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I guess it's a chemical laser, and probably uses things like flourine gas (nasty nasty nasty, but very energetic). You can read some info about these kinds of things here

This old report from 1999 actually suggests it uses some other strong oxidisers like hydrogen peroxide and halogens - chlorine and iodine.

Basically you don't want to be breathing these things in, but you there's a lot of energy available in their reactions.

The ABL system is to be a key part of what is known as Boost Phase missile defense. The idea is that you fly the 747 based ABL system in circles over friendly territoy monitoring a neary balistic missile threat (imagine flying over Japan and watching North Korea). When an enemy ballistic missile is launched, the ABL uses its laser to blow-up the missile while it is climing through the atmosphere (having the advantages of being full of fuel, rising slowly and over enemy territory). See FAS for details.

A commander in chief willing to sacrifice American lives for a people who would be better off left to their own devices?

Really!?!?!

Umm, don't let Sean Penn fool you, life under Saddam wasn't too swell.

A laptop (depending on the design) could be powered by 100-600 grams

So how many laptops does it take to get a nuclear weapon? 10 - 60? (providing the critical mass is around 6 kilo and this is the right isotope for the job, I dont know either but how is my guess for this combination? Apparently Nagasaki was 6.2 kilo pu-239 but other mixes of isotopes are possible) Civilian plutonium usage, dream on! People are up in arms to keep plutonium out of power reactors (mox fuel), no way are they gonna let people sell laptops with it. Then there is the perceived health/marketing risks that manufacturers have to deal with, along with the real risks! This stuff is guaranteed to end up in the food chain, where it will stay, and stay ....and stay silently couseing cancer to many of the organisms that eat it.

Also try exporting a tritium based glow in the dark thingy one day, see how goverments react to nuclear materials being houled around the country.... for the kind of money needed for licences and political influence to get "deregultion" (lobying at least) you could eather put shops giving away free batteries at avery squere 100 meter of the globe, or fund research in alternative power sources.

I dont know about other materials, but I could imagene improving thousendfolds on these ideas would never make them safe/cheap/small/lawfull enough.

A laptop (depending on the design) could be powered by 100-600 grams

So how many laptops does it take to get a nuclear weapon? 10 - 60? (providing the critical mass is around 6 kilo and this is the right isotope for the job, I dont know either but how is my guess for this combination? Apparently Nagasaki was 6.2 kilo pu-239 but other mixes of isotopes are possible) Civilian plutonium usage, dream on! People are up in arms to keep plutonium out of power reactors (mox fuel), no way are they gonna let people sell laptops with it. Then there is the perceived health/marketing risks that manufacturers have to deal with, along with the real risks! This stuff is guaranteed to end up in the food chain, where it will stay, and stay ....and stay silently couseing cancer to many of the organisms that eat it.

Also try exporting a tritium based glow in the dark thingy one day, see how goverments react to nuclear materials being houled around the country.... for the kind of money needed for licences and political influence to get "deregultion" (lobying at least) you could eather put shops giving away free batteries at avery squere 100 meter of the globe, or fund research in alternative power sources.

I dont know about other materials, but I could imagene improving thousendfolds on these ideas would never make them safe/cheap/small/lawfull enough.

No, this stuff.

CPLDs and FPGAs have more in common than they have differences in many points of view. Cost is the big one. Power consumption and complexity are two others. Other than that, they are both programmable logic devices...

SpaceX is probably the most advanced of the new low-cost launchers. Interestingly, the man behind SpaceX is the founder of PayPal, who got out while the getting was good.

SpaceX is dedicated to creating a pair of low-cost extremely simple launchers. They've created their own engines based on a very simple design, and their own turbopump. The engines are LOX/RP1 (basically kerosene) engines, which are extremely well known, inexpensive and available.

There was a nice writeup on SpaceX in Aviation Week two weeks ago. They have been testing their engines and plan to launch their first orbital mission within a year or so.

It's always a longshot betting on any of these small rocket companies actually launching a rocket successfully. It's even harder to make money doing it. Lockheed built a small, solid fueled rocket of about the same class as the smaller of the SpaceX rockets about 10 years ago. The first one blew up, but the second and third ones succeeded. Unfortunately, the market for small launchers just didn't exist.

SpaceX has a government payload signed up for their first rocket. If it is successful, and they can really launch rockets for the rediculously small price that they quote, then perhaps they will be successful. More power to them!

thad

I've always thought of a PC running Linux as being something like this.

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.

Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.

So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.

Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic...

The most widely used flying command and control platform is the AWACS designed by IBM and Boeing back in the 70s. The USAF,NATO,JDF, and saudi's are all based on the same dual IBM 360 platform (named 4-pi). These mainframes all have been upgraded in memory and converted from tape drives to hard drives. We still develope the software in JOVIAL and assembler.Info

They'll still have a satellite photo of your "house".

Get you 1-meter satellite images of Groom Lake, NV (Area 51) right here.

Do you actually have any proof of this?
China has nuclear weapons, specifically ICBM types, which TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE.

link

Actually, a few Blackbirds were reeactivated in 1995. IIRC, the reason givens was that sats are great, but are stuck with a fixed time window for observation. However, I am in total agreement with you that Air Combat Command already has something super-secret and ultra badass to replace the SR-71.

Also see missile defense (Condi's favourite),
or nukes
or conventional weapons.

Tons of material there...

Also see missile defense (Condi's favourite),
or nukes
or conventional weapons.

Tons of material there...

Also see missile defense (Condi's favourite),
or nukes
or conventional weapons.

Tons of material there...

Also see missile defense (Condi's favourite),
or nukes
or conventional weapons.

Tons of material there...

what makes you think China wants to put weapons in space?

China's actions

oh yes- racism.

Governments don't have races.

Each Party undertakes not to deploy ABM systems or their components except that:

(a) within one ABM system deployment area having a radius of one hundred and fifty kilometers and centered on the Partys national capital, a Party may deploy: (1) no more than one hundred ABM launchers and no more than one hundred ABM interceptor missiles at launch sites, and (2) ABM radars within no more than six ABM radar complexes, the area of each complex being circular and having a diameter of no more than three kilometers; and
(b) within one ABM system deployment area having a radius of one hundred and fifty kilometers and containing ICBM silo launchers, a Party may deploy: (1) no more than one hundred ABM launchers and no more than one hundred ABM interceptor missiles at launch sites, (2) two large phased-array ABM radars comparable in potential to corresponding ABM radars operational or under construction on the date of signature of the Treaty in an ABM system deployment area containing ICBM silo launchers, and (3) no more than eighteen ABM radars each having a potential less than the potential of the smaller of the above-mentioned two large phased-array ABM radars.

Wow! What a great idea! Will you please tell me how to do this? Voting doesn't work, I vote every year and the same sort of assholes get elected. Grass roots lobbying doesn't work, because there is some corporate interest group (that will go against you) that is better funded and has better "access" to politicians. And don't get me started about bureaucracy.

This sort of thinking is just naive. Especially when it comes to changing "big government". Bad policy like the drug war and farm subsidies will never go away because hundreds of thousands of people in the bureaucracy mooch of the money provided for such things. Do you really think all the people working for the DEA (just for an example), really want pot legalized? HELL NO! Because they, prosecutors, Anti-Drug advertising reps, ect. would be out of work. Since this is their gravy train (and politics is little more than a hobby to most people because we have another bill-paying job), they will do everything (including abhorrent commercials that show stoned children gunning as each other) to keep everything the way it is and we don't have the time or resources to stop them. There is no way to get rid of harmful government policy besides killing whoever is behind it. This is just not an acceptable option- except for John Poindexter; THE MOST EVIL NERD EVER (I sure hope this post puts me on his illegal list).

Look at it as a certification process. Each project tasked with protecting data on a computer (networked or not) has a security posture and a security officer responsible for ensuring that the declared posture is enforced.

This is what a bunch of people at /. fear: they expect the government to try and make it all completely secure and fail, but rather what they fail to see that government will only quantify and validate the level at which an information system is protected. This means it's not a black and white world, but rather the level of protection is paired against the threat of compromise.

A bunch of you also think this has only to do with preventing a network-based attack. And while that is in play, don't forget corporate espionage. That foreign temp worker your boss hired could be walking out with all the spreadsheets the accounting department values. This problem, by the way, is addressed in trusted operating systems such as talked about in this article asking about Trusted Linux vs. Trusted Irix or Trusted Solaris.

DCID 6/3 works both sides of that problem and quantifies for management what kind of protection their dollars have bought them.

Actually, you have that backwards. The cost of producing the software not only includes the embedded software in the missile but also the fire control system, launcher system, satellite link software for in-flight mission updates, etc. The full development of all that software PLUS the cost of testing with both simulated hardware and test flights far outweigh the average unit cost of $1.4 million.

That must explain why there are Arab members of the Knesset. It must also explain the "Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal" on the World factbook entry for Israel.

But since it is Israel, we are exercising our veto power in the UN Security Council to PREVENT a condemnation of the assassination.

The assassination of a the leader of a known terrorist organization that is responsible for hundreds of innocent deaths of both Arabs and Isreali's. Breaks my fucking heart that they killed him. Even the spineless EU considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization. Tell me again why the Israeli's shouldn't have killed this SOB? Would we pass up Bin Ladan if we had a shot at him?

This double standard is only one part of why so many in the arabic world hate us.

Double standard? The Arab fanatics want another Holocost of the Jewish people. It'll be over our dead bodies before that happens. Too bad the Europeans don't seem to remember history very well. They will be doomed to repeat it.

Slashdot lost my first post which had the link to the Federation of American Scientists paper "The Holocaust Bomb: A Question of Time".

It would be even cooler if you could make them fly through windows and drop stink bombs. I can think of many times this would have been cool to have when I was 15.

This link provides some more information on the project.

Here's one of the projects that tracks space junk (and other space debris) GEODSS

My Dad used to be an engineer in Socorro, NM with it.

You're right the TU-160 is old the T-60S is the newest Russian stealth bomber, supposedly deployed secretly in 2003.
T60-S
The signfigance of the Topol-Ms and the Sunburn is that they are only good for a direct confronation with the U.S. The Topols are road mobile which is a capability we don't even have. I haven't heard of the U.S developing any cavitating torpeodes for which there are no effective countermeasures yet. The whole Edmond Pope spy affair in Russia was about the U.S trying to get data on this kind of technology.

Since we're all friends now and trust former KGB officers turned quasi-dictators, how bout the Russians give us some of the advanced weapons they've developed since they decided to become friendly members of the world community.
For isntance, how about they give us the new Topol-M road mobile super accurate nuclear missiles that can wobble in flight to avoid ABM systems.
They could give us the supersonic sea skimming nuclear tipped Sunburn missile which does a maneuver before it hits so it can slam into the decks of carriers.
They could give us the docs on how they make their high-speed cavitating torpedoes work.
Or their new Tupelov supersonic bombers.
Or the new Russian Infantry carried fuel air weapons that they used so well in the war in Chechnya.

So in my opinion there are 3 good websites on the internet:
E-Print Archives
Mathworld and Scienceworld
Federation of American Scientists

Of the three, 2 are distinctly not for profit, but rather so that scientists can get some work done again and who know's why wolfram put mathworld and scienceworld online. As far as more liberal arts stuff, the only online thing I know of is jstor.org and I think that might require paying for, but my university pays for it if it does. I found all those sites very useful and suggest that you check them out if you haven't already done so.

-Scott

It seems that back in the USSR vs. America days, the West had an obsession with nuclear annihilation, despite the improbability of such an exchange between the big powers.

But as it stands now, several countries who either have or are attempting to obtain nuclear weapons just might be crazy enough to use them. How safe are we with Kim Jong Il and some shady supreme religious leaders in command of nuclear missiles?

So why aren't we as worried as we used to be?

It seems that back in the USSR vs. America days, the West had an obsession with nuclear annihilation, despite the improbability of such an exchange between the big powers.

But as it stands now, several countries who either have or are attempting to obtain nuclear weapons just might be crazy enough to use them. How safe are we with Kim Jong Il and some shady supreme religious leaders in command of nuclear missiles?

So why aren't we as worried as we used to be?

+funny (even if it was a little weak ;)

The birds are quite expensive like $250M (or $1B - the reference to SIGINT is unclear) or Thuraya multi-part system at $1.1B or $350M satellites.

But I think setting up a system to protect them would also gain us much knowledge to protect us, which is a much bigger task. (I also concur in advance that the system would have a harder time detecting smaller objects, but an easier time dealing with them, as compared to those objects damaging to the planet. Of course, the detection network could server double duty)

I disagree.

The aircraft used to give rich people thrill-rides first entered service in the Soviet air force back in 1970.

As for the missile required to do the trick, I'm sure one of these could be modified sufficiently to home in on the telemetry transmissions...

Thats what bunker busters are for...

You realise the British satellite military communication network is called Skynet don't you? Version 5 is now in development by EADS Astrium - version 1 failed in '69 using American hardware. Version 2 was successful using British (Marconi) equipment . Its older than The Terminator...

You realise the British satellite military communication network is called Skynet don't you? Version 5 is now in development by EADS Astrium - version 1 failed in '69 using American hardware. Version 2 was successful using British (Marconi) equipment . Its older than The Terminator...

Hey, GE put as much care and attention into designing and building GAU-8 30mm and M-61 20mm multibarrel cannon systems as they put into refrigerators and dishwashers. Customer satisfaction is important to their business. If your food spoiled, or you dishes came out dirty, or the T-72 tank you were shooting at from your A-10 warthog didn't explode, would you buy another fridge, dishwasher, or GAU-8 Avenger 30mm cannon from GE again? They're a real people company because they have to be!

Hey, GE put as much care and attention into designing and building GAU-8 30mm and M-61 20mm multibarrel cannon systems as they put into refrigerators and dishwashers. Customer satisfaction is important to their business. If your food spoiled, or you dishes came out dirty, or the T-72 tank you were shooting at from your A-10 warthog didn't explode, would you buy another fridge, dishwasher, or GAU-8 Avenger 30mm cannon from GE again? They're a real people company because they have to be!

"VVER" is the Soviet designation for a pressurized light water moderated reactors, which is designated PWR in western designs. This type of unit is generally regarded as less vulnerable to fire than the RBMK graphite-moderated reactors (LGR) employed at Chernobyl.

In part because of these concerns, efforts by Moscow and Havana to find international financial support for the project have so far failed, and remarks by Cuba leader Fidel Castro in January 1997 signal that it is unlikely to be completed anytime soon.

Is there any kind of International treaties governing use of the Moon? I'm thinking particularly of the situation with the Antarctic here. There certainly should be some kind of International agreement that it's "common ground".


Kinda like the ABM treaty?

*cough*

I've never been accused of being an optimist, but for some reason I don't think international agreements not to militarize space are going to mean a whole lot in the next 15 years unfortunately. The ABM treaty issue is being hotly debated in Canada and will be an issue in the next election. (US Plans call for ABM sites in Canada, leading to space-based weaponry)

Just add this to it!

The US has a very long tradition of undeclared wars and interference in external conflicts.

Of course it is far from unique in this characteristic.

The US has a very long tradition of undeclared wars and interference in external conflicts.

Of course it is far from unique in this characteristic.

Like all geeks, these guys are information addicts. ECHELON is a pretty nasty system (and is pretty much what you describe).

But these guys are pretty smart, much smarter than your average intelligence asshole spook*, and they know computer security well enough to realize that if they have a way into a machine, then probably someone else knows about it as well. The code they release as the SE-Linux enhancement is open, and is being reviewed by people who know security programming far better, and are far more paranoid, than you or I.

I don't beleive for a second that they are backdooring these security enhancements, and I do not beleive it would go unnoticed if they were. AFAICT, the NSA came to the realization that they could test their security designs and improve upon them to the best effect if they were to release them to a relatively knowledgable bunch, and have them tested in the real world. Besides, these guys don't really like the asshole spook* crowd too much, so if your looking to keep the FBI and CIA off of your law-abidin' ass and out of your personal business, who better to help you accomplish that end than the good old NSA?

(* spook == CIA personel)

an old launch pad (boy, the anchor bolt refurb on that UT was a BASTARD, nevermind any of the rest of it), into a fairly useful facility, but the new new rocket was a piece of shit and they finally decided to just blow the whole damned facility to hell and be done with it, but we sure had some fun there with it for a while.

The original spec on the Gau-8 wsa 2100/4200 rounds per minute, selectable. The A-10 fires at 3900 rounds/min. They dropped the 2100 selection, because it made no sense to try to hold on the target twice as long to get the same number of rounds on it.

As the pilot releases the trigger, the gun begins to slow down. The gun does a couple of revolutions before it stops completely. There is no more firing voltage going to the gun. This is also the clearing cycle. Ergo, rounds are not fired. Those rounds are bypassed, and simply cycle back into the belt/drum. But they can't really be used, because the gun does not apply firing voltage unless there are rounds present. There is a little switch to detect the presence of the round. No rounds, no voltage, no firing.

If you were to look at a complete belt after firing, there will be long sections with fired rounds (brass only), and then a smaller section with rounds, and then fired rounds, etc, etc. Unless the belt happens to stop right where there are some of those previously bypassed rounds are actuating that switch...again, no voltage.

Too late for karma, but actually we've had a missle designed to destroy satilites in orbit for quite a while its called peguses, launched from an F-15 at about 60k feet if I remember correctly.

Too late for karma, but actually we've had a missle designed to destroy satilites in orbit for quite a while its called peguses, launched from an F-15 at about 60k feet if I remember correctly.