Short Takes – 11-20-23

Speaker Mike Johnson Faces Hard-Right Discontent, Risking Disarray Ahead. Finance.Yahoo.com article. Pull quote: “The party’s assertive hard-liners, a few of whom toppled then-speaker Kevin McCarthy just last month, are warning they won’t yield on their expectations for steep cuts in government spending and conservative policy changes, despite the limited leverage possessed by a slim and fractious Republican House majority.”

Winning: Tunnel Warfare Troops and Techniques. StrategyPage.com article. An interesting look at tunnel warfare tech. Pull quote: “The purpose of the ATE vehicle is to quickly, carefully and precisely explore these tunnels using a number of sensors to detect and identify what is down there while creating a 3D map of the tunnel or larger tunnel system. The prototype ATE was recently tested on a 1,500-meter South Korean test tunnel containing many of the characteristics of North Korean and Hamas tunnels. ATE did well and tests continue.”

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; V2V Communications. Federal Register NHTSA NPRM withdrawal notice. Summary: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration withdraws a previous proposal to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requiring vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in new light vehicles. After the advent of new V2V communications protocol, and after a recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision regarding the regulations governing the 5.850–5.895 gigahertz (5.9 GHz) band, the agency has decided to withdraw its V2V proposed rule.”