SUBJ: Should We Expect Moties?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110626.html
Cecil Rose
= = = = = = =
The Great Daylight Fireball of 1972.
<http://i.imgur.com/qsNwG.jpg>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Daylight_1972_Fireball>
Roland Dobbins
It is my understanding that events of this magnitude take place fairly often, several a year, but are seldom observed. They take place at high altitude and over water and there’s no one there to see them. Like the tree falling in the forest…
= = = = = =
Earth’s temperature.
Interesting article and comments:
I can’t help thinking that it may get cold around here …
Love the new format.
Andrew McCann.
I continue to insist that I just don’t know. I know something about temperature measurements, and models, and combining multiple observations, but I have no idea how to combine all the various temperature measurements to get an average temperature of the Earth, and I do know that what we see in most “annual averages” is a slow steady rise since 1800, which squares with almanacs and general observations. I keep looking for a good introduction to temperature measurement and averaging models, but I haven’t found one I can recommend.
= = = = = = =
Elderly woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search
http://www.newsherald.com/news/mother-94767-search-adult.html
A woman has filed a complaint with federal authorities over how her elderly mother was treated at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend.
Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.
Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.
I know I feel a lot safer now.
John
Think of the courage required to Do One’s Duty Despite Harassment, and thus to Serve and Protect and Guard Men from Harm. We can only sit in admiration with folded hands…
= = = = = = =
On people videotaping police
http://www.theagitator.com/2011/06/24/
petty-thuggishness-in-rochester/
Dear Dr. Pournelle:
Radley Balko is a journalist who’s been covering this sort of thing for awhile now. Given your recent interest I thought I’d send you a link to his website. I hope you feel better soon.
Regards,
Tim Scott=
= = = = = = =
‘Apart from appreciation and investment, it might be an alien concept for laymen outside the Chinese system that one of the most essential functions of art works is corruption.’
<http://www.opendemocracy.net/openeconomy/
antony-ou/chinese-art-of-elegant-bribery>
Roland Dobbins
= = = = = = = = =
The Lordkin and the Burning City.
Jerry,
This article is astonishing.
The lack of response by police is even more reprehensible than the aggression of the mob.
KelTec has introduced a new bullpup design, pump action, 12 gauge shotgun with twin magazine tubes that you can select from. Imagine being able to switch from slugs to double ought buck at the flick of a lever. I’m going to get me one of these. It will be a great companion for my HK-91, Dessert Eagle .50, and Barrett 0.50. I think it is getting time to clean out the hippodrome again.
Jim Crawford
It may come to that, but I am not eager for it. Long ago I noted that many in the survival movement could hardly wait for the collapse of civilization. I kept pointing out that the goal was to keep it; that it was all very well to be ready for a collapse, and to have the organization and training and abilities to survive that collapse, but the best way to survive a nuclear war is not to have one; I chose to work on Assured Survival as a national strategy, and ballistic missile defenses, even as my friend Mel Tappan established a base in Oregon. I do believe that civilized households ought to be armed; but I am not eager to have live action practice with survival guns.
= = = = = = = =
biowarfare
Dear Jerry,
The basic problem confronting germ warfare, chemical warfare and dirty nukes is dispersion. (Aha! a physics issue) It is very difficult to get wide dispersion, especially in cities, and it is probable that a terrorist attack in a large city would only affect a couple of blocks.
There is also the problem of control. The Dept of Defense was happy to get rid of biological and chemical weapons because experience had shown that their direction of spread could not be predicted.
Bioweapons, of course, have the potential for wider spread because of infection. But, a bioweapons manufacturer has a difficult virulence/infection problem. High-virulence microbes like Ebola do not spread very far because their victims do not live long enough to infect many people.
The best examples of “biowarfare” are the Black Death in Europe and the spread of Eurasian diseases in the New World. The Black Death killed about 30% of the European population it affected. Moreover, in the New World, although some people have claimed that 90% of the population died off, the true figure is probably less than 50% and might have been as low as 30%.
You remember that smallpox, a highly effective pathogen of world-wide spread, was in fact eliminated.
In short, bio-, chemi- and dirty nuclear weapons are greatly overrated as terrorist tools. Plenty of highly local destruction and terror, but not Katrina-level effects.
Yours,
Bob
I do not discuss technical details of biological warfare with some exceptions when speaking of preparedness; but I can tell you that a good high school biology class could in fact come up with a, if not Katrina, then 9-11 level event involving multiple outbreaks and claiming disproportionate casualties among First Responders and some emergency room workers. If I can work that out, then others can. It is not a trivial matter.
= = = = = = = =
