A new U.S. Army Field Manual (large pdf) introduces the science and technology of aeronautics to non-specialist readers in a rigorous but readable format.
From Bernoulli’s principle to the challenges of night flight, the 392 page manual starts with the rudiments and builds from there.
“Because the U.S. Army prepares its Soldiers to operate anywhere in the world, this publication describes the unique requirements and flying techniques crewmembers will use to successfully operate in extreme environments, not always encountered in home station training.”
See “Fundamentals of Flight,” Field Manual FM 3-04.203, May 2007 (18 MB PDF file).
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.