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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 - 02:44pm Jan 15, 2003 EST (# 7682 of 7688)
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.

In bird mating courship - which is stereotypical - though with great diversity in a rigid pattern from species to species -- a point is reached (in the cases I know about) where the male and female are going through a rather high frequency, rigidly specific, cycle - to something like exhaustion (or exileration) in some key senses. This cycle can go on a long time - it repeats stably again and again until the female makes a choice - or is maneuvered into a position where she has no choice - or "both" - and presents in a stereotypically clear fashion, or doesn't. If presentation does occur - consummation does, too, and the pair is mated for the season. If presentation does NOT occur - the female flies away - and there may be another cycle later - or the particular mating pattern involved may be permanently aborted.

Between closely related but distinct species - the sequence aborts sharply, every time.

In these affairs - questions of "free will" and "responsibility" --- "female choice" - or "male choice" - - and "rape" and "seduction" are all discussable. Birds do what they happen to do in ways that fit together. The core pattern is probably more than sixty million years old.

I'm breaking for lunch - and will be back as soon as I can be. I deeply appreciate the chance to post on this board. I'm doing just what Casey assigned me to do - or trying to - though I've made a mess of a lot of things.

There are some formal analogies between all patterns of animal cooperation I know and bird courtship. It is especially important - for safety - that we know this more clearly in matters of diplomacy and trade - so we can be safer, and richer - and things can be more comfortable for all concerned - within inescapable animal constraints that no imaginable diety could change now.

manjumicha1 - 02:49pm Jan 15, 2003 EST (# 7683 of 7688)

Robert, I say this in the most gentle way possible....you should take a break from NYT and Guardian chat rooms for at least three months.

I do value your knowledge base and having studied at Cornell myself, I read some of your postings with sympathetic set of eyes, but one thing I am 100% sure of, you NEED A BREAK from the postings.

Believe me, when you come back in three months, the worldly mess would still be there for you to comment on....most remarkably, it woudl not have changed very much from where it is today.

So please take my advice.

almarst2002 - 03:10pm Jan 15, 2003 EST (# 7684 of 7688)

HAARP Poses Global Threat - http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/15/42068.html

HIGH FREQUENCYACTIVE AURORAL RESEARCH PROGRAM - http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/

Any comment?

commondata - 04:26pm Jan 15, 2003 EST (# 7685 of 7688)

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/HAARP.html

The military says the HAARP system could:

• give the military a tool to replace the electromagnetic pulse effect of atmospheric thermonuclear devices (still considered a viable option by the military through at least 1986);

• replace the huge Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) submarine communication system operating in Michigan and Wisconsin with a new and more compact technology;

• be used to replace the over-the-horizon radar system that was once planned for the current location of HAARP, with a more flexible and accurate system;

• provide a way to wipe out communications over an extremely large area, while keeping the military's own communications systems working;

• provide a wide-area Earth-penetrating tomography which, if combined with the computing abilities of EMASS and Cray computers, would make it possible to verify many parts of nuclear nonproliferation and peace agreements;

• be a tool for geophysical probing to find oil, gas and mineral deposits over a large area;

• be used to detect incoming low-level planes and cruise missiles, making other technologies obsolete.

The above abilities seem like a good idea to all who believe in sound national defence and to those concerned about cost-cutting. However, the possible uses which the HAARP records do not explain, and which can only be found in US Air Force, Army, Navy and other federal agency records, are alarming.

...

commondata - 04:44pm Jan 15, 2003 EST (# 7686 of 7688)

There were strong words from the State Duma's international affairs and defence committee back in October:

"The significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons. This new type of weapons differs from previous types in that the near-Earth medium becomes at once an object of direct influence and its component."

They'll be wanting one themselves next.

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