Another two-week gap, but happily, I don’t think we have very much breaking news to turn into yesterday’s news.

Projects

• For some reason, my 3D printer is still having a devil of a time with miniatures (after having worked perfectly previously). Maybe it’s the nozzle. I plan to switch it back to a larger nozzle, with which to print some more Little Wars bits and bobs, before I eventually go back to miniatures.
• If you’ve been following the video half of my content production, you will have noticed the revolver reliability problems. I think I’m finally almost done with that. We’ll see sometime next week, most likely, when Bowen sends me the Ruger double-action revolver bushing tool I ordered.

Defense

• Why do F-16s carry wingtip AMRAAMs? – Reduces wing flutter.
• NATO exercise in the Black Sea includes all littoral countries except Turkey and Russia – Except for the two largest, most important countries with a Black Sea border, everyone was there!
• China builds villages inside Bhutan – Has been for five years.
• Why Kiribati and Kanton matter – Salamander points out that the great circle route from San Diego to Brisbane goes within 30 miles of the island of Kanton. Guess who wants to rebuild an airfield there?
• Army’s new fitness test fails 7% of men, 44% of women – Dog bites man more than man bites dog, to use the news analogy.
• The French generals wrote a second letter
• DTR writes some ad copy for Hanwha and Rheinmetall – Some pretty pictures.
• Iraq’s F-16 fleet may fall to the greatest enemy of all – Lack of maintenance. Lockheed contractors are on the way out.
• Strike Eagle ships JASSMs
• While the F-15EX will carry an oversized air-to-air missile
• Old experiments sadly abandoned: helicopter operation from submarines – The nice thing about having so much obsolete hardware around after the Second World War is that we could use some of it to experiment with random things like troop carrying submarines with a helicopter deck.
• The Long Range Hypersonic Weapon has a range of 1,725 miles
• Australia drops Elbit’s Battle Management System
• Perennial Soapbox favorite DCS is good enough for VR training Warthog pilots – There was a recent A-10C Block II or whatever in DCS. Maybe this is why?
• Army joining us in the 21st Century and building modularity into tank computer systems
• Biden administration caves to Kremlin on a Russian pipeline – Shortly before a German election likely to scupper the project anyway, but still.

Non-Breaking News

• Oh yeah, something did happen – The Colonial Pipeline thing!
• There was a state of emergency
• Why is there no shortage in Pittsburgh? – Because we have at least three major sources of fuel—pipelines from the Gulf, the Midwest, and the East Coast.
• Krebs on Security looks at the criminals behind the pipeline ransomware attack
• Colonial Pipeline paid $5 million ransom, part of the $90 million the crime gang took in before shuttering

Iron Dome

• Palestinian rocket attacks are bad for Israel… – … but they do make for good Iron Dome in action footage.
• Also good for long-exposure photography
• IDF dupes gullible media by reporting a ground invasion of Gaza, which drives fighters into tunnel systems, which Israel then bombs

Grab Bag

• The mysterious case of the Masters pimento cheese sandwhich – Augusta National fired a caterer, who kept the recipe secret. The next caterer, at great personal difficulty, figured out the secret ingredient. The club then fired that caterer.
• Patents filed: the Glock Rifle? – On the one hand, it’s literally just patent filings at this point. On the other hand, it’s pretty detailed patent filings.
• Historical photo: lowering a 16″ naval gun into a furnace to finish it
• Neural implant lets person type by imagining writing – Curiously, the implant requires retraining every few weeks. I wouldn’t have expected that.
• Progressive prosecutor presides over homicide spike – Water still wet, sky still blue.
• Are plate tectonics critical to life? Scientific American investigates