War Commentary

And They Were So Close, Too

Syrian officials say that the IAF strike has severely damaged hopes for peace.

[Update at 6 PM Eastern]

Iran seems to be doubling down:

Iran is smuggling advanced weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, into Iraq to be used by extremists against American troops, the US military charged on Sunday.

US military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox told reporters in Baghdad that Iran was shifting sophisticated arms such as “RPG-29s, explosively-formed penetrators (EFPs), 240 mm rockets and Misagh-1 surface-to-air missiles” across its borders into Iraq.

An EFP is a feared roadside bomb which when it explodes emits a white-hot slug of molten copper that can cut through the armoured skins of US military vehicles.

Space History

The First Space Pioneer

I hadn’t noticed, or noted it last week, due to my travel schedule and poor internet connectivity, but last Monday was the sesquicentennial anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He was the first, even before Goddard, to lay out the mathematical and physical foundations of spaceflight.

But unlike Goddard, he was a theoretician only, and never built any hardware. So I don’t think he ever said “Hold my vodka, and watch this…”

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!