The author of this article, Dan Smith, is a military affairs analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus, a retired US Army colonel. He appears to know what he is talking about. ASIA TIMES:

... on June 2 at the former Nuclear Weapons Test Site 145 kilometers north of Las Vegas, Nevada. This test will detonate 700 tons (in later reports lowered to just under 600 tons) - that is to say 635,000kg - of conventional explosives in a hole 11 meters deep to allow scientists to measure ground shock waves, and from these to estimate damage to various underground or buried facilities, says the Washington Post.

The deeper rationale for the ground test is to try to determine whether a very large conventional weapon could be powerful enough to damage deeply buried bunkers sufficiently to knock them out of a battle (command and control headquarters) or destroy possible chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons and missiles.

Some skeptics think the test will not be conducted fairly or that the results will be skewed to "demonstrate" that the only way to be sure buried targets can be neutralized is by using nuclear weapons. And considering that the administration of President George W Bush is pressing for money to build 125 new nuclear weapons annually - including new designs - on the specious claim that older bombs cannot be (or soon will not be) certified reliable, the skeptics may be on to something. ... [*]

John writes - "Now this is the sort of project I can sink my teeth into. What do you get when you cross a disposable camera flash with a bit of wire, and steel BB's? A coil gun! Yeah... That's the good stuff. Jeff provides plans and links to build your own weapon of choice. Have fun and be safe, if you can do the two at the same time. If not you can go as a pirate for next Halloween." - Link.

Grandpa Kipp's Sure-Fire Yellow Jacket Trap! - "My grandpa turned me onto this sure-fire yellow jacket eliminator about 50 years ago when I was just a youngster. I've observed its efficiency in removing all the yellow jackets from our campsite in a matter of a single day and before the week was over the entire campground was free of these hostile pests that make camping and other outdoor activities miserable. This method is NON-TOXIC and for the most part pet and wildlife friendly due to the harmless components that are used to build the "system." There are quite a few commercial products on the market to eliminate yellow jackets but this one doesn't cost anything and I can guarantee its an extremely effective way to rid your yard or campsite of the yellow hoards in just a day or two." - Link.

Here's how to make a device to record the path of the sun by burning a track onto a piece of paper - Thanks Bf5man! Link.

John writes - "I have a tutorial on how you can re-purpose a burned out light bulb. The uses are endless, art projects, science experiments, fish bowls for tiny fish, a place to start small plants." - Link.

Amit sent in this video tutorial on making your own photo blocks, you'll need - "One Photograph printed at 4x6 or larger. Something to measure and cut your photo with. Four 2"x3" Linoleum Blocks (More if you're using a larger photograph). Acid-free Rubber Cement. And, for extra credit, One Foam Brush and painter's Gel Medium (Gloss, because it dries clear)." - Link.

Charles writes - "We recently had to replace a cordless drill and had a heck of a time plowing through all the specs to figure out what diffrentiates the 40+ drills you can get at Home Depot alone. When were were done, we wrote it all up for our blog, Toolmonger, and included the spreadsheet with the specs on 113 different drills. We thought other Makers are bound to run into this problem and might find the article useful." - Link.

TechRepublic list 10 "dumb" things people do that can mess up their computers, from plugging in without surge protection to ignoring the need for a backup and recovery plan. Although most Lifehacker readers are probably a bit beyond many of these potential problems, it's a good reminder.

Further, since we've covered solutions to most of these problems at one point or another here on Lifehacker, what better time to solve them? Let's go through a few of them.

If you've gotten into the habit of surfing the 'net without a firewall (#2), you might want to give Lifehacker favorite ZoneAlarm a try. If you "Install and uninstall lots of programs, especially betas" (#4), you can use Altiris SVS to install software you may not keep around in a virtual layer to avoid "gunking up the registry."

#5, "Keep disks full and fragmented," can be solved by setting up your very own self-repairing hard drive, and you can avoid picking the wrong passwords (#9) by choosing a strong and secure password or having one automatically generated for you.

Finally, if you're one of those people who "ignore the need for a backup and recovery plan" (#10), isn't it about time you setup a free, automated backup of your hard drive(s)? If you've got more solutions for any of the 10 dumb things, let's hear 'em in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.