I’m glad to hear that the US and Russia have decided, in principle anyway, to dial in another notch of reduction in nuclear arms. I think it is hard for people to fathom the magnitude of the effects of nuclear weapons or to estimate how many are really necessary to bring an adversary to submission. You don’t have to knock down every city, crater every underground installation, or bounce every bit of rubble to rattle an enemy state to the point where they sue for peace.
But enough of this heady atomic theatre. I have my own nuclear policy. You see, I’m generally in favor of the extreme reduction of nuclear warheads to maybe less than 100. But I must insist that a few be kept aside for the purposes of bringing the hammer down on those who would devise computer viruses.
Yes, individuals or groups who devise malicious code to infect computers should live in fear that tactical nuclear hellfire could rain down upon their greasy, pointed heads at any moment. People who initiate malicious code should be regarded as international combatants-against-humanity with bounties on their heads.
Microsoft should be required to post a kind of bond for the purposes of reimbursing society for the countless hours of time lost waiting for anti-virus software to come out of scan-mode so your computer can function in the manner it is designed to work.
The dark collusion between Microsoft and the plurality of organizations thriving on the weakness of MS products should be brought to the surface for all to see. Apparently, nobody really wants to see a virus-proof OS dominate the market. It would bring too many vendors to ruin. And, too many 20-somethings holed-up in the dark, fetid recesses of the internet would have to find honest work with their skills.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
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The US can no longer manufacture “fogbank,” a heavy element aerogel that impedence-matches and time-shapes the soft x-ray burst from the fission intiator of W76, W78, W80, etc. warheads. All records are “lost.” No manufacturing personnel “remain.” Engineers were then assigned to design a project to make stuff nobody knew how to synthesize. Never hire a scientist! Not Of Our Class, Dearie. The whole enterprise was – and is – an incredibly and incredibly expensve SNAFU FUBARed to death.
US nuclear weapons stockpiles must be reduced so “fogbank” can be recovered and reused for non-superannuated warheads. Refabrication yield is obviously constraining. One wonders whether one good tap from a North Korean torpedo would turn the whole of a boomer’s payload into fizzles..
If prayer or telekinesis existed at all, Bill Gates would be a charred smudge thousands of times/day.
“If prayer or telekinesis existed at all, Bill Gates would be a charred smudge thousands of times/day.”
Amen.
I have heard of this fogbank problem before, though I do not recall the source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOGBANK
This is hilarious (from the Wiki article)-
“Manufacture involves the moderately toxic, highly volatile solvent called acetonitrile, which presents a hazard for workers (causing three evacuations in March 2006 alone).”
What a bunch of pussies. I’m sure someone noticed the synonym “methylcyanide” on the MSDS and crapped their drawers just before the evacuation. I saw the same thing once in grad school.
Hepatic cytochrome hydroxylation of H3CCN gives HOCH2CN then hydrolyzing to formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide. MeCN is a terrible substrate. Starting with EtCN we see serious toxicity. Substituting homologous nitriles will be a disaster on all levels. Make it so.
We have identified and implemented a universal antidote to progress: unknown hazards. The Gulf of Mexico blowout, being SOP known hazards, is then SOP Federal oversight (the other kind of oversight). When will Halliburton’s wellhead cementation pop like a champagne cork? Thermonuke to crush the formation and end the leak. Use a “clean” warhead. Neutron activated sodium, chlorine, and other light elements have short half-lives. Chernobl was Officially mostly harmless, unlike the disaster at Hershey, PA.