Articles written by Robert Williscroft - Page 5

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About me - Robert Williscroft

I served 23 years in the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I commenced my service as an enlisted nuclear Submarine Sonar Technician, was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program, and graduated from

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Politics, News & Issues > Terrorism Assessing the threat of biological terrorism: 1 of 4
On a scale of cost for the number of civilian casualties accomplished, nothing holds a candle to biological agents. Conventional weapons will cost approximately $2,000 per square kilometer of civilian casualties for a large-scale operation against a civilian population. The same damage over the same area using nuclear weapon... More..
Creative Writing > Essays Essays: War in Iraq: 9 of 34
A small group of men labored to jack up a large platform in the middle of the cavern, watched over intently by Dr. Khalid Ibrahim Sayeed, Dr. Jafaar Dhia Jafaar, and Hussein Kamel al-Majid, son-in-law to Saddam Hussein. Nearby, a yellow enclosed truck waited, emblazoned with a wheat sheaf symbol with "Ministry of Trade" writ... More..
Society & Lifestyle > Personal Morals & Values People are taking less personal responsibility for themselves today?: 22 of 76
An underlying American principle is supremacy of the individual. Yet from the beginning, this has been honored more in breach than in fact. Our founding fathers seemed to say that control of everything rests with the individual except where it is clearly impossible for the individual to exercise such control. Then it reverts... More..
Sciences > Astronomy The speed of light explained: 3 of 10
Educated thinking people can be divided into a myriad of groupings. One of the more obvious is the "Liberal Arts" crowd and the "Science and Engineering" crowd. Interestingly, members of these groups tend to walk to a different drum from way back, so that by the time they reach adulthood, they have developed their own way of... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Terrorism Key steps to stopping terrorism: 6 of 19
For most of the Cold War it was a deep, dark secret. Although completely declassified in 1991, even today, few really understand what SOSUS was (and is) and what it could (and can) really do. SOSUS is an acronym for SOund SUrveillance System. In 1949 Congress first authorized money for what eventually became a world-spanning... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Terrorism Winning the war against terrorism: 20 of 62
"No one has stepped forward yet to claim responsibility for this latest atrocity!" The breathless chick in the mandatory Jane Pauley bob stares earnestly at us from the tube. Sooner or later, of course, somebody does claim responsibility. Occasionally more than one group will do so. When this happens, a mad behind - the - sc... More..
Travel > Air Travel & Airlines Airport security: Who is watching?: 3 of 9
I once saw a bumper sticker that read: "If you like the Post Office, you'll love socialized medicine!" Point taken. Who hasn't visited the Post Office on lunch break, only to find that nearly all the windows are closed - for lunch. This is not to say that we don't have some fine people working at the Post Office, or that thi... More..
Sciences > Chemistry Exploring the ozone: 3 of 9
Remember the children's story of Chicken Little who was hit on the head by a falling acorn, and assumed the sky was falling. Her outrageous reaction and her fervent activism got the entire farmyard, and eventually the whole countryside to take totally unnecessary protective actions. The Greens have "alerted" all of us to the... More..
Sciences > Physics The dangers of radioactivity: 2 of 6
Step outside on a nice day and feel the sun's warmth - that's radiation; so's the light. A body's warmth is radiation. And radio waves. And television signals. And x-rays. And light from a glow worm's tail. Radiation is energy transfer. It can take several forms. One is tiny mass-less packets called photons. We experience ph... More..
Politics, News & Issues > US Military (Other) US Navy fleet: The viability of nonnuclear submarines: 1 of 3
The U.S. nuclear fast attack submarine fleet is the most awesome suite of weapons ever built, but gains in non-nuclear propulsion technology over the last few decades raise the question of whether we should augment our nuclear submarine fleet with equally effective and dramatically less expensive non-nuclear submarines. We c... More..