Though the [Federal Helium Reserve (FHR)] still holds more helium than any other stockpile by far, its stores are rapidly diminishing. Since 2003, the US Bureau of Land Management has been methodically selling off the FHR’s hoard (and repaying the $1.4 billion debt) in compliance with a 1996 Congressional act that called for phasing out the reserve by 2015.
Echoing years of complaints from the scientific community, in January the US National Research Council (NRC) released a report condemning the liquidation of the FHR as a shortsighted blunder that has thrown the global market into turmoil and hindered scientific research.
Daily Archives: April 3, 2010
Better This than a Zombie Army
The “Ghost Army” was a unit that used deception to imitate or cover the actions of real units during WWII. There is a documentary being made.
Mason’s platoon was attached to General Joe Collins’ VII Corps as an experiment in deception. Their assignment was to set up dummy artillery emplacements, about a mile forward of the 980th artillery, to draw enemy fire. I was kind of scary says Mason. Task Force Mason stayed with the 980th Artillery for 28 days. Their efforts to draw fire succeeded as they were attacked by both German artillery and aircraft. Luckily, there were no casualties. The experiment was judged a success. There would be bigger operations–and more danger–in the Ghost Army’s future.