WMDs are used solely as deterrants now a days the real killing comes from conventional weapons. besides, when terrorists can't even cobble together tech we've had since the 40s then i'm not worried about them using nano-weapons. shit the people who made our nuclear program were only a few decades away from riding fucking horses to work.
Quoting Scotty, "and if my grandmother had wheels, she would be a wagon."
Sure, in theory, nanotech nuclear devices powered by lasers are possible. And they will likely be made in practice as well, but not any time soon and not without a lot more research. We are not there yet, not by a long shot.
Note to Janes:
Maybe you should investigate how the concept of critical MASS and nukular weaponry go together before freaking out about something the Great Gazoo invented.
...
On a positive note, if these weapons are the future tools of terrorism, the enemies should be a whole lot easier to spot. After all, they'll have to move their bases from the caves and mystrious warehouses they use now to volcanoes and glaciers and large undersea fortresses that sort of resemble Darth Vader's head. And that seriously cuts down on the locations we need to send our spies and elite military forces to scout.
@crashedpc - unrein: No, man - this is the real deal. It's...it's just a misprinted label, that's how I can get them on the cheap. "Tough economic times" and what not... Cash only, by the way.
@AngryEddy: Sure. I have a suitcase full of cash. Never mind that it's an OOACH brand suitcase. Don't bother rifling through the stacks of cash; they're all real bills. 100% real. The new 50 has blue and yellow ink, you know.
@AngryEddy: Any more of any of these conversations and my mind is going to explode. I'd hand you the intertubes but the Pope down there has it locked down for today.
Yeah, the conceptual micro-nukes they're talking about are fusion based. You've heard of the whole "triggering fusion by bombarding a fuel pellet with lasers" thing? Well, this would basically be a tiny laser and fuel pellet designed for one-time use. It would finally make good on the concept of a 'tactical nuke'. Imagine something like eventually getting to a shoulder-launched, 100mm warhead (think like a Stinger missile from the movies, or maybe even one of those LAW infantry rocket launchers) with an explosive power equal to about 200 pounds of TNT. Good for quickly leveling a building, popping a reinforced bunker, or decapitating a tank column, all in a convenient man-portable size. Heck, you might even be able to put multiple detonators in parallel within the device, allowing you to dial-a-yield, from 200 tons to a full kiloton. This idea has been getting kicked around for a while, and its kind of crazy buy also kind of cool (as much as any weapon that's ultimately for killing people can be, I suppose).
And yeah, you think that infantry is important now, what with all that urban warfare? Just wait until your tank battalion can be taken out by some punk hiding in the brush a hundred or two hundred yards away underneath an active camo tarp with a fusion bazooka.
crashedpc - unrein promoted this comment
Edited by I Think We're Property at 10/09/09 9:53 AM
I Think We're Property was starred
I Think We're Property was unstarred
@I Think We're Property: I see your point, but to some degree I don't know if that's where we're headed. If you can use a fusion weapon, you've got billions of dollars to spend, and if you have that and the willingness to level a city block to take out some tanks, why not just use conventional weaponry launched in a cruise missile or dropped from a bomber? What "punk" is going to have access to this kind of weapon?
@kagekiri: Well, by "punk", I was just talking from the perspective of a bitter tank commander. I just meant one or a small group of infantry boys.
And yes, you're right in that things like air superiority are already making conventional units (i.e, a column of tanks driving across open terrain) obsolete. But its also true that there are some times when heavy fire support (artillery, air strikes, offshore cruise missiles) are either not yet available (say, because you're Marine Recon and air superiority hasn't been established yet) or would simply take too long to get fire on target. That's why they made LAW rockets for infantry- to give them at least a fighting chance (if not a good one) against enemy armor while proper anti-armor forces can be applied, you know?
Also, while a 200 lbs TNT equivalent fusion device would likely kill a tank (especially if it made direct contact before detonating- the flash from the point source explosion would probably melt a hole in the armor), it probably wouldn't level a city block. Probably take out the buildings on either side of the street, though.
@crashedpc - unrein: Don't forget the attractive, busty brunette defense attorney who nurses him back to health and reignites his long dead passions. She's there too.
@crashedpc - unrein: "Sgt. Rick Salami was grizzled and tough. He looked out at the world from under grizzled eyebrows, with eyes as tough as leather. His grizzled hands constantly clenched toughly, as if around the butt of a grizzled, tough gun. He slept toughly, dreaming of grizzled things."
@TemporalSword: She can't die until there are three pages dedicated to describing a completely gratuitous sex scene. A broody, grizzly, tough sex scene.
@TemporalSword: Not necessarily. She's the lady who redeems him through sex after his original wife is murdered by Columbian ecoterrorists protesting pollution.
It must be Friday, there's no other explanation for the mindfuck insanity that's happening right now. Well, other than the fact that we're batshit crazy.
So you could create a multi molecule size nucler explosive that would have the explosive capacity of a what? Grenade? Oklahoma-City sized explosive? Hiroshima?
I need better parameters before I start building my shack in Montana.
@NerD: Blattella: "All units, all units. Be on the lookout for suspects. Suspect vehicle is a Chrysler. Witnesses describe it as "as big as a whale". "
@crashedpc - unrein: "Sgt. Rick Salami sat in the red light of the helicopter passenger hold tense and ready to spring, as grizzled old and tough as a grizzled, tough old bedspring. He looked toughly around at his troops with a grizzled gaze- all good men, but young; so young. They were as tough as he could make them in their grizzled eight week training camp, and each was drawn from an elite branch of the Armed Forces. But they lacked what Sgt. Rick Salami had gained through years of experience: grizzliness, and toughness.
- Sir, we're almost at target area. The shack is in sight.
- Alright troops, now we know that Rodriguez is inside the shack. The Chrysler was seen entering the compound at precisely 12:45. It's time to go.
The troops looked up at him with young granite eyes. He stared back with eyes as grizzled and tough as old granite. Their eyes met like young granite and old granite rubbing together toughly, in grizzled fashion.
- Sir, recon confirms the glitter here is the same as that on the highway. And advanced teams have reported that efforts to elicit a response from inside the shack have so far failed.
- Okay then. It's time to....
Sgt. Salami cocked his gun with grizzled, tough hands like leathery granite. The metal on metal report echoed through the cargo hold.
- Knock a little louder, sugar.
His stoic nature was like a suit of armor, only he did not take this armor off at the end of the day, like some French or British knight of old. Its grizzled protection was inherent to his rugged nature- it grew from his calloused and grizzled skin, as permanent and irremovable as the armored carapace of a lobster. Only unlike a lobster, his rough hide had the strength of granite, to match the grizzled stone of his heart. He was granite, he was stone, he was a rock.
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Glad I clicked (with my grizzled keyboard).
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Sure, in theory, nanotech nuclear devices powered by lasers are possible. And they will likely be made in practice as well, but not any time soon and not without a lot more research. We are not there yet, not by a long shot.
I hate when people blow things out of proportion.
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um, duh, nanotech can make tech smaller. Kinda QED.
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This is why we humans can't have nice things.
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I haven't been to the beach in quite some time.
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Maybe you should investigate how the concept of critical MASS and nukular weaponry go together before freaking out about something the Great Gazoo invented.
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I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but I'm going for snark, here.
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Only the Great Gazoo can, not us dum-dums.
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On a positive note, if these weapons are the future tools of terrorism, the enemies should be a whole lot easier to spot. After all, they'll have to move their bases from the caves and mystrious warehouses they use now to volcanoes and glaciers and large undersea fortresses that sort of resemble Darth Vader's head. And that seriously cuts down on the locations we need to send our spies and elite military forces to scout.
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Darth Stewie Gilliigan Griffin?
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@crashedpc - unrein: This would be that chariot.
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Wait, DE Vinci? Is this a Chinese knockoff brand?
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@crashedpc - unrein: Hmmm. Seems legit to me. Deal!
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We're gonna Spend and Buy all night and Save into the day!
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And yeah, you think that infantry is important now, what with all that urban warfare? Just wait until your tank battalion can be taken out by some punk hiding in the brush a hundred or two hundred yards away underneath an active camo tarp with a fusion bazooka.
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And yes, you're right in that things like air superiority are already making conventional units (i.e, a column of tanks driving across open terrain) obsolete. But its also true that there are some times when heavy fire support (artillery, air strikes, offshore cruise missiles) are either not yet available (say, because you're Marine Recon and air superiority hasn't been established yet) or would simply take too long to get fire on target. That's why they made LAW rockets for infantry- to give them at least a fighting chance (if not a good one) against enemy armor while proper anti-armor forces can be applied, you know?
Also, while a 200 lbs TNT equivalent fusion device would likely kill a tank (especially if it made direct contact before detonating- the flash from the point source explosion would probably melt a hole in the armor), it probably wouldn't level a city block. Probably take out the buildings on either side of the street, though.
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I think this is just a viral for Tom Clancy's next (awful) book.
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"Dammit! It's too DANGEROUS!"
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EDIT: actually that's maybe my favourite thing I've ever written, ever.
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I didn't cry there, my leathery eyes cracked a little and bled.
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@The Curse of Millhaven: .
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It must be Friday, there's no other explanation for the mindfuck insanity that's happening right now. Well, other than the fact that we're batshit crazy.
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I need better parameters before I start building my shack in Montana.
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Running, football, arson, art and irony.
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- Sir, we're almost at target area. The shack is in sight.
- Alright troops, now we know that Rodriguez is inside the shack. The Chrysler was seen entering the compound at precisely 12:45. It's time to go.
The troops looked up at him with young granite eyes. He stared back with eyes as grizzled and tough as old granite. Their eyes met like young granite and old granite rubbing together toughly, in grizzled fashion.
- Sir, recon confirms the glitter here is the same as that on the highway. And advanced teams have reported that efforts to elicit a response from inside the shack have so far failed.
- Okay then. It's time to....
Sgt. Salami cocked his gun with grizzled, tough hands like leathery granite. The metal on metal report echoed through the cargo hold.
- Knock a little louder, sugar.
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His stoic nature was like a suit of armor, only he did not take this armor off at the end of the day, like some French or British knight of old. Its grizzled protection was inherent to his rugged nature- it grew from his calloused and grizzled skin, as permanent and irremovable as the armored carapace of a lobster. Only unlike a lobster, his rough hide had the strength of granite, to match the grizzled stone of his heart. He was granite, he was stone, he was a rock.
He was... a rock lobster.
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@I Think We're Property: Indeed
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But stay on topic, dammit!
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"Oh no! Let's have last minute cat people sex."