There are multiple safeguards built into the system that have to be released in order to launch even one missile. None of the safeguards are coupled, meaning that there is no cascading effect. Each one has different inputs and a different means to activate it.
One of the simplest is that it takes the near-simultaneous activation of two mechanical, key-locked switches to send the fire command to the missile, and these are separated by enough distance that one person can't do it alone. And it only gets to that point after a number of other manual steps have been taken to prep the launch.
Even the President's order is not sufficient to start everything rolling. The people in charge of monitoring the threat systems go to him to ask for authorization. He doesn't go to them - they'd never believe him if he did, since there's no way he'd know there was a threat. And they don't make their decision lightly.
At the point where it's necessary to launch a nuke, it will be blindingly clear to everyone that we should have made the process simpler, not that it is too simple.
Well, nuclear ICBMs weren't, but we certainly did have programs to develop tactical nukes and even backpack bombs. But we decided for various reasons that we shouldn't be using nukes on that scale, and should just use them for when we have no alternatives and need the massive effect for which they are the only tool, and because they are a very thorough deterrent.
2. It's not really an article, it's a summary./. doesn't have any experience with those being of poor quality, which is why this one caught it unawares. Its real purpose is to make you click on a link at Wired before googling for the real article that it doesn't bother to link to though it links to dozens of advertisers and a honey-pot of cascading abysses of other Wired articles - sorry, summarylinktraps.
3. The real article is in Nature, which is usually a little better at getting facts right. But also depends on revenue from what was known in the past as a "magazine", and so has embargoed truth and fact from the in-tar-webs by setting up what is known in the future as a "paywall". If anyone knows how to ePolevault this, please warez it:
Your use of "most likely" and "civilizations" are inept.
Homo sapiens is the first and only civilization on this planet.
There have been several ages of development of life, but sapience has only shown itself once, that we have evidence of, and we have no evidence that there was any capacity to develop it at any point in the past.
I don't even know why I need to point this out. I mean, what the fuck, this is 3rd-grade science class stuff.
There have been many ice ages, including one (before that graph starts) in which the entire planet was covered in ice for hundreds of millions of years.
"Global warming" is recognition that we are not in a natural rising cycle, but have pushed temperatures up artificially. The evidence is broad and deep, and people who say it's wrong are, to a man, either ignorant or self-serving.
I haven't seen Inception, but in order to get away with leaving an open question you have to have closed an even bigger one, even if you only did it symbolically (such that people taking the movie literally probably won't get it until it's explained to them), and your point is to have people decide for themselves what might come next.
That's not what happened with Empire. Empire was a utility episode, not a story by itself. It was nothing but setup. Which is fine, since by then the trilogy was deliberately a trilogy. But really, it would have been a better trilogy if the second part had been constructed to stand on its own the way the first does and the third almost does.
It deliberately ended where it was because it had already developed the story to an excellent Arc
That's not an ending, it's a cliffhanger.
Empire isn't a story, it's Act 2. In fact, with everyone spread out dealing with their own problems, it's a collection of second acts. It's not a whole movie on its own. Much is begun, little is resolved. It doesn't leave you satisfied, it leaves you starved. It doesn't even serve as a whole movie from an Imperial POV, since all they manage to do is trap Han and cut off Luke's hand.
Yes, there are some cool bits. Tauntaun guts, floating city, Yoda, carbonite, "Luke, I am your father." But so what? If those bits aren't used to construct something whole, they're just studies in an animated sketchpad.
Dude, if you can't see that the GOP is a front for people who literally don't care if you live or die except where that choice results in revenue in the current quarter then you're not paying attention.
You're deliberately not using your reasoning facilities.
Obama is one of the least mendacious presidents ever. Foreign money manipulating domestic democracy is always a bad idea. And anyone with reasoning facility would not wait for empirical evidence that a foreseeable disaster is occurring, because they would understand that it is much cheaper and less dangerous (i.e., less likely to require a war to repair) to actually protect the democracy before it becomes illegal to do so.
Slashdot Mirror
No. A coupon for free text messages.
HTML5 video is here.
Adobe has no further reason to exist.
It's going to have some technological hurdles to cross, like transatlantic links...unless you like rowing...
Because I've always wanted to be part of a hive.
Especially one geared towards tracking me and everyone near me.
It happens when you open PDF documents and Flash scripts. Duh.
Why the FUCK does a document display program have the ability to alter anything on my machine?
"risky designs that favor the ability to launch"
There are multiple safeguards built into the system that have to be released in order to launch even one missile. None of the safeguards are coupled, meaning that there is no cascading effect. Each one has different inputs and a different means to activate it.
One of the simplest is that it takes the near-simultaneous activation of two mechanical, key-locked switches to send the fire command to the missile, and these are separated by enough distance that one person can't do it alone. And it only gets to that point after a number of other manual steps have been taken to prep the launch.
Even the President's order is not sufficient to start everything rolling. The people in charge of monitoring the threat systems go to him to ask for authorization. He doesn't go to them - they'd never believe him if he did, since there's no way he'd know there was a threat. And they don't make their decision lightly.
At the point where it's necessary to launch a nuke, it will be blindingly clear to everyone that we should have made the process simpler, not that it is too simple.
Well, nuclear ICBMs weren't, but we certainly did have programs to develop tactical nukes and even backpack bombs. But we decided for various reasons that we shouldn't be using nukes on that scale, and should just use them for when we have no alternatives and need the massive effect for which they are the only tool, and because they are a very thorough deterrent.
Questionable need in 1950 never mind 2010.
Then they worked, and are continuing to work.
Do they run Flash?
Nothing wrong with using it until it's done (as I have been for several months now, though not on this box).
1. It's a Wired article.
2. It's not really an article, it's a summary. /. doesn't have any experience with those being of poor quality, which is why this one caught it unawares. Its real purpose is to make you click on a link at Wired before googling for the real article that it doesn't bother to link to though it links to dozens of advertisers and a honey-pot of cascading abysses of other Wired articles - sorry, summarylinktraps.
3. The real article is in Nature, which is usually a little better at getting facts right. But also depends on revenue from what was known in the past as a "magazine", and so has embargoed truth and fact from the in-tar-webs by setting up what is known in the future as a "paywall". If anyone knows how to ePolevault this, please warez it:
Late middle Eocene epoch of Libya yields earliest known radiation of African anthropoids
Wow. That title must have made the "editors" at Wired put down their wiimotes for almost ten seconds.
Spiraling out, because of the rotation of the Earth. And that's slowing the Earth's day down in the process.
Your use of "most likely" and "civilizations" are inept.
Homo sapiens is the first and only civilization on this planet.
There have been several ages of development of life, but sapience has only shown itself once, that we have evidence of, and we have no evidence that there was any capacity to develop it at any point in the past.
I don't even know why I need to point this out. I mean, what the fuck, this is 3rd-grade science class stuff.
Everyone repeat after me: "i will not fall for false cognitive closure."
There have been many ice ages, including one (before that graph starts) in which the entire planet was covered in ice for hundreds of millions of years.
"Global warming" is recognition that we are not in a natural rising cycle, but have pushed temperatures up artificially. The evidence is broad and deep, and people who say it's wrong are, to a man, either ignorant or self-serving.
So she stopped wearing underwear?
Wait...why is this bad again?
I haven't seen Inception, but in order to get away with leaving an open question you have to have closed an even bigger one, even if you only did it symbolically (such that people taking the movie literally probably won't get it until it's explained to them), and your point is to have people decide for themselves what might come next.
That's not what happened with Empire. Empire was a utility episode, not a story by itself. It was nothing but setup. Which is fine, since by then the trilogy was deliberately a trilogy. But really, it would have been a better trilogy if the second part had been constructed to stand on its own the way the first does and the third almost does.
Okay. Everyone else avert your eyes while I reveal the secret clue to our friend here:
I was making a joke. "MySpace sucks because I left." See?
Alright, you can open your eyes now.
I'll vote for an independent candidate when one shows up that's worth voting for.
Until then, I'll support a party that keeps the real liars out of government.
It deliberately ended where it was because it had already developed the story to an excellent Arc
That's not an ending, it's a cliffhanger.
Empire isn't a story, it's Act 2. In fact, with everyone spread out dealing with their own problems, it's a collection of second acts. It's not a whole movie on its own. Much is begun, little is resolved. It doesn't leave you satisfied, it leaves you starved. It doesn't even serve as a whole movie from an Imperial POV, since all they manage to do is trap Han and cut off Luke's hand.
Yes, there are some cool bits. Tauntaun guts, floating city, Yoda, carbonite, "Luke, I am your father." But so what? If those bits aren't used to construct something whole, they're just studies in an animated sketchpad.
Dude, if you can't see that the GOP is a front for people who literally don't care if you live or die except where that choice results in revenue in the current quarter then you're not paying attention.
+5 damn right
You're deliberately not using your reasoning facilities.
Obama is one of the least mendacious presidents ever. Foreign money manipulating domestic democracy is always a bad idea. And anyone with reasoning facility would not wait for empirical evidence that a foreseeable disaster is occurring, because they would understand that it is much cheaper and less dangerous (i.e., less likely to require a war to repair) to actually protect the democracy before it becomes illegal to do so.
Agreed. The demonstration of actual harm will come at the point where our ability to do anything about it will have been stripped and then outlawed.
As soon as Murdoch bought the site it tanked completely. Now obviously those two things aren't entirely connected.
Yes they are.
That's the day I stopped logging in.