Eric the Red

If you are about to move to College Park for the academic year, I encourage you to check out Rethink College Park. The authors wish to see College Park transform from the dilapidated mess it presently is into a more vibrant college town.

So check them out and get involved. College Park will only improve as far as we, its residents, wish it to.

I’m not surprised with the latest airplane-based terror plot. What does surprise me is the sense that the matter is hopelessly beyond our ability to solve without longer lines and more restrictions on carry-ons.

Explosives contain certain elements in specific concentrations. Industrial X-Ray fluorescence machines like this one are more than capable of testing any solid material within minutes. This machine shows the composition of a substance in a nicely color-coded display: Green means the concentration of an element is acceptable, red indicates unacceptable levels and yellow is somewhere in bet. The test takes less than 5 minutes, and more time means more accuracy. These machines were originally designed to allow field analysis of scrap metals and to test soil for contamination. This device is known as an XRF Analyzer, and a handheld unit costs about $40,000.

There is no reason why these machines cannot be integrated with existing X-Ray machines now used to search for guns and knives.

Being out of school feels pretty good: no more homework, no more exams, no more stupid projects.

On the other hand, I’ve found myself bored with little to do on my weekends and off hours. I’ve been scouting some gyms to join, and picking up some movies I’ve been looking for.

I bought “V for Vendetta” and am waiting on the release of “Over the Hedge“.

I have let my blogging slip over the last couple of months, but that is more of a lack of meaningful material to write about.

On the plus side, Ward Churchill is getting sacked for academic misconduct. Personally, I wish he’d been sacked by SMS.