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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 - 08:40pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5204 of 5209)
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.

4250 rshow55 9/10/02 7:16am

4251-53 rshow55 9/10/02 8:26am

When large news organizations such as The New York Times cannot solve problems by covering the facts about them -- why don't the solutions happen, when they often seem very clear?

. . .

If the NYT wanted foundation support for web digests, and other extensions of the medium, especially in cooperation with other news operations here and abroad - it would only have to ask people in the foundation community - carefully - and with issues of status and protocol handled gracefully.

Would there be problems, operational and ethical, to deal with? Sure. But they could be worked out.

Some of the problems that newspapers fail to solve can be solved - and solutions could be found fairly soon. There would be work required at the level of technique (and the engineers court format discussed on this thread could be a test bed for resolving most of these). But in addition, for particular purposes -- journalistic powers will have to ask for help to supplement their work for valid pubic purposes. They could get that support -- and should.

Not even the TIMES is rich enough to do without such support - or widely trusted enough to do without broader contacts and patterns of cooperation than it now uses.

Missile defense would be a very good prototype for discussion, in part because the "missile defense" boondoggle involves so many of the same patterns as enronation.

There are many other subjects that could also serve that prototyping purpose well.

In the middle east -- both with respect to the Israel-Palestine mess, and the Iraqi mess -- a number of things need to be clearer than the are. With the internet, and resources around, the nation and the world could do much better.

Everybody's opinions could be questioned. But some facts and relations - considered enough, would crystallize to clarity. And everybody within speaking distance of mainstream discourse could, and could be asked to look for themselves.

That's what persuasion takes in jury trials. When it matters enough - "here -- look for yourself" is the standard. People know how to meet that standard quite often - and they could meet that standard more often than they do.

The technical barriers to meeting that standard are less daunting than they used to be, and some of the social barriers are lower, too.

- - - -

Right now "leadership" might occur if reporters from the TIMES, or other major news powers, asked some "leading" and "shaming" questions of some world leaders - and got them to do their duty.

lchic - 08:53pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5205 of 5209)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

ask 'some "leading" and "shaming" questions of some world leaders - and got them to do their duty'

as in .... if the TRUTH were laid out, then from the base of national and world truths .... solutions would be seen .... would be more obvious

so that's saying LIES get in the way of truth and problem solving

~~~~~

lchic - 08:55pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5206 of 5209)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Just musing here, but, would students from the University of Space have a better take on universal truths ... looking down from 'The Gods' (ie the highest seating in the auditorium) ...

lchic - 08:58pm Oct 24, 2002 EST (# 5207 of 5209)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Reading the GU international talk threads ... one gets the feeling that 'human' aspects are missing from the strategies posters sometimes propose .... it's as if there are opposing armies of roaches to be eliminated ....

Noted DW had a German spokesman on - he was calling for 'common ground' to be found between RUSSIAN and CHECHEN

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