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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

almarst2003 - 10:29pm Sep 10, 2003 EST (# 13597 of 13603)

Friedman has won the Pulitzer three times, I think.

He can't be that bad, can he;)

fredmoore - 04:48am Sep 11, 2003 EST (# 13598 of 13603)

Invocation, incantation,

Lchic where art thou

whose sentence spells

a beauty untold

and a mind unfold

the secrets of an R..universe:

A French teacher was explaining to her class that in French, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

"House" is feminine - "la maison." "Pencil" is masculine - "le crayon."

A student asked, "What gender is a 'computer'?"

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two

groups - male and female - and asked them to decide for themselves

whether "computer" should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for their recommendation.

The men's group decided that "computer" should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later review; and

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your salary on accessories for it.

> > >

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer") because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;

2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time

they ARE the problem; and

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won!