The Importance of being Prepared

Wyoming House advances doomsday bill

CHEYENNE — State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.

House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.

The task force would look at the feasibility of:

Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. David Miller, R-Riverton, has said he doesn’t anticipate any major crises hitting America anytime soon. But with the national debt exceeding $15 trillion and protest movements growing around the country, Miller said Wyoming — which has a comparatively good economy and sound state finances — needs to make sure it’s protected should any unexpected emergency hit the U.S.

Several House members spoke in favor of the legislation, saying there was no harm in preparing for the worst.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in this room today what would come up here and say that this country is in good shape, that the world is stable and in good shape — because that is clearly not the case,” state Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, said. “To put your head in the sand and think that nothing bad’s going to happen, and that we have no obligation to the citizens of the state of Wyoming to at least have the discussion, is not healthy.”

Wyoming’s Department of Homeland Security already has a statewide crisis management plan, but it doesn’t cover what the state should do in the event of an extreme nationwide political or economic collapse. In recent years, lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation to create a state currency, all unsuccessfully.

The task force would include state lawmakers, the director of the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security, the Wyoming attorney general and the Wyoming National Guard’s adjutant general, among others.

The bill must pass two more House votes before it would head to the Senate for consideration. The original bill appropriated $32,000 for the task force, though the Joint Appropriations Committee slashed that number in half earlier this week.

University of Wyoming political science professor Jim King said the potential for a complete unraveling of the U.S. government and economy is “astronomically remote” in the foreseeable future.

But King noted that the federal government set up a Continuity of Government Commission in 2002, of which former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, R-Wyo., was co-chairman. However, King said he didn’t know of any states that had established a similar board.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/wyoming-house-advances-doomsday-bill/article_af6e1b2b-0ca4-553f-85e9-92c0f58c00bd.html#ixzz1nYJGALol

How Petey Met His Demise

Wet Monkey Theorem

My favorite response to, "Because we have always done it that way."

*****

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys has ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.
Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here. And that, my friends, is how company policy begins.

Build your own Teleportation Device

I'm very glad to have found this after a quick google search, and I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of this technology.

A simple answer would be yes however, before you get excited not in the form of objects (currently) The following from the BBC Website:

It is a long way from Star Trek, but teleportation - the disembodiment of an object in one location and its reconstruction in another - has been successfully carried out in a physics lab in Australia.
Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) made a beam of light disappear in one place and reappear in another a short distance away.
The achievement confirms that in theory teleportation is possible, at least for sub-atomic particles; whether it can be done for larger systems, such as atoms, remains to be seen.
The more likely applications will come in telecommunications, enabling much faster transfer of data and the use of encryption that can never be broken.

http://wiki.answers.com/1/hi/sci/tech/2050210.stm

Teleportation has been one of the hottest topics among physicists working in quantum mechanics - the study of the fundamental structure of matter.
Some 40 labs around the world are currently trying to teleport a laser beam after pioneering work in 1998 at the California Institute of Technology showed it should be possible.
'Spooky interaction'
The Australian researchers have exploited a phenomenon called "quantum entanglement", which links the properties of two photons of light created at the same time. Einstein called it a "spooky interaction".
What it means is that two photons can be created and sent to different places. It is possible to force one photon into a specific quantum mechanical state and, because the two photons are connected in some way, the other photon will instantaneously take up a complementary state.
At first sight, entanglement offers the prospect of sending a signal faster than the speed of light. But a closer look at what is actually possible shows that this will not work because of the limits of what can be known about quantum mechanical systems and how such information is relayed.
But it may offer the prospect of a Star Trek-style transporter.
'Exciting applications'
Using quantum entanglement, ANU physicist Ping Koy Lam has disassembled laser light at one end of an optical communications system and recreated a replica just a metre away.
An encoded signal is embedded in an input stream of photons, which is entangled with another beam.
Elsewhere in the lab, the beam of photons and the associated signal is reconstituted.
"What we have demonstrated here is that we can take billions of photons, destroy them simultaneously, and then recreate them in another place," Dr Lam says.
"The applications of teleportation for computers and communications over the next decade are very exciting," he adds.
Body movement
Quantum teleportation could make encrypted or coded information 100% secure, Dr Lam said, because even if intercepted the message would be unintelligible unless it was intended for a specific recipient.
"It should be possible to construct a perfect cryptography system. When two parties want to communicate with one another, we can enable the secrecy of the communication to be absolutely perfect."
But for a human to be teleported, a machine would have to be built that could pinpoint and analyse the trillions and trillions of atoms that make up the human body.
"I think teleporting of that kind is very, very far away," Dr Lam says. "We don't know how to do that with a single atom yet."
Quantum teleporting is problematic for humans because the original is destroyed in the process of creating the replica.

Using your head when opening jars of Peanut Butter

Some of your may be in committed relationships where you may not have to work hard to impress your mate anymore. In my case, I am still looking for ways to woo and impress the lady in my life. And with a track record like this, I think I'll probably be continually looking for ways to impress her.

That being said, I can confirm that opening a new plastic jar of peanut butter with your head is yet to be a proven route to success. This technique has failed me in the past, but a recent opportunity gave me another chance and I thought it may be worth another shot.

For the unenlightened, opening a jar of peanut butter with your head requires the following:

1. an unopened jar of peanut butter (preferably plastic).

2. a hard skull.

3. gumption.

4. enough strength in your arm to smash the jar into your hard skull and break the safety seal, thusly opening the peanut butter.

In this instance, after an initial strike to the head with less than adequate force, the second bash to the head resulted in a spectacular opening.

In my excitement, I failed to inspect this jar thoroughly which would have clued me in that this was natural peanut butter. (At least I did confirm that the jar was plastic and not glass). This natural type of peanut butter is not mixed and typically contains a significant layer of oil which accumulates near the top of the jar.

I have now discovered that spectacular openings of non-mixed natural peanut butter will get oil on the wall, the counter, the floor, the stove, the dining room, the carpet, the dining room table, the cupboard, the chairs, the jackets on the chairs at the table, the ceiling, and in your hair.

Your lady friend will not believe you when you try to convince her that you were just trying to put "product" in your hair.

Now, a positive side effect is you will smell like peanut butter for the rest of the day.

Oh, and the whole mess afterwards is also a less than desirable side effect.

On the plus side of this learning experience, when the girl is awesome like this one, she sees the humor in the situation and doesn't threaten your life for messing up her apartment.