A day at the range with Hunter and Conan

Americans with disabilities act compliant mosh pit

I hope it was his idea to crowd surf.  " Hey, Jim bob, betcha can't lift that guy in the chair over yer head"

The Other Precious Metals

Full size

EMP the Silent Storm

An EMP or electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation that can cause a voltage surge in electronics and electrical systems.  If strong enough this can destroy microelectronics or knock down the electric grid.  This can be caused by an intense solar storm, a nuclear detonation or can be created through technical means.

The Sun.

The first major solar event that had electrical consequences is known as the Carrington Event.

On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over theRocky Mountains that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.^[4] According to professor Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, "people in the northeastern U.S. could read newspaper print just from the light of the aurora."^[5]Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases even shocking telegraph operators.^[6] Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire.^[7] Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.^[8]

Another more damaging solar even happened in 1921 causing several fires around the world.

 May 13, 1921 - The New York Railroad Storm - The prelude to this particular storm began with a major sunspot sighted on the limb of the sun vast enough to be seen with the naked eye through smoked glass. The spot was 94,000 miles long and 21,000 miles wide and by May 14th was near the center of the sun in prime location to unleash an earth-directed flare. The 3-degree magnetic bearing change among the five worst events recorded ended all communications traffic from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi. At 7:04 AM on May 15, the entire signal and switching system of the New York Central Railroad below 125th street was put out of operation, followed by a fire in the control tower at 57th Street and Park Avenue. No one had ever heard of such a thing having happened during the course of an auroral display. The cause of the outage was later ascribed to a 'ground current' that had invaded the electrical system. Railroad officials formally assigned blame for a fire destroyed the Central New England Railroad station, to the aurora. Telegraph Operator Hatch said that he was actually driven away from his telegraph instrument by a flame that enveloped his switchboard and ignited the entire building at a loss of $6,000. Over seas, in Sweden a telephone station was 'burned out', and the storm interfered with telephone, telegraph and cable traffic over most of Europe. Aurora were visible in the Eastern United States, with additional reports from Pasadena California where the aurora reached zenith. [Newspaper Archive]

And from 1989:

 A similar flare on March 13, 1989, provoked geomagnetic storms that disrupted electric power transmission from the Hydro Québec generating station in Canada, blacking out most of the province and plunging 6 million people into darkness for 9 hours; aurora-induced power surges even melted power transformers in New Jersey.

also:

 Six million people were affected as they woke to find no electricity to see them through a cold Quebec wintry night. People were trapped in darkened office buildings and elevators, stumbling around to find their way out. Traffic lights stopped working, Engineers from the major North American power companies were worried too. Some would later conclude that this could easily have been a $6 billion catastrophe affecting most US East Coast cities. All that prevented the cascade from affecting the United States were a few dozen capacitors on the Allegheny Network. [Newspaper Archive]

Micro electronics are far more widespread now than they were in 1989 and our grid doesn't have the backup equipment in reserve for a large Carrington size event.  While we debate global warming computer models of what might happen, only the US military has shielding on much of its electronic equipment in case of a EMP or large solar storm.  Our grid is not prepared for what has happened and what will inevitably happen in the future.

Things you can do.

Sheild your electronics.  Mind you saving your cell phone which wouldn't have a working network anyway may be a waste of time.  But things like walkie talkies, lap tops, short wave radios and spare medical equipment may be worth considering.

This is a very simple Faraday cage to shield from an emp.



This is simple and capacious



I like this design but doubt that this is really necessary if you have a generator with a pull start and no electronics.

Lined ammo boxes work well as a simple faraday cage as well as one of those popcorn tins that are so popular as gifts during the holidays.

Rice, Rice baby....

But where are the Pokemon?

The Tungsten "Bomb"

If the government spent as time trying to solve problems at home as the did in finding ways to kill our enemies, we would be living in a utopia by now.

Project Thor was a work around to avoid the apparently all too constraining nuclear treaties that we had signed.  In effect projectiles would be put into earth orbit and released with a small amount of thrust to the intended target.  Essentially it is a solid tungsten telephone pole and not an explosive.

The most described system is "an orbiting tungsten telephone pole with small fins and a computer in the back for guidance". The weapon can be down-scaled, an orbiting "crowbar" rather than a pole.  The system described in the 2003 United States Air Force (USAF) report was that of 20-foot-long (6.1 m), 1-foot-diameter (0.30 m) tungsten rods, that are satellite controlled, and have global strike capability, with impact speeds of Mach 10, and strike 25-foot accuracy.^[3][4][5]

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

by John Macneill Space-based weapons have exceptionally disparate advantages and disadvantages: They are extremely powerful and difficult to defend against, but they’re also expensive to launch and maintain and they’re in constant motion above the Earth. John Macneill
This technology is very far out—in miles and years. A pair of satellites orbiting several hundred miles above the Earth would serve as a weapons system. One functions as the targeting and communications platform while the other carries numerous tungsten rods—up to 20 feet in length and a foot in diameter—that it can drop on targets with less than 15 minutes’ notice. When instructed from the ground, the targeting satellite commands its partner to drop one of its darts. The guided rods enter the atmosphere, protected by a thermal coating, traveling at 36,000 feet per second—comparable to the speed of a meteor. The result: complete devastation of the target, even if it’s buried deep underground. (The two-platform configuration permits the weapon to be “reloaded” by just launching a new set of rods, rather than replacing the entire system.)

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-06/rods-god

This is an awesome amount of power with surgical accuracy.   Something like this floating around up there is down right scary when you figure the frequency that satellites fall out of orbit and hurtle towards earth.  

Eroding Silver Supply

The video may be a bit hyperbolic, but above ground silver supply has been on the decline for decades.  There are few cheap alternatives to silver if any for many of its uses.  Supply will continue to be constrained for some time.  Investment demand is what to continue to keep an eye on.  A mad rush could drive a super spike in the price of silver and crash the comex.

Palladium: Going, going, gone.

For years palladium has been dependent upon stockpile selling to keep supply in line with demand.  Russian government stockpiles have been virtually sold off and private stockpiles by the Russian nickel miner Norilsk Nickel are winding down.  Also, palladium is a byproduct of nickel mining.  A downturn in nickel prices and lowered production will lower the production of palladium.  


Combine supply constraints with increasing demand from investment as several palladium ETF's have widely available.  The US mint is now planning to offer Pd bullion coins taking more off the market.  Barring a global slowdown demand for catalytists used in automobiles and increased investment demand the picture for Pd has looked this good since it rallied past platinum.  


link

Russia's MMC Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest palladium producer, will sharply cut sales from its stockpile in the next two years before ending them altogether in 2014, a company executive said Thursday.

• 

• The stockpile has supplied about 15 percent of global demand for palladium, which is used in vehicle catalytic converters, for the last 40 years.

Anton Berlin, Norilsk Nickel's marketing director, told participants at the ETF Securities Annual Precious Metals Conference 2011 that palladium sales this year from the company's stockpile will be about 850,000 ounces.During 2012 and 2013 the publicly held company, which is also the world's biggest nickel producer, will sell a total of some 300,000 ounces of palladium, after which its stockpile will be depleted, he said.This year Norilsk Nickel expects to produce 2.7 million ounces of palladium, about 2.8 percent less than it produced in 2010.
In a recent FT article, Johnson Matthey forecast that palladium would trade at an average of $650 per ounce over the next six months, and platinum to trade at $1650 per ounce during the same time period. Russian agency Gokhran, the body in charge of selling Russia’s infamous palladium stockpiles, announced they would drastically reduce stockpile sales to 145,000 ounces next year – a more than 400 percent decrease – according to the article. In the short term, however, investors have been selling off; physical palladium ETFs will sell 215,000 net ounces of palladium, whereas they bought 1.1 million ounces last year.
The authorizing legislation for the American Palladium Eagle provides instructions for specific obverse and reverse designs to be used. Both are the work of the famous sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman. “Close likenesses” of the designs he created for a coin and medal are required to be used for the palladium bullion and collector coins.
The obverse of the Palladium Eagle will feature a high relief version of the Mercury Dime obverse. This series was produced from 1916 to 1945 and represents one of Weinman’s most remembered works.The full head of Liberty is pictured, facing left. She wears a winged cap, which makes her appearance reminiscent of Mercury, the Roman god of trade profit and commerce. This led to the use of the common name “Mercury Dime” over the more accurate “Winged Liberty Dime”. The inscription “Liberty” appears above, with the letters widely spaced. The motto “In God We Trust” appears before the front of Liberty’s neck.
The reverse of the Palladium Eagle will be a high relief version of the 1907 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal reverse. Weinman had designed the medal with help from Charles McKim and George B. Post for the first year of the important architectural honor.
A standing American Eagle with upraised wings is pictured pulling a laurel branch out of a rock with its beak. On the original medal, the rock included “AIA” and the name of the architect being honored. These inscriptions would presumably be removed for the new bullion and collectors coins. The design bears similarities to the reverse of the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, which was designed by Weinman for the circulating half dollar issued from 1916 to 1945.
A main purpose of the new bullion product is to offer a fourth precious metal option to the American Eagle line-up which currently consists of silver, gold and platinum. The addition of coins would theoretically reduce the intense Silver Eagle demand placed on the United States Mint as palladium's market price is in the range between gold and silver.
"A one-troy ounce palladium coin would offer the precious metals investor an interesting price point for market entry," Michael Clark, Diamond State Depository President, testified July 20, 2010, before the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. "We do believe it is an ideal price-point for many investors," added Clark. "As a result of producing a palladium coin, we believe it would have the effect of reducing the burden on the Mint for Silver Eagle production."
For 2010, palladium is averaging over $500 an ounce whereas gold and silver are at $1200-plus and $19-plus, respectively. Each of the American Palladium Eagle coins will have a denomination of $25 and contain one ounce of .9995 palladium.
Public Law 111-303 throws in a new twist for the collector proof and uncirculated versions, dictating that the numismatic pieces feature varying "surface treatments" each year. The United States Mint must produce the proof versions at West Point, but it is allowed to select where to strike the other two coins.
The law also requires that the Palladium Eagles be composed of palladium mined in the U.S. or its territories. Stillwater Mine in Montana is the only American location where palladium is mined.

Full Size house made from Legos

Creating Anti-matter

Since 1995 Cern has been creating anti-matter, specifically anti-hydrogen, for fleeting nano seconds.  More recently they have been able to contain them for several minutes.  It becomes more and more difficult to contain the more that is produced due to interaction between the anti-atom causing them to veer out of containment and  being neutralized by matter.

http://alpha-new.web.cern.ch/home

The first beam of the 2011 season was delivered to ALPHA from the AD (Antiproton Decelerator) on the night of May 9th.

The image here shows some of the first antiprotons captured in the trap. It's produced by dumping the particles onto an MCP/phosphor -- the bright circular shape is the electron plasma used to cool the antiprotons from a few keV (kiloelectron volts = 1000 electron volts) to a few eV. The more diffuse cloud off to an angle on the left is the antiproton cloud. There are about 30,000 antiprotons here, which is what we get from one shot (cycle) of the AD.

Here's to another great run!

Bitches don't know about my cello!

30 Years of Metallica

October 15th 2011 marks the 30th year of Metallica's formation.

Titanic Crustaceanics

Um, I might opt out of taking an idle stroll through this creek...

Apparently, the world record crawfish come from Tasmania. According to this post, "These crayfish reach average sizes of at least 40 cm (15.7 inches) in total length, but even huger sizes of up to 80 cm (31.5 inches) in total length and weighing up to 6 kg (13.2 lbs) have been recorded."
Get yer traps ready boys, we're gonna have a seafood, er... landfood? boil!

All my bitches (nails) be representin

Bi$natches be reppinall my favorite flavors, yo. Uhhh wait, where's Dicks and In-N-Out?

FYI: Ghetto Greetings

Improvised Flower Pot Fridge. This is impressive.

I gotta try this out camping when the cooler is too full of  food to chill enough beer.

Spotting a Hidden Handgun

Cosmic Rays can Affect the Climate through Cloud Formation.

Who would of thought.  The sun just utterly dwarfing the earth, can have a impact-full effect on earth even with the smallest fluctuations in its emissions 

This may explain why the ice caps on mars have been melting, or even before the use of fossil fuels we had ice ages and warming periods.

At least it seems now unique research is making it through the intellectual inertia of peer reviewed journals.

40th anniversary for the Stanford Prison Experiment Ending.

An interesting BBC documentary on the Stanford Prison Experiment. A rather flawed experiment, made out to be an indictment on humanity. Without clear top down direction it shows how something like Abu Greb can happen.

For more experiments on how the average person is just a few uncomfortable situations from being a Nazi, check out the following.

40th anniversary of Nixon Closing the Gold Window.

40 years ago Nixon took us off the Bretton Woods gold standard blaming speculators for what was decades of poor US fiscal policy.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Paying for a war and social programs that we couldn't afford caused a crisis in confidence.  Same then as now.  Gold or a AAA rating from S+P it is always something other than poor government policy that is to blame by politicians.

UPDATE:  Gold closed today at $1763 oz.. 40 years ago we closed the gold window at $35 oz..  This represents a 10.3% compounded annual return in gold.  Not too bad for something that you can bury in the backyard instead of trusting your money to a "too big to fail" bank or Wall Street.

Another way to look at it is a dollar was 1/35 oz of gold in 1971 and is now a 1/1763 oz of gold.

Dave Mustaine Talking about the Endgame.

United States note, not a federal reserve note, nowhere does it say federal reserve.

The Cold War Never Ended?

Crowd sourced reviews not always helpful

Russian Redneck

This guy rivals those south of mason dixon, I wish I had access to this type of ordnance to play with. His pig recipe may need some improvement though.

Method Actors....

Baking has given me similar trouble, I think that it is the whole "beers until completion ratio" is way too high especially waiting for bread to rise, ergo microwave popcorn: safe.

Comex Silver Follow Up

As I previously mentioned the silver inventory in the worlds largest silver futures market, the comex, is dwindling:

So another 3 million ounces is snatched up in the last 45 days. At this rate there won't be much left by the end of the year, if current trends continue. When the sharks start circling, realizing if they all pile in they might corner the market, things could get ugly. A reverse minksy moment could happen, where investors realize they won't get delivery and prices will spike.

Atomic boy scouts, you're about to be on the radar...

Seen this copter above your neighborhood? (picture from an article in today's Seattle Times)

According to a post at the department of public health, you may. The article indicates that a helicopter will be working a grid at an altitude of 300ft to map background radiation levels around Seattle and certain outlying areas. Interesting approach to this issue, wouldn't it be more meaningful to merely map the background radiation at the existing monitoring sites? I'm highly doubtful that in the event of another fukushima-like incident that the health department has the bandwidth or equipment to deploy to specific neighborhoods to give real-time data reports of how the city is fairing during the event. This smells of witch hunt and unnecessarily burned (at the tune of somewhere around $5/gal and 30++gal per hour) avgas to me.

Ollie Klublershturf vs. The Nazis

That Ollie's got moxie.

The demise of Cash and return of gold?

A few pieces I came across in the new lately:

From the Mises blog:

The New York Times reports ,
The number of dollar bills rolling off the great government presses here and in Fort Worth fell to a modern low last year. Production of $5 bills also dropped to the lowest level in 30 years. And for the first time in that period, the Treasury Departmentdid not print any $10 bills. 

Come to think of it, I’ve noticed that $10s seem scarce. 

Most airlines will not take cash for drinks onboard, online purchases require plastic, and even New York cabbies are taking debit and credit cards more than a third of the time, according to the Times piece. 

But part of the reason that less new cash needs to be printed is that the government’s cash is now sturdier than before according to the Times’s Benyamin Applebaum.”Thanks to technological advances, the average dollar bill now circulates for 40 months, up from 18 months two decades ago, according to Federal Reserve estimates.” 

Pictures of Benjamin Franklin are an important export good for America.  Applebaum makes the point that producing $100s for a dime is big business as 2/3rds of the Benjamins are hoarded overseas.  The Fed paid $20 billion in seigniorage to the Treasury last year. 

“Last year Treasury printed more $100 bills than dollar bills for the first time,” writes Applebaum. “There are now more than seven billion pictures of Benjamin Franklin in circulation…”

Cash may not be as convenient  as electronic transactions but the demise of cash means more money for the financial sector.  Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover all charge merchants to accept credit cards, to the tune of 1.5%-4% plus a flat fee per transaction.  Debit cards have a fee as well.

It must be nice to make money on just accepting money, it's all a cost of doing business and is ultimately paid by the consumer.

Then you have the banks that if you are not charged a monthly fee for checking you get exorbitant fees all for the service of holding and having access to your money, this series of fees for things like using the wrong ATM is what is called "free checking".

Killing cash gives big finance a small piece of every transaction done electronically.  It is a multi-billion dollar business that we have become so accustom to that we don't even notice or think about the charges levied upon us.

I don't see cash coming back but with strong advocates like Dave Ramsey out there, many people trying to keep a handle on their finances are turning back to cash when they can.  If your wallet is empty of cash maybe you should stop buying, it's simple and helps budgeting.


Meanwhile in Switzerland:

Swiss Parliament to discuss gold franc

Right-wing party seeks way back to gold standard

  By Agnese Smith

Reuters

ZURICH (MarketWatch) — The Swiss Parliament is expected later this year to discuss the creation of a gold franc — a parallel currency to the official Swiss franc, with the fringe initiative likely triggering a broader debate about the role of the precious metal in the Alpine nation.

The initiative is part of “Healthy Currency,” a campaign sponsored by politicians from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) — the country’s biggest — that is seeking to capitalize on popular fears about global financial turmoil and inflation to reverse the government’s current policy on gold.

“I can imagine that this will spark some sort of debate about gold and there may be some pressure to accept the parallel currency,” said Dr. Gebhard Kirchgaessner, an economics professor at St. Gallen University. “But it won’t have any real effect on the economy. It seems incredible to imagine that there are people out there willing to buy millions of these things.”

Switzerland, which in 2000 became one of the last countries to decouple its currency from gold, is not the only place to contemplate a change in the precious metal’s role amid controversy over government involvement in the economy. In March, Utah became the first state in the U.S. to legalize gold and silver coins as currency, while similar legislation was considered in Montana, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho and Indiana.

“I want Swiss people to have the freedom to choose a completely different currency,” said Thomas Jacob, the man behind the gold franc concept. ”Today’s monetary system is all backed by debt — all backed by nothing — and I want people to realize this.”

Not that I think that the Swiss need to do this with already one of the strongest currencies in the world.  But when you already own all that gold you might as well do something with it other than let it gather dust in some vault buried in the Alps.

Saturday Morning Entertainment; the War Years.

Apparently this Bugs Bunny cartoon was banned and never shown in theaters. I hope it was for reasons other than not wanting to offend Nazis.


This surprisingly in-depth look at Nazi indoctrination by Walt Disney reads like a page out of Goebbels playbook.

Struck by Lighting; Twice.

With all the vehicles around I'm surprised this guy is what lighting finds the most "attractive". Maybe he doubled up on his electrolytes like powerade and it turned him into a lightning rod.

Yogi, Sasquatch or.....?

This three legged bear adapted to walk short distances upright. It would be downright scary to see this walking up on you in the woods. It might be easy to think it was a bigfoot at a distance.

Beer it does a body good.

Normally I like to knock back a cold one in the shower after an afternoon run, but it seems that science says its not such a bad idea. From the Telegraph:

A beer after playing a game of football, a long run, or a strenuous round of golf can be good for the body, scientists say.
In a rare piece of good news for those who like a pint, Spanish researchers say beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water.

Prof Manuel Garzon, of Granada University, also claimed the bubbles in beer help to quench the thirst and that its carbohydrate content can help to replace lost calories.

Prof Garzon asked a group of students to do strenuous exercise in temperatures of around 40ºC (104ºF). Half were given a pint of beer, while the others received the same volume of water.
Prof Garzon, who announced the results at a press conference in Granada beneath a banner declaring "Beer, Sport, Health", said the hydration effect in those who drank beer was "slightly better".
Juan Antonio Corbalan, a cardiologist who worked formerly with Real Madrid football players and Spain's national basketball team, said beer had the perfect profile for re-hydration after sport.
He added that he had long recommended barley drinks to professional sportsmen after exercise.
Previous studies have shown most alcoholic drinks have a diuretic effect – meaning they increase the amount of liquid lost by the body through urination.
Dr James Betts, an expert on nutrition and metabolism at Bath University, said a moderate amount of beer might be just as good as water at helping the body retain liquid, but that he doubted it could be any better.
Dr Betts said: "If you are dehydrated to start with following exercise, a beer, as opposed to a spirit, probably does not have a high enough concentration of alcohol to induce a diuretic effect."

Technological singularity; the rise of the machines. Science fiction?

The notion of "self-aware" computers has been around focused on by academics since the 1950's.  Computers and programming was still in its infancy then but the new possibilities led their minds to ponder where does it end?
In today's world it still seems a stretch to go from my crash prone computer to a self aware HAL or Skynet.  But follow Moore's Law over time and computing speed continues to increase while cost continues to drop.

As the trend-line goes, in another few decades computers will catch up with the computing ability of the human mind.  If computing capacity is not just relegated to novelties like playing chess or Jeopardy, and given more latitude to solve problems we see the jump analogous to a few amino acids making the jump to self replicating life, but in an exponentially growing time span not geologic.

The chart just graphs a single device making calculations, not a linked internet.  Global computing capacity continues to grow exponentially, becoming more and more interconnected.  Web-bots are being used for basically data mining now, but what happens when the data starts to be put together.  A botnet can be used to access millions of computers, the information and capacity is out there or will be out there as time goes on.

An artificial intelligence program could go rogue and it probably only takes one time.  Scientists are already working on this and what to do in possible contingencies.  Building an off switch, but how do you do that with out it knowing.  How do you do anything without it knowing or just having built in redundancies for survival.  It becomes that the technological singularity is more evolutionary biology than it is computer science.

NPR did a piece on this topic a while back, showing how some of the brightest minds in silicon valley are working on dealing with issues that may arise with the rise of the machines.






As a post script:

If not looked as something to fear, but as the next step in evolution.  Thinking in geologic time frames, since the formation of the earth man has walked it very little.  The earth has not been habitable  to man through most of its existence.  The universe is far more friendly to silicon based "lifeforms" than carbon based lifeforms.  To think that humans may become the intelligent designers of future distant  civilizations may not be far off.  Mankind has dealt with die offs in mass proportion in the past and will sure do so in the future.  We haven't mastered pandemic flu, meteoric impact, or even climate change let alone the possibility of anthropogenic climate change.  We may be out lasted by what we have helped create.

I always wondered about an AK Pistol holster...

As seen on calguns.net May be a little slow on the draw? I do like the built in +4 capacity in the holster!

Mammatus Clouds......giggity.

Not really mammatus but you can see where they get their name.

MineCache Google Earth plugin and the Washington State Miner blog

Thanks to a post on the Washington State Miner blog, I was tipped off to this plugin that is able to pull information from the USGS Geocommunicator and the BLM and overlay it on Google Earth as shown above. The blog post offers a good primer on use of the MineCache plugin.
The Washington State Miner blog also has some good tools and links - for example, I found a local club that I hadn't previously run across (North American Prospectors Association) which has some good rockhounding info. Both sites worth checking out if you have a spare minute.

Umatilla Depot

Every once in a while you find a government outreach effort that is actually informational. I've always wondered what goes on at the Umatilla depot, but never once guessed that there would be a brick and mortar presence to educate the public. Trash talk aside, this is fairly informational for those of you who, like myself, have seen this on the map and wondered what happens down there. As safe as the operation is portrayed to be, it is curious to note that the official city of Hermiston website isn't doing much (read anything) to promote this information to those outside the community.

2 Tough Questions

As with much quoted history, some creative licence is taken. Not the 8th child but the 2nd and the mother probably didn't know she had syphilis.

Still though, interesting points are made.

This Burger Tastes Like Crap!

Oh, wait... that's what it really is.

In this case, I think I'll literally hold my breath while waiting for these to hit the market shelves. Be sure to observe the official refrigerator labeling at 1:33.

Green Bullets...And Werewolf Hunting

Recent postings show that the Army is working on a new .223 round which has been called a 'green bullet', AKA the M855A1 (gotta love the oxymoronical nature of a 'green bullet'). And in a roundabout way, they have also acknowledged that the battlefield effectiveness of the current M855 round is less than adequate... "Army officials acknowledged that the M855 "has not been providing the 'stopping power' the user would like at engagement ranges less than 150 yards," according to a 2005 briefing, the Army Times reported last year." according to a posting on foxnews.com.

While researching the whole green bullet issue, I happened to across another site that those of you in Werewolf country really do need to read... especially if you're a hand loader.
Teenwolf, tell your homies there's a different kinda shotgun headed your way...

The Last time Fort Knox was open to the Public: 1974

Interesting that at the end of the piece it was said that the public PR campaign will be an annual event, even though they haven't had one since.

Stuxnet; the information age's Hiroshima

Stuxnet is a computer worm that is taking cyber-warfare to a whole new level.  Surgical in its nature, it was designed for a specific purpose to to destroy Iran's nuclear enrichment capabilities. Now the toothpaste is out of the proverbial tube and will not be put back in, targets can be anything, our electrical grid, infrastructure, air traffic control, etc..  One has to wonder if there is a computer programmer out there muttering "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." 

My Vote for Husband of the Year.

Is Online Match Making Benign Eugenics?

One just needs to watch enough TV or listen to the radio long enough to hear an ad for eharmony or match.com. We are told about "degrees of compatibility" and how a complicated computer algorithm will pair you with you perfect match.

On an evolutionary basis where does this put us. For eons people have been pairing up based upon much more than just "personality traits". Scent plays a large role, science is beginning to find out. It has been shown that not only can your olfactory system determine a potential mates immune systems characteristics, but also that "better smelling" BO is a trait of people with better facial symmetry (read attractiveness). The evolutionary basis for determining a mates immune system is to find one different than your own so your offspring have a broader immunity.

More found here: Scent and Attraction

Scent and deepness in a man's voice have also shown signs of fertility. With a computer tabulating multiple choice answers of your personality, one has to wonder after how many generations of swimming in only one part of the gene pool will it take to change fertility rates, personalities, and even appearance.

Physical traits such as appearance have been linked to personality. In a famous case Dmitry Konstantinovich Belyaev, a Russian biologist in Siberia undertook a culling and selective breeding program for the Silver fox. Aggressive foxes were slaughtered while the more tame foxes where spared. This went on for several generations until not only were the foxes no longer feral but actually lost physical traits such as pointy ears - which after selective breeding now lay flat on their heads.

Just the simple act of selecting for tameness destabilized the genetic make up of these animals in such a way that all sorts of stuff that you would never normally see in a wild population suddenly appeared.

Since the beginning of civilization guys have been scratching their heads why some hot girl loves them "like a brother" but only seems to date assholes, and why their buddies put up with their high maintenance bitches who don't even put out much. Sometimes biology might may be filling in traits where the rational mind appears to be lacking logic.

Several generations of computer selection could easily have negative outcomes. It may be health, fertility or even physical traits. We've got this far as a species without computer match making, why start now?