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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 - 10:38pm Oct 31, 2002 EST (# 5423 of 5435)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Aesthetic

1. Relating to the philosophy or theories of aesthetics.
2. Of or concerning the appreciation of beauty or good taste: the aesthetic faculties.
3. Characterized by a heightened sensitivity to beauty.
4. Artistic: The play was an aesthetic success.
5. Informal Conforming to accepted notions of good taste.
NOUN: 1. A guiding principle in matters of artistic beauty and taste; artistic sensibility: “a generous Age of Aquarius aesthetic that said that everything was art” (William Wilson).
2. An underlying principle, a set of principles, or a view often manifested by outward appearances or style of behavior: “What troubled him was the squalor of [the colonel's] aesthetic” (Lewis H. Lapham).
ETYMOLOGY: German ästhetisch, from New Latin aesthticus, from Greek aisthtikos, of sense perception, from aisthta, perceptible things, from aisthanesthai, to perceive. See au- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: aes·theti·cal·ly —ADVERB

Faesthetic http://www.faesthetic.com/

Peace Sign http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/peacesign.html http://www.theaesthetic.com/

aesthetics
Branch of philosophy that studies beauty and taste, including their specific manifestations in the tragic, the comic, and the sublime. Its central issues include questions about the origin and status of aesthetic judgments: are they objective statements about genuine features of the world or purely subjective expressions of personal attitudes; should they include any reference to the intentions of artists or the reactions of patrons; and how are they related to judgments of moral value? Aesthetics is a significant component of the philosophical work of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Santayana
http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/a2.htm

lchic - 10:40pm Oct 31, 2002 EST (# 5424 of 5435)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

aesthetic judgments

lchic - 11:00pm Oct 31, 2002 EST (# 5425 of 5435)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Ethical Dilemmas

http://www.friesian.com/dilemma.htm http://www.aimcenter.com/prototype.html http://www.stedwards.edu/ursery/values.htm

Browse | Ethical Dilemmas aesthetic judgments

Browse | International Relations Ethical Dilemmas aesthetic judgments

lchic - 12:37am Nov 1, 2002 EST (# 5426 of 5435)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Searching for 'search' !

lchic - 06:12am Nov 1, 2002 EST (# 5427 of 5435)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

In Seventh Heaven?

Not if you're suffering ....

"" The Unforgettable Experience

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Being confronted with situations of extreme violence can transform certain people into survivors, victims of an experience they cannot forget.

”Get over it,” the Vietnam veteran is told by his girlfriend. “It was 30 years ago.”

But the war veterans suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, interviewed in the Veterans Bronx Medical Centre, say they will never get over it. “We are all still prisoners of war. We are still fighting that war. The turmoil we still have inside.”

The Unforgettable Experience – a French documentary - introduces victims and researchers of PTSD. Neuropsychiatrists and a neurobiologist explore the trauma and the workings of the brain, focusing on the hippocampus, the centre of memory and emotion and the amygdala, the sensory part of the brain.

Although Vietnam gave recognition and name to the disorder, its symptoms have been well documented since World War I. Archival footage harks back to 1917 showing a 19-year-old Great War private re-enacting his terror.

PTSD extends beyond the theatre of war claiming its victims from those who have lived through terrifying and life-threatening ordeals.

It distorts the mind pushing the worst experience of a person’s life to the forefront. In severe cases symptoms fail to diminish with the passing of time.

Addressing the question of why life’s more pleasurable experiences do not eventually take over from a single life-threatening trauma, neuropsychiatrist, Professor Bessel van der Kolk, theorises that in the brain of sufferers the fight-flight instinct is heightened over curious-appreciative instincts. He concludes - “The brain is geared more for survival than pleasure.”

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