When the Aliens Touch Down, Make for This Missile Base
wired - Larry Hall believes in preparing for scenarios that the Man would have you believe are fictional—Mayan disaster prophecies, pole shifts, alien invasions, that sort of thing. So the 54-year-old software engineer shelled out $250,000 for a decommissioned Atlas F Missile Base in Kansas. “I thought, wow, I can transform it into an ultrasafe, energy-efficient fortress,” Hall says. Then he figured that other people might also sleep better 200 feet underground within epoxy-hardened concrete walls. And with a custom retrofit featuring GE Monogram stainless-steel appliances and Kohler fixtures, they could also eat (and flush) in style. So Hall announced a “condo suite package”—starting at $900,000—that includes a five-year food supply (think hydroponics and aquaculture) and “simulated view windows” with light levels calibrated to the time of day to keep you from going crazy. Hall says his silo will have a military-grade security system and electricity powered by geothermal energy and wind turbines, as well as a theater, workout area, and pool with a waterfall. Not a bad place to wait out the apocalypse. Hall is still building this dream silo, but he’s already getting applicants. “When they call me up,” he says, “they’re like, you had me at MISSILE BASE!” With three out of seven floors already spoken for, you’d better get your bid in. You’d hate to be stuck in a moving van when the aliens touch down.
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Rep. Peter King (R-NY) attempting to kill Amateur Radio
On February 10, 2011, Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced H.R. 607, the “Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011,” which has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which handles telecommunications legislation). The bill addresses certain spectrum management issues including the creation and maintenance of a nationwide Public Safety broadband network.
As part of that network, the Bill provides for the allocation of the so-called “D-Block” of spectrum in the 700 MHz range for Public Safety use. HR 607 uniquely, provides for the reallocation of other spectrum for auction to commercial users, in order to offset the loss of revenue that would occur as the result of the allocation of the D-Block to Public Safety instead of commercial auction. H.R. 607 lists, among the bands to be reallocated for commercial auction within ten years of the passage of the Bill, the paired bands 420-440 MHz and 450-470 MHz.
The inclusion of most of the Amateur 70-cm spectrum as one of the replacement bands is a major problem. The 420-440 MHz band is not Public Safety spectrum and should not be included in any spectrum swap of Public Safety allocations.
While the ARRL and all Amateurs support the work of Public Safety and recognize their need for dedicated spectrum which would promote interoperability, the ARRL vigorously opposes HR 607 in its present form. HR 607 is a direct threat to our limited spectrum and the ARRL encourages all amateurs to appropriately voice their opposition to this bill.
NOTE: I know a lot of people this is going to piss of...Lon
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Man survives 9 days trapped in shipping container
A Bangladeshi man trapped for nine days in a shipping container is recovering in a Singapore hospital after being found with a co-worker's corpse. Chittagong port worker Din Islam, 30, was discovered on Sunday inside the container at Singapore's bustling Pasir Panjang Terminal, next to another man who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
"Investigations indicate that both men are believed to be port workers from Bangladesh who were trapped inside the container by accident while they were taking a rest," a Singapore police spokesman said. Din and the decomposing body of the fellow worker, whom he identified as Alamgir, were discovered after a trailer driver heard the survivor banging on the walls of the container.
The two had entered the container to take a nap after having dinner and a smoke midway through their 12-hour night shift on April 1. "Then we just slept and we didn't know that the container had been picked up and transported onto the ship. By the time we woke up, we were probably already on the ship," Din said from his hospital bed.
He said his colleague, whom he estimated to be 40 years old, collapsed and died after a few days in the container, with nothing but a pack of cigarettes between them. "I really didn't know what to do. I was very scared. I cried and I prayed to God for a miracle to happen. I prayed for my life," he added. When the doors of the container were finally opened in Singapore, the stench from the corpse was so strong that port workers who were at the scene stepped back before Din was found naked and dehydrated.
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Polar bears awake from hibernation to find oil rig built around their den
wcsh6 - Imagine going to bed on a deserted island and waking up in the middle of a construction site.
That's exactly what happened to a pair of polar bears on Alaska's North Slope.
In March, oil field workers at ENI Petroleum were stunned when they spotted a pair of polar bears on Spy Island, a manmade offshore drilling site a few miles off the coast of the Beaufort Sea, near Oliktok Point.
The company called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which sent a biologist to set up a den camera.
The feds say the mother bear had made herself a den in a snow drift back in October, before the site was up and running.
Company employees did not know the pair of bears where there until their heads popped up on March 18.
"Must have been a shock for her because when she went into the den it was an empty island, and when she came out there was quite a lot going on," said Bruce Woods, spokesperson for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The surprise appearance triggered an evacuation of all of the employees, and shut down production until March 23.
Several hours of footage shows the nosy pair sniffed around the site for a couple days, even touching the equipment.
"The thing that really amazes me the most, and just makes me smile, is when the cub comes out you'll see that he doesn't want to be anywhere but immediately under his mother," said Woods. "You know wherever she goes, he just trots along and tries to hang under her legs."
The pair eventually made their way away from the island and headed out onto the sea ice and production resumed.
NOTE: honestly, I'm surprised they slept/hibernated that soundly...Lon
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Oops!
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Live missile found in bathroom wall
stfrancisnow - A week after she and her husband found a live bomb from the Korean War era in a bathroom wall of their home, St. Francis resident Sally Ann Wittman says the discovery now seems almost unreal.
Wittman’s 70-year-old husband, William, was doing some remodeling on a portion of the bathroom wall on April 5. Wittman was pulling out old insulation when he felt something in the wall, his wife said.
“I heard him say, ‘Oh my God, what the heck is this?’” Sally Ann, 60, said. “I walked in, and he was standing there with this thing in his hands.”
The small green missile, measuring 20 inches long with a 5-inch explosive head and four tail fins, was handed to her by her husband, then she walked outside and placed it on the grass next to a detached garage before calling police.
As she waited for police to arrive, Sally Ann said she was doing dishes in the kitchen when she saw a St. Francis police officer approach her yard in the 2000 block of East Leroy Avenue with extreme caution. The officer advised the Wittmans in no uncertain terms to evacuate the house immediately, as well as people living in the surrounding neighborhood.
With streets cordoned off in the residential area west of the Lake Parkway, it took a bomb squad from the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department two hours to arrive. The bomb was taken to the St. Francis Department of Public Works, where it was safely detonated. The blast was heard all over town.
“One person told me that when she heard the blast, her son came running out to see where it was coming from,” Wittman said. A salesman I talked to who was making a sale on the corner of Whitnall and Pennsylvania said he heard the blast five blocks away. It was loud enough like ‘What was that?’”
Another woman told Wittman that her mother, who was in Europe during World War II, had a flashback when she heard the blast. “When it went off, I started to tear up,” said Wittman, who works for the Catholic Herald. “It was just (feeling) like this could have been so much more serious.”
Wittman said when she set the bomb down on the grass, it happened to be pointing west, directly at the house of a neighbor who has a 1-1/2-year old toddler.
A neighbor told Sally Ann Wittman that the previous owner of the house was a World War II veteran, and that his sons also served in the Korean War.
“This neighbor told us they used to bring souvenirs back from the war, and they shared it and gave other neighbors stuff,” she said. “They had an old shell that was used to hold a door open.”