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 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  /

    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.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (6906 previous messages)

rshow55 - 04:07pm Dec 21, 2002 EST (# 6907 of 6916) Delete Message
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.

It is a wonderful world. And gisterme , you're saying some interesting things.

I'm responding slowly, in part because it seems to me that some things are going well - that some things are converging more safely and reasonably.

Some other things are wrenching.

- - -

Casey, years ago - was worried that we human beings - in our current state of culture "weren't playing with a full deck."

There was reason to think something basic was buried, and wrong, in applicable math.

There was also some reason to think that things were going perversely wrong in problems of analysis, strategy and tactics that determined human actions - including the actions of nation states. Plato's problem was connected to that.

Here's a dream. A question. What would it mean - and what would happen, if people finally were - "playing with a full deck" - in the sense that they knew everything useful, at the level of basic logic - that could be used for them to understand the world, and make reasonable arrangements in it?

Sometimes it seems to me that we might be getting closer than that. When I get euphoric, like that - it seems to me that it is time to move carefully and slowly.

Besides, I've got some other things to think about, as well. Got to go shopping.

But I'm impressed with some of the things gisterme is saying lately. Maybe (s)he's getting a little less wrong-headed.

lunarchick - 04:34pm Dec 21, 2002 EST (# 6908 of 6916)

Showalter - Cards but no tricks!

    What would it mean - and what would happen, if people finally were - "playing with a full deck" - in the sense that they knew everything useful, at the level of basic logic - that could be used for them to understand the world, and make reasonable arrangements in it? Showalter
It seem GWB can speak arabic .... with a little help from a voice-over ... he's eminating from a radio-station in Prague ... along with Voice of America ... and speaking to Arabic Youth - who incidently make up a vast proportion of the Arabic population.

Great things can be done via constructive (non-propaganda) usage of a combination of

air - land - water | it used to be
air - educators on the ground - Web-sites.

A primary matter to consider is
'learning to learn'

All have the potential to learn ... but how to make it sucessful for them ... taking into account:

    Motivation and perceived future opportunities
    Previous knowledge
    Access to knowledge
    Encouragement v Discouragement factors
    Luck
    Timing re mental peak/plateaux
    Having 'time' to learn
    Food water diet
    Inate potential
    Health v Illness
    Stepped and staged learning
    Feedback
    Acknowledgements and achievements
    Status factors within home culture
    Continuity of access to right-level-learning
    An appreciation of the value of an upgraded knowledge base intra-nationally

lunarchick - 04:43pm Dec 21, 2002 EST (# 6909 of 6916)

Tyrants : How can a general population insulate themselves, spot, recognise, sniff out the weirdo-greed dictator ....

When do 'gut reactions' across a whole population kick-in?

When do people want a 'better deal' for 'the people'?

When do winds of change blow through a nation?

Looking forwards --- Looking back

What are the conditions for successful social change, and improved deal, a fairer sharing of a national pie!?

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