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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 08:49pm Jul 7, 2001 EST (#6751 of 6759)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Interesting questions about the thermal distortion in those aiming mirrors, which have to be MUCH better than Space Telescope - thermal distortion and all. Wonder how GOOD the reflection -- the emisivity isn't perfect anyway.

Another question is how much energy gets delivered to do damage to the missile. If 100%- enough energy to boil away a layer of water 2.4 cm thick on the surface. If 2% - only enough to boil half a millimeter layer of water away -- a lot less.

If there are reflective film tricks that give the lasar aiming mirror especially high reflectivity (low emissivity) for the particular, clearly known wavelength of the lasar -- why would it be hard to put the same film, or something close to as good, on the missile, or warhead surface?

( Since the system IS built to intercept missiles from Russia as well as Korea -- that's a fair question, and should be a question of concern to Congress's "strangelove lobby" -- even if the "rogue states" are especially "honest North Carolina people" -- and yet still not smart enough, if they were going to deliver an nuke to the US, to use something besides a missile to do it. )

Destructiveness of the lasar beam is only one question among a number -- I'm wondering if anybody actually thinks this system is going to work -- or is it just a fraud, pure and simple.

rshowalter - 08:52pm Jul 7, 2001 EST (#6752 of 6759)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I'll be doing some more checking in the morning --- it feels like time for a beer, and sleeping on some things.

After all, I've got to worry about some "High School trigonometry" that gisterme expects I don't know how to do. I'm worried that he may be right, after all, so I'll try to be careful.

Even so, it seems to me that some people, judging the space based lasar programs, might be put in a good frame of mind by searching "shuck" , this thread.

lunarchick - 10:16pm Jul 7, 2001 EST (#6753 of 6759)
lunarchick@www.com

2008 represents a power-divide-crisis for the Status Quo in China. Falun Gong is a belief system that scares the Chinese Government because the movement can quickly gather huge numbers of people (people power) whom, it says, might be a threat to it. The FG movement is merely a revived traditional cultural movement that empowers people to live in harmony within the universe.

Tinamen Square was a previous threat to the Chinese Government - an earlier people belief system. Russia refuses Wei Jing-Sheng a visa to attend IOC meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.

Wei was deported to the United States in 1997 after he had spent 18 years in Chinese jails, most of them in solitary confinement.

Poem 'Shatter the Glass Wall' by rleong@ucla.edu

In the belly of the steel bird
You cross the International Dateline.
Stranded in time, suspended
In the middle of space
You dangle
Between two zones of exile.

lunarchick - 12:00am Jul 8, 2001 EST (#6754 of 6759)
lunarchick@www.com

Power of ONE

lunarchick - 12:04am Jul 8, 2001 EST (#6755 of 6759)
lunarchick@www.com

~

lunarchick - 06:43am Jul 8, 2001 EST (#6756 of 6759)
lunarchick@www.com

Sustainability Science -

It would be wonderful if some of the leaders we pay to
• think about our long-term future actually did it, instead of squabbling about such trivia as petrol prices, or scheming to manage the increasing diversion of public resources to meet the needs of powerful interest groups. Then we might even get support for sustainability science.
• http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s317194.htm

Never before in the history of the world has the viability of much of the life on this planet been under threat from humanity

Sustainability results from four things:

• Activities that enhance the planet’s ability to maintain and renew the viability of the biosphere;
• Activities that support society’s ability to maintain itself to solve its major problems;
• Activities that maintain a decent level of welfare for present and future generations of humanity;
• Activities that extend the productive life of organisations and maintain high levels of corporate performance.

key questions each of us must answer:
• Are we willing to work for the regeneration and renewal of life on the planet?
• Will we pursue this commitment in the organisations where we work and from which we purchase goods and services?
• Will we pioneer this new ideology ourselves by living the regenerative life with courage, compassion and joy?
• http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s312831.htm

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