Dept. of Bad Ideas

This is a pretty worrying development- because US Forces are seizing too many weapons in Iraq (7million small arms) some bright spark has come up with the idea of creating an aerosol spray to aid them in rendering said weapons inoperable-

What the agency want to see instead: a non-toxic spray that can "penetrate rapidly into the [weapon's] active firing and/or actuation mechanisms and render them instantly and permanently inoperable."

The formulation will produce an accelerated corrosion (or other) reaction over a longer period of time (a few months or less), perhaps using the weapon material itself as a metallic catalyst, to destroy the weapon internal structure. The formulation must be effective in small quantities (i.e., a few grams per weapon), safe to use, stable over the range of operational temperature/humidity conditions, have a long shelf-life, be capable of large-area dissemination, and produce a non-toxic residue after the weapon is destroyed...

[The spray] must not be reversed by simple chemical, thermal, or other means. Such a chemical system has the potential to enable the systematic and effective removal of small arms from the battlespace.

The big problem with however is that how is the spray to distinguish between guns and other metallic objects? Is it similarly going to corrode cars, engines, etc?

And what the heck happens if the formula gets out? What if terrorists or an enemy army are able to replicate the mixture and spray it/airburst it over US military installations or positions?

Seems like a good few governments would like to see this produced too- to completely disarm their citizens.

Time to store your weapons in a baggie? That would be a really cheap way to foil this no-doubt horrendously expensive research program.

Flight of Fantasy

An image of Marvel Comics character Black Widow by artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Inspired by Cowboy Blob's "Boobs and Boomsticks" series of posts.

No Oil Shortage?

There is some debate about just how oil is created- some scientists believe that it actually forms in the Earth's crust as a by-product of geological processes. If that is the case, and it's a theory I'm led to believe had gained a great deal of acceptance amongst Russian scientists, then oil isn't going to run out any time soon. As long as our demand doesn't outstrip the continued production then everything will work out just fine.

Clayton Cramer points me towards an intriguing article on a new car engine design-

The essence of the idea is that when the exhaust gases leave the cylinder, spray in water. The water immediately turns to steam from the engine heat--and drives the piston down. What was purely a stroke returning the piston to position to accept another charge of fuel and air is now a power stroke.

The new design is projected to use about 40% less petrol than a standard engine.

Finally, the US Department of Energy believes it has a method of quadrupling US oil reserves by pumping CO2 into depleted oil and gas fields.

The United States, the world's top oil consumer, has been successfully pumping small amounts or carbon dioxide into depleted oil and natural gas fields for 30 years to push out hard-to-reach fossil fuels.The DOE said 89 billion barrels could potentially be added to current proved U.S. oil reserves of 21.9 billion barrels through injection of carbon dioxide.

Kerry Supports Terrorists In Government

John Kerry, failed White House contender, made a trip to Northern Ireland to give a lecture at the University of Ulster on "21st Century Security".

Kerry apparently made issue of the Bush administration pushing the N. Ireland conflict down the foreign policy agenda during the run up to the election- perhaps the US fighting a war wasn't important enough for Kerry. He has angered Unionists here with the following statement-

They (the Democratic Unionist Party) "should not be allowed to disenfranchise half the population of Northern Ireland by refusing to form a government with Sinn Fein".

In other words, Kerry believes that we should allow armed, still active terrorists into government here.

Is This A Joke?

Jihad Watch reports on the strange case of two men arguing about religion-

Athens: An Orthodox Christian and a Muslim man who were travelling to Germany were forcibly put on separate flights after they began fighting over their religious beliefs at the international airport here, reports said on Thursday.

The men, bound for a flight to Frankfurt, began arguing on the bus as they were being transferred from the terminal to the plane.

According to reports, the two men started fighting over who was the more religious of the two when the Muslim man, fed up with being attacked, suddenly exclaimed that he was going to blow up everyone on the plane.

JW's final comment-

Well, that certainly proves that he was the more religious of the two.

The Future of the Press?

Perhaps this is an example of the press at large will have to function in the future.

A student’s column in the Oregon State University campus newspaper has prompted protests by Muslim students, who say it is offensive to their faith.

DD Bixby, the Oregon State University's Daily Barometer’s editor-in-chief said "editors have been checking copy with Muslim students, and on Tuesday deleted one paragraph from a piece scheduled to be published the next day. "

Voluntarily allowing their paper to be censored. What happened to the crusading reporter seeking out the truth? What happened to freedom of the press? Are they going to allow Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus to read the paper before it goes to print just in case some of them get offended too? Surely Muslims aren't being granted preferential treatment?

NYC Demo

Atlas Shrugs has an account of the sammenhold rally held in New York City. Only a single journalist from the The Statesman turned up to cover the event. There were no Hollywood celebrities there to lend their "appeal".

Seems like saving the life of a convicted murderer is a good cause for a celebrity, but protesting attacks on free speech is a bad cause for them?

Strange world we live in.

Petition

Agora reports that there is now an online petition to support the manifesto against Islamic Totalitarianism. The petition is being aimed at both the White House and the UN- there is apparently an effort to produce a convention to ban slander of religious figures (e.g. Mohammed). It's a grievous attack on our freedom of speech- I urge you all to sign the petition and also to spread the word.

The petition can be found here.

Saddam's Crimes

Michael J. Totten has produced an excellent piece on his stay in Suleimaniya. It's a must read- particularly for any people who consider the Abu Ghraib scandal on a par with what went on while Saddam Hussein was still in power.

The hardest thing to see was the cell used to hold children before they were murdered. My translator Alan read some of the messages carved into the wall.

“I was ten years old. But they changed my age to 18 for execution.”

“Dear Mom and Dad. I am going to be executed by the Baath. I will not see you again.”

10,725 people were killed in this one building alone. All died during torture. Formal execution actually took place in Abu Ghraib.

And then there's this, from commenter Martin Kunert who made the documentary "Voices of Iraq"-

"Two years ago, I produced the documentary film VOICES OF IRAQ, where we sent 150 DV cameras across Iraq and allowed Iraqis to film their own lives. The cameras got into the prison you visted and others. I viewed several hours of video and testimony detailing the horrors of Saddam's torture. One woman recalled tearfully how her newborn baby was fed to dogs infront of her eyes. Another video shows floors stained with blood and fat that liquified off torture victoms and poured onto the tiles below them."

Dhimmitude Comes to Wales

The first British newspaper to publish one of the Mohammed cartoons- and a student newspaper at that- has not only been recalled and pulped but the editior and two journalists suspended pending an enquiry.

A spokesperson said the newspaper was recalled after a member of the Student Union noticed the article whilst delivering the paper on Saturday morning. "The edition featured a short piece about the controversy surrounding the Danish satirical cartoons," she said.

"The article was entirely balanced but included a picture of one of the cartoons. We recalled the issues straight away. We do a print run of 10,000 copies and all but 200 have been accounted for."

Cowardice rears its head once more.

Shameful.

UK Prepares For Bird Flu

Thanks to Survival Blog for the link.

ABSENTEEISM of up to 75% is one of the scenarios Abbey National is considering as it plans how to deal with an outbreak of bird flu.

The high-street bank said that having 75% of its staff off sick was the “worst case scenario” — other firms are preparing for rates of between 10% and 50%. Branches could be shut and customers urged to pay bills online.

Should the bird bug strike, JSainsbury, the supermarket group, is factoring in greater demand for products people buy when they are sick, such as painkillers and soup. It also anticipates strong sales of bread and “store cupboard” food, such as dried milk.

There's much more. When companies being spending their cash on formulating plans to deal with things like this, it's time to take note. Stock up now before it's too late.

$60 Billion Wasted

A capital idea whose time really has come- and yes, the title of the post is correct; US taxpayers have given $60 billion dollars of their hard earned cash away to Egypt in return for...nothing.

Foreign aid should be subject to return if the recipient fails to show that it has put that foreign aid to good use. That good use should include, in the first place, encouraging gratitude, and friendship, toward the giver of such aid. In Egypt's case, there has been none.

...why should not the Americans ask the Egyptians to return the $60 billion?

That $60 billion could be applied to solar and wind energy, which together have received additional funding, according to the State of the Union address, of less than $100 million, or 1/60th that amount. $60 billion can do us a lot of good. Sending it to Egypt has done us no good whatsoever.

American taxpayers want that money back.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?

You belong in Starship Troopers. Your idea of a good time is bouncing across an alien battlefield blasting the foes of humanity into extinction.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?
brought to you by Quizilla

How Times Have Changed

Murdoc notes that it was the anniversary of the Gulf War yesterday- and as I read the post I was reminded of the 1999 film Three Kings. The movie spends a great deal of time pointing out that Americans should have helped topple Saddam Hussein, and helped the poor, beleagured Iraqi people who were being horrendously victimised. How a few years changes things.

Now that American troops have toppled Saddam Hussein and introduced democracy into Iraq it's become a bad thing, as opposed to the good thing it was when the Left were complaining about Bush Sr. Even George Clooney, the lead of Three Kings, whose character so wants to help the Iraqi people is against the war. I can only assume that Clooney agrees with the politics of the film. He even went so far as to accuse the Bush administration of acting like the Sopranos.

Clooney accused the President of cutting a deal with France and Russia to ensure the UN Security Council will not complain when "we go into a war and kill a lot of innocent people".

"Are we going to try and talk to Saddam Hussein...without jumping in and killing people first?"

Perhaps if America and the Coalition had gone on to Baghdad all those years ago things would be remarkably different now. Perhaps Iraq would have quickly settled into democracy without all of the bloodshed that we're seeing now at the hands of Islamist terrorists. Or perhaps the world then would have decried the lack of a clear UN mandate to overthrow Hussein and the USA would have been portrayed by the Left, as it is now, as some sort of bully? Make sure to check out this page of images- and note the end of the war celebrations in New York City. Somehow I can't imagine the same thing happening now.

Declaration

MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man’s domination of woman, the Islamists’ domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

Add me to that list too. Spread the word, republish on your own blog too.

USN's Swimming Spy Plane

I don't usually blog on matters aeronautical but this is just too impressive looking a design to ignore-

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, famed for the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes that flew higher than anything else in the world in their day, is trying for a different altitude record: an airplane that starts and ends its mission 150 feet underwater. The Cormorant, a stealthy, jet-powered, autonomous aircraft that could be outfitted with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment, is designed to launch out of the Trident missile tubes in some of the U.S. Navy's gigantic Cold War-era Ohio-class submarines.

Coffee War!

The War on Drugs has gone a step too far.

Is the War on Drugs taking aim at that morning cup of java? As crazy as it might sound, some activists would hope so - and they have enlisted the help of various mayors to support their cause.

Dennis R. Yates, the mayor of Chino, California who recently signed the proclamation declaring March 2006 as National Caffeine Awareness Month. This will be the second year for Chino in hosting the event. The proclamation states that "physical and mental health care are immeasurably important to the overall well-being of the citizen.”

According to Yates, "caffeine consumption can pose a significant hazard to health and longevity," as consumption of the dangerous drug is "linked to heart disease, pancreas and bladder cancer, hypoglycemia, and central nervous system disorders."

Of course they fail to mention the fact that-

The University of Kansas says that "caffeine narrows blood vessels in the brain and stimulates the cerebral cortex, the brain's outer sheath. This helps you think more rapidly and clearly. Elsewhere in the body, blood vessels expand. Coordination improves."

Ah, coffee!

There are quite a few mayors outside of noted loony bin California who actually are in support of these crackpot measures. They're obviously in desperate need of a few cups of coffee to improve their brain function.

Blonde Extinction

A theory for the evolution of blonde hair and blue eyes in Europe has been proposed, linking the sudden rise of the blonde gene with a shortage of males in the population.

The study argues that blond hair originated in the region because of food shortages 10,000-11,000 years ago. Until then, humans had the dark brown hair and dark eyes that still dominate in the rest of the world. Almost the only sustenance in northern Europe came from roaming herds of mammoths, reindeer, bison and horses. Finding them required long, arduous hunting trips in which numerous males died, leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men.

The proponent of the theory believes it is supported by research showing that blonde hair is an indicator of higher oestrogen levels in the body.

There is also research showing that the time of the natural blonde may be short lived.

A study by the World Health Organisation found that natural blonds are likely to be extinct within 200 years because there are too few people carrying the blond gene. According to the WHO study, the last natural blond is likely to be born in Finland during 2202.

There's still no explanation for the tendency of some blondes to be, shall we say, a little dense.

Jodie Kidd, 27, the blonde model, disagrees with the theory: “I don’t think being blonde makes you more ripe for sexual activity. It’s much more to do with personality than what you look like. Beauty is much deeper than the colour of your hair.”

Gathering Shadows

A sobering read from author Douglas Murray, who attended the Pim Fortuyn conference on Islam and Europe recently.

The silencing happens bit by bit. A student paper in Britain that ran the Danish cartoons got pulped. A London magazine withdrew the cartoons from its website after the British police informed the editor they could not protect him, his staff, or his offices from attack. This happened only days before the police provided 500 officers to protect a “peaceful” Muslim protest in Trafalgar Square.

It seems the British police — who regularly provide protection for mosques (as they did after the 7/7 bombs) — were unable to send even one policeman to protect an organ of free speech. At the notorious London protests, Islamists were allowed to incite murder and bloodshed on the streets, but a passer-by objecting to these displays was threatened with detention for making trouble.

Murray is of the opinion that the jihad in Europe is winning. When he puts it like this it's hard to disagree. While the majority of the press has been cowed into silence by fear, only the bloggers have stepped up to print and re-print the Mohammed cartoons, to criticise the encroachment of dhimmitude. You can see the cartoons here.

Europe is shuffling into darkness. It is proving incapable of standing up to its enemies, and in an effort to accommodate the peripheral rights of a minority is failing to protect the most basic rights of its own people.

The governments of Europe have been tricked into believing that criticism of a belief is the same thing as criticism of a race. And so it is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous to criticise a growing and powerful ideology within our midst. It may soon, in addition, be made illegal.

Read it all.

Al-Qaradawi

I was going to blog about London mayor Ken Livingstone's mate the "moderate" Al-Qaradawi but the chaps over at Infidel Bloggers Alliance have done the job already-

They must not allow anyone to take a single piece of land away from Islam. That is what we are fighting the Jews for. We are fighting them... Our religion commands us... We are fighting in the name of religion, in the name of Islam, which makes this Jihad an individual duty, in which the entire nation takes part, and whoever is killed in this [Jihad] is a martyr. This is why I ruled that martyrdom operations are permitted, because he commits martyrdom for the sake of Allah, and sacrifices his soul for the sake of Allah.

We do not disassociate Islam from the war. On the contrary, disassociating Islam from the war is the reason for our defeat. We are fighting in the name of Islam.

Seems like Ken is committed to supporting murderous terrorists whether they are Irish Nationalists or Islamofascists.