Brigid could use our help

Brigid, who blogs over at Home On The Range, wrote a beautiful tribute to her late Labrador retriever.  She called it 'The Book Of Barkley', about which we've spoken here before.

Her book's been entered in a competition at Bookbzz.com.  It's currently tied for first place in its category (Biography & Memoir).  Brigid could really use your help and your vote, if you'd please be so kind as to click over there and vote for 'The Book Of Barkley'.  She's donating any prize money to the disaster response dogs of the Search Dog Foundation, so your vote will help a very good cause as well.

(As a matter of fact, all of the royalties from the book are being used to support various animal rescue and welfare societies.  Brigid's a class act, and her book's a wonderful memorial to a lovely dog whom Miss D. and I remember with great affection - even if he did steal our socks on every possible occasion!  If you haven't yet read it, it's worth your time and money.)

Peter

Tired writer's thoughts at the end of the day

I think I'm largely finished with the editing of the fifth and final version of the manuscript of 'Stand Against The Storm'.

One beta reader has already come back with a thumbs-up for the final version, and I'm waiting for another opinion before starting to format it for publication.  With luck, it'll be available on Amazon within a week to ten days.

It's strange to be almost at the end of the creative process for this book.  I wrote about the problems I've had with it earlier this week over at Mad Genius Club.  If you're interested in how one overcomes constant creative deadlock and frustration, you might enjoy that article;  if not, don't worry about it.  Suffice it to say that this has taken me far longer than I expected, and cost me an awful lot of late nights and skull-sweat.  I'm pleased it's almost over, but I'm also pleased with the finished product.  There were times I wanted to abandon it and go on to something more mentally rewarding, where I was actually getting somewhere;  but now I'm glad I stuck it out and persevered.  I hope you'll find it worth the wait.

I've already begun work on the second volume of the Laredo Trilogy, 'Forge A New Blade', the sequel to 'War To The Knife'.

This promises to be interesting from a creative point of view, because Steve Maxwell has a lot to do in that book as well:  the two series (Laredo and Maxwell) will actually meet in a sort of 'fusion volume'.  It's going to be fun.

It's frigidly cold here in central Tennessee, with temperatures outside currently in the teens (Fahrenheit, for my readers living outside the USA).  The wind chill is forecast to be well below zero by early morning.  I'm going to have to go out in the cold to start the car, so it can warm up before anyone gets into it.  Brrrrr!  Tomorrow evening there's a winter storm watch.  It's a good time to stay snug in a warm house with plenty of hot soup, tea and coffee, and write books.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #814

Courtesy of The Lonely Libertarian, this quote wins an immediate Doofus award for the woman concerned.

"I went into a Whole Foods and got to hear a woman arguing with a guy at the meat counter because she wanted grass fed organic chicken and he was desperately trying to explain to her that chickens don't eat grass."

Peter

There doesn't seem to be an OSHA in Russia . . .

. . . at least, not judging by this video clip of steelworkers (including apprentices and trainees) working with multi-ton hammers in a foundry in that country.  Note the utter absence of safety features.

I reckon OSHA would have a fit if they saw this in a US foundry.  It'd probably mean the instant arrest of whoever was responsible. On the other hand, those conditions are replicated in much of the Third World, and even in an advanced economy such as China's. In the West, we often take for granted the blessings of safety-consciousness.

Peter

Full marks to Sean Sorrentino . . .

. . . for uncovering what looks to be a massive campaign of sock-puppeting over a non-existent 'religious' controversy.

CHAPEL HILL — Police charged a Chapel Hill man Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of three Muslim students in a quiet neighborhood near Meadowmont, just south of N.C. 54.

That’s date stamped Tuesday the 10th, so it was no more than 6 hours after the first shots fired. Let that sink in for a minute. The “Christian Terrorist” (and that’s a direct quote of many, many tweets I saw) meme had gone around long enough that someone at PJ Media had looked up the guy’s Facebook page and found out that he was an atheist, and a militant one. And that rebuttal was posted no later than 12 hours after the shooting, and more likely only 9 hours. By the time I saw the #ChapelHillShooting hash tag on Twitter at 6:15 AM, there were thousands of “Why is the Western media hiding this terror attack on Muslims!” tweets. This, as a result of a spontaneous movement is frankly impossible. It cannot have happened that way at all. I’ve traced back tweets as far as I am able and have found “Western media Silent!” tweets at 1am Eastern. That basically can not have happened without some large group pushing the meme.

ADC demand full investigation into the motives behind the murder of 3 Arab/Muslim Americans in #ChapelHillShooting — ADC National (@adctweets) February 11, 2015

Incredible that major news networks have yet to talk about the #ChapelHillShooting. Absolutely shameful. This is how Islamophobia operates. — Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) February 11, 2015

3 muslim students killed. No media coverage. Thank you mainstream media. #ChapelHillShooting — Dima (@Dima09) February 11, 2015

The fact that the only info I am getting about the #ChapelHillshooting is via twitter showcases how permeating Islamophobia is in media. — King سميرة (@SamiraaSR) February 11, 2015

. . .

So it looks like right around 1AM on the 11th, about 8 hours after the first shots fired 911 call, the Twitter campaign takes off, pushing a narrative of “Islamophobia.”

By now, however, we all know that the shooter was not a “Christian Terrorist,” despite all the claims on Twitter.

. . .

Here’s what I see. This is a campaign to push the idea that Muslims are the victims of “Islamophobia” in the west and especially in America. I believe that this campaign is a direct response to the #IamCharlieHebdo hashtag. It’s a direct attack on the west, with the Muslims attempting to regain the mantle of “Victim” by attempting to portray everyone [as] racist and bigoted because the victims in this incident were Muslims.

We were played. And they did a fantastic job of it.

There's more at the link.  It's worth reading in full.

Great detective work, Mr. Sorrentino.  Thanks!

Peter

Shooting and self-defense roundup

A few articles caught my eye over the past few days relating to firearms and self-defense issues.  I thought I'd throw the links up here for those of my readers who may be interested.

1. Shooting Drill - 'The Humbler'.  Greg Ellifritz gives us a course of fire that may look slow and easy in parts, but can be brutally humbling (hence the name).
2. “Don’t talk to the police” — good advice?  Kathy Jackson highlights the pitfalls with this popularly recommended tactic after a defensive shooting, and offers some alternative thoughts.
3. H&K and Backwards Bullets: The Real Story.  How H&K got egg on their faces at the 2004 Shot Show.  I wonder if the guy responsible ever got fired?
4. An Army Of Knife Experts Share Tips On Choosing The Best Survival Knife.  It's certainly a lot of food for thought.  I'm an African boy, and as such I was brought up with a strong bias towards K.I.S.S., so I'll second Tim MacWelch's advice.  Click over there to read it for yourself.
5. FBI 9MM Justification.  From September last year, an explanation of why the FBI has retreated from the .40 S&W round and is adopting the 9mm. Parabellum as its issue cartridge.

Interesting reading.

Peter

Big badaboom

(Those of you who remember the movie 'The Fifth Element' will recognize the post title.)

Students of military history will be familiar with the old-fashioned spigot mortar, used in such classic weapons as the Hedgehog anti-submarine projector of World War II.  Interestingly, that design lends itself to rough-and-ready home-brewed artillery such as that constructed in many amateur workshops around the world during irregular conflicts.  It can be built to much less precise standards than conventional mortars or artillery, yet still be accurate and powerful enough to deliver a devastating punch.  (There have also been interesting variations on the theme;  see, for example, the Davidka or 'Little David' produced in Israel's War of Independence, a hybrid conventional/spigot mortar design.  It was spectacularly inaccurate but ear-shatteringly loud, and had a definite psychological impact on those within range.)

Syrian resistance fighters deploy a home-made spigot mortar in the video clip below, complete with home-brewed propellant - white powder in plastic bags!.  They use it to take out a Syrian government missile emplacement on the roof of a building.  It's rather impressive. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

I'm not sure I'd want to stand too close to that spigot mortar when they fire it . . . but I know I don't want to be in the blast radius of its projectile when it lands!

Peter

"How student debt reduces lifetime wealth"

That's the subtitle of a very interesting article at Demos.  Here's an excerpt.

Student debt has skyrocketed over the past decade, quadrupling from just $240 billion in 2003 to more than $1 trillion today. If current borrowing patterns continue, student debt levels will reach $2 trillion in 2025. Average debt levels have risen rapidly as well: two-thirds (66 percent) of college seniors now graduate with an average of $26,600 in student loans, up from 41 percent in 1989. The rise of this “debt-for-diploma” system over the past decade was largely caused by the sharp decline in state funding for higher education, which has fallen by 25 percent since its peak in 2000.

However, despite the fact that student debt is now nearly a prerequisite for a college degree, we have not yet fully explored the impact of tying opportunity to debt. Though a college education remains the surest path to a middle-class life, evidence has begun to mount that student debt may be far more detrimental to financial futures than once thought, particularly for those with the highest levels of debt: students of color and students from low-income families.

This brief attempts to quantify just how much these soaring debt levels impact college-educated households’ financial stability over a lifetime. It creates a model using data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances and other datasets to estimate household debt and assets, comparing the projected debts and assets of a college-educated household with average levels of education debt to a similar household without debt. It finds that, over a lifetime of employment and saving, $53,000 in education debt leads to a wealth loss of nearly $208,000.

We can generalize this result to predict that the $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt will lead to total lifetime wealth loss of $4 trillion for indebted households, not even accounting for the heavy impact of defaults.

There's more at the link, going into a lot more detail about those numbers.  If you are studying for a degree, planning to study for one, or have children or other relatives who are or are planning to do so, you really need to read the whole thing.  Demos appears to be a left-of-center/progressive organization, but don't let that stop you reading more;  their political orientation doesn't affect the reality they discuss in this article.

I have four university qualifications, all obtained through part-time study while working and earning my living.  I was never in debt at all, paying for each year's study out of the earnings of the previous year;  and because distance education is so much cheaper than full-time tuition, I saved a bundle.  If I had kids today who wanted a basic degree in almost any discipline, that's the recipe I'd recommend to them.  Sure, there are certain fields where full-time study is mandatory (e.g. medicine, engineering, etc.), but even there the preliminary qualifications can be obtained part-time.  It makes so much financial sense that I'm mind-boggled more people aren't doing that.  Yes, it takes greater self-discipline, but it also teaches self-discipline - something that'll stand kids in good stead later in life.  What's not to like?

Peter

Not your average "all hat and no cattle"

This made me laugh out loud.  Someone mixed a cattle auctioneer's patter with a rap beat.

I have to admit, I loathe rap with a passion, but this is funny.  You'll find more of it here.

(BTW, if you don't know the expression "All hat and no cattle", see here.)




Peter

This man tells it like it is about the economy

Steve Ricchiuto is Managing Director of Mizuho Securities USA, the local arm of the Mizuho Financial Group in Japan.  With assets of over $2 trillion (!), Mizuho is not exactly a small player on the international financial markets;  and it's not the sort of corporation to install a dummy as the head of its US operation.  This man knows what he's talking about.

Here he is on the air with Simon Hobbs and Sara Eisen of CNBC.  The meat of his remarks begins at 1m. 27s. into the clip, but watch the whole thing anyway.

In case you missed it:

"There is no acceleration in underlying economic activity. There’s this wrong concept that I keep on hearing about in the financial press about the acceleration in economic growth. It isn’t happening. We had a horrible retail sales number, we had a horrible durable goods number, we’re likely to have a very disappointing retail sales number coming forward, this month we have a strong payroll number we say everything’s great – it’s not great. It’s been the same thing for the last five years, there’s no improvement in the economy. After a string of dismal data on durable goods, retail spending, and inventories, we get a good jobs number and everyone saying the economy’s good. It’s not good."

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.  Those who want warm fuzzy pious platitudes instead . . . let them listen to the Administration, the Fed and the mainstream media.  That's all we ever hear from them.

The other day, fellow blogger The Silicon Graybeard pointed out:

The earliest prices I can recall for a gallon of gas were around 20 cents a gallon: "19 and 9" because Florida prices always ended in that 9/10 of a cent.  Today's silver price of $17.05 says one of today's greenbacks is worth about 8.11 cents of 1964 silver.  In other words, one of today's dollars isn't worth a 1964 dime.  Today's gas price of about $2.15/gallon would cost 17 1/2 cents back in 1964.  Maybe the prices I remember weren't from 1964; but gas is basically the same price it was in 1964, measured against a standard.  Higher gas prices aren't from "peak oil", they're from worthless dollars.

There's more at the link.

That puts Mr. Ricchiuto's remarks into a different, but no less scary context.  All the so-called 'growth' we're seeing in the economy isn't really growth at all:  it's the effects of inflation, multiplied by the exponential growth in debt (about which we've also spoken recently).

Scary times.

Peter

"Bringing Criminals into the Stores Where You Shop"

Greg Ellifritz, who's a police officer, firearms instructor and blogger, has some interesting news on a new crime threat in some upmarket neighborhoods.  Here's an excerpt.

Recently I’ve noticed a trend among the shoplifters I’ve arrested. They all have a huge number of department store gift cards in their wallets and purses. Most of the shoplifters I arrest have between five and twenty gift cards in their possession at the time of arrest.

I assumed that these cards had been stolen. When I started asking my prisoners about how they got all the cards, a few were remarkably candid. They don’t steal them. They use the cards to get fast cash to buy drugs. Here’s how they work their scam.

The shoplifters will steal clothing or other merchandise from department stores. They often pick baby clothes because they are relatively expensive and smaller in size (thus easier to hide).

The shoplifters don’t keep the clothes or sell them in second-hand stores. Instead, they take them to a different store and return them. Since they don’t have receipts, the store gives them credit (in the form of a store gift card) instead of cash.

You may not have noticed, but a lot of grocery stores now have a machine near the front entrance where you can exchange store gift cards for cash. The machines take a percentage off the top as profit (3%-15% depending on the machine) and then give the person the remainder of the balance in cash.

Criminals take the gift cards they get from their stolen goods and turn them into cash (usually for heroin) at one of these machines. They use different stores and multiple (usually stolen) ID cards to redeem the cards so they don’t arouse suspicion.

One of the larger grocery stores in my city has recently added one of these gift card-for-cash machines. It has attracted quite a few criminals and thieves. I spoke with a manager at the store and he has noticed a change in the store’s clientele since the addition of the gift card machine. When I asked the manager about the machine, his comment was “I hate that machine. It draws people into our store who really don’t belong here.” The criminal element attracted by the machine then steals things from the grocery store as well.

Why is this important to you? I assume that most of my readers aren’t looking for easier ways to steal things or get money for drugs.

It affects you because you have to buy groceries. If your grocery store has a gift card-for-cash machine, it WILL attract a criminal element that wouldn’t otherwise frequent the store. If the criminals are there while you shop, you are more likely to be victimized. These criminals are the same people who will also steal from a person like you if given the opportunity.

There's more at the link.  Worthwhile reading, as are most of his articles at Active Response Training's Web site.  Recommended.

This just goes to show:  you can never take your security for granted.  You may be perfectly well aware of, and prepared for, the routine threats in your area . . . then a store will install one of these cash-for-gift-card machines and the risks change almost immediately.  Situational awareness is of paramount importance - as much as, if not more so than, the means to defend yourself if necessary.

Peter

Quote of the day

From Rev. Paul, in a post titled 'Differences Between North and South':

If you do settle in the South and bear children, don't think they'll necessarily be accepted as Southerners ... at least not right away. After all, if the cat had kittens in the oven, you wouldn't call 'em biscuits.

Peter

So much for the Rule of Law

I take the concept of the Rule of Law pretty seriously.  After all, I swore the Federal law enforcement oath of office:

I [name] do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

The Constitution is the foundation for all US laws and regulations, which must be made 'in pursuance thereof'.  If they're not in accordance with the Constitution, they're not valid.  Period.

I've known for years that the supremacy of the Constitution has been under threat by ever-encroaching 'nanny state' and 'Big Brother' legislation.  However, the Atlantic has just reminded us how badly it's been eroded.  Its article is titled "America Fails the 'Rule of Law' Test".

The U.S. Army field manual defines "the rule of law" as follows: "The rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced, and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency."

Going by that definition, the U.S. government does not operate according to the rule of law. A panel of former executive-branch employees, many of whom served in the U.S. military or the CIA, made this point bluntly in a recent report on drones. "Despite the undoubted good faith of US decision-makers, it would be difficult to conclude that US targeted strikes are consistent with core rule of law norms," they declared. "From the perspective of many around the world, the U.S. appears to claim, in effect, the legal right to kill any person it determines is a member of al-Qaida or its associated forces, in any state on Earth, at any time, based on secret criteria and secret evidence, evaluated in a secret process by unknown and largely anonymous individuals—with no public disclosure of which organizations are considered 'associated forces,' no means for anyone outside that secret process to raise questions about the criteria or validity of the evidence, and no means for anyone outside that process to identify or remedy mistakes or abuses."

Just so.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government violates "rule of law" norms in other areas too.

There's more at the link.

Makes you think, doesn't it?  The question is, what are we going to do about restoring the rule of law and doing away with institutions and individuals who stand in its way?

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #813

It takes a special kind of Doofidity to be fired from your job before you even start work.

Texas teen fired from pizza shop for complaining about 'f--k a--' new job on Twitter before her first day

Robert Waple, the boss of Jet’s Pizza in Mansfield, saw the tweets from his new hire, @Cellla, and quickly fired her before she even started. ‘Good luck with your no money, no job life!’ he tweeted. The teen didn’t seem to take the news too hard: She announced her lay-off with a series of laughing emojis. Waple explained the gig required employees to take orders and eat free pizza: ‘How hard would that have been?’

There's more at the link.

When I was young and indigent, I looked for work knowing I was likely to get only the poorly-paid, demanding positions, because that's all I was qualified to do.  I made darn sure to get better qualifications as quickly as possible, so I could move up and onward, but I never disrespected my employer in public like that.  I needed to eat and pay the rent!  My first jobs were too poorly paid to afford a car, but I coped with public transport and my own two feet, and in due course a small motorbike.  It wasn't fun, but I made it to where I could afford a car;  then things got better.

If you don't want to do a particular job, why apply for it in the first place?  What is it with young folks today?  (Yeah, yeah, I know - I sound like an old fart.  Heck, I suppose I am an old-fart-in-training by now!)

Peter

Political candidates and the ethics of choice

I note with displeasure that the mainstream media are already talking as if the 2016 Presidential elections are going to be a choice between Hillary Clinton for the Democrats, and Jeb Bush for the Republicans.

Given a choice between those two, I'll agree with Jerry Garcia:

Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils

IS STILL CHOOSING EVIL.

Word.




Peter

Dumpster diving for fun and (BIG!) profit

I was amazed to learn that dumpster diving can be far more profitable than merely fishing out usable and edible food.  Wired reports:

Malone stops his Chevy Avalanche next to the dumpster in back of an Office Depot. Within seconds, he’s out of the truck and sticking his magnetized flashlight to the inside of the dumpster’s wall. He heaves himself up onto the metal rim to lean inside and begins digging through a top layer of cardboard and packing materials. Half a minute later I hear what I will learn is Malone’s version of eureka: “Hell yes! Hell yes!” He comes out with a box containing a complete Uniden Wireless Video Surveillance System—two cameras and a wireless monitor—which normally retails for $419. A quick inspection reveals that it’s all in perfect condition, although someone has clearly opened and repacked it. “A return,” he says, then plunges back into the dumpster.

Ten minutes later, when he’s again behind the wheel of the Avalanche, Malone continues to tell me about the material benefits of dumpster diving. If he were to dedicate himself to the activity as a full-time job, he says, finding various discarded treasures, refurbishing and selling them off, he’s confident he could pull in at least $250,000 a year—there is that much stuff simply tossed into dumpsters in the Austin area. He lists a few recent “recoveries”: vacuums, power tools, furniture, carpeting, industrial machines, assorted electronics. Much of it needs a little love, he says, but a lot of it, like this Uniden system, is in perfect condition.

. . .

At first, Malone mainly used his discoveries for various hobby projects. Along with his mini choppers, he built an electric skateboard, a set of plasma speakers, several 3-D projectors, and a computer that ran while submerged in mineral oil. “People would come over and ask, ‘Man, where’d you get that?’” he recalls. “I’d say, ‘Well, I made it.’ I didn’t say right away that I made it mostly from stuff I got out of dumpsters.” Inevitably his friends would ask to buy his various toys, and—usually already bored with them and having moved on to a new project—he would agree to sell. Even so, his garage soon overflowed, and Malone decided he should make some space by staging a weekend yard sale.

That sale provided several revelations. The biggest was what sold with the drive-by public. “I had all my cool stuff out front, a couple of very nice computers, mini choppers, some high-end printers—the big-ticket stuff—thinking, ‘This is what’s going to make me the money.’” It wasn’t. Instead, people flocked to “the small stuff”: the photo paper and toner he’d pulled out of the dumpsters at OfficeMax and Office Depot, the hand tools he’d found in the trash at Harbor Freight, the CDs from GameStop dumpsters, the assorted seasonal tchotchkes that had been tossed by the employees at Pier 1 and Cost Plus. “I eventually figured out that I had to sell the big stuff on Amazon or Craigslist,” Malone says. But all those small sales added up: By Sunday afternoon he had collected a little more than $3,000 in cash. “And that was when I realized, ‘This has the potential to be something.’”

There's much more at the link.

That's a pretty amazing story.  Y'know, if it weren't for my fused spine and damaged sciatic nerve, I'd be sorely tempted to try it for myself . . . I've already got a pickup truck, after all!

Peter

Supercavitating penguins?

Having studied supercavitation in the past, with specific reference to torpedoes such as the Soviet VA-111 Shkval, I was intrigued to find this video clip about Emperor penguins in Antarctica who appear to use something similar to boost their underwater speed.

I find that amazing.  So much for this particular modern technological advance . . . Mother Nature's been doing it for millennia!  I wonder if that's where the Soviet scientists got the idea?

Peter

It's done at last!

Earlier this evening I typed the last words of the fifth draft of the fourth book in the Maxwell Saga, 'Stand Against the Storm'.

It's taken me over a year to put this one together.  There were times I got so frustrated with it I wanted to just walk away from it, jump a few years ahead in Steve's life, and do something else;  but that would have been cheating.  I went on changing the storyline, reworking the plot, and trying again.  I think at last I've got something that's both feasible and enjoyable.

Now comes the tricky part:  editing a year's worth of work to make sure that everything hangs together, nothing's left dangling, and the purple socks Steve wears on page 137 don't morph into black fishnet stockings on page 142.  (Just kidding!)  I'll do a major editing pass over the next four to five days, then ask two long-established beta readers who haven't yet seen it to give it a quick read over next weekend and see what they think.  While they do that I'll do more editing passes.  All being well, the novel will be published in e-book format within 10-12 days, unless I need a few more days to fix any unexpected problems.  (Here's hoping not!)  A print edition will follow within another 1-2 weeks.

Yours truly is going to sleep well tonight. I'm a tired puppy!

Peter

A nifty idea for separating egg yolks

Go see it over at The Lonely Libertarian.  It's ingenious!  That just got added to my kitchen repertoire.

Peter

"The biggest science scandal ever"?

Last month I published an article titled 'Climate change fraud in a nutshell', which looked at how temperature records had been deliberately falsified by climate change alarmists.  Now the Telegraph follows that article with another, claiming that 'The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever'.  Here's an excerpt.

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

. . .

One of the first examples of these “adjustments” was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen’s original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, “Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history”, Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.

. . .

Of much more serious significance, however, is the way this wholesale manipulation of the official temperature record – for reasons GHCN and Giss have never plausibly explained – has become the real elephant in the room of the greatest and most costly scare the world has known. This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.

There's more at the link.

So much for 'the science is settled'!

Peter

Bullets, balloons and resistance

Here's a fun excerpt from a TV program showing how water, so much more dense than air, can slow down a bullet.

I used to think that the stories of divers attacking harbors, and swimming safely underneath a hail of bullets fired by sentries on shore, were just that - stories.  However, way back when, I saw some South African divers training at Walvis Bay prior to an operation in Angola. Part of the training was to show them that sufficient depth of water (about 3 meters, or 10 feet) would, indeed, protect them from AK-47 fire.  Sure enough, as they swam along next to the quay, their instructor fired an AK-47 at them, and the bullets were slowed to a crawl before they could reach the swimmers.  It was very educational.

(Note to readers:  DON'T try that at home - or anywhere else!)

Peter

I'm not sure how many men still wear ties . . .

. . . but for those who do, here's 30 ways to knot them.  For example:

THE FISHBONE KNOT

This awesome work of tie artistry is shaped in the form of a fishbone, hence the name. It's a remarkable formal knot that is increasingly gaining respect. While somewhat challenging to tie, it's definitely worth the effort, because it never fails to make the ultimate impression.

(Click the image for a larger view)

There are 29 more ways to knot your tie at the link.

I could have used that information during my secular career.  Back in the 1980's and 1990's, ties were de rigeur for business attire in South Africa.  Nowadays I hardly ever wear them.

Peter

Music, generations and families

Chris Byrne tells a tale of music, generations, and families.  If it doesn't bring a lump to your throat, I submit you may need help.

Go read, and enjoy . . . then go do something like that with your children, if you're blessed enough to have them.

It might be worth listening to this, too.

Peter

Shipping tells the real story

I mentioned the Baltic Dry Index a year ago in this article.  For those who aren't familiar with it, Wikipedia describes it as follows:

Most directly, the index measures the demand for shipping capacity versus the supply of dry bulk carriers. The demand for shipping varies with the amount of cargo that is being traded or moved in various markets (supply and demand).

The supply of cargo ships is generally both tight and inelastic—it takes two years to build a new ship, and a ship's fixed costs are too expensive to take it out of circulation the way airlines park unneeded jets in deserts. So, marginal increases in demand can push the index higher quickly, and marginal demand decreases can cause the index to fall rapidly. e.g. "if you have 100 ships competing for 99 cargoes, rates go down, whereas if you've 99 ships competing for 100 cargoes, rates go up. In other words, small fleet changes and logistical matters can crash rates..." The index indirectly measures global supply and demand for the commodities shipped aboard dry bulk carriers, such as building materials, coal, metallic ores, and grains.

Because dry bulk primarily consists of materials that function as raw material inputs to the production of intermediate or finished goods, such as concrete, electricity, steel, and food; the index is also seen as an efficient economic indicator of future economic growth and production. The BDI is termed a leading economic indicator because it predicts future economic activity.

There's more at the link.

The Baltic Dry Index is thus a very accurate predictor of world economic trends.  It measures the volume of all goods dispatched by sea all over the world.  If there's heavy demand for shipping, this indicates high economic activity and good times.  If there isn't, it shows declining economic activity and warns of bad times ahead.

With that in mind, take a look at this graph.

Right now, the Baltic Dry Index is lower than its lowest point during the financial crisis of 2007-2008.  That should worry us.  In fact, in economic terms, it should scare the hell out of us.  As Zero Hedge puts it:

... since Thanksgiving, The Baltic Dry has fallen on 43 or the 47 days, down over 60% from ... late October ... At 569, The Baltic Dry is inching ever closer to what will be the lowest level ever (554 on 7/31/1986) for the global shipping cost indicator ...

One or two more days like this and it will be the all-time low ...

Again, more at the link.

What this means is that companies and nations are simply not ordering or shipping anything like the quantities of goods needed to sustain economic activity at its present level, let alone provide growth.  The Christmas shopping season was difficult for retailers, as consumer demand simply didn't materialize.  This is our warning sign that things are going to get a lot worse over the next few months.

Next, consider that 'Consumer spending comprise[d] 71% of the US economy in 2013'.  If that falls off even further, where does it leave our economy?

You figure it out.  Just don't take too long about it, because otherwise events will overtake you.

Peter

Not your average road rage incident

Courtesy of an e-mail from reader Michael C., here's one of the weirdest traffic altercations I've ever seen.

Okay . . . WTF???




Peter

More from Gallup's CEO about unemployment

A couple of days ago I wrote about what Gallup calls 'The Big Lie':  official unemployment statistics.  Here's Gallup's CEO expanding on those remarks.  It's well worth watching.

Word.

Peter

Writing, writing, writing . . .

Today's seen a new personal best in my writing output: 8,593 words.  I'm still staggered when I look at that number. I'm exhausted, but it feels good.

That level of output is helped by my irregular sleeping patterns. Thanks to a disabling spinal injury I suffered in 2004, I'm unable to sleep for more than a few hours at a time before my spine and left leg 'freeze' and become very painful.  That wakes me up, no matter how much I want to sleep, and they won't ease off if I stay in bed;  so I get up and work.  I rest after lunch for a couple of hours, however long my body will give me, then work again.  That's how, since 3 a.m. this morning, I've been able to write so many words - that, and the fact that I'm busy with a novel I've been working on for well over a year.  I'm covering familiar territory.

Maxwell Volume 4, 'Stand Against The Storm', has given me all sorts of problems.  I've massively revised the plot, location and highlights no less than five times.  It's almost finished at last, thank the Lord!  It's been a topsy-turvy journey.  You see, this novel will complete the cycle of my hero, Steve Maxwell, as a junior officer.  He's now on the cusp of becoming a senior officer, which will see him gain command responsibilities and a whole new focus.  However, he also has to learn more about some of the pitfalls of military service, including officers - even senior commanders - who aren't always as focused on operational reality as they should be.  Today we call them "Chairborne Commandos" or "Powerpoint Rangers".  (In my days in uniform we had some other terms as well, less suitable for a family-oriented blog like this one!  An acronym with which some of you may be familiar is 'REMF'.  No, I'm not going to translate it here!)  This book will see Steve having to come to terms with such officers, even in a combat zone, and reinforce his determination to avoid becoming like them.  It's a transition point for his career, and I've struggled to make that transition, that conflict, clear.  I hope I've got it right at last.

Feedback from initial beta readers has been favorable, and the work I'm doing now is to improve the novel in the light of their feedback.  I'm going to bounce it off a couple of other beta readers next week for a quick impression from them.  If they find nothing major out of place, publication date (for the e-book version at least) will be the following week;  if a few final tweaks are necessary, it may slip until the week after that.  Rest assured I want to get this one out as much as some of you want to read it!

I have a hectic year of writing planned.  The Laredo Trilogy, Volume 2, 'Forge A New Blade', is scheduled for April/May;  Maxwell 5, as yet untitled, for August/September;  and Laredo 3, 'Knife To The Hilt', for November/December.  Here's hoping I can keep working at this intensity!

Thanks for your patience in waiting so long for Maxwell 4.  I hope you'll find it was worth the wait.

Peter

When push comes to shove . . .

. . . the shove(l) takes it!

Some nice work there by the excavator operator.  I'd say he's done this before.

Peter

Trying each other's snacks

I had to laugh at some of the expressions on the faces of the tasters.  First, Korean girls try US snack foods.

Next, US students try Korean snack foods.

I think I'll pass on most of them, thank you very much!

Peter

The debt mountain becomes ever more unstable

In recent weeks we've seen how the new Greek government's determination to dig its way out from underneath a mountain of debt, by fair means and/or foul, has sent shockwaves through the European financial system.  It looks set fair to do the same to the economy of the entire world.  This is despite the fact that Greece's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is less than one-half of one per cent of the Gross World Product.

In one sense, Greece's debt problems are a microcosm of those facing the entire globe.  According to the Financial Times:

The world is awash with more debt than before the global financial crisis erupted in 2007, with China’s debt relative to its economic size now exceeding US levels, according to a report.

Global debt has increased by $57tn since 2007 to almost $200tn — far outpacing economic growth, calculates McKinsey & Co, the consultancy. As a share of gross domestic product, debt has risen from 270 per cent to 286 per cent.

. . .

The report is likely to fuel debates among economists about what is an appropriate level of debt in an economy. McKinsey argues much of the expansion in developing countries has reflected the healthy development of financial markets, but in advanced economies high debt could constrain growth and create fresh financial vulnerabilities.

High debt levels could make it harder for central banks to “normalise” monetary policy without disrupting the real economy — the US Federal Reserve plans to raise interest rates this year for the first time since 2006. “High debt levels are an outward sign of structural problems,” says Charles Dumas, chairman of Lombard Street Research.

. . .

McKinsey’s conclusions echo warnings by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, which acts as a think-tank for central bankers. BIS research had found that “when private sector credit-to-GDP ratios are significantly above their long-term trend, banking strains are likely to follow within three years”, Jaime Caruana, BIS general manager, said in a speech late last year.

There's more at the link.  Highly recommended reading.

To put those numbers in perspective, the Gross World Product (i.e. the sum of the Gross National Products of every nation on Earth) was estimated to be 'approximately US$87.25 trillion in terms of purchasing power parity, and around US$74.31 trillion in nominal terms'.  Averaging those two figures for the sake of simplicity gives us $80.78 trillion - but if the Financial Times' figure for world indebtedness is correct, that means there's almost $2.50 in debt for every dollar of world income.

Never before in the history of the world have numbers like these been bandied about.  Nobody can envision what $200 trillion looks like - it's a meaningless number;  yet that's the total amount of debt in the world economy right now.  It's literally unthinkable.  The interest on that debt is already crippling many economies, and it'll do the same to the USA in the not too distant future, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out yesterday.

Sooner or later, something's got to give.  The solution can only be found in a limited number of ways.

1. Pay back the debt.  With so much owed in comparison to the size of the world economy, that's effectively a non-starter.
2. Deliberately encourage inflation, so that 'expensive' old debt can be repaid with 'cheap' inflated dollars or other currencies.  This works, but at ruinous cost to national economies, and has disastrous effects on those relying on fixed incomes or pensions, which seldom (if ever) keep pace with inflation.
3. Simply keep on rolling over the debt in the hope that the problem will be ignored until the current crop of politicians are all safely retired (on their carefully inflation-proofed official pensions) and can leave someone else to clean up their mess.

At the moment, it looks as if governments all over the world have chosen option (3).  That bodes very ill indeed for our economic future, because the interest payments on that debt will keep on getting bigger and bigger until they consume the lion's share of national budgets - and our taxes.  Meanwhile, governments will try all sorts of tricks to get their hands on more money, even if it means taxing funds that were previously exempt (witness President Obama's proposals to tax college savings funds (since abandoned) and the accumulated capital of US firms in other tax jurisdictions).

I, for one, will do everything in my power to reduce my tax liabilities by legal means, so that I can keep as much as possible of my money for my own needs.  If that means relocating or restructuring my finances, so be it.  Many people are already doing that to a greater or lesser extent by working on a cash or barter basis.  The taxman never gets to hear about such income.  I predict that's going to become a normal way of life for many people before too long.

Peter

What's the Greek word for vodka?

I ask because there might be a lot of it in Athens shortly.  Casey Research points out a very interesting sidelight of the Greek financial crisis.

Last week the world woke up to the fact that Greece’s new government holds a geopolitical trump card: it can hold the EU ransom by threatening to break the fragile consensus on Russia.

The renewal of sanctions against Russia requires the unanimous support of EU members… which means Obama’s alliance against Russia needs Greek cooperation. What’s more, Greece has veto power over whether NATO can retaliate for an attack on any of its members. Article V, which states, “[A]n armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” may only be invoked with unanimous agreement among NATO members.

Greece and Russia have close cultural and religious ties, and Russia is Greece’s largest trading partner. Russia’s ambassador to Athens didn’t waste any time congratulating Greece’s new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, on his victory.

So it’s no surprise that Putin is using Greece as leverage. Russia has hinted that it will open its market to Greek food exports if Greece leaves the eurozone, and also that it would consider giving Greece financial aid. One can imagine other carrots being dangled, like an offer to hook up Greece to the Turkish Stream pipeline.

. . .

Syriza, which has close connections with Russia, admires Putin’s defiance of Western institutions. The new Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, has a relationship with Aleksandr Dugin, a Russian nationalist philosopher with close ties to Putin. As neo-eurasianists, they aim to pry a weak and divided Europe away from US influence. Syriza has openly campaigned for Greece to leave NATO, though they’ve toned down their hostility on that issue recently—presumbably to preserve it as a useful bargaining chip for the future.

Kotzias, who says he’ll work to prevent a rift between the EU and Russia, has already recognized the legitimacy of the Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine and dismisses the Ukrainian government as a neo-Nazi junta.

. . .

The euro and the Ukraine crises are converging, and Putin is watching closely.

There's more at the link.  Intriguing!

This is going to put Germany and the more stable European Union states in a real pickle.  They're trying to get tough with Russia and support Ukraine;  but if they do that, Russia can offer Greece the economic incentives that the EU is denying it, and thereby undercut NATO and EU unanimity on how to deal with the Ukrainian separatist crisis.  Wheels within wheels . . .

Peter

Embraer's KC-390 flies at last

The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer is positioning its KC-390 airlifter as a modern competitor to Lockheed's venerable C-130 Hercules.  It flew today for the first time.  Here's a video clip of the occasion. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

I think the KC-390 has the potential to be a real challenger in the field of medium airlifters.  If its cargo capacity and rough-field performance match that of the C-130 (as they were designed to do), and its price point works out as planned (roughly two-thirds to three-quarters that of a current-production C-130J model), it may achieve significant market penetration.  Even more interesting is that Boeing has partnered with Embraer in an aircraft marketing deal.  Boeing's C-17 program is winding down, and it'll be wanting to keep at least a toehold in the military transport market.  The KC-390 would be eminently suitable for that purpose.

Congratulations to Embraer on achieving this milestone.  I'll be watching the KC-390 program with great interest.

Peter

Unemployment: more about the 'big lie'

I've written frequently about the unemployment statistics, and how they're basically a fraud from start to finish - 'massaged' by officials to present the most favorable picture.  Now the Gallup organization has made many of the same points.  They've even called it 'The Big Lie'.

Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.

There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

Yet another figure of importance that doesn't get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find -- in other words, you are severely underemployed -- the government doesn't count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.

There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.

There's more at the link.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  official government economic statistics aren't worth the paper they're printed on.  The problem isn't limited to the unemployment rate.  For example, it's claimed that US inflation was only 0.8% during 2014.

Sure it was - if you leave out of your calculations almost everything important to the consumer, including food, fuel and so on.  Shadowstats' John Williams measures inflation the old-fashioned way, leaving in every element of importance, and he comes up with a rather different picture.

0.8%?  Or ten times that?  My money's on Mr. Williams' calculations.  I pay our bills.  The evidence in my wallet and my bank account is all on his side.




Peter

Don't ditch that large-caliber pistol just yet

A lot of handgun owners are apparently moving to 9mm. Parabellum pistols, following recent improvements in ammunition technology that have allegedly improved the performance of the smaller cartridge until it rivals that of larger rounds.  I've noticed many more advertisements for .40 S&W handguns on, for example, the local Armslist than I have for 9mm. pistols, and anecdotal evidence from other bloggers and shooters also persuades me that the 9mm. is finding renewed popularity.

I'm not surprised by this;  I often carry a 9mm. pistol (for reasons explained here), and I know many other experienced, competent shooters who've made the same decision.  Nevertheless, the  number of quality .40 S&W pistols currently offered for sale means that their prices have become depressed.  I'd say that at present, in my area, a pistol chambered for 9mm. Parabellum will sell faster and fetch 10%-20% more than an almost identical model from the same manufacturer in .40 S&W or 357 SIG.

Apart from the lower price you'll get for it, there are three reasons why I suggest you hold on to your larger-caliber pistol, rather than sell it.

1. For best-selling pistols like the Glock or Smith & Wesson M&P series, aftermarket caliber conversion barrels are available.  (See, for example - in alphabetical order - the products of Bar-Sto, KKM Precision, Lone Wolf Distributors and Storm Lake.  I currently use conversion barrels from KKM and Lone Wolf;  the latter are the lowest cost, in my experience, and their quality is quite acceptable.)  They convert larger-caliber pistols to shoot smaller cartridges (e.g. a .40 S&W or 357 SIG can shoot 9mm, or a 10mm. can shoot .40 S&W).  They can typically be had for $100-$200 - a lot cheaper than the price of a new pistol - and most have proven pretty reliable in service.  When fed with the right magazines for the cartridge in question, and after a break-in period of 500 rounds or so (an essential precaution, IMHO), I've found mine every bit as reliable as factory 9mm. handguns.  I wouldn't hesitate to trust my life to them if necessary.
2. If another 'ammunition drought' strikes, expect the most popular cartridges to be the hardest to find.  During the most recent ammo drought, one couldn't find quality defensive 9mm. hollowpoints for love or money in some areas.  (Fortunately I had a decent stash of the good stuff, so that wasn't too much of a problem for me;  but other shooters of my acquaintance were hurting badly.)  However, even at the worst times one could always find quality defensive ammunition in larger and/or less popular and/or more expensive calibers on at least some gunshops' shelves.  If you find yourself running low on stocks in one caliber, and your pistol can accommodate another caliber by using a different barrel, you won't be in danger of running dry.
3. The same improvements in ammo technology that have upgraded the 9mm. Parabellum cartridge have also upgraded other favorite defensive loads.  I still have several .40 S&W and .45 ACP pistols in my gun safe, and I'll carry any of them for defensive purposes without hesitation.  A great many law enforcement officers and agencies still entrust their safety to those rounds.  I trust their performance, and the .40 S&W sacrifices very little to the 9mm. in terms of magazine capacity - perhaps ten per cent at most in a typical handgun.  Why get rid of a good thing?

In fact, when I see a bargain-priced .40 S&W handgun for sale, and I know I can get a reasonably-priced 9mm. barrel for it, I tend to make an offer and see if I get lucky.  Right now is an excellent time to buy handguns like that.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #812

Isn't it helpful when a criminal makes a cop's work so much easier?

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy . . .

(Of interest is that after taking a shotgun blast at point-blank range to the leg, the crook was still able to run across the street and hide.  So much for the Hollywood portrayal of a shotgun as a fearsome weapon that'll blow a man clean off his feet!)

Peter

Historic photographs of two wars

Two articles caught my eye recently.  As a military history buff, and an enthusiastic amateur photographer in my younger days, these blended those interests nicely.

First, the BBC reports that a Spanish museum has put on display a number of rediscovered photographs from that country's Civil War by Robert Capa and Agustí Centelles.  Here are a few of the images.

Robert Capa: Aragon front, 1936

(Here he uses a very similar technique to his

famous photograph of D-Day, 1944, shown below)

Robert Capa: D-Day, 1944

Agustí Centelles: Spanish militiaman

Agustí Centelles: Republican assault guards on La Calle Diputacion, Barcelona, 1939

There are more images at the link, plus a link to the museum.

Next comes the news that 31 undeveloped rolls of film from the Second World War have been discovered and processed.  PetaPixel reports:

Photographer Levi Bettweiser is the man behind the Rescued Film Project, an effort to find and rescue old and undeveloped rolls of film from the far corners of the world.

He recently came across one of his biggest finds so far: 31 undeveloped rolls of film shot by a single soldier during World War II.

Bettweiser tells us he found the film rolls in late 2014 at an auction in Ohio. About half the rolls were labeled with various location names (i.e. Boston Harbor, Lucky Strike Beach, LaHavre Harbor). “I know nothing about who shot the film or who it belonged to,” he says.

Bettweiser says he gets nervous when developing the first roll in any batch of film, since the results with that one often indicate how fruitful the rest of the batch will be.

Luckily, in the case of these 31 WWII rolls from over 70 years ago, wonderful images emerged from the developing tank.

There's more at the link.  Rather than reproduce individual images, here's a short video about the processing and recovery of the photographs.

Until the 19th century history was mostly about words and buildings, with a few works of art thrown in for good measure.  The advent of photography has made our grasp of history much more real, much more immediate.  From that perspective, these rediscovered images are very important cultural artifacts.

Peter

It looks like he's flying underwater

I'm obliged to Gerard Vanderleun for linking to this fascinating video of French freediver Guillaume Néry 'surfing' the strong underwater currents through Tiputa Pass in the Rangiroa Atoll, part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia.  Wikipedia notes:

Rangiroa offers some of the best dives in the world in and around the Tiputa Pass, which lies at one end of the one main road and runs 3.5 km to the Avatoru Pass. Sedentary common bottlenose dolphins ... regularly play group in the Pass. They can be viewed from the mainland but it is also one of the few places where they can be approached in scuba diving. Because of its large size and the existence of only two passes, each high tide creates a strong incoming current while each low tide creates a strong outgoing current in those two passes. When the current is flowing inward through Tiputa Pass, about 200 shark specimens gather at the entrance to the Tiputa Pass, at fifty meters deep. Led by the strong current, sharks can remain motionless and allow divers to observe them without any difficulty. Large manta rays, green sea turtles, and humphead wrasses can also be seen. Occasionally, tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks can also be spotted. In January, large number of stingrays gather in the Tiputa Pass, as well as hammerhead sharks that feed on them.

I recommend watching the video in full-screen mode.

Peter

I have no idea what they're doing . . .

. . . but it looks like they're enjoying themselves!

Peter

100 years of poison gas in modern warfare

Yesterday marked a grim anniversary.  The BBC reports:

As he climbed to the top of the church belfry in Bolimow, west of Warsaw, General Max Hoffman of Germany's Ninth Army was expecting a bird's-eye view of a military breakthrough - and a new chapter in warfare.

The date was 31 January 1915, and he was about to witness the first major gas attack in history.

Gen Hoffman watched as 18,000 gas shells rained down on the Russian lines, each one filled with the chemical xylyl bromide, an early form of tear gas. But the results left him disappointed.

"I had expected much greater results from the employment of this ammunition in - as we then imagined - such large quantities. That the chief effect of the gas was destroyed by great cold was not known at that time."

But the failure at Bolimow proved to be only a temporary setback.

By April, German chemists had tested a method of releasing chlorine gas from pressurised cylinders and thousands of French Algerian troops were smothered in a ghostly green cloud of chlorine at the second Battle of Ypres. With no protection, many died from the agonies of suffocation.

Within a few days, the Daily Mail published an editorial lambasting "the cold-blooded deployment of every device of modern science" by the Germans.

The commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir John French, called the use of gas "a cynical and barbarous disregard of the well-known usages of civilised war".

But four months later Britain itself attacked the German trenches with gas, at the Battle of Loos.

"Owing to the repeated use by the enemy of asphyxiating gases in their attacks on our positions, I have been compelled to resort to similar methods," Sir John explained.

. . .

The standard-issue gas mask in 1917 - the "small box respirator" - provided good protection against chlorine and phosgene.

But soon all sides had turned to gases which maimed even soldiers wearing a mask - blistering agents, or "vesicants".

The most widely used, mustard gas, could kill by blistering the lungs and throat if inhaled in large quantities. Its effect on masked soldiers, however, was to produce terrible blisters all over the body as it soaked into their woollen uniforms. Contaminated uniforms had to be stripped off as fast as possible and washed - not exactly easy for men under attack on the front line.

. . .

Other terrible weapons were developed at the same time. The flamethrower appear on the Western Front in 1915, two months before gas. Other weapons, like the machine gun, were honed to new levels of murderous perfection. The biggest killer of all was artillery. Yet it was only the use of all gas that was outlawed by the Geneva Protocol of 1925.

There's more at the link.  Wikipedia also has a good overview of the topic.

Germany would go on to use poison gas to terrible effect in the extermination camps of World War II.  The Allies produced large quantities of poison gas during that conflict in order to retaliate against possible enemy use of the weapon, but tragically scored an 'own goal' with it when a ship carrying a large quantity of mustard gas was bombed by German aircraft in Bari harbor, Italy, in December 1943, releasing its cargo.  Thousands of Allied sailors and servicemen and Italian civilians were affected.

Peter