Missing Links
Those Special Forces trainees must be very bold

Live-Fire Exercise at Fort Bragg Spc. Mike Pryor

Hell on earth in America can be found in North Carolina, where soldiers go through a process called "stress inoculation," and one researcher found what makes the Special Forces so special.

Also in today's links: bugs in love, and more.

  • From the thoughtful tarantula to the perceptive giant silk moth, some little critters sound like sweet mates. (Plus, one species is into bondage, if you like that sort of thing.)
  • I've included links to stories about dumping of electronic waste on developing nations before, but I like that this investigation inserted a tracking device in a television and followed its path from England to Nigeria.
  • What I haven't linked to as often is stories from Latin America. They're relatively few and far between in the mainstream press, it seems. But a study on climate change identifies the major threats to the region, from disappearing glaciers to destruction of coral reefs.
  • Convergent evolution? Lots of commuting? At least 235 species -- including gorgeous little swimming snails -- inhabit both the north and south poles, according to a new survey.
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4 Comments

Good article on stress resistance training. It affirms the truth that "the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."

I hope every branch of the armed services take this research to heart to make their initial periods of training as stressful as possible. By not doing so they may play a hand in signing a young soldier's death warrant.

Interesting article on stress training. By far, we do have the best trained military in the world. Our special forces guys are second to none. True heroes.

-Smith, Consultant: Credit Rating

great article. It's good to see our military is so well trained. The link between the heartbeats and neuropeptides is interesting.

http://beecherbowers.com

I've known people who've gone through SERE (Survivial, Evade, Resist and Escape) training and it is NOT something to look forward to. When they say they beat the crap out of you, they're not joking. It's the most realistic training out there short of actually throwing you into a real POW camp or al-Qaeda torture house.

I'm glad my job never required me to go through that training. Yikes.



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