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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.

lunarchick - 10:19am Nov 25, 2002 EST (# 6272 of 6283)

retractable syringe

world uses about 50 billion syringes a year

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/elp/innovatn/inots756_b.htm

lunarchick - 10:33am Nov 25, 2002 EST (# 6273 of 6283)

Cost of retractable syringe (Australia) was said to be 13 cents

^{here it's higher :
The unit cost for this retractable syringe is currently about 50 cents. http://www.tjnelson.com/morality.htm}

An American retractable:
http://www.bmhm.com/htdocs/files/patents/usmed.html

If retractable syringes were produced at lowest cost - use once only - then blood borne transmissions would cease - First World - Third World.

rshow55 - 10:35am Nov 25, 2002 EST (# 6274 of 6283)
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.

lunarchick 11/25/02 10:19am - - - a simple technical solution that could - with proper coordination - save many, many millions of lives. For a low cost.

There may be diplomatic solutions - solutions in effective law and communication - that are also simple technical solutions - and also capable of saving many, many millions of lives.

Perhaps some solutions are well along now. We surely need some.

There are big problems - that have caused trouble and agony, and shut off decent human chances - for a long time.

Better ways may be getting perfected -

Can Islamists Run a Democracy? By DEXTER FILKINS http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/24/weekinreview/24FILK.html

New political parties in Turkey and Pakistan illustrate the fundamental philosophical rift in the Islamic world's response to the West.

- - - - - - - -

Arms Inspections Are Set to Begin at Sites in Iraq By JAMES DAO http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/25/international/middleeast/25INSP.html

Eighteen U.N. inspectors arrived in Baghdad today. The first inspection is planned for Wednesday.

- - - -

In history, for all the ugliness - there are plenty of things that go right , too.

lunarchick - 10:39am Nov 25, 2002 EST (# 6275 of 6283)

Filkins - Turkey

"We want to prove that a Muslim identity can be democratic, can be transparent and can be compatible with the modern world," said the prime minister, Abdullah Gul, of the Justice and Development Party after taking the oath of office. "We will prove this. This will be a good gift to world peace, in fact."

lunarchick - 10:41am Nov 25, 2002 EST (# 6276 of 6283)

Showalter - if the Arab world wants to join modernity, have a modern economy, produce wigits/services, market them ....

What should it do better ?

lunarchick - 10:56am Nov 25, 2002 EST (# 6277 of 6283)

Modernity

" About a decade ago, in a casual conversation with an elderly Arab intellectual, I expressed my frustration that governments in the Middle East had been unable to liberalize their economies and societies in the way that the East Asians had done. “Look at Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul,” I said, pointing to their extraordinary economic achievements. .. more

from book - The war on Terror

1. The Politics Of Rage
2. Chapter I: The Rulers
3. Chapter II: Failed Ideas
4. Chapter III: Enter Religion
5. Chapter IV: What To Do
6. Merger of Mosque and State
7. From Rants to Rights
8. The Making of a Mujahed
9. Muslim Warriors—For America
10. Blame America At Your Peril
11. Next: The Manhunt

http://www.msnbc.com/news/639272.asp?0sp=w17b3#BODY

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