Daydream Notes

When writing the post on the V-2/A4, I fell down the rabbit hole learning how the A4's guidance system worked. I couldn't really work it into that post, as it was already way too long, so I present those details here, both because the details I learned are pretty cool,  and also to back up a claim I made: that the guidance system was a hard limit on the Third Reich's missile ambitions. While in theory later missiles could have been developed with the A4's motor, the guidance system would have to be completely redone, an development project that it's difficult to imagine the historical Third Reich ever finishing.   The Obvious, Stated I know quoting the dictionary is a hoary old cliche, so let me just say my research made me reflect on the phrase "guidance system". Before I started, I assumed a kind of black box that did the guidance thing. But once I got into it, I realized that "system" implies a bunch of mechanisms doing guidance: working, but...

in addition to being a regular fire.     https://news.usni.org/2021/10/19/long-chain-of-failures-left-sailors-unprepared-to-fight-uss-bonhomme-richard-investigation-finds So on July 12th, 2020, the USS Bonhomme Richard was set on fire by a disgruntled 20 year old sailor who didn't get into the Navy SEALs on the first try. The Bonhomme Richard , an amphibious assault ship had been in drydock for two years for a 800 million dollar refit, which it was almost done. The fire raged out of control and gutted the ship, to the point aluminum parts of the ship were photographed melting. Now the final report on the fire has come out, and the amount of failures are....well, let me summarize: ---------------------------------- Investigators found inconsistent statements from crew members about the actions to investigate the reports of smoke and fire alarms and why there was a delayed reporting of the fire over the ship’s intercom system – the 1MC. “Numerous sources agree to having he...

  Current head of CF lied about knowing about another senior officer's sexcrime In other words, it is Monday. But when you dig into the details a bit: Despite allegedly knowing of the allegation, Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre confirmed Trevor Cadieu as the new army commander following the approval of Cadieu’s promotion to lieutenant general on Aug. 8. In a statement to this newspaper, the Department of National Defence said Eyre only found out about the allegations against Cadieu when he was informed by military police on Sept. 5. But the alleged victim, as well as an email from Cadieu himself, tell a different story. In an email sent to his alleged victim on July 11, Cadieu writes that Eyre had been informed by other officers about the allegations. “The CDS can’t ignore what he’s been told,” Cadieu wrote to the woman, a former Canadian Forces member. “Naturally, as painful as it is to write this, the CDS needs to makes (sic) decisions about my ...

Since January 2021, the Canadian Forces (CF) has been lost in a scandal supercell, which the leadership didn't see coming, but everybody else in the CF and outside of it did. The other thing I can observe: so the Defense Minister is Harjit Sajjan. He was a police detective in Vancouver, and also rose to the rank of Lt. Col. in the Canadian Army. On the one hand, you can see that somebody with lots of experience in the military is the sort of person you want in the role, IE because they should know their stuff. There's a distinct drawback, now obvious: if you come up in these circles, you might have the same blind spots. Things start with the recently retired General Vance. Remember when the smack talk was all about "why did you take so long to say 'actually, maybe CF personnel shouldn't belong to right wing terror groups'?" Gen. Vance investigated for sexual impropriety Naturally:   quote: Vance was also the driving force behind Operation Ho...

One lesson Canada took from the Second World War was that their previous military procurement strategy didn't work. Up until that point, Canada had always relied on buying hardware, like aircraft and ships, from the UK and America. What Canada discovered after following the UK into war in 1939 was that when a major war happens, both those nations are suddenly too busy with their own needs to sell to Canada. This proved a particular issue when defending Canada; for several years, German U-boats could operate in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Canada's coast while resources to hunt them were so lacking that America and the UK had to assume aerial anti-submarine patrols until Canada could get its collective shit together.  So at the end of the Second World War, Canada followed a strategy of building some defense industry, and some purchasing from its allies, depending on what native industrial strengths it could utilize. One of these places was surface ships for the Royal Canadia...

 I read the Hobbit for the first time in many years, to my nieces at their bedtime. This is what I learned. Ah, note that none of these observations are original; this is just "stuff I noticed" having not read the book for a few decades. Bilbo gets concussed. So if you are remotely familiar with Tolkien, you know he is a bit detail obsessed. Still, I was surprised to notice both times Bilbo takes a blow to the head, he actually shows signs of a concussion after. (The first time he's knocked out for an unknown length of time in the goblin caves; later he takes a rock to the head during the battle of the five armies.) That second time Bilbo is blacked out all night and till morning the next day. What's more, Tolkien even throws a line or two in on how Hobbits can recover from things like head trauma much faster than you'd expect.  It's a small thing, but I always appreciate any time media remembers that getting knocked out is like, super bad for you. Three magi...

Tent of Construction, Quidi Vidi. The warming shed. Vimy under construction. As anybody who uses their garage can tell you, keeping it dry when doing something is a help. On May 26th, the ship with the disassembled Vimy finally entered St. John's harbor. Vickers contracted the Teamster Lester, who hauled the massive shipping crates containing the Vimy and its spares to Quidi Vidi. There the Vickers crew set to work doing what its rivals had done: figuring out how to assemble an aircraft with a full set of tools but none of the structures or jigs, cranes, etc they normally would use, in an open field where the wind blew very cold. A tent gave some shelter, but they still needed a warming shack on the premises. Frequent rain squalls were also cold, and meant all work had to stop to cover completed sections in tarpaulins. It was cold enough that soldering irons warmed in a fire would often cool before they could be applied. Despite the difficul...