PolitiCook.net

Chemical Weapons V: Locations

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

The United States chemical weapons stockpile is distributed all around the country. There was one outside of the Continental United States, but it is done will all operations now. Some of the facilities are finished and closed, but most others are not.

This will be a comparatively short diary to show where the stockpile is, or was. Some of those locations may be near you. Effort will be made to tell what kinds of materiel was located there. In no particular order they are:

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Could It Be Better?*

Preface to the First Edition:

“But for life the universe were nothing: and all that life has requires nourishment.” Read more »

Is it getting a bit chilly in here?

Texas Governor Fights U.S. Ethanol Rule That Raises Food Costs

By Alan Bjerga and Jim Efstathiou Jr.

July 21 (Bloomberg) — Rising U.S. gasoline prices and the growing world food crisis will clash this week when the Bush administration decides whether to relax rules requiring greater use of ethanol in auto fuels.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, backed by at least 26 senators and 51 representatives, is seeking to halve a requirement that the U.S. produce 9 billion gallons of ethanol this year. The Environmental Protection Agency must rule by July 24 on their request for a waiver of the rule [which is] favored by oil and food retailers and opposed by farm groups and environmentalists.

But wait… Governor Goodhair isn’t being entirely a friend to environmentalists here.

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Chemical Weapons IV: Delivery

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

For any weapon to be effective, a means of delivery must be devised. This is particularly important for chemical weapons, because, even with protective gear, there is extreme risk to the forces using them if off normal cases occur.

The first delivery system in World War I was to open a valve on a cylinder of chlorine (chlorine is a gas at normal pressures, but a liquid in the high pressure cylinder) and let the wind carry it towards the target. That works OK for materials like cyanogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, chlorine, and phosgene that are gases, but obviously will not work for solid and liquid materials. In addition, a shift in wind direction can be a disaster.

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Now, for something completely different. Reflections on the Commodore 64

Crossposted at http://Dailykos.com

A comment the other day jogged my mind to remember my Commodore 64 computer. How many of you used one years ago? To jog your mind, it had 64k memory, hence the name. No graphic interface, no mouse, just a keyboard.

I wish that I had not discarded it, along with the printer and the 1451 (as I recall) single sided floppy (5.25″) disk drive. It would have been better to keep those items in a box for posterity, but what can I say?

The C-64 was probably the first computer that was really available for the masses. It was easy to use (for the time), had a huge 64 kilobyte memory, and understood BASIC, so you could program it yourself. There were even some third party programs that actually worked well.

The C-64 was an integrated keyboard, processor, and associated memory and motherboard components, and would let you plug it into a TV to use as a monitor. You could add the single sided floppy disk drive, which was really essential in those days before flash memory or hard drives. One of my professors called the 5.25″ disk the “clipboard of the ’80s”. That is pretty apt. Does anyone out there have any 5.25″ floppies left?

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Power Breakfast

I finally got my tiny crockpot over here Friday, which means I can finally begin enjoying my favorite breakfast again: steelcut oatmeal with cinnamon, dried blueberries and nuts, with two eggs (from chickens I’m personally acquainted with) scrambled in olive oil on the side.

I begin the oatmeal the night before. Right before I go to sleep, I put three times more water than oatmeal in the crockpot, set it on low, add the cinnamon and the smallest dash of salt, then cover the pot. Next morning, I put the blueberries in to cook while I make coffee and scramble the eggs. Then, I add the nuts when I spoon the oatmeal into a bowl. If I have butter, I add it, and if I’m feeling the need for some extra health benefits, I add flaxseed oil.

The crockpot has been the perfect solution to my zomg, I just can’t get it together to eat at 5 a.m.! problem.

This is my power breakfast. When I eat this, I am fearsome!

Chemical Weapons III. How Nerve agents work

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

I had a change of plans.  It is easy to understand that materials like chlorine or phosgene, or even mustard agents work because they chemically attack cells, either destroying proteins and lipids, of by corrupting DNA.

Nerve agents work very differently, so this aside may shed some light on how these horrible materials work.  First, some basic physiology.  There are numerous chemical messengers in the body and brain, including dopamine (why people get addicted, but that is another post), norepinephrine, GABA, serotonin, and many others.  This has to with one called acetylcholine.

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Teena and Geoff are in Alaska, in Denali tonight

I just got a call from Teena (she found a place to charge her telephone) and they are having a ball.  They are in a cabin (gratis, from the owner who lives in Arkansas, in our town) that usually costs $270 a night.  Cool.  They are on the water, and the train comes around now and then.

It rained today, so they put off the train trip until tomorrow.  They did hike some trails, and Teena is well enough to climb quite a bit (she has something akin to COPD and a bad ankle due to an injury), and astonsished herself by reaching a goal.  Geoff climbed up a very difficult slope, and there may be pictures, depending on how they turn out when examined.

Geoff saw a moose, but did not have the camera at the time.  They are going to do the flight over McKinley either tomorrow or the next day, then to Anchorage.  She promises to send pictures from Anchorage when they are in a motel with high speed access.  I will post the best ones here.  The important part is that they are having a ball.  Warmest regards, Doc.

Teena and Geoff are in Alaska!

They got there early yesterday morning in Fairbanks, and are doing well.  The were fagged out by the long plane trip, but have both recovered.

They headed to a private cabin next to Denali NP today, and made it there a while ago.  Becasue of a little luck and a connection with folks in Arkansas, they have to pay only tips since the owner and Mrs. Translator are close friends.  Sometimes you get a plus!

They are right on the water, and both of them told me that it was gorgious.  They will take pictures, and I will post the best of them after they get computer access in a couple of days when they get to Anchorage.  This is the trip of their lives for both of them, and I am very happy that it is happening.

There is a Rest of the Story.  Mrs. Translator and I were dating seriously in 1976, when my parents (no longer with us) and I drove to Alaska in a 1973 Chevy Impala and a travel trailer.  We sold the car and trailer to pipeline workers and flew back.  Years later, my Mum indicated regret that we had not taken the furture Mrs. Translator on that trip, but thought that it would be somewhat improper.  She was likely right, as we could not keep our hands off of each other at the time.  Being 18 and 17 is a special time.  However, we were married just a year later and still are.  Warmest regards, Doc.

Links for your edification and viewing pleasure

Just a quick roundup of good links before I disappear for the afternoon.

First and foremost, the mother of them all, the one that was doing it when everyone else was buying Enron stock and counting on the equity in their McMansion, the one that was frugal and survivalist when frugal and survivalist weren’t cool (nod to Barbara Mandrell): Backwoods Home, which I’ve been meaning to put on our blogroll for days now.

Maybe if I didn’t have to buy new mowers every time I turned around or work or whatever, I’d get something done around here.

But no matter! Check it out! I’d post the link to The Psychotic Farmers Forum, too, because they’re awfully good, but they’re too wacky even for me half the time.

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