The U.S. Military Today

Many People know that the U.S. military is currently deployed in countless places around the world today. Few Americans know exactly how large the U.S. armed forces are and what the breakdown is of those who now serve. How many soldiers are in the U.S. military today? How many women serve? How old are they on average? Here is a quick look at some of the details. The U.S. armed forces are currently 86% male and 14% female. Current troop strength is 1,447,000. This is down from 2,065,000 in 1990. 53% of those serving are married. This is up from 40% in 1972. 45% of the enlisted are between the ages of 18-25. 21% are between the ages of 26-30. 13% are between ages 31-35. 11% are between 36-40. 10% are over 40 years old.
The decline in troop strength from over two million in 1990 to the current about 1.5 million is due in large part to the famous "Peace Dividend" that many Americans have been hearing about for about twenty years. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 it was thought that the United States did not need to maintain such a large military force any longer and so it was reduced in numbers during the Clinton administration in order to save money and help balance the U.S. budget. The move worked and without any real sacrifice to the quality of the fighting force. President Clinton left office in 2001 with not only a balanced fiscal budget but a surplus in fact.

How Fast Is The World's Population Growing?

Unless you have been living under a rock someplace you already know that the world is in the midst of a population explosion. The number of human beings on this planet has increased alarmingly. So too are the worries from government officials all around the world about how much of a strain that is going to take on the planet's food and water resources, which are already strained in some areas. Just how quickly has the world's population increased? Here is a small chart that tracks the progress over the last two hundred years:

1805 - The World reaches 1 billion human inhabitants.

1927 - 2 billion reached.

1960 - 3 billion

1974 - 4 billion

1987 - 5 billion

1999 - 6 billion

2011 - 7 billion

Tons Of Trash From Japanese Tsunami Headed For U.S.

The Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami that hit Fukushima, Japan on March 11th, 2011 was devastating in many ways. For Japan itself it resulted in 15,000 dead, over 130,000 forced from their homes, and countless billions in damage, which will take years to repair, and not the least of which is an ongoing Nuclear disaster involving multiple power plants. As it turns out there will also be consequences for the west coast of the United States as well.
A giant mountain of debris from the Tsunami was swept out to sea and with it went millions of tons of trash and garbage that is now floating on the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Included in the debris fields are the remains of thousands of homes that were destroyed along with countless numbers of cars, boats, furniture, tv's, refrigerators, bottles and corks, and other assorted junk. The stuff is now floating in the middle of the Pacific where ocean currents are slowly drifting it towards the west coast of the United States. Some of the debris fields are reported to be larger than the size of the state of Texas. The debris has been spotted in the Pacific by fishing boats that have reported back what they have encountered. It is now causing problems for U.S. Naval ships at sea also because it is forcing them out of their usual shipping lanes in order to steer around the floating garbage to avoid potential damage to vessels. Some of the skins of modern day Navy ships are only about 2 inches thick and are not designed to be crashing into giant fields of metal junk in the middle of the ocean. It would be potentially millions of dollars in damage otherwise so that must be avoided.
Some of the stuff is expected to hit the Hawaiian Islands by as early as January 2012 and possibly hit the west coast of the U.S. by 2013.

FDR And His Secret Train Car

Not a lot of people know about it or have ever even heard about it. Underneath the Grand Central Terminal in New York City, just under the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel sits a long abandoned armored train car. It was built for the use of only one person, President Franklin Roosevelt.
It is something of a little known fact to many Americans today but back when FDR was President between 1933 - 1945 there were very few Americans then that knew about the fact that he suffered from Polio and he in fact was without the ability to walk or even stand on his own. His administration would go to great lengths to keep this fact a secret and did so in many ways. Often when FDR was seen standing with other officials to be photographed by the press he always had bulky leg braces on to keep him from collapsing in a heap to the floor. Very often there would be Secret Service agrents standing next to him on either side who would be holding on to the president to further prevent him from falling to the ground.
The most elaborate length that his government ever went to in order to prevent him from being seen unable to walk in public has got to be the construction of this rail car that now sits under the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It was constructed with double wide doors that would be wide enough for his armored Pierce Arrow Limosine to be driven on board the car and then be able to drive off when they arrived in NYC without anyone ever having to witness FDR struggling to be removed from the car looking helpless. An elevator at the Hotel was even made extra wide in order to fit the whole car on to it and lift the President up to the ballroom of the Hotel where he would not be seen coming out of the car.
The train car was operated until FDR died in April of 1945. The car still remains there today at the Grand Central Terminal. The FDR museum is currently trying to raise the funds nessassery to have the train car moved and possibly in the future publicly displayed in some way as a piece of significant American history.

Space Junk In Earth Orbit Now Worse Than Ever

Officials at NASA now say that the amount of "Space Junk" that is in Earth's orbit is now greater than ever before. They are currently tracking about 22,000 pieces of space debris that they categorize as "big objects," which are pieces of space junk that are larger than about one half of an inch, and countless thousands of smaller objects that are less than one half of an inch in size.
Since 1957 when the Russians launched the first satellite "Sputnik" mankind has been littering the orbit of the Earth with bits and pieces of debris from rocket launches and satellite launches. Much of the stuff over time falls back into Earth's atmosphere and is burned away but some debris achieves too high an orbit in space for that to happen and so it just circles around the Earth for years causing a hazard for space missions and expensive communications satellites. Even the International Space Station from time to time has to adjust its orbit in order to avoid a tracked piece of space junk from hitting it and causing devastating damage.
The amount of space debris increased greatly in 2007 when the Chinese government conducted an anti satellite weapons test. The Chinese launched a missile into orbit to destroy an old weather satellite. When the missile hit its target it shattered it into an estimated 150,000 new pieces of space debris.

Ground Zero Finally Rising from the Ashes

It took until about 2006 for all the squabbling and fighting that went on between the various authorities and owners of the site known as "Ground Zero" to finally settle on a plan and move forward with it but now on the Tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks the site has largely taken shape.
The building known as One World Trade Center (formerly The Freedom Tower) is now, as of this writing, 80 stories high and can claim to be already the tallest building in New York City. The design that was settled upon comes from architect David Childs. The building starts off at the base as a square shape and as it rises morphs into an eight sided obelisk type structure and then resolves back to a square shape at the top of the building. It will in the end top off at 1776 feet ( The year the U.S. was Founded.)
The entire complex of Ground Zero takes up 16 acres and 8 of those were set aside for commemoration of the 9-11 attacks. The center pieces of the memorial will of course be the "Footprints" which are the two square shapes in the plaza where the two towers once stood. They take up both one acre each. These areas have both been converted into reflecting pools. A total of 26,000 gallons per minute of recycled water rises from the sides of these pools everyday and then spills over into the base of the pools and creates a waterfall as the water goes down. It is a beautiful effect which will be most stunning at night. The waterfalls are lighted from the inside with white light which gives it this illuminating beacon like glow against the darkness of the night.
Out of the 17,000 people that worked in the World Trade Center that day almost 14,000 made it out alive.There were a total of 2981 victims of the attack on 9-11. There was not a trace found of over 50% of them. It is believed that they were simply pulverized in the collapse of the buildings. The names of the victims have all been etched along the edges of the waterfalls. The names were not just placed in any which way. Individual names were etched deliberately next to the names of either friends, spouses, and co workers who were known to be friends. The names of the victims of the World Trade Center attack in 1993 were also added and grouped in a similar way.
The trees that are used in the plaza only came from the three places where the attacks happened. The New York City area, The D.C. area, and the area around the crash site of flight 93 in shanksville, Pennsylvania. In a little bit of a high tech move a computer chip has been placed in the dirt under each tree in order to monitor and ensure that they all get enough water and remain healthy in order to avoid having to constantly replace dying trees.

The President And His "Beast"

One of the perks of becoming the Commander in Chief is that the gig comes with what must be the most "tricked out" ride on the planet. The Presidential limo has a couple of names already. The best known ones are probably "The Beast" and "Cadillac One." Here are some of the features included in the President's new tank/car:

Gas Tank - A special foam is added to the gas and mixed into the tank. What the foam does is that it prevents the gasoline from exploding even if the tank suffers a direct hit in an attack.

Doors - They are armour plated and eight inches thick. They are also the same weight as the cabin door on a Boeing 757 jetliner.

Driver Side Window - Can resist armour piercing bullets. The driver's window is the only window in the car that can be opened. It will only roll down about three inches though so that the driver can communicate with Secret Service Agents running along side the vehicle and or to do things like pay tolls.

Body Work - The skin of the car is made out of double thick steel and Titanium.

Tires - The wheels are made out of Kevlar. They are shred and puncture resistant.

Boot (the rear of the car) - It holds an oxygen supply and also a fire fighting system.

Accessories On Board - Night vision cameras, pump action rifles, and tear gas cannons. There is also a generous supply of the President's blood on board maintained in bottles in case the President suffers injury in an attack and requires blood.