Day: December 23, 2007


Moon Bounce Communications, by David in Israel

James When you were working at Defense Electronics I’ll bet you came across a few old articles and references to the pre-communication satellite days and how the military especially the navy handled this in a nuclear war scenario. While EMP can be handled by hardening and charge dumping circuits there is still the whole problem with a totally disrupted natural ionospheric layers. Under those conditions, it is predicted that long range HF radio just wont work on most bands most of the time. What started out as a way to listen to Soviet radio and radar transmissions was utilized by …


Letter Re: Coleman Fuel–Uses and Storage Life

Hi Jim, According to Coleman’s web site, Coleman fuel can be stored for 5 to 7 years. I wondered if a chainsaw with the correct oil additive run on Coleman fuel. So I did a web search, and this is what I found, over at the Timebomb 2000 (Y2K) Discussion Forums, posted back in 1998] – E.L.: Coleman Fuel the Final Word! Boy What did I start? I have seen more rumors and half truths about Coleman fuel since I posted that it did work on engines!! Coleman fuel is a very highly refined version of gasoline! It has no …


Letter Re: Comments on the Movie “I Am Legend”

JWR, My wife and I saw “I Am Legend” last night at the local theatre. The movie house was packed. Almost every seat was filled. Of the most interest was the end. As the movie faded to black and credits rolled, there were more than several spontaneous bursts of applause throughout the audience and a few cheers. Wow! The last movie that I remember ever getting applause was the last “Star Wars” installment. Something really hit deep with many in the audience… My wife was weird’ed out by the zombies though, as they were quite scary. So viewer beware. As …


Odds ‘n Sods:

SF in Hawaii sent this: World food stocks dwindling rapidly, UN warns. Here I must mention that I have hope that American agriculture can come to the rescue. Since they are still free-market driven, American farmers can react rapidly to changing markets. They see the price of corn soaring, so they plant more corn. I wouldn’t be surprised to see hundreds of thousands of fallowed acres taken out of the CRP and put back to productive use within the next couple of years. In real terms, the price of crops actually fell from 1975 to 2005. Since then, they have …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The budget should be balanced; the Treasury should be refilled; the public debt should be reduced; the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled. Assistance to foreign land should be curtailed lest we become bankrupt. The mob should be forced to work and not depend upon government for subsistence." – Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 – 43 BC