Trends in explosive contamination

This study sought to assign a rough order of magnitude for the amount of explosive residue likely to be available in real-world searches for clandestine explosives. A variety of explosives (TNT, TATP, HMX, AN, RDX, PETN) in various forms (powder, flake, detonating cord, plastic) were carefully weighed or cut into containers, and the amount of residue inadvertently remaining on the work area, hands, or containers was quantified. This was used to evaluate the spillage potential of each explosive. The adhesion of each explosive to a glass surface was quantified from amount of explosive adhering to the inside of a glass vial into which the explosive had been placed and then removed by vigorous tapping. In powdered form, most of the explosives--TNT, PETN, RDX, HMX, and TATP--exhibited similar spillage and adhesion to glass. However, PETN as sheet explosive and plasticized RDX (C-4), showed very little potential to contaminate surfaces, either by spillage or adhesion to glass.     

Fatal diphenhydramine intoxication in infants

Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine available in numerous over-the-counter preparations. Often used for its sedative effects in adults, it can cause paradoxical central nervous system stimulation in children, with effects ranging from excitation to seizures and death. Reports of fatal intoxications in young children are rare. We present five cases of fatal intoxication in infants 6, 8, 9, 12, and 12 weeks old. Postmortem blood diphenhydramine levels in the cases were 1.6, 1.5, 1.6, 1.1 and 1.1 mg/L, respectively. Anatomic findings in each case were normal. In one case the child's father admitted giving the infant diphenhydramine in an attempt to induce the infant to sleep; in another case, a daycare provider admitted putting diphenhydramine in a baby bottle. Two cases remain unsolved; one case remains under investigation. The postmortem drug levels in these cases are lower than seen in adult fatalities. We review the literature on diphenhydramine toxicity, particularly as it pertains to small children, and discuss the rationale for treating these cases as fatal intoxications.     

The China model of Korean reunification

Like Germany's reunification, essentially the annexation of East Germany by West Germany, Korean reunification looms as most likely, ultimately and largely entailing South Korea's annexation of North Korea. The awesome cost borne by West Germany for reunification has been instructive to South Korea, particularly in recognition that the material and ideological gaps between North and South Korea are far greater than those which existed between East and West Germany. A possible solution to the negative implications of cataclysmic reunificationmay rest in gradual reunification of the Koreas, with an interim industrialization of North Korea by South Korea, based on the model of the economic development zones in southeastern China; hence, the “China Model”. In such a scenario the investors in North Korea's gradual industrialization would be (primarily) the huge conglomerate South Korean corporations chaebol which seek cheaper labor pools abroad. Investment by such corporations, in cooperation with the South Korean government, and possibly supplemented by western and Japanese capital investment, would presumably raise levels of productivity and the standard of living in the economically and agriculturally ravished North. The North-South gaps would thus be gradually reduced as would the financial and other burdens South Korea would otherwise have to bear for cataclysmic reunification.     

The admiralty and the Anglo-German Naval agreement of 18 June 1935

This essay offers a reappraisal of the Royal Navy's decisive role in the making of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. It argues that the Admiralty's response to Hitler's offer of a fixed naval tonnage ratio was more rational and more complex than previous accounts would suggest. The premise here is that the only way to grasp Admiralty policy is to reconstruct the coherent set of financial, industrial, technical, diplomatic and strategic imperatives that shaped it. This approach reveals that the agreement represented the shrewd use of naval armaments diplomacy to achieve a long-term strategic goal. Far from being a blunder, concluding the agreement was a prudent measure consistent with an elaborate Admiralty programme that aimed to adjust the international naval order to advance Britain's prospects as the world's leading seapower.