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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.

rshowalt - 09:19am Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3151 of 3339)

Most of the material here is copyrighted. Copyright holders include

The New York Times
Guardian Newspapers
ABC [American Broadcasting Company]
ACS [Australian Computer Society]
Acronym Institute
Al-Tawhid
American Institute of Physics
Asia Times
Australian Broadcasting Company
BBC
Brookings Institution
Captive Daughters
ChinaOnline
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Center for Defense Information
Common Dreams
CXO Media Inc.
Council on Foreign Relations
The Crafts Center
Cato Institute
Citizens for Legitimate Government
Coldfeet Press
Dawn [Pakistan] Group of Newspapers
The Economist
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
FAS
Financial Times group
Global Psychics Inc.
Google The Independent
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic
International Crisis Group
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
King & Spalding
Los Angeles Times
The Mercury
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Moscow Times
MSNBC
National Cable Satellite Corporation
The New Criterion
News Limited
Online Journal
OSCE
Oxygen Media
PBS
Pravda
Reed Business Information
Rockford Institute
Sandhills Publishing Company
Space.com inc.
St. Petersburg Times
Telegraph Group Limited
Terrorism Research Center
Time Inc.
Times [London] Newspapers
The Trustees of Indiana University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Washington Post
The Weekend Australian
YugoslaviaInfo airbornelaser.com
chinadaily.com.cn
democratic-alliance.com
earthside.com
GlobalSecurity.org
holocaustrevealed.org
mohr.hr
NationalSecurity.org
SMH.com.au
spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
webdesk.com
theworldnews.com.au
worldpolicy.org
WorldTribune.com
Adriana Bebiano
Kai-Uwe Carstensen
Burnley A. ("Rocky") Jones
Mike Malloy
Dmitrii Manin
Kharlena Ramanan
Kim Rollins
Ann Rosenthal
Sherman H. Skolnick
Erik Trinkaus
Paul Walker
Timothy James Warnock
Lynn Maupin Webb

Date this disk was published: 17 July 2002

rshowalt - 09:24am Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3152 of 3339)

I'll try to get into contact with the copyright holders with significant stakes -- and try to work something out that makes sense -- giving them free use of the disk editions that use their material -- promising not to use the disk for commercial purposes without notifying them - - and perhaps some other things. I believe that this can be done in a way that is fair to all concerned, and that sets good precedents, rather than bad ones.

I'd be proud for the chance to get a copy of this archive disk into the hands of all major politicians in America (and some in Europe and Asia) if I could. That won't be possible. But some things might be.

I think the disk will be useful in a number of ways.

One way is in discussion of "collecting, connecting and correcting of dots".

rshowalt - 10:34am Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3153 of 3339)

There are a lot of reasons for me to want this material considered, and some are "ulterior motives" that I'm not ashamed of, and that go a long way, I believe, toward setting aside the argument that I'm being irrational doing the work I've done associated with this forum.

MD2770 rshow55 6/29/02 7:59am

MD2981-2986 000 especially MD2986 rshow55 7/10/02 3:58pm

I've been keeping promises I made to Bill Casey - promises I've wanted to keep for many reasons, with "mixed motivations" in many of the usual senses.

One motive is personal, and I feel it strongly.

I'm taking a chance to advance the culture, and think, with lchic's brilliant collaboration, I'm (we're) making some headway.

The idea of "connecting the dots" associates with a lot that is very practical, at a number of levels - including some other "old" ideas that can be made more useful with a little additional focusing. The ideas of "disciplined beauty" - "the golden rule" . . . and the idea that, when it matters enough, there is a moral obligation to tell the truth in the ways that matter for action.

lchic - 10:40am Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3154 of 3339)

Some are driven
Others chauffered
None want the world to 'end'

http://static.ifilm.com/image/stills/films/a/105004_m_1_a_.jpg
http://www.whoohoo.net/power/
zulphia 7/18/02 5:26pm

rshowalt - 12:07pm Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3155 of 3339)

The world could easily end, and it seems to me to be almost a wonder it hasn't already (in 1962, and at some other times, as well - for instance, the time described in this sermon http://www.wisc.edu/rshowalt/sermon.html ).

But if we figured out just a little bit more than we know, and if we were just a little bit more honest -- we could survive - and the world would be much better. If the following simple rhyme became a "nursery rhyme" - learned by 4 year olds and their parents -- the world would become a lot better. The rhyme has a lot to do with "connecting the dots" - and the fact that people, good as they are, aren't perfect.

Adults need secrets, lies and fictions
To live within their contradictions.

. . . . But when things go wrong
. . . . And knock about

. . . . Folks get together
. . . . And work it out.

. . . .

I've done a little searching, and I'm working to do a little summarizing. . . . back in less than an hour.

(184 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense