This country's expansion has been more rapid and more violent than almost anything else in the history of the world. To put us in to perspective, to find bigger, faster expansions you need to look to the *Mongols*. That's how far from the norm we are.
The rest of your post is fine, but I don't agree with this point. The US government displaced semi-nomadic tribes of native americans, much the opposite of the Mongols, who toppled and invaded many sovereign nations. I wouldn't consider the nations of the native americans the same as those that the Mongols took on.
Mil-Lasers will be perfectly clean weapons. You'll have a nice point'n'click aerial picture of some crowd, and only the terrorists on which you click will be instantly vaporised~
Well, that's the PR KoolAid. You know that, just like any other recent military innovation, which was supposed to diminish collateral damage, the Laser won't be a revolution. "Won't be the answer" as you say.
The rest of your post is fine, but I think this point is a little off. I don't think the development and potential overuse of lower-collateral-damage weapons in a war are directly relatable to overuse of non-lethal weapons in a civilized domestic police environment.
Your son might like Project Reality Mod for BF2. All of the qualities you spoke about (cooperation, limit respawning, no AI, regretting mistakes) are part of it: http://www.realitymod.com/
Artillery and mortars and extremely precise weapons (see Phalanx CIWS for an awesome platform) have been an outrageously exact science for quite some time now. For example, the Phalanx CIWS, normally mounted on sea-going vessels, can be put in a Forward Operating Base in the middle of Iraq and hooked up to a special 8cm or so wavelength radar and used to target the rare incoming rocket or mortar.
Video of Israeli testing of the CIWS for mortar shootdown (including slow motion video of the actual mortar round in flight being targeted): http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b03_1192918961
Conventional weapons (bombs, mines, bullets, missiles, etc.) can cause death, permanent paralysis, limb loss, and even blindness.
Don't you think that have enough tools to maim our next of kin ?
You're right. We should have stopped development right after we perfected fire-bombing in WW2 and the leveling of entire cities. Don't even worry about atomic bombs, I agree with you and think as long as we can flatten entire districts of cities with dumb carpet-bombing just to target their ball bearing factory and a couple other small industrial targets, that is good enough.
Now we can take it down from the extreme, and realize that in war there will be unwanted civilian casualties and collateral damage, even with laser-guided bombs and computerized artillery and tanks that we have today. The question is, how much can we lower collateral damage while still using an effective weapon that achieves our tactical objectives? Laser weapons may not be the answer, but there's no reason we can't keep looking for and testing new ideas.
Note: Carpet- and fire-bombing in WW2 often targeted dense industrial sectors of the cities, much more dense than my post would lead you to believe, but the civilian death toll is still on the level of "atrocious".
It is the United States' good treatment of nearly all POWs we encounter that bolsters our forces, as well. Enemies are far more likely to surrender peacefully when they know they will be fed and treated in a generally humane manner befitting prisoners of war. Indeed, this was the case in Iraq during both invasions, with absolutely enormous swaths of the Iraqi Army surrendering and being asked by their generals and commanders to lay down their arms.
I'm not looking for extra diatribe on poor treatment of some POWs. I'm only commenting on our mostly good treatment and care for POWs, and the tangible boon that it brings to our military forces.
It's not legal to shoot a human target with a 50 caliber sniper rifle.
This is an oft-repeated and untrue myth. It is not illegal to shoot a human target with a.50cal machine gun or a.50cal sniper rifle. Here's just one source, of which there are many, along with an excerpt (JAG = military lawyer whose job it is to know the conventions of war):
Greenhat is absolutely correct. Use of a.50 cal is not contrary to the Law of War, anymore than use of 7.62/.308 or 5.56/.223.
If you need to shoot with a.50 cal, do it. If you can just as well smother an objective with 7.62 and save those few & heavy.50 cal MLB for your M2's in favor of lighter 7.62 1-4, save the heavy duty ammo for when you need it.
What is contrary to the Law of War (and the Principle of War - Economy of Force) is using more than you need to, given the choice, wasting a limited supply of ammo and endangering civlians or good guys who may be miles away.
I've heard this.50 cal bulls--t before, along with comments that the following are prohibited by "Geneva Conventions":
- handcuffing prisoners of war.
- blindfolding prisoners of war.
- photographing prisoners of war.
- males searching female prisoners of war.
- use of silenced weapons.
In fact, of course, none of the above are prohibited.
If you don't trust this source, then try asking your own JAG. Don't just ask random soldiers or superiors you work with, but go straight to a trustworthy source of information on these laws.
Unfortunately a full-size space fountain will likely never be built on earth. They require constant power supply, or else the tower cannot sustain itself and will fall.
It's unfortunate that for a planet with the properties of the earth, theoretical material limits can just barely accommodate a working space elevator, maybe.
The laughs would belong to the 2LTs if the colonel ordered them to kill an entire family who lived outside the city, but too close to the base and refused to move. That is an illegal order, and I doubt many LTCs issue such commands.
An illegal order is something like "Shoot this prisoner we just captured. I don't want to fucking bring along extra baggage for 24 hours until we can get him to the rear." These kinds of orders are rare enough that most people go their entire enlistment without coming upon an illegal order.
Most people in the Army are not crazy and are reasonably well-natured enough that stuff that falls into the category of "illegal orders" are very uncommon.
Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now, I know some of you are going to say, "I did look it up, and that's not true." That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works.
Nice try, but the farthest man-made objects, the Voyager spacecraft duo, have barely left the solar system, let alone fly a spectrometer 700 light years away! Hell, where do you think they would even plug it in?!
The authors reason that any accelerator which surpasses a certain threshold of super-high-energy collisions (thus producing many of these new particles) will never go into operation because it violates some yet-unknown universal law.
We've never isolated a single quark, yet we sure know a helluva lot about them.
Also, for an interesting and somewhat related topic, check out the wikipedia page on Quantum Suicide and Immortality. It's an interesting thought experiment for many-worlds interpretation.
Correct me if I'm wrong, because this is an interesting topic, but to summarize your post: "Aesthetics are more important than stealthiness of ships at sea from radar." There are other failures from the program, but you bring up its looks instead.
Experimental particle physics never brought us CAT scans, PET scans, MRIs, chemo, radio-isotope dating, nuclear power, and it certainly has not brought us electricity or advanced transister production.
There is nothing left to discover or utilize. Further research is not practical.
Slashdot Mirror
This country's expansion has been more rapid and more violent than almost anything else in the history of the world. To put us in to perspective, to find bigger, faster expansions you need to look to the *Mongols*. That's how far from the norm we are.
The rest of your post is fine, but I don't agree with this point. The US government displaced semi-nomadic tribes of native americans, much the opposite of the Mongols, who toppled and invaded many sovereign nations. I wouldn't consider the nations of the native americans the same as those that the Mongols took on.
Mil-Lasers will be perfectly clean weapons. You'll have a nice point'n'click aerial picture of some crowd, and only the terrorists on which you click will be instantly vaporised~
Well, that's the PR KoolAid. You know that, just like any other recent military innovation, which was supposed to diminish collateral damage, the Laser won't be a revolution. "Won't be the answer" as you say.
The rest of your post is fine, but I think this point is a little off. I don't think the development and potential overuse of lower-collateral-damage weapons in a war are directly relatable to overuse of non-lethal weapons in a civilized domestic police environment.
Your son might like Project Reality Mod for BF2. All of the qualities you spoke about (cooperation, limit respawning, no AI, regretting mistakes) are part of it: http://www.realitymod.com/
Artillery and mortars and extremely precise weapons (see Phalanx CIWS for an awesome platform) have been an outrageously exact science for quite some time now. For example, the Phalanx CIWS, normally mounted on sea-going vessels, can be put in a Forward Operating Base in the middle of Iraq and hooked up to a special 8cm or so wavelength radar and used to target the rare incoming rocket or mortar.
Video of Israeli testing of the CIWS for mortar shootdown (including slow motion video of the actual mortar round in flight being targeted): http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b03_1192918961
The whole "we just want to be left alone" thing hasn't really ever been true.
It was true after WW1 and before WW2, unless you think we were just "getting ready" for war.
Conventional weapons (bombs, mines, bullets, missiles, etc.) can cause death, permanent paralysis, limb loss, and even blindness. Don't you think that have enough tools to maim our next of kin ?
You're right. We should have stopped development right after we perfected fire-bombing in WW2 and the leveling of entire cities. Don't even worry about atomic bombs, I agree with you and think as long as we can flatten entire districts of cities with dumb carpet-bombing just to target their ball bearing factory and a couple other small industrial targets, that is good enough.
Now we can take it down from the extreme, and realize that in war there will be unwanted civilian casualties and collateral damage, even with laser-guided bombs and computerized artillery and tanks that we have today. The question is, how much can we lower collateral damage while still using an effective weapon that achieves our tactical objectives? Laser weapons may not be the answer, but there's no reason we can't keep looking for and testing new ideas.
Note: Carpet- and fire-bombing in WW2 often targeted dense industrial sectors of the cities, much more dense than my post would lead you to believe, but the civilian death toll is still on the level of "atrocious".
It is the United States' good treatment of nearly all POWs we encounter that bolsters our forces, as well. Enemies are far more likely to surrender peacefully when they know they will be fed and treated in a generally humane manner befitting prisoners of war. Indeed, this was the case in Iraq during both invasions, with absolutely enormous swaths of the Iraqi Army surrendering and being asked by their generals and commanders to lay down their arms.
I'm not looking for extra diatribe on poor treatment of some POWs. I'm only commenting on our mostly good treatment and care for POWs, and the tangible boon that it brings to our military forces.
This is an oft-repeated and untrue myth. It is not illegal to shoot a human target with a
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1573
This is your JAG speaking:
.50 cal is not contrary to the Law of War, anymore than use of 7.62/.308 or 5.56/.223.
.50 cal, do it. If you can just as well smother an objective with 7.62 and save those few & heavy .50 cal MLB for your M2's in favor of lighter 7.62 1-4, save the heavy duty ammo for when you need it.
.50 cal bulls--t before, along with comments that the following are prohibited by "Geneva Conventions":
Greenhat is absolutely correct. Use of a
If you need to shoot with a
What is contrary to the Law of War (and the Principle of War - Economy of Force) is using more than you need to, given the choice, wasting a limited supply of ammo and endangering civlians or good guys who may be miles away.
I've heard this
- handcuffing prisoners of war.
- blindfolding prisoners of war.
- photographing prisoners of war.
- males searching female prisoners of war.
- use of silenced weapons.
In fact, of course, none of the above are prohibited.
If you don't trust this source, then try asking your own JAG. Don't just ask random soldiers or superiors you work with, but go straight to a trustworthy source of information on these laws.
Unfortunately a full-size space fountain will likely never be built on earth. They require constant power supply, or else the tower cannot sustain itself and will fall.
It's unfortunate that for a planet with the properties of the earth, theoretical material limits can just barely accommodate a working space elevator, maybe.
In Soviet Russia, meta humor pushes yooooooouuuuuuuuu to repeat boring jokes. ;)
The laughs would belong to the 2LTs if the colonel ordered them to kill an entire family who lived outside the city, but too close to the base and refused to move. That is an illegal order, and I doubt many LTCs issue such commands.
An illegal order is something like "Shoot this prisoner we just captured. I don't want to fucking bring along extra baggage for 24 hours until we can get him to the rear." These kinds of orders are rare enough that most people go their entire enlistment without coming upon an illegal order.
Most people in the Army are not crazy and are reasonably well-natured enough that stuff that falls into the category of "illegal orders" are very uncommon.
A purely honest question: Why does the EULA issue in the article matter at all?
Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now, I know some of you are going to say, "I did look it up, and that's not true." That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that's how our nervous system works.
Also, I am AC.
The chance of life evolving on a suitable planet is already 100%. ;)
Naphthalene? In MY outer spaces?
It's more likely than you think!
Nice try, but the farthest man-made objects, the Voyager spacecraft duo, have barely left the solar system, let alone fly a spectrometer 700 light years away! Hell, where do you think they would even plug it in?!
Humor attempted, seems failed.
Direct link for the photos, since it's not actually in the article: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/preparing_to_rescue_hubble.html
Also, karma whore.
The authors reason that any accelerator which surpasses a certain threshold of super-high-energy collisions (thus producing many of these new particles) will never go into operation because it violates some yet-unknown universal law.
We've never isolated a single quark, yet we sure know a helluva lot about them.
Also, for an interesting and somewhat related topic, check out the wikipedia page on Quantum Suicide and Immortality. It's an interesting thought experiment for many-worlds interpretation.
The earth also revolves around its center of gravity with the moon. :)
Correct me if I'm wrong, because this is an interesting topic, but to summarize your post: "Aesthetics are more important than stealthiness of ships at sea from radar." There are other failures from the program, but you bring up its looks instead.
Experimental particle physics never brought us CAT scans, PET scans, MRIs, chemo, radio-isotope dating, nuclear power, and it certainly has not brought us electricity or advanced transister production.
There is nothing left to discover or utilize. Further research is not practical.
Your post is silly.
Colonel Sanders: Instant cassettes! They're out in stores before the movie is finished!