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

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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.