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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 - 05:09pm Aug 14, 2003 EST (# 13303 of 13307)
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 upon a time . . . How a Story is Shaped http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/ducksoup/555/storyshape.html

People naturally think of things, and explain things to themselves and others, in terms of stories - which may be true or false in various ways. Stories can be about the future, or about the past, about "what might have been" and "what might be." People executing plans together "have their stories straight" and are "reading off the same page."

Often people act out a script, according to plans and thoughts, and hope for a happy ending. I know that's true of me.

I've told my "story" - and also said

" The story I like best about me, in this regard, is that I'm just a guy who got interested in logic, and military issues. A guy who got concerned about nuclear danger, and related military balances, and tried to do something about it. Based on what he knew - with no access to special information of any kind, he made an effort to keep the world from blowing up, using the best literary devices he could fashion, consistent with what he knew or could guess." http://www.mrshowalter.net/CaseyRel.html

For most purposes, this thread works fine if you "call me Ishmael."

In terms of my ability to function, it would be just fine for me to be "certified" as "Ishmael" - so long as I had clear security restrictions that would permit me to function. I'd live with fictions (or truths) so long as they were livable.

On the Op Ed Page there were two stories, under a common header HOW TO PREVENT THE NEXT ENERGY CRISIS

Nuclear Power Can Work By JOHN DEUTCH and ERNEST MONIZ http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/14/opinion/14DEUT.html

Nuclear power can help meet the world's growing electricity needs, but only if the United States and other nations focus on making today's technology work.

Will Calgary Be the Next Kuwait? By MANIK TALWANI http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/14/opinion/14TALW.html

Venezuela and Canada have vast deposits of "heavy oil" that, while expensive to refine, could decrease American dependence on the Middle East.

Status is a big thing - propriety is a big thing - and I've got an idea that there would have been no way for me to write about the solar energy proposal set out in

13039 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.2FJlb8sbyng.3391050@.f28e622/14716

13040 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.2FJlb8sbyng.3391050@.f28e622/14717

13041 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.2FJlb8sbyng.3391050@.f28e622/14718

13042 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.2FJlb8sbyng.3391050@.f28e622/14719

in an Op Ed piece. No matter how well I wrote it up. Though it would fit well with the topic of HOW TO PREVENT THE NEXT ENERGY CRISIS I wouldn't be fit in the NYT sense of "fit to print."

JOHN DEUTCH was a director of CIA. It is easy to think about a story - involving Deutch, where all my problems are solved, and I could work. Maybe possible. If the NYT wanted to be, it would be possible. There have been some disclosures that make things more hopeful than they used to be. Disclosures I wish I'd have been able to make (maybe, wish I'd had the courage to make) years ago. Wrapping our future in betterment http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee9cff9/2379

But there are situations in the past where it is easy to think of a "what might have been" story where I could have been "out of jail", too.

Protocol, and politeness, are mostly about keeping people from doing things, and saying things, out of order. And keeping real discretion in the hands of those with real power.

Fredmoore , you made a comment about

"a thermodynamic certainty that towed PV arrays would not cut the necessary 10 year MTBF due to the high Entropic (oceans are entropy sinks) propertie

rshow55 - 05:11pm Aug 14, 2003 EST (# 13304 of 13307)
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.

Fredmoore , you made a comment about

"a thermodynamic certainty that towed PV arrays would not cut the necessary 10 year MTBF due to the high Entropic (oceans are entropy sinks) properties of the oceans at equatorial solstaces or any other point."

You're saying that the towed PV arrays would be messed up by storm damage at an unacceptable rate? Well, that could be tested - or checked otherwise.

Do you have data supporting your judgement of "unacceptable mean time between failure"?

I thought I had a little, and the probability of damage of the towed PV arrays looked vanishingly small.

gisterme - 05:18pm Aug 14, 2003 EST (# 13305 of 13307)

"...someone stole our tent."

Have mercy Fred! :-DDDD That had to be the best belly-laugh I've had in years.

'Liked the poem too. However I'd never waste perfectly good torpedos on a bunch of unconnected dots.

I would try to save Robert (or anybody else) who seemed to be drowning. ;-)

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