villain motivation

So here's an article about an ex-Marine sniper who went on a killing spree and was found on autopsy to have a brain tumor in the region of the brain that affects strong and negative emotions. Tragic in real life, great motivation for a bad guy to become a bad guy...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/mind-murderer_n_1384102.html?ref=science&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D147556

"Silence Gun" makes it impossible for target to talk

How cool is this? In brief, your target is recorded speaking and then on a .2 second delay, the target's words are played back to them. It so confuses the human brain that the target is rendered unable to dreate coherent speech. I have NO idea how I'll use it in a book, but I have faith I will!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/weird-gun-future-attacks-words-not-people-193050045.html

North Korea forges U.S. money that's...real U.S. money

How cool is this? North Korea has the same printing presses, same paper supplier, same ink supplier, and same caliber of plate engravers that we do. They can literally print U.S. dollars that only the best government analysts can tell from the real stuff. And guess what? North Korea is printing $50's and $100's like candy.

Dollar warfare. Economic terrorism...man, I SO see a book in this one...

http://news.yahoo.com/u-could-pressure-north-korea-tomorrow-quit-100-094000585.html;_ylt=AtNbkaeeyiFZMWDZQ5lCjaes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNsOGhxZm5qBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBGUARwa2cDMmI5ZDJlYTEtZWIyZS0zMjZlLTgyNzEtNWNiMTlkYTkxN2MxBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyA2UxNGQ1MWYwLTVlZTgtMTFlMS1hZGVlLTFmMGQ1ZTUzZTgwYw--;_ylg=X3oDMTFvdnRqYzJoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

Green Clandestine Extended Range Vehicle

This is just cool. I'm not particularly into gear, but I could have some fun writing one of these puppies into a book. It'll go up a 60% grade and run silent for eight miles...how awesome is that? And I thought the SEALs' dune buggies were cool...

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/02/19/us-army-cerv/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl8%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D137092

Russian Nuclear Sub fire

Here ya go. Straight out of the news, complete with pictures and all...the perfect opening premise for a book. I tell ya, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. The truth is so much more interesting sometimes!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/russia-nuclear-disaster-submarine-fire_n_1276660.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl12%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D135782

The Russians said in December that this ship wasn't armed. Turns out that was propaganda and 16 nukes were on board. Lovely. But hear the deeper message...the Russian gov't. still engages in calculateed lying to the media to manipulate public beliefs and feelings. It's a technique called disinformation, and the USSR was the global master of it. Looks like Russia's returning more and more to its old, cold war ways. If I were to write that into a book today, I could expect the news in a year or two to reflect that.

definite food for thought

These are the sorts of scary little pieces I especially enjoy collecting. This is a description of the larger nuclear bomb ever exploded...a Russian nuclear weapon. The trick is this bomb was a prototype for a much larger doomsday version. This explosion gave on a 1.5 mega-ton yield, when teh real one would yield 51.5 mega-tons. Definite food for thought. And I happne to be cooking a plot that will actually use some of this information. Be afraid...very afraid...

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html

a lesson in book inspirations

Okay, so I see an article like this on on AOL. It details an orbiting space plane the U.S. is flying that has been in space for months. Folks speculate it's being used to spy on a Chinese satellite that's the prototype for a manned Chinese Space station expected to be operational around 2020.

If a project like this is showing up in the mainstream media, then you can be sure it has been around a while longer than that. Which means, the Air Force has also had plenty of time to figure out cool things to do with it. And voila, we have a window for a fictional story. I can sit around my kitchen table and brainstorm a few ways to use a platform like this, and odds are good I won't be far from what's actually possible with the thing. People ask me frequently how it is I'm able to write books that seem to stay just ahead of the news, and this is it.

And that concludes my demonstration. :-)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/air-force-x-37b-space-plane-purpose-robot-unmanned_n_1224373.html?1327354562#s516461&title=X37B_Unmanned_Space

Where I get ideas for action scenes

You can't make stuff like this up. The hardest part is writing about it and having anybody believe you! Fact is far wilder than anything fictional I can cook up. These are some extreme athletes doing, well, extrme things. Great soundtrack and gorgeous filming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEu42L0ufBY&lr=1

More on the dangers of Smartphones

Computer World has followed up the last article I linked to on this subject and gives us all further food for thought on the subject of personal privacy and security. Definitely "hmmm" worthy!

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/death-by-smartphone.htm

No more need to Walk

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cuIJRsAuCHQ

Check out this dod-dad from Honda. It's like a unicycle for dummies. Eliminates the need for us humans to even walk. Gonna need wider seats for our giant bums when we don't even bother to walk any more! LOL!

Coll technology, though. Can imagine a few military/spy applications. How 'bout you? Any ideas? Lemme know.

Going Free

Local news covered the release of a man from prison today who spent twenty years in jail for a crime he never confessed to, and which a new review of his case showed he was wrongly accused of doing.

Can you imagine the emotional journey this man's been on? Having to survive prison as an innocent man. No one believes you. Do you stand your moral ground or become the criminal they've accused you of being? How angry are you? Who are you angry at? The system? The prosecutors and jury who did this to you? Yourself? How do you accept the loss of your youth, loss of your friends, your career, loss of any chance at a family of your own?

And when you're finally set free...who are you? What will other people think of you? How do you start your life over with a massive stain on it that's not of your making? Are you angry? Grateful? I'm sensing a character in this...

Am so glad this man's getting at least some portion of his life back. Regardless of the tragedy of a mistake like this, I still say we have the best legal system in the world. All it takes is traveling to a few countries without our Bill of Rights to appreciate just how good we have it as Americans.