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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 - 04:35pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5195 of 5206)
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.

Mazza, I do worry about my judgement - - pretty often. Especially at times when it seems to me that a lot of things are moving in ways that could work out well.

What if some world leaders actually decided to permit some facts to be checked? Or asked for it to happen. (The mechanics, after the request from powerful actors, would be easy.)

That would be wrenching, of course - but no more wrenching than what Saddam did when he emptied his prisons. Not so big a change as that - manageable.

We have a mess - a lot of it a mess about world views, about information. Lies and counterlies. Distortions and counterdistortions. Psychological warfare - and coverups - a tangled web.

But there's a lot more talking going on than used to go on - and a lot more ways of checking things are available than there used to be.

When things are looked at from many different angles - if what is said is actually matched to checkable facts then a lot of what is said gets ruled out - or at least modified. After a while - the odds of getting some key things straight get pretty good.

Of course people often work hard to keep such checking from happening. Often because they are afraid to admit what they have said and done.

Reposted some things from this thread last year - about facing the past. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/402

lchic - 05:04pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5196 of 5206)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

'Universities were founded by people interested in knowledge.'

not only but also

surely there's more

.... like growing a society

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/bbpromo.htm

lchic - 05:12pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5197 of 5206)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Jared Diamond

Humans lived as hunter-gatherers for 5 million years, then we (unconsciously) developed agriculture about 13,000 years age. Were we better off? The farmers overwhelmed the hunter-gatherers. How come? The fundamentally egalitarian hunter-gatherers were replaced everywhere by hierarchical societies supported by religion and complex political organization. Was agriculture a bad deal for the vast scores of individuals who supported those few in charge? And why did Europeans overwhelm indigenous peoples all over the planet?

Dr. Jared Diamond offers a series of stunning answers to these and a wealth of other questions about human societies in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, _Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies_. That title is also his short answer to who won and why. His richer answer looks to the antecedents of guns, germs and steel: wild plants and animals suitable for domestication; the axes of the continents (east-west or north-south); and the differing areas and isolation of the different continents. .... more

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond

http://www.paulagordon.com/shows/diamond/
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/diamond.html

mazza9 - 05:45pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5198 of 5206)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

"We have a mess - a lot of it a mess about world views, about information. Lies and counterlies. Distortions and counterdistortions. Psychological warfare - and coverups - a tangled web."

And we need look no further than you and lchic and the manner in which you pollute this forum with you particular brand of propoganda. Who cares what your relationship was with Casey and the CIA? Of what importance is lchic's poetry when it is off subject?

We can discuss and disagree on the facility of missile defense but your personal angst has no business here. If you wish to denigrate the US foreign policy and its governance maybe you should consider moving to a place more amenable to your belief systems. Maybe Australia with lchic!

lchic - 06:36pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5199 of 5206)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

GU threads || Moscow Theatre

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@@.3ba765cf/124

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@@.3ba76633/22

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