Here is a recent post I made in response to the latest No Agenda Podcast on their forums page.

I can only speculate on why the USA has not signed the Land Mine Ban Treaty but here is my guess.

The US Army doctrine on the use of land mines includes mapping where the land mines are and retrieving, disarming or destroying them when the mission is complete. In many cases the land mine fields are marked. Land mies are used to channelize or delay the enemy. The mine field will make the enemy slow own and if they try to disarm, mark or destroy the mines this allows the defender to target direct fire or indirect fire weapons o the enemy to destroy them or make them withdraw. Land mines that are not individually placed but are spread by use of artillery shells or aircraft have self destruct mechanisms that will neutralize the mine after a defined time period, usually in 12 to 24 hours.

Other countries tend to use land mines in a different way. The use them as area denial and terror weapons. They spread the mies out on roads and in fields to deny their use by their enemies. They do not mark or map where they place the mines and have no intention of retrieving or destroying the mines. They just want to deny the use of the fields by farmers and the roads by people and opposing soldiers.

Thus the US Army does not want to be denied the use of a valuable force multiplier that they use judiciously just because other countries use the same weapons indiscriminately not so much as a force multiplier but as a weapon of terror.

New Knees

For the last few years I have been experiencing a lot of pain in my knees. I had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the left knee and it looked like it was going to be needed in the right knee.

On July 30th I had bilateral total knee joint replacement. Yes, both knees were cut open and new titanium alloy prosthesis were installed. I spent 4 days in the hospital at Vanderbilt and then a week in the rehab hospital. It is now 7 weeks after the procedure. I have full flexibility in both knees I continue to go to physical therapy where we are now working on strengthening all of the leg muscles. Generally I can walk around the house without a cane but I do use the cane in public. When I am sitting still or laying down there is usually little or no pain. Moving around, standing up, walking around produces varying amounts of pain but mostly tolerable. Mentally I am just exasperated with the pain and wonder when it will be gone. I had the surgery so that I could get back to living and not constantly limping about in pain. There was a further consequence in that the nerve blocks they put in so that during and for a few days after the surgery I would feel nothing in the legs but after they were removed I still had numbness on the outside of my left leg from my hip to the big toe and about a hand size patch on the outside of my right leg just below the knee. Feeling is coming back on the left leg but now it is ultra sensitive so that makes it difficult to get a good nights sleep. I am hoping that by November I will be completely healed and I can then look forward to being able to travel and walk without pain again. I have lost about 32 pounds so far and hope that I can keep losing and keep the weight off. So far I continue to lose a pound or two a week.

Here is the before x-ray of both knees:

Here are the x-rays taken immediately after surgery:























Here are pictures of the knees a few days after surgery while I was still in the hospital:

And here they are at 7-weeks post-op:

Trying to win a Drobo. I am running out of room on my media server.
Scott Bourne is giving some away. One of his sites is http://mydl.me/

Power Pole Colors

Just need to document something that I will integrate to my web site later.

Anderson Powerpole colors for 15-45A connectors.

White - 5v
Blue - 9v
Pink - 12v regulated
Red - 12v nominal (11v-15v)
Violet - 24v
Yellow - 48v

From Wikipedia

For the larger Multipole design, each color is keyed so as to mate only with a like colored connector, and Anderson publishes a list of recommended voltages for each color:

• 12 V: Yellow
• 18 V: Orange
• 24 V: Red
  • Used by Warn for its 12 V winches (should have used yellow multipole)
  • Used by Tripp-Lite for some of its 24 V external UPS battery packs
• 36 V: Gray
  • Used by Tripp-Lite for some of its 38 V external UPS battery packs
  • Used by APC for some of its 24 V external UPS battery packs (should have used red multipole)
• 48 V: Blue
  • Used by Tripp-Lite and APC for its 48 V external UPS battery packs
• 72 V: Green
• 80 V: Black
• 96 V: Brown
• 120 V: Purple
• 144 V: White

Some manufacturers have ignored this color coding recommendation. One should always test the connection with a voltmeter if unsure. For example, winch manufacturer Warn uses a red housing for its winches, even though they are powered by 12 V DC, not 24 V DC.