In Idaho, Both The Stupid And Non-Stupid Get Punished

We all know that the natural laws of the universe require that the stupid be punished, as demonstrated by this guy in the Idaho jail system:

A federal judge sentenced an Idaho inmate to three years in prison for threatening to kill George W. Bush in a letter in which the accused called the U.S. president "stupid," federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Ricky Arnell Ward, 20, put his name and address on the January 2006 letter he sent to the FBI claiming he planned to kill the president because "he is a stupid ... man."
Ward said Bush needed to be killed before he got "all the people in the USA killed," according to a release by the U.S. attorney's office in Idaho. He was sentenced on Monday.
When questioned by the Secret Service about the letter, Ward told them he was periodically visited by "command hallucinations," among other mental ailments, and if he received one concerning Bush after he was released from Ada County Jail in Boise, he might act on it.

Yesterday's newspaper also had a reminder that even Idahoans with the best intentions can be punished if they interact with the particularly uncaring sort:

Dennis Bohrn paddled hard across the Snake River to get a suicide victim's body to land.
When he and three others paddling canoes Sunday morning dragged the woman's body, they were stunned and crying - had she jumped? Had she been pushed? Had she slipped? And they were even more stunned when at the shore a deputy cited them twice for not carrying life vests in either canoe.
"The body was right there," said Bohrn, 58, of Twin Falls. "A girl deputy was trying to console everybody. Then a sergeant walked up. He said, 'I see you don't have any life jackets so I am going to give you a citation'. It seemed a little cold."
The fine for each citation is $85.

The article goes on to say that the ticketed people are planning to fight the case in court. They should demand a jury trial if it gets that far...

Update 2218 03 May: The canoeists had their tickets dismissed today.

Papa Foxtrot Mike

[Intel Source: SubSim] The Navy files patents the same as any other organization; earlier this month, they were issued one (#7,206,257) that should be of great interest to submariners. (If the link above doesn't work for you, there's a copy of the patent here, or click here and search for the patent number: 7206257.) Here's what the invention is said to do:

A method of generating a predetermined field of cavitation around a remote target in an underwater environment, said method comprising the steps of: identifying a remote target in an unconfined underwater location; generating at least two acoustic beams from an underwater acoustic source; and controlling said at least two generated acoustic beams to intersect with each other at said identified remote target location and whereby a cavitation field is created at said intersection...
...it is an object of this invention to provide a self-defense weapon utilizing acoustic remote cavitation.
Another object of this invention is to provide an underwater self-defense weapon mounted on an underwater support vessel.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an acoustic remote cavitation weapon by generating an array of intersecting acoustic beams.
A still further object of the invention is to provide an acoustic remote cavitation weapon deriving power from an underwater support vessel and generating an array of intersecting acoustic beams at a long range.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an acoustic remote cavitation self-defense weapon for generating a destructive cavitation in free water space.
In accordance with one aspect of this invention, there is provided a method of generating a predetermined field of cavitation around a remote target in an underwater environment. The method includes the steps of identifying a remote target location, generating at least two acoustic beams, each at a peak power output, from an underwater energy source, and controlling the generated acoustic beams to intersect with each other at the remote target location and thereby create a destructive cavitation field at the intersection of the beams.

The patent comes with drawings, too; here's one of them:

Looks pretty sweet. There's more on this over at Wired, where the commenters point out that there will be lots of opposition to deploying this new tool because of perceived danger to marine mammals. I'm guessing that we'll have to wait for Republicans to get back in charge of Congress before we get to deploy this system.

Helping Out An Army Guy

Major John, who posts with me at MilBlog Ring HQ (only he does it much better than I do), has asked us submariners for some help with a paper he's writing. Here's what he needs:

I have chosen the development of submarines in the inter-war years (for my paper). So for all you underwater types, I have the following author's works to help me through the briny deep of 1918-1939 submarine development; Gary Weir, Wilbur Cross, John Terraine, Michael Gunton and Richard Compton-Hall. Any of these laughable, mediocre or really good authors?
Who/what else should I find?

Chapomatic already came up with some pretty good ideas, but I think my readers can come up with some good input as well. Put down your ideas in the comments, and let's see if we can get Major John a smiley face with a gold star on his homework.

USS Memphis In South Florida For Fleet Week

USS Memphis (SSN 691) got the Good Deal this year; they got picked to go to Fleet Week in Fort Lauderdale. Of course, with every Good Deal comes some annoying PR work -- Memphis had to do a media underway prior to pulling in. The report that came out of it was pretty good, though; you can check out the video here, which includes the reporter trying to keep his feet during a fairly tame up-angle.

I'm predicting the crew of the Memphis will have lots of good safe fun, and they won't have the same problem one of the crewmembers from USS Hampton had last year during the Fort Lauderdale Fleet Week. (I'm sure they've all been briefed and GMT'd to death about not setting fire to any yachts.)

PBS Documentary: The Mormons

I've been watching the Frontline documentary "The Mormons" over the last couple nights; it was pretty good. Being that I'm a Mormon myself, there really wasn't anything presented (both pro and con) that I hadn't heard before, but for those who don't know that much about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it's a good neutral introduction. If you didn't get a chance to see it, it's available as streaming video from the PBS website.