Category Archives: Technology

Technology

Chemical Weapons Primer

Chemical weapons have been in use ever since recorded history.  The substances used in chemical warfare are known as agents.  Agents used for concealment or signaling, such as smoke, or for causing fires, called incendiaries, or those producing odors, have been used for ages prior to the 20th Century.  No thanks to the industrial revolution of the 19th Century, much more lethal chemical agents have been created.

The first use of modern chemical weapons took place during World War 1.  Two types of agents were used; chlorine, a choking agent, and mustard, a blister agent.  Mustard gas is what Iraq used during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, and it’s what is currently leaking out of a storage site in Colorado.

Prior to World War 2, the Germans developed an even more potent gas while searching for a better way to kill insects.  Most people know it as bug spray, or Raid.  For military purposes it is known as nerve agent.

After WW2, advanced chemical agents were developed, produced, and stockpiled by various countries, with the United States and the Soviet Union leading the way.  The irony is that many of those countries, including the U.S.A., and the USSR, signed agreements not to develop chemical weapons.

There is plenty of evidence that the U.S. used chemical weapons in Vietnam, and the Soviets used chemicals in Afghanistan.

Choking agents work by inflaming the bronchial tubes and lungs.  In severe cases the lungs fill with fluid and you drown.  Chlorine and phosgene are types of chocking agents.  Many people have accidentally made a chocking agent by mixing bleach and other cleaning chemicals together.  Many people actually die from this mistake.  If exposure is not severe some allergy medications can help counter the effects.

Blister agents have no immediate effect, but produce inflammation (blisters), burns and destroy mucus membranes.  The most famous type is Mustard.  If you look at the video of the victims of Iraq’s Mustard gas attacks you’ll notice a grey white substance around their mouth and nose.  It is their destroyed mucus membranes.  You must wear a gas mask with a proper filter, and a protective suit.  The most serious effect of Blister on your skin is incredibly large blisters. You can not wear a wet cloth for protection, because moisture actually attracts the chemical.  There is little that can be done for a victim of blister agent.  If it is not severe the victim will have permanent injuries.

Riot control agent, aka tear gas, irritates the mucus membranes causing watery eyes, runny nose and difficulty breathing.  My experience with it only caused pain in my eyes, while others around me suffered from the most extreme case of runny nose I’ve ever seen.  People who have respiratory problems can die, as well as anyone who inhales huge amounts of the agent.  Unlike Blister agents, a wet cloth is your best defense with Riot agents.  Fresh air is the best treatment.

Blood agents are inhaled, and kill or injure by preventing your red blood cells from carrying oxygen.  The most common type is carbon monoxide.  Many people who kill themselves use this method by breathing in the exhaust of gas powered cars (it’s actually difficult to kill yourself with the exhaust of diesel powered cars).  Fresh air is the best treatment, but if not soon enough permanent brain damage occurs.

Nerve agent, aka bug spray, destroys your ability to control your muscles by blocking the enzyme cholinsterase.  A small amount can blur your vision, cause headaches and chest tightening.  A moderate amount causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and muscular convulsions.  Heavy exposure causes severe convulsions, coma and death.  Next time you spray a bug with insecticide pay attention to how it dies, because it’s basically how you’ll die when hit with nerve agent.  The only protection is a gas mask with proper filter, and a full protective suit (nerve agent can be absorbed by your skin).  The only treatment for nerve agent is also deadly.  Atropine can be taken no more than three times after heavy exposure to nerve agent, more than three times and you could die from the atropine.  Atropine taken at any other time can kill you.  Atropine is also used in medicine, mainly to treat certain poisonings, but, atropine is also a poison derived from the Deadly Nightshade plant.

Chemical weapons have proven to be inefficient weapons.  That’s why they’re not really used that much.  The main reason is that wind and rain can totally cancel out their affects on the battlefield.  Chemical weapons work well only in confined areas, like valleys protected from high winds, or city streets surrounded by tall buildings, or gas chambers.

Also, studies show that well trained troops have a 98% survival rate when hit with chemical weapons.  There are studies that suggest that governments might be keeping chemical weapons because they work well on civilians.  One study says that a civilian population hit with chemical weapons, and with the right atmospheric conditions, would suffer 80% fatalities.

Other studies show that the most likely cause of civilian deaths would be from an accident involving the transport, or storage, of chemical weapons.

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, Technology, U.S.

It’s official: Idaho’s internet services suck!

After decades spending millions of dollars to get Idahoan’s connected to the World Wide Web, Idaho has the slowest connection speed in the U.S.

Pando Networks surveyed 4 million internet customers across the country, and found Idaho’s average connection speed to be 318 kilobytes per second, with 83% completion rate.

Idaho’s northern neighbor, Montana, and eastern neighbor Wyoming, also made the slow connection list.  Wyoming actually has a slightly faster connection rate, than Idaho.

Two of Idaho’s other neighbors, Washington and Oregon, made the top 15 fastest rates.

So who’s number one in the United States for internet connection speed?  Tiny old Rhode Island: 894 KPbs!

International, Technology

Israelis develop pill for PTSD, erase your memory. Can you put someone on trial for War Crimes if they can’t remember?

Israeli researchers claim to have developed a pill to prevent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It won’t help with existing cases.  It works by using the hormone cortisol, which scientists believe prevents the “fixing” of traumatic memories in your mind.

Essentially the pill erases traumatic memories, by preventing them from being stored in your mind.  The pill must be taken within 24 hours of a traumatic event.

Studies were done using injections, and were successful.  Israeli researchers think its main use will be on soldiers.

Business/Economics, International, Technology

Museum Incompetence: 1,000 year old porcelain broken, covered up

A Chinese blogger revealed that officials with the Beijing Museum (aka Forbidden City), covered up a potentially million dollar disaster.

A researcher smashed a 1,000 year old plate from the Song Dynasty.  The researcher was using a device that’s intended to protect porcelains during inspection, but instead the plate was smashed due to operator error.

Officials with the museum decided not to report the incident.  The last time a Song Dynasty plate sold at auction in New York City, it sold for $1.54 million.

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

Mainstream Media Hype: Scooters suck, new Mazda 2 gets just as good MPG as a Scooter, and you can carry four people and groceries

The latest hype by the mainstream media is trying to create a craze for scooters.  One report says they get 70 mpg.  Guess what?  So does the new Mazda 2, and it’s a car.

So what’s more practical?  Getting a scooter that you might be able to squeeze two people onto, or getting a car that can hold at least four people, and groceries, and it gets the same mpg as a scooter?

In Japan, the new gas sipping Mazda 2 is sold under the name Demio (I already posted a story about it in June).  The amazing thing about the Demio is that it’s not a hybrid (no expensive batteries to replace), and it’s not a diesel (you can use the cheaper gasoline).  It uses a 1.3 liter gas engine.

As far as sales in the U.S., Mazda will begin selling a bigger car, the Mazda 3, with a bigger 2.0 liter version of the 1.3, later this year, or the beginning of next year.  The new Mazda 3 will get at least 40 mpg highway (no big deal my 145 hp 2003 KIA Spectra, with 5 speed manual transmission, gets 40 mpg).

They will also offer the 2.0 engine in a new Mazda CX-5.

Unfortunately, Mazda reps in the United States say there are no plans to sell the 70 mpg Demio/Mazda 2 in the U.S.  Maybe if enough people demand the car they will, so get moving everyone, flood Mazda North America with your demands for a 70 mpg car!  Who wants to drive a dangerous scooter all the time?

You can go to www.mazdausa.com, click on “contact us”.

International, Technology, U.S.

No Economic Recovery for U.S.: Desperate for sales, Lockheed pushes Japan to buy controversal F-35 jet

Steve O’Bryan, vice president for F-35 business development at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, was in Japan, trying to push them to buy the controversial jet.

The main reason the F-35 is so controversial is that it’s taken far longer to develop, and it has cost U.S. taxpayers far more than originally estimated.

O’Bryan is hoping Japan will buy the F-35 to replace it’s aging F-4 Phantom 2 jets.  Japan is one of the last countries still using the F-4.  Also, some of Japan’s newer F-2 jets (a bigger version of the F-16) were destroyed by the March 11 tsunami.

Japan also uses the F-15 Eagle.  In 2009 U.S. officials tried to convince Japan to buy the F-22 Raptor, but that deal fell through.

Lockheed Martin is selling the F-35 on the grounds that Japan needs to meet the growing threat from China’s latest aircraft designs.  The problem is that Japan is already developing a stealth fighter of its own.

Lieutenant General Hideyuki Yoshioka says Japan’s prototype stealth fighter is expected to make its first test flight in 2014, about the same time that Lockheed Martin thinks it will be ready to finally mass produce the F-35.  So much for the U.S. trying to sell the F-35 to Japan.

 

International, Technology

Brushing your teeth can get you pregnant

“Our data suggest that the presence of periodontal disease is a modifiable risk factor, which can increase a woman’s time to conception, particularly for non-Caucasians.”-Roger Hart, University of Western Australia.

An Australian study links clean teeth to increased birth rates.  3,416 women were tracked, and the results suggest that bad oral hygiene in Caucasian women delayed their ability to get pregnant by two months.

The study might be “racist”, but it concluded that non-Caucasian women with gum disease took a full year to get pregnant.

Previous studies have also concluded that men with dirty mouths have a hard time getting women pregnant.  I don’t know how serious we should take these studies, because other studies have linked dirty mouths to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even respiratory problems.

 

Fukushima, Technology

Nuclear & natural disasters inspire Mitsubishi to make a car you can cook with

Mitsubishi announced their new electric car can keep you from starving after a major disaster.

They claim that in case of major power loss to your home you can use the electric car to power your home appliances.  Supposedly the batteries in the car can hold enough power to run your house for one and a half days.

Well, I guess they weren’t thinking of a really big natural disaster, like what happened on 11 March 2011.  But getting through the first day after such a disaster is critical.

What we really need is someone to come up with a portable solar panel that’s powerful enough to cook with, and charge up the batteries on your electric car.  Then who needs utility companies?

Mitsubishi plans to start selling their electric survival car in 2012.

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, Technology

Government Incompetence: Europeans now blaming Egypt for deadly E Coli, no real proof, are GMOs to blame?

First the Germans blamed Spanish cucumbers.  Then they blamed sprouts, from a northern German farm.  Then the French blamed a German owned grocery store selling French grown sprouts.  Then the French blamed a U.K. seed company which supplied the seeds to grow the sprouts.   Then the Swedish blamed the Germans, then backed off when they began having e.coli cases in people who’d never been to Germany, or eaten sprouts.  Now the Europeans are blaming Egyptian fenugreek seeds for the deadly e.coli.  Fenugreek is used as an herb and a spice.

The Europeans have gone so far as to ban any more imports of Egyptian fenugreek.  On top of that they’re banning other Egyptian agricultural products, until they can be proven safe.

Here’s the problem; no one has proven conclusively where the deadly e.coli strain is coming from!

Fact: German health officials traced some of the e.coli cases back to a typhoid Mary suspect, a woman who worked for a catering company.  The woman seems to be a carrier.  She thinks she might have eaten sprouts.

Fact: E.coli comes from humans, not plants.  The only way plants could get infected is if they came into contact with humans waste.

So far at least 49 people have died, and more than 4,000 are sick.  Knowing the facts about the case, how can European officials now blame Egyptian fenugreek?  Of course they claim the seeds were used to grow the sprouts that made people sick.  But up ’till now the claim has been that “bean” sprouts are the culprits. Now suddenly it’s fenugreek sprouts?

Seeds get contaminated when they come into contact with the bacteria.  This could be at anytime in the planting, growing and harvesting process.  It only takes a tiny bit of the bacteria, once the seeds are planted not only does the plant grow, but some does the e.coli, and it spreads.  That’s the traditional way.

Here’s a new way: In an earlier posting I wrote how some scientists say it looks like the deadly e.coli strain was engineered in a lab.  If you understand the way genetic engineering of plants works, then it actually makes sense.  In order for scientist to make their genetic modifications ‘stick’, they must use a bacteria that is resistant to almost all forms of self preservation by the original plant genes.  Yes, e.coli is one of those deadly bacterias that agricultural giants like Monsanto could be using to create GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).

They also want their newly modified plants to be super resistant to natural diseases, and man made chemicals.  Again, that’s where the deadly bacterias come into play.  GMOs contain bacteria that are intentionally made to be super resistant.

Are we looking at the first cases of deadly results from genetically modified plants?

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, Technology, U.S.

Rare Earth Minerals the ‘oil’ of the 21st Century. Who controls the most? Same old adversaries of the 20th Century

Rare earth minerals will become the ‘oil’ of the 21st century.  That’s because they’re used in high tech electronics, and the more the world becomes reliant on electronics, the more valuable rare earth minerals become.

In fact, some analysts say some of the current wars raging on the African continent are all about control of rare earth minerals.

Here are some examples of rare earth minerals: Dysprosium is used in electric motors for vehicles, and Terbium for the latest televisions.

Who’re the biggest controllers of rare earths?  Why they’re the same major players of the Cold War in the 20th century: Russia (the boss of the Soviet Union during the Cold War), China and the United States.

However, China actually controls 90% of the production/refining of rare earths.  This is where their true power comes in.

Rare earth minerals are so important that the Japanese University of Tokyo spent a lot of money conducting a search for other sources of rare earths.  Their target search area was the Pacific Ocean.  International law would prevent any monopolization by any country, of rare earths found in the Pacific Ocean.

They found plenty.  From 2000 samples taken at 78 locations, Associate Professor Yasuhiro Kato estimates there is 800 times the rare earths at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, than there is on land.

They targeted volcanic vents on the Pacific Ocean floor.  Hawaii has a lot.  The problem is that most of the high concentrations are at depths of 3,000 to 6,000 meters (9,842 to 19,685 feet).  So there are technical limits to getting at the Pacific Ocean rare earths.