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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 - 10:04am Mar 9, 2003 EST (# 9696 of 9698)
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's 9787 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.hkiiaSJI5Ju.842263@.f28e622/11228 includes a reference to a talking dog - and brings to mind another dog story by gisterme:

gisterme - 10:05pm Jan 17, 2003 EST (# 7768 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@93.i5GBae6A01p^782947@.f28e622/9293

Here's a story that's just as irrelevant as anything else posted here...

"The Talking Dog"

A guy sees a sign in front of a house: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there.

"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the mutt replies.

"So, what's your story?"

The mutt looks up and says, "Well, I discovered this gift pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running.

The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

The owner says, "Ten dollars."

The guy says, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

The owner replies, "He's such a liar. He didn't do any of that stuff."

_________

bbuck made a posting that I appreciated - that I hope people will read.

9677 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.hkiiaSJI5Ju.842263@.f28e622/11218 I don't think it likely that this thread happened by accident - or has been an oversight by the NYT - or by the Guardian Observer. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/347

Just spam? People can sample it and judge for themselves. If the search Lchic and Lunarchick they'll see real genius. And they'll see a lot of interest if they sample the inputs of gisterme , as well.

Of click "rshow55" to see some postings that "didn't happen by accident." (Search Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire - on things not happening by accident )

We're sending in clear - and working out new ways to do so: Send In Clear - Science News Poetry. http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.hkiiaSJI5Ju.842263@.f1983fb/409

rshow55 - 10:08am Mar 9, 2003 EST (# 9697 of 9698)
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.

If I could be given some clearance - specifically - if the CIA could give me, in writing, the assurance they've given me verbally - I believe that I might be able to work in ways that enhance the national interest of the United States - and the reasonable interests of people in good faith in other nations, as well.

That may be getting easier, with the passage of time and the accumulation of evidence.

Isn't it possible that questions were put to CIA - and they told the President that my story was impossible - just as Ronald Dittemore denied, on television, that NASA people had any substantial axieties about the shuttle's lethal re-entry? Why would it be surprising for CIA people to be wrong? Either intentionally, or unintentionally?

NASA'S CURSE? 'Groupthink' Is 30 Years Old, and Still Going Strong By JOHN SCHWARTZ and MATTHEW L. WALD http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/weekinreview/09SCHW.html

The shuttle investigation may conclude that NASA did nothing wrong. But if part of the problem turns out to be the culture of decision making at NASA, it could lead to more group dynamics and words like groupthink, an ungainly term coined in 1972 by Irving L. Janis, a Yale psychologist and a pioneer in the study of social dynamics.

He called groupthink "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action." It is the triumph of concurrence over good sense, and authority over expertise.

Something that is common - and dangerous.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense