As should now no longer be a spoiler of any particular note, James Bond dies at the end of “No Time To Die.” I cannot directly confirm this myself… this is the first Bond movie since the Roger Moore era that I will likely end up not seeing in the theater (the wokevertising that promised a Bond put in his place by a Mary Sue apparently turned out to not be accurate, but it turned me off to the flick). But the credits end with “James Bond will return.”

Now, there are a few ways this could happen, what with Bond being dead and all:

1: He’s not dead. An amazing escape, slid down an escape tunnel, beamed out by Scotty, survived under rubble, whatever. Presumably he received enough facial injuries that the reconstructive surgery will make him look like some completely different actor.

2: The old fan theory that the name “James Bond” is regularly passed along to new secret agents along with the 007 number. So Connery, Moore, Craig, etc. all exist in the same continuity.

3: A complete reboot.

Hard to say what it’ll be. Hard to say if the suits in charge of such things even know right now.

But here’s my suggestion: reboot. What’s more than that, remake some/many of the early Bond movies. Do this with A Plan: crank out the movies assembly line fashion so you get one Bond a year. Something like:

2025: Dr. No: A Chinese mad scientist working for SPECTRE farks with western space launches, risking a nuclear war.

2026: Thunderball: SPECTRE steals some nukes and threatens to evaporate some major cities, with the likely consequence of a nuclear war.

2027: You Only Live Twice: SPECTRE screws with space launches, threatening to spark a nuclear war

2028: Diamond Are Forever: SPECTRE builds an orbital weapon of mass destruction, threatening to spark a nuclear war; use of the weapon causes several nuclear detonations and reactor meltdowns.

2029: The Spy Who Loved Me: A megalomaniac sea-steader steals Russian and British boomers, with the intent of sparking a nuclear war; ends with multiple nuclear detonations at sea.

2030: Moonraker: And here’s the culmination. The remake goes much as the original; eccentric billionaire space industry tycoon steals a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle from The Government, has a secret space launch complex hidden away in South America and plans to launch a bunch of craft all at once. Instead of manufacturing some weird poison, his minions are stealing nuclear warheads and plutonium pits. But when Bond is captured and the Evil Genius begins monologing, it’s none of that “I’m going to create a master race in space and will wipe out all mankind, muahahahaha” nonsense. It’ll be: “Have you seen what’s been going on lately? Ever since 2025 we’ve come within seconds of a global nuclear war like every friggen’ year! I’ve had plans in place to establish self-sufficient off-world colonies; but those plans were based on a thirty-year schedule. Last year multiple H-Bombs went off in the Atlantic! We don’t have thirty years! So damn right I’ve been stealing stuff; I’ve had to accelerate my plans. I’m getting the hell off this rock before it gets turned into radioactive ash by these crazy morons!”

In the end, Evil Genius successfully launches his hundred or so heavy lifters from the Amazon and sets up several self-sufficient O’Neill habs out in the asteroid belt. Bond goes along, hired as the new societies Director Of National Security. The numerous nukes and fissionables stolen by Evil Genius are used to create a range of reactors used to power spacecraft, stations and asteroid-munching factories. Enough power is available at the beginning that the factories are able to process out fissionables from the asteroids and mass-produce PV arrays, so the habs are able to not only self-support but reproduce. Since the thousands of people taken along have all been selected based on merit and STEM abilities, with no patience for “other ways of knowing” or kowtowing to “feelings” or “diversity mandates,” they are able to rapidly increase their technological base. They have functional fusion reactors and fusion engines within five years.

MI6 fires the now absent James Bond, hires a new nonbinary genderfluid dangerhaired Jamie Bond. On zer first mission, World War Five breaks out and the nukes fly; planetary population drops to a few hundred million in the resulting blasts, fallout and nuclear winter. Over the next few years, Original Bond leads a few missions to return to Earth scrape up technology, a few survivors, animals and plants. One exciting adventure where Bond leads a mission to raid the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

China Tested A Fractional Orbital Bombardment System That Uses A Hypersonic Glide Vehicle: Report

Short summary of Fractional Orbital Bombardment System:

Your typical ICBM lobs its payload onto a ballistic trajectory, an elliptical orbit that intersects Earth at two points: launch and target. FOBS, on the other hand, puts the warhead into a circular orbit like a conventional satellite. Typically a *low* orbit, but a circular orbit nonetheless. This is harder than an ICBM lob, but there are a few advantages. The biggest advantage is that, being in a low circular orbit, the warhead is below radar detection until it is almost on top of the target. At which point it fires a de-orbit motor and drops out of the sky with very little warning.

The reason why it’s called a “fractional” orbit is that it is generally assumed that it won’t complete a full orbit, but will de-orbit the first time it passes over the enemy. But that does not need to be the case; it could stay in orbit for some time, pretending to be, say, a weather, communications or spy satellite. Additionally, a FOBS system could theoretically launch in *any* direction; instead of Russian or Chinese ICBMs launching over the Pacific or Arctic to reach US targets, they could be launched south, pass over Antarctica and come at the US from Mexico or the Gulf where we have relatively little in the way of either early detection systems or missile defenses.

A disadvantage of FOBS is that the warhead, typically, must be aimed more or less directly at the target, as there is little cross-range to play with. Thus only a few orbits will pass close enough to the target; most orbits will be many hundreds or thousands of miles too far away. But by using a hypersonic glider as the warhead, cross-range is increased. So now something that looks like a mundane satellite launch that will pass nowhere near a US target will now sprout wings and fly right down Main Street.

The US and Russians have a treaty banning FOBS; the 1967 Outer Space treaty explicitly forbids the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in space, which is exactly what FOBS does. The Chinese are on board with the OST, but hey, look, they don’t care. Shocker.

Glad we have a crack team of stalwart patriots and geniuses in the White House to deal with this.

Navy nuclear engineer charged with trying to pass secrets

Fortunately the “foreign contact” he was trying to sell the US out to was an FBI agent. Maybe he can get a cell next to Eric Swalwell.

My next book is slightly behind schedule, but it is coming. I was recently sent the first “proof” of the book after the graphic artists laid it out; a bit of tinkering yet, but it is nearing completion. I thought it might be interesting to post a shot of the last page.

Hmmm…

North Korea says it tested rail-launched ballistic missiles

Not impossible, of course. But *something* just seems indefinably off about the footage:

Video of North Korea's TLBM (train-launched ballistic misisle) pic.twitter.com/tbcjBgJFco

— Colin Zwirko (@ColinZwirko) September 16, 2021

Of course it didn’t take the internet too long to mock it:

Mad props to the anonymous genius who made this pic.twitter.com/rh0CKa1xMv

— Dave Schmerler (@DaveSchmerler) September 17, 2021

In any event, it’s good to know that in this time of rapidly accelerating stress and crisis, we have such trustworthy and astute leadership.

Why France is angry about the US and UK giving Australia nuclear-powered submarines

In response to the trilateral agreement, a French official told CNN on Friday that France has recalled its ambassador to the US for “consultation” — marking what’s believed to be the first time the French have resorted to such a move in modern times.

The French ambassador to Australia has been recalled as well, the official said.

The problem: France had a deal with Oz to provide diesel subs. But Australia changed its mind and wisely went with nuclear subs. Why? Because the Pacific Ocean is friggen’ *big* and the Chinese are getting pushy. Now to get New Zealand on board…

The story also points out that the French Embassy has cancelled/curtailed some parties.

Some interesting footage of a ship getting nuked. This was the USS LSM-60, a “landing ship, medium” that was used as a float to suspend an atom bomb underwater during the Operation Crossroads-Baker test, July 25, 1946. A “Fat Man” style bomb was in a small submarine 90 feet below the ship when it went off with a yield of about 22 kilotons. No recognizable bits of the LSM-60 were ever located.

New satellite images show Russia may be preparing to test nuclear powered ‘Skyfall’ missile

Normally the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile would be the sort of thing that would bring condemnation. But, hey, ᚠᚪᛣᚳ ᛁᛏ, anything goes now.

Granted it was inert, but a man can dream.

At the same time that Certain People want the citizenry to set their horizons low and small and accept Tiny Homes, high-density urban housing and public transport… I want me one of these. I’d prefer if it was out in the mountains, but if someone wanted to give me this out out in the middle of No and Where, I’d take it.