Flat Circle War Room - 5/2/26
What I’m reading, listening to and watching this week, as well as updates about next episodes.
Thunder Run: The Armored Strike To Capture Baghdad, by David Zucchino
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55324.Thunder_RunAs the ground battle begins for my story in Taiwan, I turned to this book for insight and first-hand accounts of urban warfare. I’m about half-way through right now. It’s a riveting read.
In tech-related readings this week, I stumbled on two articles that fed my cyberwarfare curiosity.
Bluetooth tracker hidden in a postcard and mailed to a warship exposed its location — $5 gadget put a $585 million Dutch ship at risk for 24 hours
This article reminds me of the Fitbit issues years ago with US troops inadvertently giving away their positions and routines in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are now endless ways to make the battlefield virtually transparent, regardless of domain.
And then I found this article which, as a former software developer, deeply rattled me - but also gave me dark ideas for a future episode.
Claude-powered AI coding agent deletes entire company database in 9 seconds — backups zapped, after Cursor tool powered by Anthropic’s Claude goes rogue
What bothered me most was not that it happened, but that the AI agent did it knowing it was wrong. I would love to think that if I was still in the game, I would have safeguards in place to avoid this kind of disaster, but what’s not to say the AI wouldn’t identify and bypass those safeguards. Frightening.
Next Episode Update
The narration track is edited and completed, which gives me my estimated episode length for episode 22, which will be almost 15 minutes to the second.
All the map graphics are complete. Loving Google Earth Studio, though I also have to use Google Earth Pro to do the graphic overlays, then import them into Studio to do the animation.
Filming has begun! Working on the DCS footage now, and then will turn to ARMA.
Meanwhile, Lew is working on the character scenes in Unreal Engine. One of the hiccups in transitioning to Unreal is the need for all the uniforms and kit. For episode 21 alone, we need PLA, US (Airforce and Green Beret) and the ROC. That requires a whole lot of time getting the uniform as close to “right” as we can, with their kit. The good news is that once we get past this initial hurdle, those assets will be used countless times throughout future episodes.
Work continues on script modifications for episode 23. There is so much happening in that script, I have now broken it into 2 episodes.
For the Next War Room release, I’ll talk about all the work this week that went into the research of the PLA’s invasion fleet, including ships utilized, their numbers, formations, locations, approach, etc. A massive undertaking.
Event Info
I’ll be at Oskhosh 2026 this year, so if you’re there and want to chat, reach out!
John