Putting the long in "long gun" . . .


What if you had a rifle that could hit its target at two miles?

Item:

TrackingPoint Technology, creators of Xact precision-guided firearm technology, wants to push the limit of long-range shooting. The company announced Wednesday that they are developing a “super gun” that will be able to shoot accurately over 3,100 yards, “farther than the longest confirmed long-range small arms shot of all time,” according to the release.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/17/gunmaker-building-super-gun-capable-of-shooting-over-3100-yards-with-pinpoint-accuracy/#ixzz2Zc9G3TbF

Consider: with the aiming technology, there's no need for the "shooter" to actually be with the gun.

Many possibilities...

It's complicated

7/16/2013

Sugar babies

Item:

The Panamanian authorities impounded a rusting North Korean freighter on a voyage from Cuba toward the Panama Canal and back to its home country, and said the ship was carrying missile system components cloaked in a cargo of sugar. The arms would appear to represent a significant violation of United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea.

I'm shocked, shocked to discover this is going on . . .

NY Times story.

A 'quiet mystery' no more

A book, a name & fame

Item:

JK Rowling has secretly written a crime novel under the guise of male debut writer Robert Galbraith.
The Harry Potter author was acclaimed for The Cuckoo's Calling, about a war veteran turned private investigator called Cormoran Strike.
The book had sold 1,500 copies before the secret emerged . . .

Any question about how it will sell now?

Story.

7/14/2013

Friday, July 12, 2013

Thank you . . .

 . . . for making American Sniper one of the top-selling books of 2013 - and 2012.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/58078-the-bestselling-books-of-2013-so-far.html

July 11, 2013

What I'm reading now . . .

. . .  reading and living, I should say.

Day of the drone . . .



The UAV has landed.

The suit hath ended . . .

. . .  And Apple is found guilty

Based on the trial record, and for the reasons stated
herein, this Court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that
Apple conspired to restrain trade in violation of Section 1 of
the Sherman Act and relevant state statutes to the extent those
laws are congruent with Section 1. A scheduling order will
follow regarding the Plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief
and damages.

Full decision.

And when the dust clears, Amazon has its monopoly, free and clear.

Dreamland ebooks

More covers . . .

7/9/2013

D'Este strikes again

Political columnists aren't the only ones who use Bradley as a punching bag (see the 7/5 post). Even renowned historians occasionally do the same thing - witness Carlos D'Estes' essay in the recent magazine "Great American Fighters."

D'Este's mention of Bradley is mostly aimed at making George Patton seem even greater than he was* - the same sort of rhetorical device that the columnist used, though D'Este has much less of an excuse. I picked on the "eminent" historian quite a bit in General at War, so I won't retread that ground here. I will note that the article, though seemingly based on D'Estes' book on Patton, makes distortions that aren't in that book.

I've never made an argument that Bradley was a better general than Patton. Others have. Comparing generals is extremely difficult, as you have to put them into context before you can even understand what they're about, and it's rare that the circumstances will match up to the degree necessary. I don't think there's any doubt that Patton was better at some things than Bradley. Patton was clearly the more colorful and larger personality, and left a diary that reveals much of inner thinking and turmoil - gold mine for historians.

Bradley learned a lot from Patton, and in fact the two men thought about war in very similar terms. I do believe that not only could Patton have not done Bradley's job in Europe, but that Patton was fortunate to have Bradley as his commander there.

Now you can interpret that idea in many ways. My own feeling is that Patton respected Bradley just enough to be kept from his own worst impulses - usually. Many historians have talked about Patton maturing in battle during the war, and point to the slapping incident as the key. While I can't dismiss either contention, I think there is also plenty of evidence that Patton was the same Patton in Africa, Sicily, and Europe. The one difference was Bradley - you don't see any idiotic left-turns in France like you did in Sicily.

This isn't the place to list Bradley's accomplishments, which were many. You'd need a book - here's another plug for General at War. You'll find a few of his shortcomings listed there, too. But in any event, I don't think it's necessary to make Bradley a straw man to illustrate Patton's greatness, real or imagined.

* It makes some unsupportable assertions about Patton foreseeing the Battle of the Bulge, among other weak points. None of this is to imply that Patton's performance in the Bulge was anything less than spectacular. And in fact one can only imagine what might have happened if Bradley's plan to use a northern pincer as well as a southern one early in the battle had been implemented - American troops might have been in Berlin even earlier than they were.

Note the word "might" there.

7/7/2013

Dreamland

New ebook project

Dale Brown and I are in the process of re-issuing some of the early Dreamlands as ebooks. Here's one of the covers:

Nerve Center was actually Book 2 in the series. I especially liked it because I got to play with mind control technology that Dale had used in one of his stand-alone books.

We'll give out more details as the project progresses.

7/5/2013

Omar Bradley as punching bag


A reader, now friend*, recently sent me an email referring to a column listing Omar Bradley's alleged sins on D-Day. These ranged from the old chestnut of his "failure" to use water-breathing tanks on the beaches to his choice of a "head-on" assault rather than a mysterious "flank" attack.

The author of the column was a nationally known pundit who clearly doesn't know much about World War II, so while I'm intrigued by the notion of an attack that surely used the fifth dimension, I'm not going to bother spending time with the criticisms. None stand up to actual examination.

What was interesting about the column was the way the criticisms were used: the author wanted to write about how D-Day was won by the "common" man, the soldiers who were there. He wanted to extol their bravery and courage under fire. Which, certainly, is not only a noble theme, but accurate as well. The guys who took the bullets on the beaches - and in the water, and on the bluffs, and in the terrain behind the beaches, etc. - were extremely heroic, and it's to them that the lion's share of the credit for winning the battle should go.

As it always should.

But that's not a reason to invent criticisms of their leaders. Nor do any warranted criticisms of their leaders (and there certainly are warranted criticisms, of Bradley and the other leaders, as no one is perfect) make their deeds any more noble.

What was going on in the column was a common rhetorical device. Consciously or unconsciously, the author felt that he needed to elevate heroism by denigrating something else. He couldn't or wouldn't call Bradley a coward, but he could claim that he was incompetent, or at least less than very competent. While the rhetorical device probably dates back to the time when scribes were chiseling words in stone, it's been especially popular in pop writing about military matters since Vietnam. Writers who want to extol the virtues of the guys and gals actually fighting the war but not seem to approve of the war itself can do so easily by criticizing the generals and politicians at the top. And what's good for Vietnam, is good for war in general. And life in general, for that matter. No pun intended in either case.

For the columnist, Bradley was just a device. Any of the D-Day leaders really could have been used, but he's especially convenient because the general public really knows little about either him or his role in the war, let alone D-Day. Nor, for that matter, do they know much about the actual battle, beyond maybe what they saw in Saving Private Ryan.

Needless to say, Bradley wasn't perfect at D-Day. But he was far from incompetent. And whatever criticisms we might have of him are at best close to nitpicking - the American forces took their objectives in the face of stiff and murderous opposition.

Thanks largely to their courage, bravery and sacrifice.

* I welcome correspondence through my website; email me at: author(at)jimdefelice.com
Put @ in place of (at) and you're good to go.

7/4/2013

A whole new meaning . . .

. . . to "You've Got Mail"


Item:

U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement

“It’s a treasure trove of information,” said James J. Wedick, a former F.B.I. agent who spent 34 years at the agency and who said he used mail covers in a number of investigations, including one that led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California on corruption charges. “Looking at just the outside of letters and other mail, I can see who you bank with, who you communicate with — all kinds of useful information that gives investigators leads that they can then follow up on with a subpoena.”

But, he said: “It can be easily abused because it’s so easy to use and you don’t have to go through a judge to get the information. You just fill out a form.”

Story.

North by Northwest

It's complicated . . .

7/2/2013

E tu, MFer? . . .

Hogarth Press recently announced that it's going to publish novelizations of Shakespeare in 2016. Setting aside the question of why a novelization of the original might be interesting, let alone necessary, the idea of mucking around with Macbeth or Julius Cesar intrigues me.

Especially if you get to use modern weapons as well as language. UAVs over the Roman Forum, Macbeth hounded by a Gatling-wielding Apache - the possibilities are endless. Drag Will into the modern era kicking, screaming, and gushing blood.

Of course, England will no doubt bar entry for any author involved in the project. But it's a small enough price to pay  for sacrilege.

Jazzin' it up . . .

At SPAC

We were in Saratoga over the weekend for the Jazz Festival at SPAC and caught some great acts. Bob James and David Sanborn were transcendental.

 

And I have to mention Big Sam's Funky Nation - up from Louisiana just for the show - who had things hopping on the center stage Saturday afternoon.

Large Army cuts loom

Item:

The Army's reduction of 80,000 soldiers, announced in 2012 as part of a budget deal between the White House and Congress, will occur over the next four years, Gen. Raymond Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, told reporters. The Pentagon's share of the cut was $487 billion.

If the automatic cuts known as sequestration continue, the reductions in Army forces will be much deeper, Odierno said, forcing the Army to shed as many as 100,000 additional soldiers.

If that happens, the reductions announced Tuesday would represent "only the first step," Odierno said.

Story.

That larger number - 180,000 - would be close to a third of the present force.

This is actually a huge story, with foreign policy, weapons, and technology implications that will extend well into the next decade. I don't pretend to know what the right force level is, but it's clear that tomorrow's Army will be a lot different than today's.

Now available for Nook

Books 1 & 2 in the Hogs series are now on-line and available for the Nook at BarnesandNoble.com

Click here to read a preview or buy Hogs 1: Going Deep

Pardo's push . . .





. . . possibly the most remarkable air story ever, and a tribute to one of the greatest pilots and greatest planes of the era, if not all time.

What it sounds like to escape death . . .




 . . . or to stand under an atomic bomb when it explodes.

(The bomb was "only" 2 megatons, relatively small, and exploded around 18,500 feet, not 10,000 as the clip says. They weren't in a position to get much if any fallout, luckily for them. More info here.)

Nice review in PW . . .

. . . for American Gun:

Bestselling author Kyle (American Sniper) was putting the final touches on this discerning study of 10 firearms—completed by his widow and Doyle—that changed the course of warfare when he was killed at a gun range. Coupled with his goal of "talk[ing] history with the bullets flying," Kyle's picks—surefire debate fodder for gun enthusiasts—make for immersive reading as he recounts key battles during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and WWII. Kyle's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious—even for professed doves—and his gift for narrative lends the stories the tension and drama they deserve. He brings to life the infamous shootout at the O.K. Corral and the Battle of Cowpens during the American Revolution, recounting close calls, colossal errors, and the weapons that gave one side a key advantage over another. Thanks to his experiences as a Navy SEAL, Kyle is intimately familiar with the construction, key features, and upkeep of all the featured weapons, which adds to his credibility and enables him to tell his stories in greater depth. Regardless of one's views on guns, readers will gain a deeper respect for weaponry and the people tasked with using them. (June)

Would it be catty to point out that most of what they like is stuff I did - without being credited here?

Gun debuts at #3 on NYT list



American Gun will be number 3 on the hardcover NYT list this week. And American Sniper is number 3 on the mass market list . . .

Chris is similin', I'm sure . . .

Some days . . .



. . . you just gotta fly on by.

On sale in Guangzhou . . .

Even in China, Dreamland is a hit.

Should writers be paid when you borrow a book . . .

. . . from the library?

It's a question being considered not just in America but in Great Britain and elsewhere, as this statement from Philip Pullman in England attests:

"New media and new forms of buying and lending are all very interesting, for all kinds of reasons, but one principle remains unchanged: authors must be paid fairly for their work," said Pullman. "Any arrangement that doesn't acknowledge that principle is a bad one, and needs to be changed. That is our whole argument."

Article in the Guardian.

I'm not really sure what the answer is. I certainly support libraries, which have helped me immensely. On the other hand, it's getting harder and harder for authors of all stripes to make a living, and without them, we'll have nothing to borrow from the library. With interests on both sides of the equation, so to speak, I'm not sure what the ultimate solution is.

Life follows fiction . . .

. . . or something like that.

Item:

The creation of the National Security Agency was still three years away when George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was published in 1949.

But that hasn't stopped consumers from snapping up copies of the dystopian novel after learning of electronic surveillance programs conducted by the agency.

Story.

Go, George Orwell.

Next: Genetic engineering of food chain leads to increased sales of Animal Farm.

Donier 17 recovered . . .


Shot down during the Battle of Britain, the German bomber was dredged out of the English Channel:



What the Do 17 looked like during the war:



(These are with the Finish air force on the Eastern Front; by this point the Germans considered them obsolete, with good reason. Check out the biplane just after the bombing run.)

Most people trade privacy for security . . .


Or at least that's what the polls say. From the Washington Post:

Overall, 56 percent of all Americans see the NSA’s accessing telephone call records of millions of Americans through secret court orders as “acceptable;” 41 percent call the practice “unacceptable.” In 2006, when news broke of the NSA’s monitoring telephone and e-mail communications without court approval, there was initially a closer 51 percent to 47 percent divide on the practice.

General priorities also are similar to 2006: 62 percent of Americans now say it’s more important for the federal government to investigate terrorist threats, even if those investigations intrude on personal privacy; 34 percent say privacy should be the focus, regardless of the effect on such investigations.

Story.

Of course, that begs the question of how secure the lack of privacy makes you . . .

Never fear again . . .

It's billed as a possible Post-Traumatic Stress drug, but the real impact may be even more profound.

Item:

When injected into mice immediately following a traumatic event, the experimental agent SR-8993, which targets the opioid-receptor-like 1 (Oprl-1) gene, prevented the development of fear memory consolidation and anxiety.

Story at Medscape.

You've been spied on for years . . .

 . . . and who you talk to is just one small part of it.

Item:

NEW YORK — Former employees of the National Security Agency say the publishing of a court order asking Verizon to hand over all its phone calling records for a three-month period opens a new window on an operation that has been in place for years and involves all major U.S. phone companies.

"NSA has been doing all this stuff all along, and it's been all these companies, not just one" William Binney told news program Democracy Now on Thursday. "They're just continuing the collection of this data on all U.S. citizens."

Binney, who worked at the NSA for almost 40 years, left the agency after the attacks of 9/11 because he objected to the expansion of its surveillance of U.S. citizens.

Story. (One of a gazillion.)

30 seconds to showtime . . .



What it's like on the ground when an A-10 fires: the bullets hit first, the frenetic sewing machine sound comes a beat or two later.

The guys on the ground here are VERY relaxed, even when a sniper starts firing at them (and missing, obviously). I'm not sure how much credit the Hog gets for that, but its presence certainly didn't hurt.

The first four books of my A-10 series, Hogs, are available for Kindle; Book 1, GOING DEEP, is here. Nook versions are coming soon.

On sale today . . .

Excerpts, links to buy.

Amazon says: it's one of the best  . . .

. . . new history books they're selling this month.

Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_dnav_bw_BoHis_b?_encoding=UTF8&node=6458662011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=F68503869BF24D858E28&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1560808182&pf_rd_i=390919011

History & the Second Amendment


A reporter who hadn't had a chance to read American Gun (but had to write a story about it) was asking me the other day if it was a polemic in favor of the Second Amendment.

It's not.

Certainly Chris (and myself, for that matter) was a strong believer in the Second Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms. He made plenty of statements to that effect. But that's not the point of the book.

What Chris wanted to do - and what I hope we all achieved in working on it after his death - was to talk about American HISTORY. He picked ten guns to do it.

History, especially the Wild West and the Civil War, was one of his favorite things to talk about. Many bs sessions in between breaks on American Sniper and later on were spent dissecting the tales of the Texas Rangers and some of the battles of the Civil War. He wasn't an historian, but he loved hearing and telling tales of the past.

He also loved guns, and his idea in American Gun was to combine those two things.

Can the history of the U.S. be told through the guns that its people used?

Absolutely. If you look at the weapons, they reflect perfectly the people who used them and the times they were used in. Whether it's the rugged, hand-crafted individualistic long rifle, or the made-from-high-tech materials AR-15 and Glock*, the weapons are a window on what was going on in the country. But don't take my word for it - check the book out and decide for yourself.

* A weapon Chris never particularly liked, though he admitted it was a solid performer. The romantic in him much preferred the 1911 Colt or, even better, the revolvers of old.

Speaking of Tommy Guns . . .




Both of these guys are in the book.

I'd never heard Dillinger's name pronounced this way until I saw the old film clip.

Did the Tommy gun "redeem' itself?


While we were working on American Gun, we had something of a debate over some of the phrasing in the section regarding the Tommy Gun. Not to get too arcane, but the question can be (over-simplified) as:

Did the Tommy Gun "redeem" itself in World War II?

I think the answer clearly is no. It didn't redeem itself, because it had nothing to redeem. Yes, it had been used by gangsters during Prohibition, but that didn't make the gun evil. The Mausers in the Spanish-American War* weren't evil either, even if they were used to kill American soldiers. The same can be said for every rifle, pistol and machine gun int he book.

No weapon is evil. It's the people using it. Or, in some cases, not using it.

The Thompson sub-machine gun, in all its various incarnations, was an excellent tool, certainly one of the best weapons of its kind of its time. But it was neither righteous nor evil; it was simply a gun.

* 1898, by the way. Not 1890

What I did

Red is me.

A response to the New Republic

(Referring to an article by Isaac Chotiner published May 29, 2013 and titled "If Chris Kyle Had Been a Muslim, We'd Call Him an Extremist.")

Editors:
I ordinarily do not respond to articles that have misconceptions about Chris Kyle or American Sniper. Doing so would be a full-time job. But in this case, as the person who wrote American Sniper and who knew Chris fairly well, I feel compelled to respond to the erroneous impressions conveyed by Isaac Chotiner in the article, "If Chris Kyle had been a Muslim, we'd call him an extremist."

In short, the claim that Chris Kyle was or could be compared to an extremist is absurd. It is especially galling that the quote chosen to illustrate this comes from an incident that demonstrates the exact opposite. It was said, in fact, on the one occasion Chris Kyle was accused of killing a civilian, or more precisely, a person not engaged in active warfare against an American or an Iraqi civilian. In fact, the investigation that followed cleared Kyle of the charge. And quite honestly, the contention that the Iraqi was carrying a Koran rather than a rifle in those circumstances was patently absurd.

Mr. Chotiner might just as easily have focused on another incident, also detailed in American Sniper, where Chris Kyle deliberately did not shoot a child retrieving an RPG later used against Americans. Was he an extremist in that instance? If so, on which side was he extreme?
The Chris Kyle presented in Mr. Chotiner's article is by necessity a small fraction of the man, so I suppose it is not surprising that it doesn't mention that Chris had Muslim friends. Perhaps that is irrelevant. What surely is relevant is this: Chris Kyle was ordered, by the American people, to protect Americans and Iraqis. He did that job professionally, lawfully, and without regard to his personal beliefs -- as the whole of American Sniper makes clear. If that is the definition of extremism, then any soldier who does his job well is an extremist. In fact, the definition would apply equally to a policeman, or anyone - even, one supposes, a journalist.

I can't comment on Nicholas Schmidt's long-form article, as I have not read it, though I was interviewed for it. But I find that many people tend to come to American Sniper, and Chris, with their own preconceived notions of things, using both the book and the person as an excuse to expound those notions. Many people tend to misinterpret the "number" of kills credited to Chris as unique in the annals of warfare, as if no man before him killed so many on the battlefield. On the contrary, throughout history, many individuals - most recently bomber crews, artillerymen, machine gunners - have in fact killed many more people. What was unique in the Iraq war was the use of technology and trained individuals to make selective kills on enemy combatants in an urban environment, rather than obliterating whole city blocks indiscriminately. Chris Kyle's "number" actually reflects a concerted effort to minimize civilians casualties and collateral damage. I have a hard time fitting that into any definition of extremism, whether it pertains to an individual or a society.

So yes, the value of Chris Kyle's story - the WHOLE story, not what was presented here - IS that we look in the mirror as a society . . . even if what we see is not at all what Mr. Chotiner thinks we should see.

Jim DeFelice
co-author, American Sniper

Sargent on "the suit"

From Publisher's Weekly:

What Sargent did say about the pending DoJ suit is that Justice is "extraordinarily myopic. They carried the water for Amazon, when it had 92% of the market." And, he said, they prevented others from coming into the market. "The senior guys, Eric Holder, are just incompetent," he added, to resounding applause. As to the lasting effect of the DoJ case, Sargent said, "There's no way to tell. I have a lot of hope. There are a lot of good signs about the movement to digital." He's been heartened that even with the increase in the number of screens, the growth of e-books is flat. "What is dangerous for us is cataclysmic change. You guys are superb at adapting. You need time to adjust. If it stays flat or declines slowly, we're in good shape."

Story here.

Speaking of American Gun . . .

It's one of USA Today's hottest titles for the summer. (Panel four here.)

American Gun

One of the great pleasures of working on American Gun was reacquainting myself with the Battle of Saratoga.

As it happens, I wrote a trilogy of novels set during the Revolution, and had done a lot of research on the battle – but unfortunately never got use to it.

Pretty much none of it’s in Gun, since the focus in that chapter is, well, on guns – the long rifle in particular – not the overall battle so much, or (what I was interesting for my novels) the use of spies in the war. But American Gun reminded me just how important individuals are in a conflict, and how they shape the different tactics an army takes.

American Gun’s first chapter begins by introducing a sniper whose shot arguably turned the final battle decisively in favor of the Americans. There are some problems figuring out who took the shot, as we mention in the book. But still, if the rebels didn’t have precision weapons and men who could use it, the complexion not just of that battle but of the entire war would have been much different.

Would we have won independence?

Sure. But a good argument can be made that the conflict would have gone on even longer. Even if the Americans would have won at Saratoga – the odds were heavily stacked in their favor by the time the armies met – removing snipers and their weapons from the Americans' “toolkit” would have made that campaign and the war much harder. And a good case can be made – and it’s made in American Gun – that the Battle of Cowpens, a small but pivotal American victory in the south, might have been lost. It certainly would have looked a lot different.

You can order American Gun on line at B&N and Amazon, and my favorite bookstore, Merritt Books. You can also get it in “real” stores, starting Tuesday. The book's profits go entirely to the Kyle family, unlike American Sniper, where Chris donated the money to the families of two deceased SEALs he served with in Iraq.

On sale next week . . .

Available on-line at Amazon and B&N, among other places.

Let the sun shine . . .

. . . but not too hard. Item:

Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting similar problems and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis just as solar panels are on the verge of widespread adoption.

No one is sure how pervasive the problem is. There are no industrywide figures about defective solar panels. And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult. . . .
Most of the concerns over quality center on China, home to the majority of the world’s solar panel manufacturing capacity.

After incurring billions of dollars in debt to accelerate production that has sent solar panel prices plunging since 2009, Chinese solar companies are under extreme pressure to cut costs.

Story.

Bet no one saw that coming (snark, snark).

From Russia, with love . . .

. . . or not. Item:

Russia said on Tuesday that it would supply one of its most advanced anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian government hours after the EU ended its arms embargo on the country's rebels, raising the prospect of a rapidly escalating proxy war in the region if peace talks fail in Geneva next month.Israel quickly issued a thinly veiled warning that it would bomb the Russian S-300s if they were deployed in Syria as such a move would bring the advanced guided missiles within range of civilian and military planes in Israeli air space.

 Story.

The cynic in me says the Russians just want to discover the tactics the U.S. will use to defeat the missiles, thus saving them a few years in development costs.

Then again, that theory makes more sense than whatever the Russians think they'll achieve.

What we're drinking now. . .

. . . dark lagers.

Thresholds crossed

Item:

New Computer Attacks Traced to Iran, Officials Say

American officials have not offered any technical evidence to back up their assertions of Iranian authorship of the latest attacks, but they describe the recent campaign as different from most attacks against American companies — particularly those from China — which quietly siphon off intellectual property for competitive purposes.

The new attacks, officials say, were devised to destroy data and manipulate the machinery that operates critical control systems, like oil pipelines. One official described them as “probes that suggest someone is looking at how to take control of these systems.”

. . .
Jeff Moss, chief security officer at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the private body that oversees the basic design of the Internet, said: “For the last year, Iran has been focused on disrupting financial institutions’ Web sites. If they are going after energy, and opening a multiprong front, at what point does it cross from annoyance to a threshold?”

Story.

Surely we're past that point . . .

For all the accordion heroes out there . . .

It takes a fish . . .

. . . to find a fish.

Item:

Two bottlenose dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy’s marine mammal program have discovered a rare 19th-century Howell torpedo off the coast of San Diego. 

Story.

Oh all right, they were really mammals. Still . . .

The find hints at what the dolphins can actually do, or maybe could do at some point in the future. Locate mines, find robotic detection systems?The question isn't whether dolphins are as smart as humans; rather, are they smarter than unmanned underwater vehicles?

The true art . . .

. . . is in making it appear artless.

                  - anonymous writer of military biographies and thriller novels

Speaking of drones . . .

The Chinese are making a real splash lately with their own, though at least some of those images appear to be mockups.

Item:

 Extremely blurry photos posted on Internet forums over the past few months may show a Chinese stealth UAV, supposedly called the Lijan or Sharp Sword, along the lines of the U.S. Navy’s X-47B.Story, more photos.

While that looks more than a bit like the X-47B, the UAV the Chinese supposedly are ready to field looks a lot like a Predator B:

What was the sincerest form of flattery again?

The future is here . . .

. . . and it may not need us. Much, anyway.

Item:

"This is the way of the future," Winter said. "I like to say, it's one small step for man and one significant technical leap for unmanned kind."
The X-47B is far bigger than the Predator, has three times the range and can be programmed to carry out missions with no human intervention, the Navy said.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/U-S-launches-drone-from-aircraft-carrier-4515717.php#ixzz2TItjGSPi

And if some of that reminds you a little of the plot in this book:

. . . I owe you many thanks for reading my work.

The world's shortest drill sergeant . . .

. . . addresses his recruit.

I'm not exactly sure what he said, but I did drop and give him fifty.

Where do you sound from?


American dialects - there are more of them than you think. Looky here.

Of Pipers, generals & readers


Speaking of World War II planes (see this post), Gus  has an Aeronca Champion, a slightly later competitor  of the Piper Cub around the same size. Both planes served with the military as observation aircraft and battlefield transports.

The amazing thing is how tiny these planes were; a lot of today's UAVs are larger. tiny, light and fragile - not the greatest combination if you're in a war zone. Especially if you're a general in charge of an Army corps or an entire Army group. But Omar Bradley regularly flew in them to survey the front.

And they're still flying.

Here's Gus's plane:

And Gus:

My wee Aeronca Champion is essentially the same as the Piper L-4, same engine and general design except the Champ has a normal door instead of a split door. Most laymen don't notice the difference. The only really obvious thing is that the Piper engine protrudes and the Champ's is covered. My Champ has a wood prop, no electrical system and is hand propped to start. Just about as much fun as anything I've ever flown and gently sips fuel.

And here's a Piper:

Omar

Since we're on the topic, the trade paperback of Omar Bradley, General at War, is now available. You can get it at your favorite bookstore, or online at Amazon here, or Barnes & Noble here. The ebook edition, which includes some small corrections to the text (thanks readers!!!), is also available on-line, both from those sites and places like Google Play.

Bradley & balsa wood

I got an email a while back from a reader named Gus who'd just finished Omar Bradley: General at War. We got to talking a bit about aircraft that the general had flown in; Gus is a buff and a pilot from way back, and we've had quite a bit of fun talking about the old planes.

 Most readers will probably shoot right by the section on the C-78, a plane Bradley took to cross the Channel during one of the (many) crises after D-Day. I'd noted in the book that it was a small and slow plane. Gus seconded that, and also noted that the type was re-designated as the UC-78, though as far as I can tell the two planes were essentially the same. Here's a photo; it's a later version than anything Bradley would have used or probably even seen during the war, but it'll give an idea of the aircraft's size:

What you can't get from the photo is the fact that it was made out of wood.

So to put the aircraft in perspective: The fate of the Normandy invasion and the entire European campaign rested on the pluck of spruce, a pair of Jacobs radials, and the skill of a pilot who, no matter how ballsy he was, would have been a fat target for a passing Messerschmidt.

Not that Bradley's trans-Atlantic transport would have fared much better against a flight of Me-109s or Focke-Wulfs, but at least there would have been room to grab a parachute:

The general did get balled out for flying in the slow and unescorted C-78, but as usual he shrugged it off.

Coming to an aircraft carrier near you



First "arrested" landing for the Navy's new stealth UAV. Story.

"Hogs 4" is now an ebook . . .

. . . in Kindle format. You can get it here.

Yes, to the rumors - Spielberg will direct . . .

. . . American Sniper.

Item:

Steven Spielberg is returning to the charged terrain of real-life American events, with the “Lincoln” director announcing Thursday he'll tackle the story of U.S. sniper Chris Kyle as his next directorial project. Bradley Cooper will star as the late Navy SEAL.

Story.

Coming soon . . .

. . . to an E-reader near you.

Sobriety & creativity . . .

. . .not over-rated?

Item:

I found that while many artists did drink a great deal, very few mixed alcohol with their working hours. Even the alcoholics recognized that drinking made their creative output a little too effortless and their appraisal of the results a little too charitable. Sobriety is a requirement of most artistic work. 

Story.

The unanswered question: which works DON'T you have to be sober to create?

"We got him"

Bomb suspect




FBI site.

Definitely a work in progress, but we'll get the hang of it . . .

On Boston


Figures Dennis Lehane would say it best:

Boston took a punch on Monday — two of them, actually — that left it staggering for a bit. Flesh proved vulnerable, as flesh is wont to do, but the spirit merely trembled before recasting itself into something stronger than any bomb or rage.

Op-ed here.

The voice of football . . .




RIP, Pat Summerall.

Just timing?

Item:

Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department on Wednesday said it has approved the sale of either the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 stealth fighter or Boeing Co's F-15 Silent Eagle fighter to South Korea, which is expected to announce the winner of a 60-jet competition later this year.

Reuters story.

Actually, the competition to pick a new fighter - the Eurofighter is in the mix as well - has been ongoing, but this does almost seem like a reaction to North Korea's idiocy. Sixty Stealth Eagles could pretty much eliminate the North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs on their first sortie . . .

We are with you, Boston . . .


. . .and justice will be done.

Hack-a-flight . . .

You've heard of backseat driving . . . now there's Smartphone flying.

Item:

A presentation at the Hack In The Box security summit in Amsterdam has demonstrated that it's possible to take control of aircraft flight systems and communications using an Android smartphone and some specialized attack code. . . .

Teso's attack code, dubbed SIMON, along with an Android app called PlaneSploit, can take full control of flight systems and the pilot's displays. The hacked aircraft could even be controlled using a smartphone's accelerometer to vary its course and speed by moving the handset about.

Story.

Actually, it's not very funny at all. Expect a quick fix . . . or maybe the banning of all electronic devices throughout the flight.

Editing . . .

Completely and totally stolen from the tumblr, Title To Come; more great riffs on the writing game here:

http://title2come.tumblr.com/

A unique hero . . .

. . . and surely a saint among men.

Erasing the enemy



A-10s at work . . . this is why people call its gun dragon fire, and other things.

It's our duty . . .

. . . to serve those who served us.

http://chriskylememorialtrust.org/index.html

Korea


As the blustering continues, at some point you start to wonder what if these psychos are actually serious, and actually do believe they can nuke the world without consequence? It's not just Kim; it's the military leaders, old men who have lived their entire lives in a bizarre, upside-down world where North Korea dominates the world.

The U.S. and South Korea have apparently adopted a tit-for-tat policy of response: they'll respond "in kind" to whatever North Korea does. That's completely wrong. You don't respond in kind. You use the Al Capone method: Shoot one of my guys, I kill ten of yours.

Truly, the best thing to do is not to wait - eliminate the North Korean missile and nuke programs with a comprehensive first strike. Twenty-four hours and it will be done. The casualties will be less than if North Korea is allowed to start a nuclear war.

Forward, libraries . . .

Had a great time at Moffat Library's fund-raiser yesterday, meeting supporters of the written word. I got to talk to many wonderful people; I'm sure I got more out of our conversations than they did.

I'm happy to support libraries in any way I can - they've made what I do possible. And this community is raising money to build a new building - brave souls!

Just a note for anyone in the Hudson Valley: the event was held at Round Hill, a beautiful old Federal Period (and later) building, and featured some fantastic catering - and I'm not just saying that because they comped my drinks. If you're interested, here's the caterer's website, which includes information on the house and grounds: http://www.feastcaterers.com/

The slow death of the American author

Scott Turow:

Authors practice one of the few professions directly protected in the Constitution, which instructs Congress “to promote the progress of Science and the useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” The idea is that a diverse literary culture, created by authors whose livelihoods, and thus independence, can’t be threatened, is essential to democracy.

That culture is now at risk. The value of copyrights is being quickly depreciated, a crisis that hits hardest not best-selling authors like me, who have benefited from most of the recent changes in bookselling, but new and so-called midlist writers.

Full op-ed in NY Times here.

Machine writing


Item:

Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program.

Story.

I can imagine it - one more nail in the coffin.

What I'm up to . . .




This documentary was made just after the battle.

This, too . . .




(More of what I've been up to)

Surely one of the bizarre episodes in American history.

The accounts here are filled with mistakes. For the facts, check out Stephen Hunter and John Bainbridge Jr.'s excellent book, American Gunfight: The Plot to Kill Harry Truman.

What I'm doing . . .



And the M16.

More of what I've been up to . . 



A classic on the operation of the M1 Garand.

What I've been doing . . .

. . .  these past 15 days.



Some of it, anyway.