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More Thoughts On How to Wire Senegal
An anonymous reader submits "Last month Slashdot published a story on the Peace Corps' plans to wire Senegal. Now Peace Corps Online has published an article by a volunteer who taught computers in West Africa for two years who recommends that the White House's Digital Freedom Initiative abandon the Western paradigm of 'a computer on every desk' and borrow a lesson from telephony in third-world countries. Since a residential telephone line is a luxury item in West Africa, the 'communication center' has flourished as a private business even in the smallest of towns where it generates profits while sharing the high cost of telecommunication among the whole community. This user model coupled with deregulation of VoIP can be the key to implementation of computer technology in poor countries."
Air Force moving several MOAB bombs to Gulf region: Pentagon
WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 10, 2003
The US Air Force is moving several 21,000-pound MOAB bombs, the largest US conventional bomb, to the Gulf region, a US defense official said Wednesday.
It was not clear what the air force intends to do with the bombs, which are most effective against troops or tanks in open areas.
"What we were told today is that they are on the way," said the defense official, who asked not to be identified.
He said several were being shipped to the Gulf region.
MOAB stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast, but it is known informally as the "mother of all bombs."
Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base in Florda, where it was tested last month, the bomb is a larger version of the 15,000 pound "daisy cutter."
The "daisy cutter" was used in Vietnam to clear jungle for helicopter landing pads, in the 1991 Gulf War to clear minefields and in Afghanistan to clear caves and strike fear into al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
The MOAB has a satellite guidance system and a tail kit to steer it to within about 13 meters (14 yards) of its target.
It is too big to be dropped normally. It is dragged out of the back of a C-130 cargo plane by a parachute.
These ethylene bombs work by taking advantage of the effect of exploding fuel in the air. When a mix of fuel and air ignites, it creates a fireball and a wave of explosions that spread quickly over a much greater area than traditional explosives. The after-effects of the explosion are very similar to those of small nuclear bombs but without the radiation.
The American cluster bombs carry ethylene gas, of the kind used in the Second Gulf War, in three barrels, each of which weighs 100 pounds. Each barrel contains 75 pounds of ethylene oxide, whose industrial usage is the production of other chemical compounds such glycol ethylene and other highly poisonous compounds.
As for the way in which these bombs work, a fuse ignites the barrel at a height of 30 feet which breaks and opens the barrel, and the fuel is expelled dispersing in the air to create a cloud with a 60-feet radius and 8-feet depth.
The airburst spreads to areas that are difficult to attack with more traditional bombs. The cloud is poisonous in itself, and exposure to ethylene oxide leads to lung decay, headaches, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and shortness of breath and even cancer and birth defects. The gas is highly combustible and reactive.
After this, the main charge ignites the mix leading to an explosion that spreads at speeds of 3 km a second -- faster than the speed of sound, and the mix of fuel and air burns at 2,700 degrees Celsius. It is possible to increase the effect by using additional warheads.
Traditional explosives such as TNT pack greater explosive power, but the MOAB explodes over a longer period of time and is more destructive, especially in enclosed spaces.
The degree of pressure created by the airburst is twice that of traditional bombs, where the air pressure would only rise to just above 1kg per sq. cm. With the MOAB, the air pressure goes up to 30kg per sq. cm.
The danger doesn't end there. The explosive mix of fuel and air traveling at speeds exceeding the speed of sound leave behind a vacuum that sucks all air and other materials, creating a mushroom cloud. These explosions cause cerebral concussion or blindness, blockage of air passageways and collapse of lungs, tearing of eardrums, massive internal bleeding and displacement and tearing of internal organs, and injuries from flying objects. These are aside from the injuries mentioned above which result from inhalation of this poisonous ethylene oxide cloud.
It is for these reasons that human rights organizations consider these MOABs to be weapons of mass destruction. They don't differentiate between civilian and military targets and their use in populated areas contravenes international agreements relating
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Who the hell are you kidding? Two weeks after they install the systems, there will be a line around the block to watch porn of white girls. Fights will ensue, a mafia will form to control the computers, etc etc. Water filters...really.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!