, I give Cold Waters the thumbs up. It’s a little arcadey when you’re dodging torpedoes, but the tension on the hunt is exactly right.
• The anti-torpedo torpedo system in development in the US is no longer in development

History

• An idea perhaps best left in the history books – Looks cool, though.
• Fialka, the best rotor encryption machine ever designed

Science and Technology

• SEO ruined the internet
• Google ruined the internet – By, the argument goes, emphasizing popularity over accuracy. I think this is true, but the causality is reversed. People used to care more about being right or linking to correct things on the Internet. We here actually feel the recency bias pretty keenly. Many of our (by which I mean parvusimperator’s) most popular articles were written a few years ago, which is eternities in Internet time.

Guns

• Plans for Deterrence Dispensed’s FGC-9 are now available – The FGC-9 is a 9mm carbine you can make with a 3D printer, a set of calipers, common power tools, and zero gun parts. It accepts Glock magazines, but there are plans for making your own Glock-compatible magazines. DIY ammunition is forthcoming.
• How fast do precision rifle barrels erode? – This article aims to answer that question.
• First-time gun buyers in lefty states shocked to discover you can’t just walk into a store and walk out with a gun – Well, in some states, at least. You can definitely do that here in PA.
• Parvusimperator bought Gun Jesus’ book on French military rifles, and now Headstamp Publishing has one coming on British bullpups – Parvusimperator endorses the product line wholeheartedly.

Grab Bag

• Remember the story about how the Bloomberg campaign was a champagne-soaked orgy of excess? – Now Lil’ Mike is trying to stiff his campaign workers out of owed pay.
• Also, Lil’ Mike fired a bunch of people he’d soft-promised to keep on through the election – Honestly, I suspect the DNC will use the money (which is where Bloomberg sent it) will use it less well than he would have done.
• The _Brillante Virtuouso story – A hijacked tanker. An unsolved murder. A potential insurance fraud?
• Parvusimperator had a heartwarming story about a guy who paid $20,000 above asking price for a bottle of Pappy a restaurant was selling to help keep the lights on, but it won’t load now, so I have neither details nor a link. Update: I have a link.