The West, collectively is big enough to take on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Arab countries all at the same time.
Why doesn't somebody simply call a general mobilization, and round up every political Islamist in the region, and put them up against a wall? We'd solve about a dozen problems at a stroke.
Yes, and as I recall, boost-phase interception isn't terribly practical as it stands. They tried this concept out with the Airborne Laser, which required a 747 equipped with a massive and inefficient chemical laser to loiter close to, or within enemy territory.
IIRC, midcourse interceptors (e.g. SM3 and THAAD) are a hit-and-miss affair too, if you'll pardon the pun. I seem to remember that they don't work too well.
The shitbox unguided bottle rockets that the Muslims are terrorising Israel with, aren't coming in that fast, and can be cheaply and easily intercepted.
On the other hand, strategic weapons, like nuclear-armed reentry vehicles (which are hypersonic and can actively manoeuvre), are virtually unstoppable. Nothing under Heaven and Earth can stop these things in terminal phase.
DNA fingerprinting doesn't collect information useful for determining whether or not you're susceptible to various diseases.
OTOH, if insurance companies found a legal way to cheat (because "cheating" is what it is) and get a blood sample, and sequence your genome, then they could just refuse to insure potentially unprofitable customers, defeating the entire point of insurance -- that of pooling risk -- in the first place.
DNA is not so useful for pinning evidence on somebody (many people can share the same fingerprint, however unlikely). However, if there is a mismatch between your DNA and the one found at the scene, the likelihood of it being you is effectively zero.
DNA is better for ruling people OUT than putting somebody in the frame. Following from this, it's entirely rational to volunteer a DNA sample, because it puts you out of the frame without a shadow of a doubt.
Or rather: kids likely sharing the sentiments of their parents -- but not yet knowing how to hide their prejudices, like most adults do.
Now the thing is, in the Western world at least, overt racism spoken aloud in public is heavily stigmatized. Public morality has controlled such expression. However, that happens BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, when people are with friends and family and let their guard down... that's different. Political correctness controls public morality and behaviour, but does not change minds.
Intolerance still exists, lots of people are intolerant, but people hide it because expressing it aloud in public is frowned upon.
The problem for the families concerned here, is that the kids have absorbed the sentiments of their parents -- but haven't learned how to not express it in polite company yet.
They've been raging and stamping their feet, because their bloated margins have been propped up by ripoff voice and text traffic charges, and criminal scams like international roaming charges. They wanted to avoid, at all costs, to be a "dumb pipe" where they'd have to live with fair and reasonable margins.
The chickens have come home to roost, the consumer wins, and the telcos get their long-coming, richly-deserved comeuppance.
I once knew a guy who was strongly Aspergers'; couldn't make smalltalk to save his life, but was a MACHINE when it came to mental arithmetic.
He taught himself a load of number theory without ever reading a book on the subject, would do cube and fifth roots in his head, and multiply two ten digit numbers almost effortlessly. And it wasn't like he was sitting there cranking through the answers, -- he reckoned he could just 'see' the answers.
Don't mod parent down just because you disagree with him/her.
Sure, there are plenty of potheads around here, but there are just as many of us who see recreational drug use for the destructive, distracting habit it is.
Timothy shouldn't be stirring the pot (*cough*) like this.
People prone to "magical thinking" (e.g. the religiously pious), are likely to apply their flawed thinking to other areas, like politics and economics.
Giving tax cuts to rich people as economic stimulus has been shown to not be as effective as giving tax cuts to lower-income earner, and the reason's really simple.
Rich people invest. Poor people spend; many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, so any extra dollar goes straight into consumption, and good, services and jobs. However, for the wealthy, there is too much money chasing too few investment opportunities.
The Right seem to live in this strange world, where you can change reality by wishing hard enough, or lying hard enough, or by denying evidence and truth hard enough.
A bit like how Communists and their whacked-out theories about how reality could be changed by willing it so, e.g. the New Soviet Man.
And a bit like left-wing crazies in academic literary circles with postmodernism; where they deny objective reality, and consider science and reason to be something not to be trusted, because it's invented by powerful people to keep the little man down.
So what we're really seeing, is right-wing postmodernism; where the FOX crowd deny objective reality, because they see rationality, science and evidence-based-anything as a liberal left-wing plot to repress and hold down Galtian supermen such as themselves.
In a nutshell, the modern American Right is losing credibility, because enough of them are so split from reality, that they think that simply making shit up, denying the truth, and being stupid will bend the world to their will. Serious right-wing thinkers like William Buckley would have been appalled by the intellectual and moral rot.
It's tragic and bizarre, but nobody's laughing, because they're dangerous and get into power often enough to cause serious damage, like expensive and pointless wars, massive environmental damage, and yawning inequality.
The point that is not being made here, is that like the MAFIAA, the porn studios themselves are propping up a failing business model (having to complete with free amateur porn), by recruiting pay-or-we'll-sue ambulance chasers to shake down people to generate revenue, or barring that, forum-shopping for sympathetic judges and sueing 'pirates' into oblivion.
Given that pornographers are drawn from the criminal underclasses anyway, it doesn't surprise me that they would stoop to these levels.
If there's any evidence of life whatsoever on Mars, likely, any attempt to put humans on Mars will complicate any attempt to learn more about it.
Taking the long view, if there's any life there at all, then we would probably be doing the wrong thing to put anything living on Mars at all (in case we contaminate or interfere with what's already there), which rules out manned missions and human settlement.
Slashdot Mirror
The West, collectively is big enough to take on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Arab countries all at the same time.
Why doesn't somebody simply call a general mobilization, and round up every political Islamist in the region, and put them up against a wall? We'd solve about a dozen problems at a stroke.
... given sufficient dwell time and power put on the target
Well, you mean the handful of Christians left, after Hamas have slit their throats or thrown them off buildings for being dirty kuffars?
Yes, and as I recall, boost-phase interception isn't terribly practical as it stands. They tried this concept out with the Airborne Laser, which required a 747 equipped with a massive and inefficient chemical laser to loiter close to, or within enemy territory.
IIRC, midcourse interceptors (e.g. SM3 and THAAD) are a hit-and-miss affair too, if you'll pardon the pun. I seem to remember that they don't work too well.
Run along now, before we bomb your black ass. back to the Stone Age.
Serves the violent, ignorant, dirty Third World trash right for starting fights they can't finish.
One of these centuries, these Muslims might actually learn their lesson.
Unlikely.
The shitbox unguided bottle rockets that the Muslims are terrorising Israel with, aren't coming in that fast, and can be cheaply and easily intercepted.
On the other hand, strategic weapons, like nuclear-armed reentry vehicles (which are hypersonic and can actively manoeuvre), are virtually unstoppable. Nothing under Heaven and Earth can stop these things in terminal phase.
MAD might be around for quite a while yet.
How's that Caliphate coming along, hey Muslims?
That's right -- because strong, rational cultures, like the West and Israel build wealth, power and military strength.
Religious cultures like Islam, squander human potential, and are doomed to wither and die.
DNA fingerprinting doesn't collect information useful for determining whether or not you're susceptible to various diseases.
OTOH, if insurance companies found a legal way to cheat (because "cheating" is what it is) and get a blood sample, and sequence your genome, then they could just refuse to insure potentially unprofitable customers, defeating the entire point of insurance -- that of pooling risk -- in the first place.
DNA is not so useful for pinning evidence on somebody (many people can share the same fingerprint, however unlikely). However, if there is a mismatch between your DNA and the one found at the scene, the likelihood of it being you is effectively zero.
DNA is better for ruling people OUT than putting somebody in the frame. Following from this, it's entirely rational to volunteer a DNA sample, because it puts you out of the frame without a shadow of a doubt.
Or rather: kids likely sharing the sentiments of their parents -- but not yet knowing how to hide their prejudices, like most adults do.
Now the thing is, in the Western world at least, overt racism spoken aloud in public is heavily stigmatized. Public morality has controlled such expression. However, that happens BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, when people are with friends and family and let their guard down... that's different. Political correctness controls public morality and behaviour, but does not change minds.
Intolerance still exists, lots of people are intolerant, but people hide it because expressing it aloud in public is frowned upon.
The problem for the families concerned here, is that the kids have absorbed the sentiments of their parents -- but haven't learned how to not express it in polite company yet.
If offensive speech and behaviour got everyone into trouble, then Anjem Choudhury and his mob would all be in jail.
Strangely enough, this hasn't happened... In Britain, you can only be racist, bigoted or offensive if you're white. Brown people get a free pass.
"Build me an army, worthy of Mordor"
They've been raging and stamping their feet, because their bloated margins have been propped up by ripoff voice and text traffic charges, and criminal scams like international roaming charges. They wanted to avoid, at all costs, to be a "dumb pipe" where they'd have to live with fair and reasonable margins.
The chickens have come home to roost, the consumer wins, and the telcos get their long-coming, richly-deserved comeuppance.
I once knew a guy who was strongly Aspergers'; couldn't make smalltalk to save his life, but was a MACHINE when it came to mental arithmetic.
He taught himself a load of number theory without ever reading a book on the subject, would do cube and fifth roots in his head, and multiply two ten digit numbers almost effortlessly. And it wasn't like he was sitting there cranking through the answers, -- he reckoned he could just 'see' the answers.
I'm no physicist but...
Would this have any application as auxilliary heating in tokamaks? Does it work efficiently with light elements?
Drugs have killed people in my family. Illicit drugs reduce your life expentancy. FACT.
Don't mod parent down just because you disagree with him/her.
Sure, there are plenty of potheads around here, but there are just as many of us who see recreational drug use for the destructive, distracting habit it is.
Timothy shouldn't be stirring the pot (*cough*) like this.
Very interesting. Mod parent up.
People prone to "magical thinking" (e.g. the religiously pious), are likely to apply their flawed thinking to other areas, like politics and economics.
Giving tax cuts to rich people as economic stimulus has been shown to not be as effective as giving tax cuts to lower-income earner, and the reason's really simple.
Rich people invest. Poor people spend; many people live paycheck-to-paycheck, so any extra dollar goes straight into consumption, and good, services and jobs. However, for the wealthy, there is too much money chasing too few investment opportunities.
The Right seem to live in this strange world, where you can change reality by wishing hard enough, or lying hard enough, or by denying evidence and truth hard enough.
A bit like how Communists and their whacked-out theories about how reality could be changed by willing it so, e.g. the New Soviet Man.
And a bit like left-wing crazies in academic literary circles with postmodernism; where they deny objective reality, and consider science and reason to be something not to be trusted, because it's invented by powerful people to keep the little man down.
So what we're really seeing, is right-wing postmodernism; where the FOX crowd deny objective reality, because they see rationality, science and evidence-based-anything as a liberal left-wing plot to repress and hold down Galtian supermen such as themselves.
In a nutshell, the modern American Right is losing credibility, because enough of them are so split from reality, that they think that simply making shit up, denying the truth, and being stupid will bend the world to their will. Serious right-wing thinkers like William Buckley would have been appalled by the intellectual and moral rot.
It's tragic and bizarre, but nobody's laughing, because they're dangerous and get into power often enough to cause serious damage, like expensive and pointless wars, massive environmental damage, and yawning inequality.
The point that is not being made here, is that like the MAFIAA, the porn studios themselves are propping up a failing business model (having to complete with free amateur porn), by recruiting pay-or-we'll-sue ambulance chasers to shake down people to generate revenue, or barring that, forum-shopping for sympathetic judges and sueing 'pirates' into oblivion.
Given that pornographers are drawn from the criminal underclasses anyway, it doesn't surprise me that they would stoop to these levels.
If there's any evidence of life whatsoever on Mars, likely, any attempt to put humans on Mars will complicate any attempt to learn more about it.
Taking the long view, if there's any life there at all, then we would probably be doing the wrong thing to put anything living on Mars at all (in case we contaminate or interfere with what's already there), which rules out manned missions and human settlement.
Whoever made the rhyme, did the crime.