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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?

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

lchic - 07:21am Aug 14, 2002 EST (#3713 of 3722)

Science in the service of man ... via ... Petunias

"" ... This would mean that scientists could turn off any gene at will.

A critical question was whether this would also work in the cells of mammals, including those of man. If it did work, the medical potential could be enormous. It would mean that we could turn off genes involved in cancer, genes that allowed viruses to infect cells, genes that were involved in tissue rejection after transplant operations and, of course, genes of viruses that had already managed to infect a healthy cell.

Last month came the first hard evidence that RNA interference affected mammalian cells. Scientists have managed, in the test tube, to make human cells resistant to attack by the polio virus as well as the Aids virus, HIV.

Now the focus is on trying to find ways of introducing these short strands of RNA directly into cells ....

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=323027

lchic - 08:08am Aug 14, 2002 EST (#3714 of 3722)

Foreign Policy Gap widens - Europe/United States
8th August
You can be warriors or wimps; or so say the Americans

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1270793

lchic - 08:28am Aug 14, 2002 EST (#3715 of 3722)

In an attempt to boost public trust in government and maintain control over the course of administrative reform, President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree outlining the general principles of ethical conduct for public officials, calling on them to be professional, efficient and conscientious.

The nonbinding three-page document, signed Monday and released by the Kremlin's press service Tuesday, instructs government officials to refrain from abusing their positions of power, to avoid conflicts of interest and to remain "politically neutral" in the interests of the public good.

"A civil servant ... must proceed on the premise that recognizing, upholding and protecting the rights and freedoms of people and citizens determine the main purpose and substance" of his work, reads the document.

On paper, the decree addresses a major concern of ordinary Russian citizens, who routinely find themselves at the mercy of corrupt officials and endless bureaucratic rigmarole -- often blamed for stifling personal initiative and private enterprise. .....

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/08/14/003.html

rshow55 - 08:29am Aug 14, 2002 EST (#3716 of 3722)

bbbuck 8/14/02 2:37am .. some folks like funky ! Like a lot of people, I struggle with the English language - but know a good poem when I see one. MD3689 rshow55 8/13/02 8:14am

. I kinda liked the stuff I wrote after 3689, too.

I've got a little problem with the CIA and the government. On the one hand, I've got concerns about the world blowing up, and some unfinished business that I think makes the world uglier than it has to be, and more dangerous. MD2539 rshow55 6/15/02 7:36am . . . MD2540 rshow55 6/15/02 7:44am Sometimes I feel a little like Cassandra -- though I AM trying to be more coherent, and persuade where Cassandra couldn't. Another thing is that the government screwed me up - and they owe some of my old investors something around forty million dollars. Sometimes that irks me. Only a few minutes of our defense budget -- no big thing -- but it makes a difference to me.

I've worked with some very distinguished help to collect some of the "funky stuff" that's been put on this thread over time in a CD MD3145-7 rshowalt 7/19/02 9:16am . . . and I'm working to get it in distributable form. Making some headway about that. Could use some of the adman's virtues. Condensation is hard. But getting some of the stuff out widely will at least help me with my security problems. I am trying to get the information in a form that can interest news and movie people. When I distribute it, seems like that'll go some way to solving a security problem of mine - that has been tough for me and folks who've had to deal with me. I know of an academic project I might get funded, working with some good, well credentialled folks, if I can get past those security problems.

lchic - 04:44pm Aug 14, 2002 EST (#3717 of 3722)

Note the first usage of the term ethnic here http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=ethnic shows the concept of 'other', ingroup and outgroup, us and them, etc has been around for a long while, first recorded re Jew ~ Gentile.

lchic - 07:59pm Aug 14, 2002 EST (#3718 of 3722)

Louis Massiah was a fellow of this foundation in 1996 http://www.macfound.org/

kalter.rauch - 05:50am Aug 15, 2002 EST (#3719 of 3722)
Earth vs <^> <^> <^>

Whatever, lchic 8/14/02 5:58am ......You've clearly cast your lot with the skanks and scum of the world. There's a solitary cell waiting for you at Camp X-Ray.

lchic - 05:59am Aug 15, 2002 EST (#3720 of 3722)

Why not let Cheney book in there - his company is raking-in the $$$$$$commission - or would there be a conflict of interest?

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