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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?

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rshow55 - 09:54pm Sep 5, 2002 EST (# 4200 of 4216)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Wow! A United States Marine doing his duty! http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,787018,00.html Happens pretty often. I wonder what would happen if Marine Officers , given an opportunity to speak freely, were asked about the current state of "missile defense" - - and the contracting and politicking that goes with it?

U.S. Senators, when they are paying attention, can meet high standards, too. They've showed that in speeches and actions related to the Enron scandal.

Stanley Greenberg's What Voters Want http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/05/opinion/05GREE.html includes this:

"A public consensus is emerging that the behavior evident in the Enron and other scandals reflects a bigger problem: people in powerful positions now feel free to act irresponsibly and hurt ordinary people, without fear of being held accountable."

In The Great Divide http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/29/opinion/29KRUG.html , Paul Krugman suggests that we're at "the ending of an era of laxity."

Pity that markets have to dive to provide the discipline. All the same, US politicians who have felt immune to "arguments about details" before may be immune no longer. Some things that need to be attended to, and checked, may get checked. Problems that have festered may get addressed.

Questions that people outside the United States have asked to be answered are more likely to be addressed thoughtfully now.

I believe that Patrick E. Tyler's Officers Say U.S. Aided Iraq in War Despite Use of Gas http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/international/middleeast/18CHEM.html should be read carefully and repeatedly by citizens and nation states, all over the world. And by news organizations, too. There is a lot of substance, and, with a little thought, there are a lot of implications and leads from Tyler's story.

I believe the NYT Missile Defense thread has accomplished the following already: http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/327

#309 on in Psychwar, Casablanca - - - and terror http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/329 filed today.

lchic - 11:10pm Sep 5, 2002 EST (# 4201 of 4216)

Nuclear firm seeks government bail-out
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
06 September 2002

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=330890

British Energy, the country's biggest nuclear electricity generator, warned last night it was likely to go bust unless .... $ $ $ $ $ $

lchic - 11:23pm Sep 5, 2002 EST (# 4202 of 4216)

FISK

http://www.independent.co.uk/search.jsp?keywords=fisk&submit=Go

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/

lchic - 11:38pm Sep 5, 2002 EST (# 4203 of 4216)

Creativity (13) Thinking Cap - Savant

Professor Allan Snyder and Dr. Elaine Mulcahy say they have completed experiments that proved they could increase the creative function of the brain using magnetism.

The device works by using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to temporarily shut down the left hemisphere of the brain, where speech and short-term memory are supported.

Snyder's experiment was based on research into the remarkable abilities of autistic savants

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,51421,00.html

lchic - 05:45am Sep 6, 2002 EST (# 4204 of 4216)

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0002F4E6-8CF7-1D49-90FB809EC5880000&catID=2

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for nonsmart reasons: Michael Shermer, author of "Why People Believe Weird Things."

In Scientific American (September, 02)

(From Science in the News thread (September, 04))

(12 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense