This post will stay at the top until July 4th, 2004. Scroll down for the bloggy goodness.
Well, you guys did it for me. I have doubled my total hits in a bit less than a week and will be sending off $150.00 to Spirit of America at the end of the month. Thank you to everyone who linked or stopped by and I hope to see you all here often.
And since that hippy Jeff G. promised nipples, here you go… (DANGER!!!)
They call them teets in Britain! I’m multicultural!
Via Armed Liberal, a trip through the Dead Zone.
Go now.
Could be!
Please go over and take a look at the specs. It seems that the only problem they are looking at is securing PU-210 in large quantities, which has never been attempted before due to its previous lack of commercial use.
If this weapon system can be implemented, it would put unbelievable firepower in the hands of our troops. I mean, we’re looking at 170 shots per minute at up to 1500m and no need to reload for nearly two months.
That, my friends, is superior firepower.
Update: John of Aarrgghhh comments:
Of course, here’s hoping it’s so expensive only we can afford it…
Well, I’ve read the document thoroughly and I’m not worried about that for more reasons than cost.
The main power cell is Po-210, a radioactive isotope that emits continuous alpha radiation as it decays. Here is some more information:
Polonium is radioactive and excessivley rare in nature. It is made in very small qunatities through a nuclear reaction of bismuth. Neutron irradiation of 209bismuth (atomic number 83) gives 210polonium (atomic number 84).
209Bi + 1n 210Po + e-
Metallic polonium can be fractionally distilled from the bismuth or electrodeposited onto a metal surface such as silver.
Right. There are maybe… five countries in the world that will be capable of producing gram quantities of this material within the next 10 years.
I’m not even sure of that. We still can’t do it and we are, without doubt, the most technologically advanced nation on this planet.
Beyond that, the production techniques and technology required to produce a weapon this advanced would require facilities that currently only exist in the dreams of our military. Their target date of 2020 seems possible but not without intense research in nearly every field of material/nuclear/chemical science.
If, indeed, this weapon can be produced in bulk within the next two decades, it will provide the United States with a tactical military advantage unprecedented in the history of human conflict.
The producers predict a modest increase in weight as the weapon moves toward prototype. It currently weighs a bit more than the M-16 so I would imagine it could end up weighing as much as 20 pounds with the addition of thermal shielding and recoil mitigators. Even so, it eliminates the requirement for ammunition. This is a huge advance for the individual soldier and for our logistical requirements.
Don’t forget that the company, Stavatti, is originally an Air Defense contractor and they already have a similar concept in development to replace the M61-A2 Vulcan 20mm cannon and I can only imagine the applications of such technology would revolutionize our entire military structure.
But as for the bad guys getting their hands on them… no way. Not for 40 years.
I’m just sure of it. So I’m going to threaten.
If I don’t get more hits, I’m going to write stunningly bad poetry.
Stunningly bad.
Since I know you doubt, I’ll give you a sample. It will be written in the voice of a revolving door at the Hyatt:
Why can’t I get anywhere?
Am I not good enough?
I get pushed around,[I know! frighteningly clever!]
and round I go,
Sometimes you suck at using me,
and stub your toe.
That’s what you get,
you elitist, biped bastards.
It can only get worse.
I found this speech by Michael Crichton to the Commonwealth Club at American Realpolitik.
So I can tell you some facts. I know you haven’t read any of what I am about to tell you in the newspaper, because newspapers literally don’t report them. I can tell you that DDT is not a carcinogen and did not cause birds to die and should never have been banned. I can tell you that the people who banned it knew that it wasn’t carcinogenic and banned it anyway. I can tell you that the DDT ban has caused the deaths of tens of millions of poor people, mostly children, whose deaths are directly attributable to a callous, technologically advanced western society that promoted the new cause of environmentalism by pushing a fantasy about a pesticide, and thus irrevocably harmed the third world. Banning DDT is one of the most disgraceful episodes in the twentieth century history of America. We knew better, and we did it anyway, and we let people around the world die and didn’t give a damn.
I can tell you that second hand smoke is not a health hazard to anyone and never was, and the EPA has always known it. I can tell you that the evidence for global warming is far weaker than its proponents would ever admit. I can tell you the percentage the US land area that is taken by urbanization, including cities and roads, is 5%. I can tell you that the Sahara desert is shrinking, and the total ice of Antarctica is increasing. I can tell you that a blue-ribbon panel in Science magazine concluded that there is no known technology that will enable us to halt the rise of carbon dioxide in the 21st century. Not wind, not solar, not even nuclear. The panel concluded a totally new technology-like nuclear fusion-was necessary, otherwise nothing could be done and in the meantime all efforts would be a waste of time. They said that when the UN IPCC reports stated alternative technologies existed that could control greenhouse gases, the UN was wrong.
If you read nothing else today, read this. It is an absolutely damning critique of the widely held and provably false tenets of worldwide environmetalist movements.
It is clear that we need to keep the environment in mind while making decisions about our actions but his call for real, honest science and not the factless, lie-filled voodoo of most environmentalists cannot be ignored.
Check it out!