I’m a nice midwesterner temporarily held hostage in northern Virginia, a repugnant region teeming with evil, mannerless mutants. My interests are WMD, chemical and biological terrorism, biotechnology, the latest research in science & technology, science fiction, frogs, meerkats, min-pins, birds, and fungi.
My background includes a bachelor of science in biology and a master’s in strategic intelligence focusing on terrorism studies. I served 7 years in the U.S. Army doing body and fender work on nuclear warheads, then worked as a lab tech and inorganics analyst at a national research lab and a couple of commercial testing labs. Later I worked for an innovative GIS software company and I also worked for the U.S. government. Today I also have a job, a fact which pleases me a great deal. Someday I plan to build a potato gun. In the meantime, this blog is sort of a hobby although it does not fire flaming potatoes.
If you want to send me something of chemical or biological interest, or you would like to comment without it appearing on my blog, you can email me at bugsngasgal(at)comcast(dot)net.
Please note that comments containing links are moderated, so yours may not show up immediately. And finally, a disclaimer: anything on this blog is my own opinion and not necessarily the opinion of any past or present employer, blah, blah, blah.
Update: In August 2008 I became what is known as a Gold Star parent. Since then I’ve decided to give up the blog maybe forever, or at least for a long time.
I’m happy to know there are smart, level-headed people like you who can see through the propaganda by the Democrat Party.
Great blog. I saw your comment on Nuke’s site. Visit http://sadbastards.wordpress.com some time.
While I think there’s plenty of propaganda thrown around by all sides, as to my comment at Nuke’s I’d sure like to see less of it providing aid and comfort to the enemy while our troops are trying to get a job done. How can so much of the media and even our own lawmakers not get it… Thanks for visiting!
Your comments about my web site (forgottensecrets.net) shamed me into being a better web site builder — check it out now and tell me if it’s improved.
Jim Ketchuum
Sorry to harsh your mellow, Jim! You’ve put a lot of effort into it, I can see that. Well, I can tell you that a part of my trouble was that it doesn’t quite resolve properly for me in Firefox. Titles overlapping text and such. Might want to test it in various browsers. I do like the subject matter though. Best of luck with your book.
Hi, found you today by accident. I like your stuff! Now for a tough question that is what lead me to you in the first place: a source for the rumors that Islamic doctors are not using alcohol to clean with. You know about it, since you mention it and Google found your mention, but where is the source? I swear I had it linked, but have lost it. I look forward to corresponding with you in the future. This is a good blog.
Bruce
Bruce, looks like on your blog you’ve found the original story, this was initially noted (I believe) on LGF. I only saw this story because I was interested in the PVL MRSA outbreaks in the UK. But how backwards can people get?
Huh, I was searching for a story from Iraq about the bad guys beating people for wearing perfume and smelling like soap. I had it saved, but can not find it now. Too many saved bookmarks. I searched LGF, since they tend to get the links quicker than other sites, but am coming up dry. Oh well!
Thanks for the quick reply. You do have a nice site! Going to be a regular vist for me I think.
heh careful with those potato guns.
Had a kid blow out the rear side window in a car with one.
Hi from the UK. Glad to see you highlighted last October’s story of Porton Down’s public area BW experiments in Southampton and Swindon. Unfortunately these experiments were just the tip of the iceberg.
From 1963-1975, military scientists from the Microbiological Resaerch Establishment, Porton Down, sprayed much of southern England with massive aerosols of two types of live bacteria: E.coli MRE162, adn Bacillus subtilis var niger (aka Bacillus globigii or BG).
During 1971 and 1975, Porton also conducted joint BW field trials over southern England with scientists from the US Army and US Navy. Maps obtained from recently declassified MOD scientific reports show the extent of these Cold War BW field trials. An animation containing some of these maps (The Lyme Bay Biological Warfare Trials 1963 – 1975) can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWEVT0ynmfI
Btw, very nice site!
Enjoyed the site so far. I really hope you’re not a man. For some reason, this blog would be far more ordinary if you were. Sorry about the gender bias. And so far I see nothing overtly partisan about your writing, which is appreciated. Real science and threat evaluation should be apolitial, which is what I’m here for. Keep it up. Espcially the weird stuff.
–b
1. I assure you I lack the Y chromosome but you’ll just have to take my word for it. I once had a coworker joke that I was actually a man in a woman’s body, but since I’m not gay I just thought it was funny. Speaking of gender bias, the really funny part is that he truly meant that as a compliment.
2. I do have my political preferences, it’s just that none of our current crop of far-left and far-right politicians seem to share them, so there’s not that much for me to talk about in that area. I’ll post about politics if I feel like it but that’s generally not frequent enough to really piss anyone off.
Glad you like the blog!
It’s encouraging to find someone who looks at controversial subjects such as those in my book with (what I consider, but I’m probably biased) actual objectivity. I also like your web site, needless to say.
Jim Ketchum
i like it here…
Cool site – and I like your links. Links I never knew existed. Followed you here from Weasel’s.
You is now bookmarked.
Doing body & fender work on nukes is one thing, but aspiring to construct a potato gun is outstanding! You go, lady!
Welcome Steamboat! My blog’s not quite as fun as Stoaty’s but hopefully it gets interesting at times. If you have some weird interests, that is.
Hey, cool site. I liked your poll…especially the botulinum toxin part. Kinda makes sense though once you think about it…Anyway, I voted for smallpox, in case you were wondering. You might consider adding ebola to the list, too.
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Have to say, never in a million years did I expect to stumble across such a cool and unique amalgam of chem/bio postings/rants/offerings, and all by an INTJ (correct me if I’m wrong, and lambast me for the pseudopsychology) lady! Sweet ass blog Dayvan Cowgirl! Also, I thought only 20-somethings like me had ever heard of Boards of Canada. How’d you find it?
Welcome to the blog RubyRidge. INTJ – close. I’m an ISTJ but as I get older I’m a lot less rigid all the stuff that would normally send an ISTJ into apoplexy.
Boards of Canada – my 20-something daughter gave me a CD as a gift! The music most of my contemporaries enjoy, I gave up on 20 years ago. Time to move on. I’ve always had a problem with my kids running off with my CDs, LOL!
I was hoping you were back in the blogosphere, so I could get facts on the swine flu. Anyway, I hope your son is still OK. As I watch people start to panic, I think back to Dr. Urbani and Dr. Jiang during SARS and hope we are past all the bullshit they put up with. Oh well, it will be an interesting time.