Trivia

The episode title, "Hard-Boiled", refers to the "Hard-Boiled Detective" character found in film-noir (French for Black Film) genre of movies from the 1940's. In fact, the character played by working actor Sam McMurray, mentioned the author Raymond Chandler, who was a former Private Detective himself, wrote many novels, which were turned into films. A Hard-Boiled Detective, is one who is physically tough and emotionally resilient, and is rendered cynical by the cycle of violence and corruption they face.

According to legend, Chaussons aux Pommes (apple turnovers) was invented in 1630 in Saint Calais in the Sarthe region of France. The town of Saint Calais was suffering from an epidemic and the Chatelaine, the lady of the town, in an effort to relieve their suffering, gave flour and apples to those in need, and they made chaussons aux pommes. Today, there is an annual celebration of the event, called Fete du Chaussons aux Pommes (Fete is French for Festival). And every year in early September, the city transforms into a medieval village, with bakers bringing their ovens to the front of their shops where they bake and serve the turnovers to visitors. Interestingly, the name of the dish can be translated as apple slippers, referring to the visual appearance of this tasty filled pastry.

A character made mention of a vacuum cleaner whose features include a "high speed vortex" and "cyclonic separation". An appliance already in the market, with said features is the Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner with a removable compartment for dirt, instead of a vacuum bag. As stated by Sir James Dyson, the inspiration for the vacuum came from, "...one day I was at a local sawmill and noticed how the sawdust was being removed from the air by large industrial cyclones.", which led to launch of said device in 1993. The first early use of "cyclonic separator" was patented in 1885 by the American John M. Finch, for use as a "dust collector"for his Knickerbocker Textile Mill. In fact, the latest motors, Dyson Hyperdymium motors spin at 125,000 RPM - on average 5 times faster than a jet engine, are smaller, lighter and more power dense than previous models.

The United States is developing several hypersonic missile weapon and defense systems, with the first being deployed in 2023 called the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), a mobile surface-to-surface intermediate range missile used by the Army capable of reaching Mach 6; a naval version is slated to be tested on the Zumwalt-class stealth guided missile destroyer in 2025. Other hypersonic missile systems close to deployment include the Mako, a long-range standoff hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile designed to be launched by the F-22A Raptor, F-35C Lightning and from VLS launchers on warships & is planned to be deployed on the new Constellation-class guided missile frigates, Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers & Virginia-class Block V cruise missile attack submarines. The Air Force has a few hypersonic weapon programs in the final stages of development as well, the first is the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, a scramjet-powered hypersonic air-to-ground cruise missile capable of velocities of Mach 8 (6,100 mph), as of 2024 it is only armed with a conventional warhead but is capable of being armed with a low yield tactical nuclear warhead, and is planned for deployment on the F-15E Strike Eagle & F/A-18F Super Hornet; the Hypersonic Air Launched Offensive Anti-Surface (HALO) missile is a long-range anti-ship missile that can reach Mach 5 and is designed to give the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet anti-surface ship capabilities.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization in the Department of the Navy responsible for the Navy and Marine Corps science and technology development, their mission statement is "to plan, foster, and encourage scientific research to maintain future naval power and preserve national security". Founded in 1946 the ONR employs both uniformed personnel from the Navy and Marine Corps, as well as civilian employees and private contractors; ONR also runs the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) where new technology is developed and tested. The ONR & NRL initially developed a number of scientific instruments and weapons that are now widely used, their achievements include developing the United States' first radar system, first over-the-horizon radar, first intel satellite, first synthetic lubricant (WD-40) and SEALAB the first underwater research habitat. ONR, in conjunction with private contractors, also developed many of the modern naval warfare systems including the BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missile, the Aegis Combat System that serves as the electronic warfare platform for Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers and is what gives them missile defense capabilities; it is also used on the Aegis Ashore facilities which, in conjunction with guided missile warships, are the U.S. & NATO's primary ballistic missile defense system. Some of the next-generation weapon systems are being developed by the ONR in conjunction with DARPA (Defense Advanced Projects Agency), the Department of Defense's research arm, including the Laser Weapon System (LaWS) that will be installed on the latest Flight III version of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer's currently under construction. In 2021 they announced a project that was developing a rail gun for use on the Zumwalt-class stealth guided missile destroyers but no estimate on a testing date is known; and is helping develop the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapons (LRHW) system, which is a deck mounted hypersonic missile launcher and is slated to be tested on the newly commissioned Zumwalt-class destroyer USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) in 2025.