Gaudeamus

The basic technologies of the universe include things like fire, tools, agriculture, electricity, and the gaudeamus effect. So what happens when three clowns in a flying saucer steal the gaudeamus device from a secret government lab, and they hire a pseudo-redneck Texan private investigator to find it, and the PI tells the story to his buddy who is a theater professor/science fiction writer? Well, if the professor/writer is John Barnes, you get Gaudeamus. I can't tell you more without giving away plot twists, but it's highly recommended.

Lloyd Allan Trigg

Lloyd Trigg has the distinction of receiving the only Victoria Cross to be awarded because of a recommendation from the enemy.
The citation reads:

2nd November, 1943

THE KING  has been graciously pleased to confer the VICTORIA CROSS on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery:

Flying Officer Lloyd Allan TRIGG, D.F.C. (N.Z.413515), Royal New Zealand Air Force (missing, believed killed), No. 200 Squadron.

Flying Officer Trigg had rendered outstanding service on convoy escort and antisubmarine duties. He had completed 46 operational sorties and had invariably displayed skill and courage of a very high order.

One day in August 1943, Flying Officer Trigg undertook, as captain and pilot, a patrol in a Liberator although he had not previously made any operational sorties in that type of aircraft. After searching for 8 hours a surfaced U-boat was sighted.

Flying Officer Trigg immediately prepared to attack. During the approach, the aircraft received many hits from the submarine's anti-aircraft guns and burst into flames, which quickly enveloped the tail.

The moment was critical. Flying Officer Trigg could have broken off the engagement and made a forced landing in the sea. But if he continued the attack, the aircraft would present a "no deflection" target to deadly accurate anti-aircraft fire, and every second spent in the air would increase the extent and intensity of the flames and diminish his chances of survival.

There could have been no hesitation or doubt in his mind. He maintained his course in spite of the already precarious condition of his aircraft and executed a masterly attack. Skimming over the U-boat at less than 50 feet with anti-aircraft fire entering his opened bomb doors, Flying Officer Trigg dropped his bombs on and around the U-boat where they exploded with devastating effect. A short distance further on the Liberator dived into the sea with her gallant captain and crew.

The U-boat sank within 20 minutes and some of her crew were picked up later in a rubber dinghy that had broken loose from the Liberator.

The Battle of the Atlantic has yielded many fine stories of air attacks on underwater craft, but Flying Officer Trigg's exploit stands out as an epic of grim determination and high courage. His was the path of duty that leads to glory.

The U boat captain survived, along with six of his crew; it was on his recommendation that Trigg received the Victoria Cross.

Letter from Australia

Here's a letter from a friend of mine who lives in Tasmania:

G'day,

   Thanks for the thoughts. The first cyclone thankfully hit a spot with few people, but the big one coming is heading for densely populated areas so could be a more close run thing. I'm evacuating my work team - we're here trying to assess what can be done for the reef after the floods - as riding out a major cyclone when you don't have to seems silly.

   [Her husband]'s folks have faired well to thankfully and the eastern seaboard is picking itself up fairly rapidly. There has been a huge out pouring of random acts of kindness (complete strangers turning up to help save shops or clean houses etc). Its been really amazing. Sadly our politicians have seen it as further reason to say why the other side is worse financial manager, they are just so disconnected from reality - that is all but our ex-PM Kev. A roving media team stumbled across him helping evacuate Chinese students, trousers rolled up, wading through water to his hips, rattling off in Chinese (because they spoke about no English and no idea what was happening). When he saw the reporters he tossed them bags to carry too - if you're here, you're helping.

   There have just been so many stories of amazing survival and generosity (holding onto a bike rake for 3 hours while a 7m wall of water destroyed the town around you, a 13yr old sacrificing his life so that his younger brother could be saved, 28000 people turning up to voluntarily help clean up central Brisbane) it has been a very heart lifting if trying time for the county (there is literally a state of emergency somewhere in every state in Australia, due to a mix of floods, cyclones, tsunamis, firestorms, and heat waves). That and the story of the guy who scored a VC last week has reinforced my pride in being an Aussie ;)

Here's a link for the URL in the first comment, showing the size of the storm.

Finance

The mutual funds in my 401k went up 12.9% for the past year; the real benefit is that my my employer matches 50% of what I contribute, so my actual increase is 69.35%.

And I finished our taxes today, except for a couple of minor deductions. We'll be getting more in refund than we paid in, due to mortgage deduction, education credits, and so forth and so on.

Yerba mate

Our church provides coffee, tea, doughnuts and bagels, but what do you do if you want something else? One of the guys brought along a thermos of yerba mate, which is popular in parts of South America--and at least one coffee shop here, which is where he'd discovered it. I'd never had it before, so I gave it a try. It tastes more or less like green tea, maybe with a little more grassy flavor.

Tree fall

A tree fell last night on the house that Josh is renting. The tree was a victim of the Snowlocaust, which had trees down and traffic utterly snarled throughout the DC / Northern Virginia area; one of Josh's professors posted that it had taken eight hours to drive ten miles, and the news reported some people took up to thirteen hours trying to get home. The tree did no structural damage, just scraped some siding off, and no one was hurt. However, Josh had been playing a first person shooter at the time, and "Monster front! bang bang bang Monster behind! bang bang Monster front! bang bang", when abruptly supplemented by the BANG of the tree hitting, had his heart rate jump to 200 beats per minute...

Full Thrust Aero

Having recently played a game of Full Thrust (first time in a long time), and having recently listened to Abney Park's Airship Pirate, it occurred to me that FT's cinematic movement rules would be about perfect for steampunk airship battles. Instead of the standard six firing arcs, make it Fore, Aft, Port, Starboard, Ventral and Dorsal. You'd need a few modifications for dive and climb rate, maximum speed, flight ceiling, and perhaps something like "all targets in your Ventral firing arc are treated as if 50% farther away, and all targets in Dorsal are treated as if 50% closer".
Oh, and collisions, of course. Nothing like having two hydrogen-filled zeps, bristling with weapons, running into each other.