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Loyal BON reader George was backpacking in Washington state and sent me this email:

Hey Keith, 

I’ve had some adventure this last week. We went backpacking up in the cascades and we almost lost a guy. He had a pretty severe heart-attack at about 5400 feet in pretty rough terreain. It took a while but we got cell reception up on a ridge and got him air-lifted out. He’s currently recovering in Seattle. I’m exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

And here’s a picture of the rescure helicopter.

I’m trying to imagine the stress and fear that everyone must have been going through during this ordeal.  One moment it’s just a bunch of friends hanging out having fun and backpacking, then all of a sudden everything turns upside down.

It’s Californian ground squirrel versus rattlesnake in a potentially lethal showdown. But the squirrel has a secret weapon that until now has remained invisible to the human eye.

The ground squirrel heats up its tail then waves it in the snake’s face – a form of harassment that confuses the rattler, which has an infrared sensing organ for detecting small mammals.

This defensive tactic remained invisible to biologists until they looked at the animals through an infrared video camera. Now they believe that many other animals might be using infrared weaponry to ward off potential predators.

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Be sure to check out the videos.

All of the local DFW blogs today have mentioned that Troy Aikman has moved from his Plano house to one in Highland Park.  The list price for his 6 bedroom, 7 bath, 3 living area, 6 fireplace, and 6 car garage house is $4,000,000.

The ABC news affiliate in the area has been doing a story about how million dollar homes in Dallas county have been taxed at a much lower price than the houses’ market values.  For instance, a $6,000,000 home would be taxed at $4,000,000 for some reason.  So BON decided to do some investigative reporting and see what Collin country has the house taxed at.

The BON reporting team discovered that the house is taxed at $4,736,453.  It appears they are selling the house for a pretty bargain price since list prices or market values are usually considerably much higher than what they are taxed at.  I would buy it myself but it would make my commute longer and I’m a little bit short on that asking price.  That and I just put up a fence I’m really proud of.

Metal Storm is an Australian defence technology company that makes guns that can fire up to a million rounds per minute.

The weapons contain bullets that are loaded directly into the barrel in stacks and then fire one after the other with an electric current as the trigger. The advantages of this design is its simplicity – there are no moving parts – and the incredible firing rates that are possible. Here’s a video of one of the guns in action:

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