As someone else pointed out, most people's reaction to Sept 11th was less of "OMG, we're all going to die!" and more of "Were the hell is the enemy and when can we strike back?!" Believe it or not, I actually have enough confidence that most Americans (even the stupid ones who vote based on what their rag sheets say) will do the right thing.
...
Okay, maybe not the Californians, but at least the East Coast and Mid West.
The bright side of this is that it prevents the kids from "accidentally" bumping into something they shouldn't. Whether you feel that's needed or not is up to you, but at least it's available.:-)
Whew! Glad I found a sucker^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrave soul to take my place in line!
No worries. I'll be armed with an M-16, body armor, night vision, radio, and an enemy tracking device. And I'll be backed by air cover, sea fire, and the hand to hand training that the military so kindly gave me. You'll be sitting in an office building hoping like hell I succeed, because it's YOU who's going to die if that bomb hits.
For me the answer depends on the situation. If there its lead flying all around (a war is already started), I would shoot, but if nobody has fired yet (just posturing), I would hold my fire.
I think we're agreeing now. Someone who's just posturing does not yet pose a threat serious enough to start a war. Someone who pulls the trigger (or is in the process of pulling the trigger) with an intent to kill DOES pose a threat. It's kind of nice being on the side who can make glass parking lots, though...
What would have happened, in the heat of the moment, if instead of crashing a plane into the Pentagon, they detonated a small, dirty nuke.
Absolutely nothing. Dirty bombs are primarily scare tactics. They're actual ability as a tactical weapon has been highly overrated. Here's a good write-up for you.
I believe you mean 235U. AFAIK, 238 isn't very useful.
That being said, you've described the process pretty well. Just one question: where are all these materials, centrifuges, solvents, etc. going to come from? You can lean on the German industry to provide it, but Iraq or Iran can't. Almost everything those countries use in the way of technology is imported, and there are very strict guidelines on what can and can't be imported. This has been a concern for the last 20+ years, so it seems the restrictions have been pretty successful.
Many watchdogs tend to concern themselves with the Pu-239 in the reactors we've allowed these countries to run. However, the UN requires these countries to allow inspection and accounting of all materials we sell them just to make sure that none of it gets filtered to a weapons program. Computers are especially a big thing here because Plutonium is much harder to make a successful bomb out of.:-)
Why have we not turned North Korea into a parking lot by now if that is the case?
Because they're not credible? Trust me, if North Korea actually attempted nuclear action against the US, they WOULD be a parking lot. In the meantime, they're just waving their hands in the air trying to get attention. We'll of course attempt to gauge the threat and (if real) head it off via diplomacy, political pressure, and possibly even invasion.
A nuclear weapon is a lot more than a rod.
An Abomb is a f***ing popcap compared to what's in the US arsenal. If the world was only armed with ABombs, then there never would have been a concern about MAD. But the superpowers are armed with weapons far more powerful that have the potential to completely destroy a small country.
number 1 is the only real problem for a terrorist group.
Correction, number 1 is only a real problem for anyone who would actually USE an ABomb in today's world. Larger countries (who are capable of developing an ABomb) certainly wouldn't be looking to tangle with the US's HBomb and Neutron bomb arsenal.
for number 2 they just do the test, at a target... If it fails, it is still a dirty bomb, if it suceeds, well then they blew up a city...
Believe it or not, the US is not a primary target for terrorists who get nukes. Most terrorist organizations want us out of the way because we help Israel. If they actually DID acquire a nuke, then they'd want to use it on the Israelis. The only downside is that a nuke that fizzled would only anger Israel and produce the combined force of Israel, the US, and many European powers against the perpetrator.
If fact, a failed nuclear detonation on US soil would inspire extraordinary amounts of fear, a long the lines of "what if it works next time...?".
For a 3rd world nation, a sucessful test is exactly what they want, a big sign that says "don't fuck with us, we got the bomb".
Because they can already see that the US is going to roll over and let them keep "their bomb"....
HELL NO! We'd nuke their sorry asses (bomb and all) out of existence before we allowed a credible threat to US soil. Geez, what do we look like over here? Children who are afraid of being spanked with a rod? Hell, I'd be the first in line to sign up for war if we had a real nuclear threat pointed our way!
we in Europe certainly can build our own missile. Dont worry:)
I was actually referring less to you guys and more to countries like Iran. Europe has already been buying Exocats from the French, which suites us just fine. With a puny 160kg payload, those things won't be of much use against an armored US Ship of War. If Brirtian had used steel instead of aluminum, they might still have their Cruiser.
They would find out the first time they test fire one of their missiles.
Depends on how lucky we are. Some chips would survive, there's no getting around that. (i.e. You might have a failure rate of anywhere from 50-80%.) If we're lucky enough, few enough chips would fail during testing that the foreign power would fail to realize the true rate at which these birds would fall out of the sky. This would be especially true for a third world country who's trying to do everything on the cheap.
Generally there are two barriers to building a nuke:
1. Obtaining the materials. Uranium is very difficult and expensive to refine. The US has done their best to keep their process for refining out of foreign hands, but someone with a large enough industrial infrastructure could figure it out. One reason why third world countries have to steal U235 is because they lack the necessary infrastructure.
2. The only way to know if a bomb will fission properly (i.e. it will blow up and not just very hot) is to test it. This tends to show up on lots of spy satellites, seismic detection equipment, and radiation monitors. Thus enemies are generally prevented from completing any bomb they might be developing. The only known shortcut to this procedure is to use a computer to simulate the bomb. If the simulator results look good, they know they have a good chance that their bomb would work correctly during a live conflict.
Remember, the biggest trick for third world and terrorists parties is to keep the weapon secret. It's somewhat difficult to stop after you've used it, but if people hear of it ahead of time you're program (and possibly you) is dead.
It's worth pointing out that most of the commercial CPUs wouldn't survive most military uses without some serious ruggedization. It's certainly tempting to think that a P-IV has the computing power to guide a cruise missile, but the reality is that it would snap in half or start producing data errors.
The bright side to this is that some of our enemies don't know this. I can see them putting these chips into their missiles, then acting all surprised when they fail to make it to their target. A perfect way for the US to win wars.:-)
Foreigners could simply obtain SPARC or MIPS specs and fab a multi-GHz version of those. Since these chips are better designed for multi-processing, foreign powers could scale them just as high as a PIV cluster, and run their nuclear simulations. Time to worry more about refined Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239.
WTF are you talking about? Apogee ruled the early 90's! Duke Nukem (I&II), Commander Keen series, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Bionic Commando, Wacky Wheels, and the list goes on. Don't be diss'ing Apogee's best years! They are but a shell of what they once were.
Of course the engine is not that great! It's effectively a public beta test for people to use it and give feedback on what they think:
I think it needs to be rewritten from scratch around some inherent information principle, similar to what Google does. Instead it obviously just finds all results for a search term, then uses a lame rating algorithm that seems to weight semi-useful stuff like the domain name.
In other words, I think this "new" search engine is toast. In fact, it feels like Webcrawler from 7 years ago. How's that for feedback?
By that logic then Linux needs Microsoft's technology to compete with Microsoft.
If Microsoft's technology was actually "better", then yes Linux would need to copy or license it. Thankfully, Microsoft's technology is not "better". For some reason that doesn't stop Linux supporters from copying Microsoft (GNOME, Mono, SAMBA, etc.). Go figure.
That's pretty cool. And it's also just the type of thing I think would go over great for video games. If I could find some time, I'd love to integrate your MOD library into GAGE. The two would be a match made in heaven!:-)
function search(var terms) {
return screen_scrap_google(terms); }
On a more serious note, this engine is not all that great. For example, if I do a search for my name I primarily see forum posts. While that's great, it's not very useful. Listing software I've written, articles that mention me, etc. are far more useful results, especially to a future employer. Google nails this because the more interesting stuff always has back-links to it. Sorry Microsoft, you need Google's technology to compete with Google.
Screw that. It damn well better be able to play my MOD files! I have such classics as "Girl from Ipanima" and "All that She Wants" just waiting for a portable player! I mean, who *doesn't* want to listen to "Ace of Base" while out and about?
My Cavalier gets pretty close to the sticker on average, but blows its doors off on long interstate trips. Everyone likes good gas milage, but it's not like the dealership is lying to you. The car should be within the range of city to highway. If it isn't in there, then you should demand your money back.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately there aren't any politicians ro cabinet officials with the integrity of Jack Ryan in the real world.
With the recent scandals, I'm surprised you mentioned "Jack Ryan" and "integrity" in the same sentence!
(Yeah, I know. Fictional character and all that. Actually, I really did have to do a double take when I first saw the post.)
As someone else pointed out, most people's reaction to Sept 11th was less of "OMG, we're all going to die!" and more of "Were the hell is the enemy and when can we strike back?!" Believe it or not, I actually have enough confidence that most Americans (even the stupid ones who vote based on what their rag sheets say) will do the right thing.
...
Okay, maybe not the Californians, but at least the East Coast and Mid West.
This worked both ways as the US use to buy most of it's Titanium from the Soviet Union via neutral countries.
;-)
Titanium that the Russians considered worthless. Too bad for them that it worked perfectly for building the SR-71.
The bright side of this is that it prevents the kids from "accidentally" bumping into something they shouldn't. Whether you feel that's needed or not is up to you, but at least it's available. :-)
Whew! Glad I found a sucker^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrave soul to take my place in line!
No worries. I'll be armed with an M-16, body armor, night vision, radio, and an enemy tracking device. And I'll be backed by air cover, sea fire, and the hand to hand training that the military so kindly gave me. You'll be sitting in an office building hoping like hell I succeed, because it's YOU who's going to die if that bomb hits.
We in europe have the comforting knowledge that the US would never wage war against someone who could actually put up a reasonable fight.
That is comforting. Could you do us a favor and point out these tenacious fighters when you see them?
Fabs DO exist in many other countries, you know. Just read some of the other replies for just a few worldwide locations.
For me the answer depends on the situation. If there its lead flying all around (a war is already started), I would shoot, but if nobody has fired yet (just posturing), I would hold my fire.
I think we're agreeing now. Someone who's just posturing does not yet pose a threat serious enough to start a war. Someone who pulls the trigger (or is in the process of pulling the trigger) with an intent to kill DOES pose a threat. It's kind of nice being on the side who can make glass parking lots, though...
What would have happened, in the heat of the moment, if instead of crashing a plane into the Pentagon, they detonated a small, dirty nuke.
Absolutely nothing. Dirty bombs are primarily scare tactics. They're actual ability as a tactical weapon has been highly overrated. Here's a good write-up for you.
it takes a very long time to enrich 238U
:-)
I believe you mean 235U. AFAIK, 238 isn't very useful.
That being said, you've described the process pretty well. Just one question: where are all these materials, centrifuges, solvents, etc. going to come from? You can lean on the German industry to provide it, but Iraq or Iran can't. Almost everything those countries use in the way of technology is imported, and there are very strict guidelines on what can and can't be imported. This has been a concern for the last 20+ years, so it seems the restrictions have been pretty successful.
Many watchdogs tend to concern themselves with the Pu-239 in the reactors we've allowed these countries to run. However, the UN requires these countries to allow inspection and accounting of all materials we sell them just to make sure that none of it gets filtered to a weapons program. Computers are especially a big thing here because Plutonium is much harder to make a successful bomb out of.
Why have we not turned North Korea into a parking lot by now if that is the case?
Because they're not credible? Trust me, if North Korea actually attempted nuclear action against the US, they WOULD be a parking lot. In the meantime, they're just waving their hands in the air trying to get attention. We'll of course attempt to gauge the threat and (if real) head it off via diplomacy, political pressure, and possibly even invasion.
A nuclear weapon is a lot more than a rod.
An Abomb is a f***ing popcap compared to what's in the US arsenal. If the world was only armed with ABombs, then there never would have been a concern about MAD. But the superpowers are armed with weapons far more powerful that have the potential to completely destroy a small country.
number 1 is the only real problem for a terrorist group.
...
Correction, number 1 is only a real problem for anyone who would actually USE an ABomb in today's world. Larger countries (who are capable of developing an ABomb) certainly wouldn't be looking to tangle with the US's HBomb and Neutron bomb arsenal.
for number 2 they just do the test, at a target... If it fails, it is still a dirty bomb, if it suceeds, well then they blew up a city...
Believe it or not, the US is not a primary target for terrorists who get nukes. Most terrorist organizations want us out of the way because we help Israel. If they actually DID acquire a nuke, then they'd want to use it on the Israelis. The only downside is that a nuke that fizzled would only anger Israel and produce the combined force of Israel, the US, and many European powers against the perpetrator.
If fact, a failed nuclear detonation on US soil would inspire extraordinary amounts of fear, a long the lines of "what if it works next time...?".
For a 3rd world nation, a sucessful test is exactly what they want, a big sign that says "don't fuck with us, we got the bomb".
Because they can already see that the US is going to roll over and let them keep "their bomb".
HELL NO! We'd nuke their sorry asses (bomb and all) out of existence before we allowed a credible threat to US soil. Geez, what do we look like over here? Children who are afraid of being spanked with a rod? Hell, I'd be the first in line to sign up for war if we had a real nuclear threat pointed our way!
we in Europe certainly can build our own missile. Dont worry :)
I was actually referring less to you guys and more to countries like Iran. Europe has already been buying Exocats from the French, which suites us just fine. With a puny 160kg payload, those things won't be of much use against an armored US Ship of War. If Brirtian had used steel instead of aluminum, they might still have their Cruiser.
They would find out the first time they test fire one of their missiles.
Depends on how lucky we are. Some chips would survive, there's no getting around that. (i.e. You might have a failure rate of anywhere from 50-80%.) If we're lucky enough, few enough chips would fail during testing that the foreign power would fail to realize the true rate at which these birds would fall out of the sky. This would be especially true for a third world country who's trying to do everything on the cheap.
Generally there are two barriers to building a nuke:
1. Obtaining the materials. Uranium is very difficult and expensive to refine. The US has done their best to keep their process for refining out of foreign hands, but someone with a large enough industrial infrastructure could figure it out. One reason why third world countries have to steal U235 is because they lack the necessary infrastructure.
2. The only way to know if a bomb will fission properly (i.e. it will blow up and not just very hot) is to test it. This tends to show up on lots of spy satellites, seismic detection equipment, and radiation monitors. Thus enemies are generally prevented from completing any bomb they might be developing. The only known shortcut to this procedure is to use a computer to simulate the bomb. If the simulator results look good, they know they have a good chance that their bomb would work correctly during a live conflict.
Remember, the biggest trick for third world and terrorists parties is to keep the weapon secret. It's somewhat difficult to stop after you've used it, but if people hear of it ahead of time you're program (and possibly you) is dead.
It's worth pointing out that most of the commercial CPUs wouldn't survive most military uses without some serious ruggedization. It's certainly tempting to think that a P-IV has the computing power to guide a cruise missile, but the reality is that it would snap in half or start producing data errors.
:-)
The bright side to this is that some of our enemies don't know this. I can see them putting these chips into their missiles, then acting all surprised when they fail to make it to their target. A perfect way for the US to win wars.
Foreigners could simply obtain SPARC or MIPS specs and fab a multi-GHz version of those. Since these chips are better designed for multi-processing, foreign powers could scale them just as high as a PIV cluster, and run their nuclear simulations. Time to worry more about refined Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239.
The early 90's Apogee of search engines...
WTF are you talking about? Apogee ruled the early 90's! Duke Nukem (I&II), Commander Keen series, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Bionic Commando, Wacky Wheels, and the list goes on. Don't be diss'ing Apogee's best years! They are but a shell of what they once were.
Doh! You're right:Damn, it's hard to break years of *good* coding habits.
Of course the engine is not that great! It's effectively a public beta test for people to use it and give feedback on what they think:
I think it needs to be rewritten from scratch around some inherent information principle, similar to what Google does. Instead it obviously just finds all results for a search term, then uses a lame rating algorithm that seems to weight semi-useful stuff like the domain name.
In other words, I think this "new" search engine is toast. In fact, it feels like Webcrawler from 7 years ago. How's that for feedback?
By that logic then Linux needs Microsoft's technology to compete with Microsoft.
If Microsoft's technology was actually "better", then yes Linux would need to copy or license it. Thankfully, Microsoft's technology is not "better". For some reason that doesn't stop Linux supporters from copying Microsoft (GNOME, Mono, SAMBA, etc.). Go figure.
That's pretty cool. And it's also just the type of thing I think would go over great for video games. If I could find some time, I'd love to integrate your MOD library into GAGE. The two would be a match made in heaven! :-)
I hope they can play .SID files
Screw that. It damn well better be able to play my MOD files! I have such classics as "Girl from Ipanima" and "All that She Wants" just waiting for a portable player! I mean, who *doesn't* want to listen to "Ace of Base" while out and about?
I vote for LiCE. "Sticks to you like a used hat!" :-P
My Cavalier gets pretty close to the sticker on average, but blows its doors off on long interstate trips. Everyone likes good gas milage, but it's not like the dealership is lying to you. The car should be within the range of city to highway. If it isn't in there, then you should demand your money back.