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San Francisco, 10:25 AM
Sun Nov 8
10 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/19/09
Being a non-storable liquid fueled rocket, it's not particularly suited to be a weapon system, and considering they just buy 90% of it from the Russian's it's a pretty lame claim to being a space 'power'.
Now if it were a domestically developed, solid fueled rocket, like NK is developing, that'd have far greater proliferation concerns.
08/19/09
...I realize the United States has a similar policy on nuclear weapons with just about everybody, but North Korea's gov't needs to STFU and the people need to revolt.
I'm still wondering why the hell they haven't already.
08/19/09
And also, you need a passport to travel INSIDE the country.
08/19/09
08/19/09
@CoyoteBrown: you've never understood because you don't even have the slightest fucking clue what it's like to exist under those conditions.
08/19/09
According to what the government force-feeds them from birth, everything outside of North Korea is basically a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and their 'paradise' is constantly on the brink of total war/ invasion from foreign capitalists who want to rape kill and mutilate everyone.
Not to mention it's hard to organize any type of resistance when 1 out of every 3 people you associate yourself with (including your own family) is guaranteed to report any suspicious directly to the government and you have virtually no access to any information from anyone other than the DPRK.
And yea, as tetracycloide says, most are already preoccupied everyday with the desire to not let their family starve to death admist all of that.
08/19/09
I live under a kind of regime like that here in Fiji (check our political situation out online), but the difference between our peoples is that we have had freedom and know our rights and freedoms, that an uprising is definitely an option. Perhaps we are waiting for that flashpoint that will push us, the people, into such an uprising as most in the western world imagine should have happened years ago in North Korea.
08/19/09
08/20/09
-Kle.
08/19/09
I can not seem to read this story or the comments and think of them playing out as anything but a series of "technology advancements" on a tiny screen.
08/19/09
08/19/09
Yesterday I missed my subway stop...and then four more subway stops before I remembered that I wasn't actually the democratically elected President of Mongolia, but a mere cog in the machine that needed to stop at Duane Reade on the way home.
08/19/09
08/19/09
Never played it. Sounds like I never should.
08/19/09
08/19/09
08/19/09
08/19/09
There's already a war on Earth, that has claimed more lives than WW1, that is a lot to do with these resources: the ongoing bloodbath in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The US economy now has as much invested in space as it does in Europe, so you can see why other countries are in a rush to catch up. The US military is also really dependent on sattelite guidance and intelligence for maintaining air and missile superiority, so if you want to challenge American global power you need to be aware of the space dimension.
But the thing that really pisses me off about the prospect of orbital/near Earth resource wars is that it would make the prospect of peaceful space exploration virtually impossible in the future. Just look at how much debris was created by the one anti-sattelite weapon test China did. Multiply that to a full scale war and the end result would probably mean catastrophic collisions and accidents for anyone trying to operate in space after the war.
08/19/09
[www.newscientist.com]
08/19/09
08/19/09
08/19/09
If the North has a problem, they can blog about it on their Commodore 64s.
08/19/09
Indeed I can, and I *have*.
I have already launched several rockets from my secret lair inside the Krakatoa volcano, all carrying ultra-advanced and secret satellites that watch and record every word written by every person who comments here on io9.
Soon I'll have accumulated enough information to black-mail all commenters here and ask a total of, say, 1 thousand dollars as ransom, or else.
I *will* bring io9 down. (evil laughter)
08/19/09
08/19/09
Sometimes I like to be the voice of opposition...or in this case, hope...
08/19/09
07/28/09
07/27/09
Furthermore, Burt Rutan, with Voyager, Global Flyer, and a few dozen other impressive aircraft, has essentially shown there is no part of an aircraft he can't figure out how to make from fiber and plastic.
07/27/09
*runs to the patent office*
07/27/09
07/27/09
07/28/09
07/27/09
I just hope that modern aerospace engineers remember to take an Xacto knife to the edges of every segment before gluing them together to avoid the shedding of many bitter tears.
07/27/09
Because the price of duct tape and chewing gum has gone up way to much lately.
07/27/09