Burrell, not tonight, but I will be starting Monday and going through Christmas. Feh.

Not a happy camper tonight. After straining my back moving magazine boxes to the new digs, I returned to my old apartment to discover that the work crews had blocked off the back stairwell with scaffolds and not bothered to announce it. The front stairwell, of course, leads to the door I chained from within. I ended up slithering through the scaffolds like Catwoman instead of breaking down the front door.

In Journeyman last night they talked about a wide spectrum anti-biotic which wouldn't even touch a viral infection. It isn't supposed to, right?

I have a ballistics-related question brought up by tonight's Unit. They talk about a soft-nosed hollow bullet, with a cavity half-filled with mercury. The premise is that when it makes contact with the target the mercury which has been pressed to the back of the bullet slams forward and the impact is expended before the bullet can penetrate the target deeply--premise being that you can shoot a guy and not worry about the through-and-through getting a bystander.

From either gun knowledge or physics knowledge, does that makes sense?

For the Journeyman question, you are totally right, ita.

I have no idea on the ballistics one, though it also sounds like a great way to slowly poison someone--they get the bullet out, but the mercury still gets to them?

Ye gods and little fishes. I just sat bolt upright and remembered that midnight is the cutoff for open enrollment for health insurance at my gig.

Nothing much is changing--I just need to beef up my pre-tax reimbursement account. Still, it's a good thing that my GOING TO SLEEP RITUAL INVOLVES BREAKING DOWN FUTURE AND PAST MEDICAL PLANS.

I'm going to be alone forever, I just know it.

I've asked one gun/physics krav geek that ballistics question. We shall see. As to the idea that the bullet can come out--I'm curious to know what condition it's in. From the scene of the juice exploding I couldn't begin to imagine. Might really mess up the ballistics testing, which could be a very good thing. If you're a bad person.

I don't even have a class and I am up early assessing papers. (No grades, just comments in the form of a letter). UGH. Why did I agree to this.

ita, I'm gonna say no to the VCR and unworking PC. But we'd love the TV. When would it be good to come by and get it?

ALSO, fuck! I missed the open enrollment period for the FSA. I am such a moron.

ita, I don't know about the bullets, but I do know there are sledgehammers that have an internal mercury compartment, for extra ooomph. IIRC, they're called deadblow hammers.

ita, I know that there are 'safe' rounds out there for use by bodyguards and the like, which are designed to not ricochet and not exit targets, but I don't think they use mercury. Mercury is considered a hazardous material and thus probably violates a half dozen domestic laws and international treaties when you use it in a rifle/pistol round. Not that clandestine military units are particularly well known for following the letter of the law, but in that case why make a specialized round when you can buy on the open market rounds that do the same thing cheaply and in large enough quantities that they can't be traced?

Can you make a bullet out of frozen mercury? Then once inside the victim it melts, destroying the evidence? (Except for all the mercury inside the victim.)

You know what'd be cool? A bullet made from sodium. Sodium is a metal that burns upon contact with water (or, you know, blood).