Posts filed under 'Mildly Interesting'

Chinese responsible for nuclear B-52 flight over US

I have just read the most fascinating essay by investigative journalist, William Thomas, who claims China, with a genius masterstroke, quietly included the ability to remotely overide all of the microchips that have been outsourced to production facilities within its control. ‘Intel inside’ might have a completely new meaning, lol!


It sounds like something from a James Bond movie but it also has the ring of ‘I wish I’d thought of it because it’s genius and makes perfect sense!” After all, Chinese military strategy has for thousands of years sought to use an opponent’s strength against them and what better way to use it than to include a small trojan-type overide system into every Western-outsourced microprocessor?

As early as 2003, China was being hailed as the next Microprocessor Giant and had then (2003), since 1991, built 53 new high-technology industrial centers and witnessed over 22 billion dollars worth of new tech trade.

William Thomas claims that the August event where a B 52 bomber flew with six fully armed and primed nuclear cruise missiles hanging from its wings, apparently without anyone noticing until the following day (cough, bullsh*t, cough), was a demonstration of Chinese ability to gain control of virtually any electronic system employed by the US, intended to send a stark warning to an increasingly warmongering America that it doesn’t have the free reign it once thought it had to rampage at will.

Add comment October 20th, 2007

New Zealand flatworm

I was shifting some turf I had stacked upside down last year to decompose when I spotted some shiny black eggs I’d never seen before. Rooting around some more I found a New Zealand flatworm. I’ve never seen one before so I was somewhat mystified as to what it was until I remembered reading about the NZ flatworm.


The egg capsules are shiny, flexible and cherry red in colour at first and later darken to black after several days. After an unknown incubation period, several pale, tiny flatworms hatch out of the brittle capsule.

These invading species (Arthurdendyus triangulatus) were first noted in Northern Ireland and the western parts of Scotland in the early 1960s and have steadily spread ever since.

New Zealand flatworm

Apparently, when an earthworm is located, the flatworm covers it with digestive juices. This dissolves the earthworm which is then sucked up by the predator. Estimates suggest that flatworms consume one or two earthworms per week. When its food supply has been virtually exhausted, a flatworm will shrink and wait until there are sufficient earthworms for feeding to restart. This waiting time can be as long as 12-24 months. It is not yet clear whether flatworms will move long distances to alternative feeding sites.

Gross!

Some flatworm links:
Garden Organic
New Zealand flatworm (wiki)
Defra - Non-Indigenous Flatworms
Down Garden services - New Zealand flatworm page

Great gardening information site with lots of pics and info on loads of pests, diseases and garden friends - Down Garden Services

Add comment July 25th, 2007

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