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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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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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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Chemical Weapons I. They are still in our world. Overview II

Crossposted at http://Dailykos.com

This will conclude the overview part of chemical weapons. Once again, I focus only on the ones that have been developed and stockpiled by primarily the United States and the Soviet Union.

Most of the information here is about really scary agents, the nerve agents, but there was or is an inventory of other agents, and a considerable amount is in the hands of the civil authorities.

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Chemical Weapons I. Overview

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

This the first in a series exploring chemical weapons. We will begin with a brief history and basic properties, then move to the state of chemical weapons in the world today. Chemical weapons have been used for centuries in warfare. One could say, at the extreme, blackpowder and other explosives are chemical weapons, but modern usage defines chemical weapons as having a physical, physiological, or combination of effects against people.

There are many classes of chemical weapons, from “tear gas” (technically called a lacrimator) up to the lethal agents, commonly the “mustards” (blistering agents, vesicants) and the “nerve” agents (nerve impulse disruptors).

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A New Constitition IV, with Respect to the other One

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

Last time we got through Article I, Section 3. This time we shall begin with Article I, Section 4 and keep going to the point that the diary begins to get too long.

I have gotten so many comments that I shall make a complete update after the end of this series, incorporating many of the great thoughts that folks have contributed. This series is designed to get readers to think, not to make my ideas the be all and end all. As always, the original text is blockquoted, my simpleminded rewrite is in normal text, and my harebrained logic in italics.

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A New Constitition III, with Respect to the other One

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

Last time we got paragraph 4 of Article I, Section 2. We will further investigate Article I this time.

As always, the original text is in blockquote, my suggestions in normal type, and my reasoning in italics.

I want this to be a forum for discussion, not my be all and end all. Suggestions are welcome, as are comments, flames (I do not like them much, but an occupational hazard, but do not be as silly as a critic last time that could not even match the criticism with the part), and most importantly, your thoughts on making a more perfect Union.

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A New Constitition II, with Respect to the other One

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

My initial entry in this series was not what I would call shown a carpet of roses on which to tread, but it did perform the intended purpose of getting people to think. I will continue tonight.

We will begin with Article I, and cover as much of it as reasonably possible in this space. As always, the original text is shown in blockquote, the replacement wording in normal text, and my reasoning in italics. To make long sections easier to follow, I will slice and dice up paragraphs after the blockquote.

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How Fireworks Work, by a Pyro

Crossposted at Dailykos.com

I touched on fireworks a little in my series on the electromagnetic spectrum, and it is here.

Since it is topical today, I decided to expound on it a little. The “pyro” term is apt because I spent several years as a pyrotechnician, making everything from better screening smokes, better signaling smokes, better delivery systems, and novel bursting mixes for the Army as a civilian.

Fireworks are ancient, dating back, as best we can tell, to China. That is where black powder, a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur, was developed. The Chinese used it in small rockets for display and for warfare for centuries until it, and its formula, made its way to Europe around 1250 C.E., give or take. That is where fireworks got started.

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