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The Nice Guy At the World's Largest Weapons Expo
pigrabbitbear writes "It was the second day of the Special Operation Forces Exhibition in Amman, Jordan, and the temperature outside the convention center was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with a typical chance of rain of zero. Drones of various sizes hovered in the hot blue desert sky. Inside, Ed Atchley had set up a booth for his company, Aspen Water Inc., right next to a 30mm chain gun designed to sink things like helicopters and Somali pirate ships. Atchley had traveled from his headquarters in Richardson, Texas, to the largest weapons trade show in the world, mainly because he makes 'the army's smallest, lightest, least expensive, high output, reverse osmosis water purifier,' he says, and people in the Middle East – including soldiers – get very thirsty."
Actually, those booths should be sitting next to each other. All the high tech drones, big guns, fighters, bombers, and armor doesn't mean much if your soldiers starve or run out of water. Sun Tzu said as much -- it was pretty much chapter 1 of The Art of War. It may not be very sexy, but it's like saying the internet is important... and electricity isn't.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Unfortunately, at the weapons show, more of the attendees were probably interested in ways to keep this product out of the hands of "certain people" than buying it for themselves.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Is a droid that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators!
It's not senseless murder. There is a lot of money to be made. In fact, it is one of the few industries that are booming today. Done correctly, murder can be highly profitable for the murderer (displace an ethnic minority to take their land, kill people opposing your government, stealing riches, protect your religion for heretics/infidels, etc.).
What? Do you hate economic growth? The rich killing the poor is what had created most of the developed nations of the world.
After you hit a helicopter it probably loses height even quicker than a ship.
...the stillsuit or the lasgun?
This technology could have quite a few peaceful uses as well.
The Nicest Guy At the World's Largest Weapons Expo
If you want to publicise the work of some actual nice guys, what about those people who go into warzones simply to provide this kind of facility (some even do it for free, the gall of these people!) to those who are suffering because they happen to live in the middle of a war they want no part in?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I have to disagree with you.
The senseless murder of people by other people has been going on for a long time and will unfortunately continue for at least the near future. But developing and producing better water purifiers does nothing to encourage it.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Potable water is the most critical resource on the planet. The wars of the future will not be fought over access to oil or nuclear fuel, they'll be fought over water shortages.
Anything that makes water easier to obtain will save lives in the long run, even if it's being used chiefly by the military today.
Maybe he meant "senseless to a sensible person." Also, I think you meant rationalization, not rationale.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
'An army marches on its stomach.'
'C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat.'
Nothing, absolutely nothing, matters more at winning wars than logistics. The lethal fighting force is but the edge of a vast engineering and distribution network. Or, if it is not the edge of such a network, it is soon a defeated lethal fighting force.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
fuck it tapped 100 a few times here in the states last week, besides why is this guy nice? Cause he wants to sell technology to any army that pays him enough, well just call him Jesus fucking Saint Humanity!
Definition of SENSELESS:
b : foolish, stupid: it was some senseless practical joke — A. Conan Doyle
c : meaningless: a senseless murder
He probably meant it as "meaningless" I'm guessing. As in, it's meaningless to resort to violence when it only makes the problem worst.
Could, and does. FTFA:
Since those legal hurdles were resolved, Aspen Water has been growing, distributing fresh water systems to militaries around the world and in humanitarian crises.
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
I think what drives more U.S. Soldiers to commit suicide than are actually killed in combat, is that it's often the case that the Al-Qaeda follower planting an IED is a 12 year old boy
Well, if you believe a significant number of Slashdot posters they are so dangerous to the established world order that they need to triply encrypt their data, send it via a darknetted Tor system and only read it under an infrared light after scanning the room for stray electromagnetic emissions. These highly sought after individuals might well need water purification systems for their discretely located subterranean lair.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
This is an ugly example of Slashdot's owners whoring the site for SEO purposes. It ain't about trying to sell water purifiers to anonymous cowards. It's about boosting this company in Google rankings when buyers are searching for water purification systems.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
When you see the US espouse itself as a pinnacle of freedom and justice occupy another country for 11 years, taking resources and torturing prisoners, it should be unsurprising that a lot of people cry foul. The US military is hardly the worst in the world, but it is the most visible, and it is hardly a bunch of white knights riding in on horses and serving up happiness, rainbows, and puppies.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Religion is the biggest excuse for killing not the biggest cause. The cause is always power. Power from owning land, resources, strategic positions or influence. The only other cause of killing is insanity, insanity as a result of disease, poverty, oppression, etc.
Power or insanity.
Religion brings them both together in one package, so its often cited as the cause.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I would expect the peaceful/civilian market for such a system to be far greater than the military market. Also for more permanent installations. Plenty of communities that have a problem getting enough potable water. And it could have use in shipping industry too, saving the vessels to carry (and keep fresh) large amounts of water for long periods of time.
Yes the Communists and the Nazis were just peace loving agnostic/atheists groups.
Saying religion is the problem is oversimplifying the problem. Is religion used in an excuse to make war, yes. Is religion an excuse to make peace, yes.
Religion is only one way we consider our identity. So we will support our peers of like minds. Take away religion we will fight for other thing, political ideals, resources, borders, race and ethnicity, moral code, social class status.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Because Sadam was better then getting a communist supporter in power. Sometimes you need to choose from the lesser of two evils. The USSR with nukes pointing at you, or put a crazy man who will not join the side with all those nukes pointing at you, we will deal with the crazy man later. Just like FDR working with Stallin in WWII the communists were a threat to America, but Germany was a bigger threat.
Sometimes in life you get places where you need to take the least bad action.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
In general, the Military does not start wars, Politicians start wars by telling the military who to attack. "War is the extension of politics by use of force" or words to that effect.
I have tremendous respect for the US Military, its members etc. I have a lot less respect for the rich and powerful who get their politician underlings to order the invasion of a country so they can secure oil and make big profits off of the support contracts for all the troops that get sent. Anyone US soldier who died in Iraq did so not only because the enemy killed them, but also in part because they were sent there by people seeking economic gain.
Almost every war is economic at heart, and the soldiers sent to fight it are merely tools used by Politicians to achieve their goals. This does not in any way denigrate the dedication of those troops who get sent to the war IMHO.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Having spent some time in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Oman, I can assert that they don't waste a lot of water on frivolous things like showers.
Since 2004 the US has been eliminating the "dumb" antipersonnel mines in its arsenal. The ones left are electrically detonated and deactivate at a preset time, or ultimately when the batteries run out.
Mines are so useful that the reality is, they will be used. And manufactured locally if they have to be.
If you make it impossible for countries that can make the mines with time deactivation (or degradable components for the same end) to sell them, then what you will have for sale are those made by those who don't care. (And if you say it would be a war crime, I suggest you look at how many heads of state have been convicted since Nuremburg. One. Charles Taylor, And that's just in the past few weeks)
That's very good for saying "it's not my fault", but it's hiding your head in the sand as far as reducing the number of situations like the former Yugoslavia and large numbers of long term mines being abondoned.
As I said before, I greatly support putting deactivation systems in mines, and supporting it with treaties restricting the sale and manufacture of dumb mines. That may have some effect as it will mean the more modern type mines will be the ones openly sold.
But a blanket ban just leads to those who won't follow it making their own, or buying them under the table. And guess what. Those won't be self deactivating because dumb mines are dirt cheap to make once you've spent the money to set up a production line.
So, are you for something that might reduce the problem? Or are you for something that probably won't, but will let some people/countries say "it's not my fault"?