New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 08:04am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12120 of 12130)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Interesting round-up posts(2) Showalter

http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.FPnHbESSbum.2399631@.f28e622/13746

|>

fredmoore - 08:53am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12121 of 12130)

Regarding Geopolitical Quantum Mechanics:

An allegory is in order:

A Psych 101 student owned a bush block. He went into a hardware store to buy a chainsaw that would cut six trees in one hour. He knew this was greed but what the heck. The salesman recommended a top of the line model. The student was impressed and bought it.

A few days later he brought it back, complaining that it took all day to cut down one tree. He felt what he knew to be fear and this was his fight response.

"All day?", said the salesman, 'There must be something wrong with it." So the salesman started up the saw to see what the problem was.

"What's that noise?", said the Psych student.

rshow55 - 09:26am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12122 of 12130)
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.

Once, a long time ago, I made close friends with an old professor P.H. Schweitzer - of State College Pa, and Penn State. Paul Schweietzer was for many years the leader of diesel engine engineering in the country. He'd flown for Austria in WWI - and when I knew him, he was quite old. And knew a lot.

After his wife died - she was a wonderful German lady - I stayed with Paul for a couple of weeks, to help him get his bearings. He did a lot of remembering.

He told the story of how, in the '30's - when they hadn't been married long, he came back from the lab. He had finally perfected a very high pressure sensor that could stand up to diesel combustion - and show results on a scope.

He rushed home, very exited.

"Helga, Helga! " he exclaimed.

"I just measured a ten thousandth of a second!"

(Paul was about 5-4, wiry, bouncy, and a competitive fencer at this time - she had been a ski instructor - and I could almost see him bouncing for joy.)

"Just think of it Helga. Just a tiny - a tiny - just a ten thousandth of a second !"

(Paul says he gestured, in his expository, Germanic manner - with thumb and forefinger showing how small , how tiny a tenthousandth was.)

Helga eyed him. Stoppped him dead. (She could do that with a glance, and often did.)

"And it took you all day?" she asked.

They loved each other very much.

- - - -

Sometimes, you're slow because that's the best you can do. Even when you are technically proficient.

rshow55 - 10:08am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12123 of 12130)
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.

Paul was German - and not Jewish. He worked hard during WWII - as an American Naval Officer doing engineering work.

Fredmoore's http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.FPnHbESSbum.2399631@.f28e622/13753 might be interpreted as implying that the Russians were "stupid" not to know how to make capitalism work.

WE were insensitive and stupid not to help them - and we often misled them, if only through negligence. The consequences have not been funny - and we need to sort out what messes we can.

There are plenty of them, and Eisenhower's question:

What can we offer the world?

remains a good one. Our gifts, so far, have been defective from some essential points of view.

rshow55 - 11:04am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12124 of 12130)
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.

The Office of Industrial Technologies , DOE Strategic Plan August 1999 is very, very interesting.

With workable security arrangements - that a bureacracy could actually use - I'd be able to brief the people who wrote it, or are now associated with the effort, and perhaps get a lot done.

http://www.oit.doe.gov/aboutoit/pdfs/strategicplan.pdf

The document says a great many of the right things. Thanks, lchic .

(6 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense