Re: The few, the proud, the stupid

Gregory Alan Bolcer (gbolcer@gambetta.ICS.uci.edu)
Fri, 09 Jan 1998 11:48:22 -0800


> That's a good question. Maybe I should cancel my ski trip scheduled for
> the end of the month.

Please tell us your birthday, we can look it up in your
astrology chart and compare it with your biorhythm.
While you are at it, Tim's got some questions too.

Not to sent mixed messages, but I thought I'd put
a little mass death and destruction into into this
death thread. As reported in the January 11th, Washington Post,
the U.S. Army plans on marketing their $4 billion pacific island,
Kwajalein Missile Range (pronounced KWAH-ja-lan") to interested
parties for controlled missile experiments.

Kwajalein [...]
is operated by the U.S. Army in support of the
U.S. Space and Strategic Defense Command, as
well as NASA and the Department of Defense.
To earn extra cash amid military cutbacks,
the Army has decided to open up the isolated test
range to outside customers on a commercial
basis. The Kwajalein Missile Range is now
offering to help friendly nations test weapons and
confirm their accuracy and killing power.
"If somebody comes to us and says, 'We
want to shoot an ICBM from such-and-such
location into Kwajalein Missile Range,' we
would say, 'Let's talk about the particulars and
see what we can do for you,' " said Stan
McMurtrie, deputy director of the missile range.
"Our marketing efforts in the foreign arena
are in their infancy," Mr. McMurtrie explained
during an interview. "We've had contact, basic
discussions, and only time will tell if they come
to fruition.

They also do Lethal Assessment, Multiple simultaneous engagements, and
"End-game" characterization. Sounds like marketspeak for an
exotic honeymoon resort to me. I think it'd be fun to rent it out
for 4th of July and bring a couple of thousand bucks worth of
Baja bottle rockets.

I know the world exists to Rock Mohit, but it's fun to poke
fun at others from time to time. Maybe Kwajalein could hire Jim
Whitehead and Ken Anderson to do the marketing. After all, their
video hard selling their research technologies last year won high
acclaim in DARPA and congressional circles after giving the appearance
that their Open Hypertext System was a) used in the cockpit of the B2,
and b) responsible for over 10 megatons of steel on target. Steel
on steel couldn't be any harder.

Greg