Chit-Chat thread.

[boris_pankov@inbox.ru]

The enemy shall not pass!

[gut]

So let's review a bit...

> It's not generally what people worry about - they care more
> about invisible gamma rays giving them cancer.
...
> people are somehow less afraid of something they can see.
...
> extremely negative stigmatism around anything labeled "nuclear".

and

> When physicians started using magnetic resonance, they very
> wisely chose to call it MRI - magnetic resonance imaging.

and

> People fear what they don't understand.

So I repeat, WHAT PEOPLE are we talking about here? Is there
an invisible group of humans that make up the majority of our
population of which I am somehow unaware? The only people I
see overreacting to nuclear tech is hippies and government;
both are known for foolishness. Quit calling people irrational
chickens because they don't agree with you. People have good
reason to be suspicious of anything in the control of politicians.

I vividly remember a ~nice~ video they showed us in school
of a lovely young lady chewing food. It was an X-ray video, so
we got to see the food going all the way down and everything.
It wasn't until I grew up and saw a documentary on X-rays
that I learned what happened to that particular actress a few
years after making all those ~nice~ videos.

Have you ever walked down the halls of a hospital? The nuclear
symbol is all over the place. Nobody cares. They recieve X-rays
all the time. People have been told for a long time now that
radiation is produced from many home appliances like microwaves,
TV's, and PC monitors, and they still use them every day.

If people are worried about nuclear, it's not because of the
tech, it's because of knuckleheads that plague the powerful
positions in society. Let's remember that in the past, many
governments have intentionally afflicted their own citizens
and soldiers with diseases so that they may study the effects
of said diseases. Politicians recieve bribes to overlook citizen's
and soldier's safety on a dayly basis. If you don't know of any
stories of your own government doing these things, it's not
because they aren't doing it, it's because they are better at
consealment.

[boris_pankov@inbox.ru]

yeah buddy, we dont need to be afraid of nuklear. While govs can make money without war we will live in peace. Its all about money, its all about resourses Europe is a nice place to live I think. No resourses - no threat )

[Grey]

Yeah, Europe has a very peaceful history

[gut]

Europe has plenty of resources. To my knowledge,
most of it's wars were due to resource conflicts, but
like American wars, there were always cover stories
to make it more palatable to the populace. Governments
don't seem to be able to recruit heavily upon the war
slogan of 'Send your kids to die for oil/cotten/whatever!"
They prefer instead "We can't let our enemies get away
with such attrocities!" Not even governments are foolish
enough to want nuclear war though...

[Evil Knievel]

Europe has plenty of resources.

That's debatable, at least today. Most resources are more or less normally distributed over the planet, but Hidrocarbons are the exception. There is plenty of coal in Europe, but no oil. There is some metal, but most of it isn#t feasible at world market prices. That means, that the real big resources are elsewhere. Africa, Australia, Canada come to mind.

To my knowledge, most of it's wars were due to resource conflicts,...

That is something I have never checked, but I do not believe it. I think, most wars aimed at some sort of hegemony - establish it, break it, change it. Resources of course at some point become a mean of achieving that. In WWII, fuel for tanks was critical, hence the war was entended to oil fields near the black sea. Earlier, territory gain was important, but more for the prosperous tax-paying cities on it than the resources. Of course, some cities prosper because of recourses, but in pre-industrial times, trade was at least equally important. IMHO.

[boris_pankov@inbox.ru]

Europe has plenty of resources. To my knowledge,
most of it's wars were due to resource conflicts, but
like American wars, there were always cover stories
to make it more palatable to the populace. Governments
don't seem to be able to recruit heavily upon the war
slogan of 'Send your kids to die for oil/cotten/whatever!"
They prefer instead "We can't let our enemies get away
with such attrocities!" Not even governments are foolish
enough to want nuclear war though...

why, america always give cover stories to every war
its spreading of democracy usually or preventing the usage of horrorfull chemical or biological weapons(like in iraq) damn near the place I live, in 100 kms there is a secret city where "they" store a biological weapons )
i remember some joke about it
it sounded like:
- do you still have oil?
- we are going to be at your place soon
EDIT : (this was about real reasons of war with america)

[Grey]

We have very similar jokes too. You should see the intro for "Have I Got News For You" on Youtube (it's a popular British satirical news quiz).

[FantomFang]

I live in germany and as far as I know, there were plans to nuke us around '45. And one of the proposed targets was not really far from where I live. Thankfully it didnt happen, but this reminds me that no, I am not "somewhere else".

Of course at that time they had their reasons and its unlikely that it happens nowadays. But if some country not worrying about middle- and longterm effects gets access to nuclear weapons that is a risk.

OTOH, theres this "we have it, why should they not be allowed to have it too?" argument.

As for New Zealand, yeah, you are probably nice and safe there. For now.

Kind of late to the discussion, I thought I'd mention that I too am near or was near the site of a probably nuclear bombing. I live in Oklahoma, less than a half hour from Tinker Air Force Base, which I've heard was somewhere around #3 or so during the Cold War of "places to be nuked" should the unthinkable to occur, mainly because the bombs that were dropped in Japan were place on bombers that originated from here. Nice thought and all. At least one good thing comes of this...If I'm lucky, I won't feel a thing.

[gut]

> why, america always give cover stories to every war

Tradition by now, I suppose. Even back when we were
fighting amongst ourselves we were inventing rediculous
cover stories. The civil war wasn't about slavery, but the
South breaking the Union. It would be nice to not have
politicians insulting us as well as taking us to war.