Well something that is terrifying yet magnificent at the same time. Remember President Reagan and his much vaunted Star Wars project? Well the US is already building its first laser armed warships and now it looks like within 3 years the first battlefield lasers will enter service.
Of course the great thing about the laser weaponary is that it will actually make such weapons like ICBM's obsolete as such, that must be somewhat worrrying for a certain country in Eastern Europe who keeps threatening to use nukes if they don't get their own way. >:(
Perhaps the Kremlin should have watched more SciFi television in their youth. ;)
Battlefield lasers, really?
I know I'm getting old cos the world is getting scary :-SS
Or just make the ICBMs with a shiny surface and the laser will more or less bounce off. I remember watching a programme years ago on this, and to shoot down a missile or plane, they had to fly in a straight line long enough for the laser to do damage. Things may have progressed since then but I remain to be convinced.
Or, and I know this is totally crazy, we just stop trying to kill each other :-\
Every Russian or citizen of a then-USSR-dominated country that I've spoken to has remarked that they were convinced in the 80s that an American nuclear attack was being planned. I'm far from sure they were wrong.
Was trying to explain to a bunch of teenagers the other day how real the threat of nuclear war seemed at that time.
I work with a guy from the former East Germany. Apparently their troops were really pissed off when they found out NATO troops got 'weekends off' as they were regularly on alert on the weekends.
All sorts of interesting stories like feeding radar data to SAM batteries and watching them track the NATO aircraft on the other side of the border. Their orders were to fire if the border was crossed :-SS
When some of this info is disclosed it might make rather chilling reading :-\
Then we did have V-Bombers - fully loaded - doing "ferret" missions at very low level across Finland headed at Leningrad.
IanS
Quote from: ianrs54 on 07 March 2015, 04:22:14 PM
Then we did have V-Bombers - fully loaded - doing "ferret" missions at very low level across Finland headed at Leningrad.
IanS
Ferret missions?
Same thing the yanks did with B-52s - "probe" the Soviet defenses by flying squadrons of nuclear armed bombers at them repeatedly just to see what the Soviets would do when large the numbers of nuclear armed bombers cross your borders heading for your cities and industry.
And we bleat when maritime patrol aircraft get to a couple of hundred miles from our borders...
Quote from: getagrip on 07 March 2015, 04:23:18 PM
Ferret missions?
Chasing rabbits down holes.....
No they looked for Air Defense radar signals so that the defense suite could be upgraded. That of course presupposed the fuses were still working.
IanS
Quote from: getagrip on 06 March 2015, 10:07:20 PM
Or, and I know this is totally crazy, we just stop trying to kill each other :-\
I can honestly say that is a wonderful thought. Trouble is it does not work as there are two may evil people in the world
Remember "in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
Or to put a modern slant on it
"In the land of the unarmed the man with a the AK47 is king"
We would be just handing things over to extreemists like IS. Look where we got with Chamberlains appeasement policy.
Quote from: Just a few Orcs on 10 March 2015, 09:20:48 PM
I can honestly say that is a wonderful thought. Trouble is it does not work as there are two may evil people in the world
Remember "in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
Or to put a modern slant on it
"In the land of the unarmed the man with a the AK47 is king"
We would be just handing things over to extreemists like IS. Look where we got with Chamberlains appeasement policy.
Agreed but I kind of meant
everyone :)
I know it will never happen but... :-<
Quote from: getagrip on 10 March 2015, 09:27:44 PM
Agreed but I kind of meant everyone :)
I know it will never happen but... :-<
We can but hope
Eugenics. We need to breed humans who are more intelligent, less aggressive, more aesthetically responsive, and able to have half-hour orgasms, and who grow a new set of teeth at 45.
An awful lot of 'bollocks' is talked about the Cold War...beware a lot of it is myth and misunderstanding.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 11 March 2015, 01:05:56 AM
Eugenics. We need to breed humans who are more intelligent, less aggressive, more aesthetically responsive, and able to have half-hour orgasms, and who grow a new set of teeth at 45.
I'm inherently suspicious of ANYTHING labelled eugenics. :-\
Star Wars Kit :) (http://i.imgur.com/IomGkRU.gifv)
Stay on target...
Quote from: getagrip on 11 March 2015, 04:57:10 PM
I'm inherently suspicious of ANYTHING labelled eugenics. :-\
So am I. Just as
security is a flashing red light of a word in any government department. It remains necessary.
In fact, the way we distrust our fellow-humans in connexion with eugenics is an indicator of how necessary eugenics are. Wouldn't trustworthy people be fun?
Humanity has practised eugenics on animals for centuries. Horses, dogs and cats, to name but a few, have all been tailored for specific purposes over the years. The result - inbreeding and mental and physical instability. And just who decides who reproduces and who doesn't? :-\
And no good results? We'd be starving to death without selective breeding.
Quote from: Hertsblue on 12 March 2015, 10:58:53 AM
And just who decides who reproduces and who doesn't? :-\
THAT is the most salient point; who decides. Start down that road and...well we saw what happened in 1939.
Leaving it to chance, however, gave us Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot and me. I'm not sure that having a lot of nasty people claim that they want to improve the world is an argument that the world shouldn't be improved.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 14 March 2015, 12:46:27 PM
Leaving it to chance, however, gave us Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot and me. I'm not sure that having a lot of nasty people claim that they want to improve the world is an argument that the world shouldn't be improved.
Doesn't really address the point though; who decides?
Quote from: getagrip on 14 March 2015, 01:03:54 PM
Doesn't really address the point though; who decides?
History suggests Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot ... I'll take my chances with random mutation thank you very much!
Quote from: Ithoriel on 14 March 2015, 02:17:22 PM
History suggests Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot ... I'll take my chances with random mutation thank you very much!
Agreed ;)
Does no one remember what happened in 'The Wrath of Khan'?
The tubby, balding, womanizing Star Ship Captain and his mismatched crew beat the Super Human!
As long as we have people like Kirk I think the galaxy is safe.
Quote from: Steeleye on 15 March 2015, 09:30:06 AM
Does no one remember what happened in 'The Wrath of Khan'?
The tubby, balding, womanizing Star Ship Captain and his mismatched crew beat the Super Human!
As long as we have people like Kirk I think the galaxy is safe.
Hate to shatter your illusions - but Kirk is fictional.
IanS
Quote from: ianrs54 on 15 March 2015, 09:37:25 AM
Hate to shatter your illusions - but Kirk is fictional.
IanS
Yeah, right!
You'll be telling me teleporters aren't real too >:(
No they aint...
IanS
If teleported are real then how do Warbases get stuff to me so quickly?!
I replaced my stairs with a teleport system some while ago.
The advantages are obvious, I can be upstairs in no time at all. This means that by the time I get upstairs I still remember what I went there for.
The downsides are appreciable. Every time I go upstairs all of Runcorn experiences a brown out. There is also a small but accumulating amount of neural disruption.
... and the electricity bill is huge.
See, told you Ian :P
Just cause you lot believe in them dont make em real.....
IanS
Quote from: ianrs54 on 15 March 2015, 04:09:35 PM
Just cause you lot believe in them dont make em real.....
IanS
Does, ask FSN :D
Is FSN real?! I thought he was a myth, like the centurion bridge layer in 10mmm
Or if you say "Centurion" five times whilst looking in the mirror he appears...
Quote from: toxicpixie on 15 March 2015, 06:04:34 PM
Is FSN real?! I thought he was a myth, like the centurion bridge layer in 10mmm
Or if you say "Centurion" five times whilst looking in the mirror he appears...
He's Westmarcher's alter ego :D
Quote from: toxicpixie on 15 March 2015, 06:04:34 PM
Is FSN real?! I thought he was a myth, like the centurion bridge layer in 10mmm
Or if you say "Centurion" five times whilst looking in the mirror he appears...
There's no point looking in the mirror - he has no reflection. ;)
If there's a Centurion outside your house he could be watching you *right now*!
Quote from: toxicpixie on 15 March 2015, 08:15:01 PM
If there's a Centurion outside your house he could be watching you *right now*!
Now if I lived in Central Chester ..........
I'd be very nervous.
IanS
It's probably just a hologram anyway.
Quote from: Hertsblue on 16 March 2015, 09:26:50 AM
It's probably just a hologram anyway.
No there definitely legionnaires and centurions wondering around central Chester at all times of the year.
IanS
Ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties and things that go bump in the night....