News Stories

[iLney]

This is a scheme of aliens trying to weaken the Earth's defense....

[ClockWorkAngel]

My god your right!

QUICKLY REMILITARIZE!

Well I'm sure we'll have those brand new weapons that'll fight off the aliens.

Like the common cold.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by ClockWorkAngel

We can only hope. Remember, if all the nukes are gone, terrorists can't get them .

I'm actually quite happy that Putin is agreeing to the denuclearization, this is probably because wisely, Obama has also lowered US' weapon stockpiles, which of course was an act of good faith and a bit of "We can do it, so can you" for the Russians.

of course closer ties with the Russians may also finally break the long and frankly stupid cold-war attitude towards them.

Aye, if there are no nukes to get... then someone would have to make them.

One thing to keep in mind is just how far along this goal we've gotten since the 1970s. This table from the NRDC showing stockpile counts through the years is helpful: http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datab19.asp (1966 was a pretty incredible year)

OTOH most of our nukes are now fairly small in size with more wallop and can be dropped on a selected gnat. I'm also pretty sure that chart does not include tac-nukes (<20kilotons with low radiation residue).

[Claies]

I'm pretty sure people have realized that nukes are for yesterday's war. Today we have thermobaric bombs, and precision-guided missiles. We could also just sit still and engineer for somebody's economy to lose power *cough*.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Claies

I'm pretty sure people have realized that nukes are for yesterday's war. Today we have thermobaric bombs, and precision-guided missiles. We could also just sit still and engineer for somebody's economy to lose power *cough*.

Predator Drones
Flesh eating Robots
Cyborg Bugs
Skynet

[james0246]

I didn't see this listed, so...

'80s teen flick director John Hughes dies in NYC

NEW YORK – Writer-director John Hughes, Hollywood's youth impresario of the 1980s and '90s who captured the teen and preteen market with such favorites as "Home Alone," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," died Thursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.
...
Hughes' ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular "Home Alone," which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as "National Lampoon's Vacation," "Pretty in Pink," "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and "Uncle Buck."

...
Actor Matthew Broderick worked with Hughes in 1986 when he played the title character in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

"I am truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend John Hughes. He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family," Broderick said.

As Hughes advanced into middle age, his commercial touch faded and, in Salinger style, he increasingly withdrew from public life. His last directing credit was in 1991, for "Curly Sue," and he wrote just a handful of scripts over the past decade. He was rarely interviewed or photographed.

Ignoring some of the scholoky teen films he did (Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles (it's probably noticable, but I hate Molly Ringwald ), Hughes was the director and writer of 2 of my favourite John Candy films (Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains & Automobiles), not to mention writing the great National Lampoon's Vacation and a plethora of other great comedies.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

As much as it sounds like a great idea, the cynical side of me believes that the day the US gets rid of nukes is the day the US makes them obsolete in favour of a newly-developed orbital Ion Cannon Network.

I think an orbital drop of rabid bunnies and flesh-eating cyborgs is more lethal than that.

On a serious note, anti-satellite weapons exist. The network may be less efficient than delivering nukes in ICBMs.

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Predator Drones
Flesh eating Robots
Cyborg Bugs
Skynet

You forgot Rayman's Raving Rabbids and moekkos. The abovementioned is half as destructive as a horde of screaming rabbits in yellow submarines or some rich man's eccentric keyboardist daughter acquiring world-altering powers.

IMO, with Russia's Akula subs in the international waters recently, I don't think the motive to end the Cold War would end at all, but rather, frozen as Obama takes his term.

P.S Talking about flesh-eating cyborgs, do they behave the same as their brain-lusting ex-human counterparts?

[Shadow Kira01]

Team succeeds in photographing radiation from 1945 'death ash'

The pictures are evidence that the nuclear ''death ash'' continues to emit radiation inside the human body even after 60-plus years, according to Kazuko Shichijo, an assistant professor at Nagasaki University, a member of the team.

Little progress has been made in the study on the effects of internal exposure to radiation. The team's success is the first of its kind in proving that atomic bomb victims were exposed to radiation from the inside as well as from outside.

''Plutonium passes through the human body when people are exposed to it from the outside,'' said Nanao Kamada, professor emeritus of radiation biology at Hiroshima University. ''But the study shows that it enters cells and emits radiation from inside the human body.''

Sounds rather serious...

[sa547]

^
They have yet to publish it to a journal, which would make their discovery more credible.

Hughes, requiescat in pace.

[npcomplete]

Touchable Holography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw

uses Wiimotes for tracking and ultrasound to generate pinpoint force

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by npcomplete

Touchable Holography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw

uses Wiimotes for tracking and ultrasound to generate pinpoint force

And the first step towards building a holodeck has been made. The extinction of mankind is proceeding nicely. All they need to do is increase the scale and make it completely immersive.

[Slice of Life]

Hmmm, a Horodeck ...

*ahem*

Don't forget Star Trek Rule #123: The holodeck will fail, critically, and before the first commercial break.

So yes, it will be the end of humanity but faster than you might imagine.

[Thingle]

Originally Posted by Claies

I'm pretty sure people have realized that nukes are for yesterday's war. Today we have thermobaric bombs, and precision-guided missiles. We could also just sit still and engineer for somebody's economy to lose power *cough*.

It only takes 100 nuclear missiles to take care of the Islamist threat. I wonder why politics seem to always get in the way and force armies to fight long, low-intensity conflicts when they clearly aren't built for one.

20,000,000 hostile deaths > 4000 friendly deaths.

[MakubeX2]

Not really a News since the programe aired some fortnight back, but I think it's worth a mention.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/dis...1/midmorning2/

An interview with Dr. James A Levine of Mayo Clinic on radio in which he talks about a visit to the slums of Mumbai in which he encountered a young female prostitute writting in a notebook and spur him to write his own novel and have it publish.

Quite an eye opening interview in which he says why is there still such a thing as sexual slavery in today's modern world in which all forms of salvery has been abolished. Why is the India Government turning a blind eye and most interestingly, he mentioned outright that there is a quater of a million child prostitute in America alone.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

Quite an eye opening interview in which he says why is there still such a thing as sexual slavery in today's modern world in which all forms of salvery has been abolished. Why is the India Government turning a blind eye and most interestingly, he mentioned outright that there is a quater of a million child prostitute in America alone.

Is there a transcript of the interview? No offense to the author, whose sentiment I respect and whose cause I support, but what exactly is his definition of "child prostitute" here?

I find it hard to believe that there's literally a quarter million *child* prostitutes in the USA. That would a be total, utter disgrace to the US law enforcement system, not to mention it would make regular headline news in the sensationalized US media, which didn't happen yet. If, however, one counts all underage prostitution, using a fuzzy legal definition (as "underage" is in itself fuzzy, being different in places and circumstances), it is more likely. If one broadly defines "prostitution" in this case to activities other than the horrid human trafficking/slave trade going on in many parts of the world, then the number becomes much more likely...and less relevant.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Thingle

It only takes 100 nuclear missiles to take care of the Islamist threat. I wonder why politics seem to always get in the way and force armies to fight long, low-intensity conflicts when they clearly aren't built for one.

20,000,000 hostile deaths > 4000 friendly deaths.

Al-Qaeda is watching the net and actively flushing out blasphemous infidels by systematically killing the victims' fellow beings. Be careful about what you post because you might be risking the life of your fellow posters.

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

Not really a News since the programe aired some fortnight back, but I think it's worth a mention.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/dis...1/midmorning2/

An interview with Dr. James A Levine of Mayo Clinic on radio in which he talks about a visit to the slums of Mumbai in which he encountered a young female prostitute writting in a notebook and spur him to write his own novel and have it publish.

Quite an eye opening interview in which he says why is there still such a thing as sexual slavery in today's modern world in which all forms of salvery has been abolished. Why is the India Government turning a blind eye and most interestingly, he mentioned outright that there is a quater of a million child prostitute in America alone.

Does it include prostitutes who dress themselves up like adolescents? Looks can deceive.

[oompa loompa]

Originally Posted by Thingle

It only takes 100 nuclear missiles to take care of the Islamist threat. I wonder why politics seem to always get in the way and force armies to fight long, low-intensity conflicts when they clearly aren't built for one.

20,000,000 hostile deaths > 4000 friendly deaths.

Absolutely, just wipe the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan right off the map! Might as well get rid of North Korea while we're at it, I mean they can't get too cocky because they can make a few nukes now .

[Anh_Minh]

I love his certainty that when the bombs fall, he won't be under one of them...

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by MakubeX2

Not really a News since the programe aired some fortnight back, but I think it's worth a mention.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/dis...1/midmorning2/

An interview with Dr. James A Levine of Mayo Clinic on radio in which he talks about a visit to the slums of Mumbai in which he encountered a young female prostitute writting in a notebook and spur him to write his own novel and have it publish.

Quite an eye opening interview in which he says why is there still such a thing as sexual slavery in today's modern world in which all forms of salvery has been abolished. Why is the India Government turning a blind eye and most interestingly, he mentioned outright that there is a quater of a million child prostitute in America alone.

He's either playing the bullshit "child" game where everyone under 21 or 25 is a child (often used to inflate gun violence numbers against children as well), misspoke, or lied and demolished his credibility. Next we'll hear from the Missing Children people who use extremely dodgy methods to create their mind-boggling numbers of "abducted children" every year.

His topic and cause are very important -- which makes it all the more critical not to play fast and loose with numbers.

[Saleh]

@MakubeX2: While developed countries do try to make genuine effort to solve these problems, developing countries have a very long way to go in regards to moral, ethical values and human rights.

Originally Posted by Vexx

He's either playing the bullshit "child" game where everyone under 21 or 25 is a child (often used to inflate gun violence numbers against children as well), misspoke, or lied and demolished his credibility. Next we'll hear from the Missing Children people who use extremely dodgy methods to create their mind-boggling numbers of "abducted children" every year.

Some reports that you might want to have a look at -
Prostitution Statistic, Global March
Children of the Night: Child Prostitution is America's Dirty Little Secret
Prostitution section, Department of Justice
Trafficking in Persons: The U.S. and International Response
ECPAT

Originally Posted by DOJ

Although comprehensive research to document the number of children engaged in prostitution in the United States is lacking, it is estimated that about 293,000 American youth are currently at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S, Canada and Mexico, University of Pennsylvania, Executive Summary at 11-12 (2001) (available at http://caster.ssw.upenn.edu/~restes/CSEC.htm); see also Mia Spangenberg, Prostituted Youth in New York City: An Overview (available at http://www.ecpatusa.org/child_prosti_us.asp). The majority of American victims of commercial sexual exploitation tend to be runaway or thrown away youth who live on the streets who become victims of prostitution. Id. at 11-12. These children generally come from homes where they have been abused, or from families that have abandoned them, Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S, Canada and Mexico, University of Pennsylvania, at 3 (2001) [hereinafter Estes Report], and often become involved in prostitution as a way to support themselves financially or to get the things they want or need.

Atleast, Dr. James A Levine didn't conjure the number out of thin air.