Except most of the world would not end up as radioactive glass - even in the event of a series of nuclear strikes in the Middle East.
Let's get real - say Israel first strikes Iran for some reason and Iran strikes back - a couple of fairly small nucs go off. Thousands - even hundreds of thousands killed.
Now what? Russia is going to side with Iran and start popping ICBMs over the pole? Not likely. The US start popping ICBMs back. Nope. Perhaps we toss a few nuc tipped cruise missiles at Iran to make sure they stay dead and then we move in to clean up the mess.
Who else is going to play nuclear Armageddon? North Korea? Pakistan? India? China? The French? (and now I'm pretty sure I've accounted for the vast majority of nuclear weapons in the world and I am assuming, for the purposes of this argument that British == US). Sure, End of the World scenarios play well in the movies and as a plot for a Tom Clancy novel but the cold nosed professionals holding the keys to the major weapons systems (the US and to a lesser extent, the Soviets) are going to hold their breath, count to 20 and look at things very, very carefully.
I bet we could do it. End the drug war, there you go billions to get started with. Tax and sell them, there you go billions more. Increase tax on the rich back to 1960s levels, again billions more.
Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your PAC.
"Boy, that's one mean piece of software. Hottest thing since sliced bread. That goddamn thing is invisible. I just rented twenty seconds on that little pink box, just left of the T-A ice; had a look at what we look like. We don't. We're not there."
Neuromancer, William Gibson. 1984.
Truth - stranger than fiction, if lagging a bit in time.
Yes. What we should be doing is sending up lots of little golf carts^HRovers. Version 2, Version 3 and so on. With incremental improvements in control, increased functionality, better power.
Do this for a decade or two. Then talk about sending bigger stuff up. Then talk about people. Hell, we haven't even started to crawl on Mars, much less walk.
And the one little issue that Robinson managed to neglect throughout all three of those very entertaining books was the little issue of scare resources, ie. money.
We're straining to put a solar powered golf cart on Mars. Drop shipping air stills, nuc plants, bright blue Volvo tractors and assorted paraphernalia isn't going to happen in this economy.
The 1952 MG is probably getting it's first tank of gas since the 1980's. Those things don't run for more than 45 minutes at time before collapsing in an oil leak.
Yeah, he gets great gas mileage. And one gallon of oil per mile....
I, for one, welcome our new Mandarin speaking Chinese research Overlords. Or not.
Given the fact that China, India, Brazil and a host of other countries are trying to shed their 'third world' moniker, I would both expect and accept the fact that these countries are starting to do more research.
I'm not sure how anyone expects them to improve their technology base otherwise unless it's to simply to buy everything from the US / UK / EU. Where's the fun in that? Furthermore, it's not like the entrenched powers are keen on sharing much of what we know with other countries. So what the hell do you expect them to do? You can't download everything from the Internet.
And besides, the US really needs this to occur. We need some scary boogeyman (preferably foreign) to create some sort of gap that we have to fill lest the American Way of Life become endangered. I am really hoping that the Chinese get a viable manned space program going in a few years so we can 'catch up'.
You get one wire and ground, you're golden. Doesn't work: tug on it some more. And no, special ops personnel who aren't supposed to be somewhere are typically going to avoid climbing up on poles.
Lets hope ingesting the protein doesn't have any harmful side-effects, like priapism.
OK, do go on. How do you get from dental plaque to priapism? Now, I realize that Viagra's main selling point fell out as a side effect of a high blood pressure medication. But that all makes sense - erections are controlled in part by blood flow and pressure.
I'm having a bit of a problem working out any plausible mechanism between bacteria hanging out in your gums and a chronic boner.
And how bad is intense UV light on everything else? (Hint: Tanning Booths)
Unless we're trying to make the world look like Avatar, I just don't see the point. Somebody else's idea to genetically manipulate plants to produce natural phosphorescence makes quite a bit more sense (and likely quite a bit harder).
More and more I feel that people who are that paranoid and quick to believe conspiracies have an extreme form of narcissism. They actually believe that the are important enough to worth that much effort. They think the world is out to get them in fact most the world doesn't even know they are here.
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted and hidden with TrueCrypt on six hard drives stuffed in the laundry room and the USB stick stuffed in their mom's purse while tunneling into Slashdot with two proxies on different continents?
Slashdot Mirror
Except most of the world would not end up as radioactive glass - even in the event of a series of nuclear strikes in the Middle East.
Let's get real - say Israel first strikes Iran for some reason and Iran strikes back - a couple of fairly small nucs go off. Thousands - even hundreds of thousands killed.
Now what? Russia is going to side with Iran and start popping ICBMs over the pole? Not likely. The US start popping ICBMs back. Nope. Perhaps we toss a few nuc tipped cruise missiles at Iran to make sure they stay dead and then we move in to clean up the mess.
Who else is going to play nuclear Armageddon? North Korea? Pakistan? India? China? The French? (and now I'm pretty sure I've accounted for the vast majority of nuclear weapons in the world and I am assuming, for the purposes of this argument that British == US). Sure, End of the World scenarios play well in the movies and as a plot for a Tom Clancy novel but the cold nosed professionals holding the keys to the major weapons systems (the US and to a lesser extent, the Soviets) are going to hold their breath, count to 20 and look at things very, very carefully.
Get your ass to Mars!
Ah, that must be where the term 'hotties' came from.
I bet we could do it. End the drug war, there you go billions to get started with. Tax and sell them, there you go billions more. Increase tax on the rich back to 1960s levels, again billions more.
Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your PAC.
Neuromancer, William Gibson. 1984.
Truth - stranger than fiction, if lagging a bit in time.
Yes. What we should be doing is sending up lots of little golf carts^HRovers. Version 2, Version 3 and so on. With incremental improvements in control, increased functionality, better power.
Do this for a decade or two. Then talk about sending bigger stuff up. Then talk about people. Hell, we haven't even started to crawl on Mars, much less walk.
And the one little issue that Robinson managed to neglect throughout all three of those very entertaining books was the little issue of scare resources, ie. money.
We're straining to put a solar powered golf cart on Mars. Drop shipping air stills, nuc plants, bright blue Volvo tractors and assorted paraphernalia isn't going to happen in this economy.
It has been written.
The 1952 MG is probably getting it's first tank of gas since the 1980's. Those things don't run for more than 45 minutes at time before collapsing in an oil leak.
Yeah, he gets great gas mileage. And one gallon of oil per mile....
I, for one, welcome our new Mandarin speaking Chinese research Overlords. Or not.
Given the fact that China, India, Brazil and a host of other countries are trying to shed their 'third world' moniker, I would both expect and accept the fact that these countries are starting to do more research.
I'm not sure how anyone expects them to improve their technology base otherwise unless it's to simply to buy everything from the US / UK / EU. Where's the fun in that? Furthermore, it's not like the entrenched powers are keen on sharing much of what we know with other countries. So what the hell do you expect them to do? You can't download everything from the Internet.
And besides, the US really needs this to occur. We need some scary boogeyman (preferably foreign) to create some sort of gap that we have to fill lest the American Way of Life become endangered. I am really hoping that the Chinese get a viable manned space program going in a few years so we can 'catch up'.
A little AI and a routine to overlay an abaya on any image that looks remotely female and all is well.
Micheal Jackson in an abaya. Not a bad thought ...
Adobe started the war with Apple by writing shitty code for Flash on the Mac.
As opposed to shitty code on Windows. Flash is pretty processor intensive on anything.
Secondly, there's no point in wrapping H.264 video inside a Flash player when the hardware can play H.264 by itself.
DRM. Flash is great for DRM. Don't forget that little 'feature'.
Putting H.264 video inside Flash is as stupid as putting a JPEG inside a Microsoft Word document.
Hasn't stopped anybody I work with yet...
Yeah, but do you have any idea how quickly batteries die when attached to nipple shock clips?
Actually, no, I do not....
Could be better. I can think of a very large, untapped market (so to speak):
KinK
Could fly....
Oh, and for all of you that thought the dems would be different, I really will respect you in the morning. Really.
Politicians screw things up again, confuse issues, try to get a certain spin on things!
EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About it!
Just sayin'
You get one wire and ground, you're golden. Doesn't work: tug on it some more. And no, special ops personnel who aren't supposed to be somewhere are typically going to avoid climbing up on poles.
Special ops, not Mission Impossible.
Whatever phone you get next, make sure that it has a shift key.
Lets hope ingesting the protein doesn't have any harmful side-effects, like priapism.
OK, do go on. How do you get from dental plaque to priapism? Now, I realize that Viagra's main selling point fell out as a side effect of a high blood pressure medication. But that all makes sense - erections are controlled in part by blood flow and pressure.
I'm having a bit of a problem working out any plausible mechanism between bacteria hanging out in your gums and a chronic boner.
Maybe it's just me...
And how bad is intense UV light on everything else? (Hint: Tanning Booths)
Unless we're trying to make the world look like Avatar, I just don't see the point. Somebody else's idea to genetically manipulate plants to produce natural phosphorescence makes quite a bit more sense (and likely quite a bit harder).
Nothing to see here, move along.
Look again.
See the two, red, bubble shaped things?
colornazi
Those would be purplish. Time to calibrate that monitor!
I thought the joke (judging based on a fictional TV show) was obvious enough, apparently not.
Damnit, Slashdot needs smileys. It really does...
More and more I feel that people who are that paranoid and quick to believe conspiracies have an extreme form of narcissism. They actually believe that the are important enough to worth that much effort. They think the world is out to get them in fact most the world doesn't even know they are here.
Unlike everyone here who has all there important documents^Hporn encrypted and hidden with TrueCrypt on six hard drives stuffed in the laundry room and the USB stick stuffed in their mom's purse while tunneling into Slashdot with two proxies on different continents?
Oops. OP was buried. Sorry, your comment just looked too inviting....