Ooh, the military has a new, non-lethal weapon! It's safe (or so they say). And I'm sure they'll never abuse it.
The crowd is getting ugly. Soldiers roll up in a Hummer. Suddenly, the whole right half of your body is screaming in agony. You feel like you've been dipped in molten lava. You almost faint from shock and pain, but instead you stumble backwards -- and then start running. To your surprise, everyone else is running too. In a few seconds, the street is completely empty.
You've just been hit with a new nonlethal weapon that has been certified for use in Iraq -- even though critics argue there may be unforeseen effects.
According to documents obtained for Wired News under federal sunshine laws, the Air Force's Active Denial System, or ADS, has been certified safe after lengthy tests by military scientists in the lab and in war games.
The ADS shoots a beam of millimeters waves, which are longer in wavelength than x-rays but shorter than microwaves -- 94 GHz (= 3 mm wavelength) compared to 2.45 GHz (= 12 cm wavelength) in a standard microwave oven.
[link]
I just hosed down my desk, both my telephones, my mouse, and keyboard with Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. That was gross.
I don't know if this will help me fight off whatever ick is currently trying to make me hate life, but at least now I know how dirty my desk
isn't.
Going back to the SPN discussion:
PADDYWHACK was started by our own fannish crack twins, smonster and amyth. IIRC.
NCistas! there's a Trader Joe's now open in Cary! Did we know this???
Why isn't that man my president? Why?
Florida, 2000. Katherine Harris. IJS.
Related to yesterdays Why Would Humans Eat That? conversation, new research shows cannibalism common among Neanderthals:
Starvation and cannibalism were part of everyday life for a population of Neanderthals living in northern Spain 43,000 years ago, a study suggests.
Bones and teeth from the underground cave system of El Sidron in Asturias bear the hallmarks of a tough struggle for survival, researchers say.
Analysis of teeth showed signs of starvation or malnutrition in childhood and human bones have cut marks on them.
Details appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Some bones appeared to have been dismembered and broken open, possibly to allow access to marrow and brains.
"Given the high level of developmental stress in the sample, some level of survival cannibalism would be reasonable," the scientists wrote in their research paper.
I was just reading a political blog that mentioned that report.
"New research shows that when times got tough, cannibals would attempt to survive by eating their own. Kind of like Republicans."
I would link to it, but it has also earwormed me for the rest of the day (with
"King Tut"
) (whitefonted for your earworming protection).
"Given the high level of developmental stress in the sample, some level of survival cannibalism would be reasonable,"
I'm somehow glad there's reasonable level of canibalism.
This week’s Time magazine has a very funny final page: “God’s Inbox.”
It’s a graphic made to look like a screen shot of God scanning his e-mail list. In the background are various icons on his wallpaper (The Almighty, Earth, Other Planets, Pluto, lightning.jpg, Best of George Burns.wmv, ’08 elections results, Earth-Plan B.doc, Jesus baby pics), a minimized window of Google Earth (searching “Vatican”), and He’s currently listening to Ethel Merman’s “You’re the Top.” The list of e-mails are:
Phoebe773@aol.com – Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name
billybob@ninemile.net – Momma’s lung cancer, yeah she smoked like a BBQ but ple…
surfrgrl@myspace.com – Can you, like, clear up my skin before the prom?
said@somalinet.so – Please send rain, crops need rain, goats need rain
zeus@olympus.org – Lunch next week?
OBL@alqaeda.org – LET THE UNBELIEVERS PERISH
Sean223@eircom.ie – Sweet Jesus would you let me win the bleedin lotto just th…
jc@kingdom.net – Hey Dad would you please stop forwarding lotto requests
benny16@vatican.va – Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam promotionem nostrum
mel@oldtimereligion.org – Do I have to apologize to all of them, or just the Hollywoo…
bigdudley@freeserve.uk – URGENT: WHAT I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY (Excel doc, 90MB)
mary@virgin-mediterran... – Re: re: re: re: DNA test (Joseph’s idea)
tony@thefamily.com – How about I wake up tomorrow and I’m an accountant or som…
ceo@engulfanddevour.co... – Not an audit, please God, anything but an audit
Rafael_nunez@us.army.mil – Just get me through this hitch (26 MORE DAYS)
topgun@whitehouse.gov – So, who do I liberate next?
pat@christiancoalition.org – LET THE UNBELIEVERS PERISH
rabbilevinger@hebronet.il – LET THE UNBELIEVERS PERISH
sktbrdr7@earthlink.net – If I pass trig I promise I’ll never you-know-what again
rdawkins@oxford.edu – You don’t exist. I have ironclad, copper-bottomed, irrefu…
sktbrdr7@earthlink.net – Well maybe once a week
kaitlin98@verizon.net – Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep
Buddha@dharma.net – Re: re: wrath management
Cust.svc@amazon.com – Your Amazon order LIFE BEGINS AT 15 BILLION has shipp…
