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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 - 11:07am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6744 of 6748)
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.

6728 almarst2002 12/16/02 8:54am asks profoundly important questions - and almarst won't like the answers I want to give - or the incompleteness of them.

A short answer, that he won't like at all, is that in many ways my sense of justified war comes close to Bill Casey's - and a lot of other Americans - and I don't feel anything like the indignation that almarst feels from his list.

And I do wish to challenge his position on Serbia, and about sanctions in general.

By the standards of most nations, at most time, I think the US has done a lot of things well. All the same, I've worked very hard, and am working very hard - to try to get things into a condition much better than the conditions of the past - and though almarst and I disagree on a lot - and will continue to - we have a lot of useful common ground, as well.

Here are 6728-29 almarst2002 12/16/02 8:54am

"Robert,

"Do you already have a list of "good & just" American wars?

"almarst2002 - 08:57am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6729

"Is someone going to chalange my position that US compain against Serbia was a pure case of terrorism? As is continuing suctions regime against many countries which effectively target the population as a whole?

----

I'd call all the major wars the US has fought - the Revolution - 1812, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and much of the Cold War "good and just" in many significant respects. To get into details would take some staffing - though it would be interesting.

Re 6729: Almarst, I challenge your position. But you make a point that requires much more discussion - and a pont that ought to be more clearly thought about - even by people who disagree on the matter. My position is this: There are times, with the world constructed as it is - where groups have to be deal with as groups.

lunarchick - 11:11am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6745 of 6748)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/

lunarchick - 11:13am Dec 16, 2002 EST (# 6746 of 6748)

Nuking miopia

..... Professor Silver's "adaptive glasses" look like ordinary ones except for the two knobs on either side of the frame that can adjust the curvature of the lens. It means that in countries where opticians are scarce, wearers can simply alter the focus as their eyesight deteriorates over time.

Uncorrected poor vision is considered among the most serious problems in the developing world, holding back economies by forcing educated classes to retire early with failing eyesight. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates one billion people worldwide need but do not have access to spectacles.

The lenses are filled with silicon oil, controlled via a small pump on the frame. This alters the curvature of the lens, allowing the wearer to see clearly with the simple turn of a knob. Through a deal with the WHO and the World Bank, Prof Silver plans to sell up to 400,000 adaptive glasses in Ghana with another deal for 9.3 million pairs in South Africa also in the pipeline. The glasses are sold at about £6 through his company Adaptive Eyecare, based in Oxford, but cost less than that to make. With just 50 opticians in Ghana out of a population of almost 20 million, glasses that last a lifetime will prove a boon.

"It would take on average about 200 years to be seen by an optometrist in Ghana," explained Prof Silver. "But adaptive glasses obviate the need for a trip at all." ......

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=361710

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