Thanks goes everybody for the HUGE support of my research and my throwing of ideas at walls.
Now, with my "inbox" asploding when I log in to the desktop site, I've noticed that I have killed a jumper, (yay me!) I'm a "Hoarder" now and I'm Loved to Death. Cool.


Now, for a moment I'd like to shift gears and talk about a few other things:

The first is the ammo situation. It has been discussed here on the boards, on We're Not Dead, and more recently on the WND Fan Cast with the situation now being directly addressed in show. Mick & Red, you discussed the issues with making your own powder, a non-trivial issue. What about the Naval Station? It has the potential to solve many current problems. Probably plenty of small arms and its ammo, more hummers (all you gotta do is jump them off), probably some fuel... hell, if they are lucky they could even stumble on a truck mounted Phalanx. (Though I'll readily admit that one falls squarely in the Deus Ex Machina category.)

Barring all of that if it turns out to be a bust, there is still one thing they may find to be useful. Shells for large naval guns, maybe powder bags. Attempting to "open" a five inch shell for a naval gun is, frankly, a stupid idea. I'd rather try to cut open a 16 inch gun powder bag. May not be exactly the type of powder needed but with a stash of those... well, powder until the end of time. Now, the last of the Iowa class were stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on March 17th, 2006, but the USS Iowa was retained in the Reserve Fleet until October of 2011. It stands to reason that the navy was maintaining a reserve supply of munitions for the big guns.

Now, about the fuel. I gotta ask, is the colony just too far to go back to the tank farm?

That's enough for now, but as a parting shot I'll leave you with this. From the Science news segment of the Skeptic's Guide of the Universe, episode #432 October 26th 2013, (@8:20) they discus a recent development in antibiotics called PPMO's or peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer. Gesundheit. Current antibiotics fall into two categories: bactericidal which kill bacteria and bacteriostatic which prevent them from reproducing. Both function by disrupting cellular function. PPMO's may become a third class of antibiotics.

PPMO's are a synthetic analog of DNA or RNA that has the ability to silence the expression of specific genes. Compared to conventional antibiotics, which are often found in nature, PPMOs are completely synthesized in the laboratory with a specific genetic target in mind.
PPMO's have been found to be in many cases far more effective than existing antibiotics and found effective against resistant bacteria. PPMO's can also be used to treat genetic diseases.

SGU Episode
Article


Precision targeted gene suppression. What could possibly go wrong?
Sounds like something a particular pharmaceutical company might have been interested in.