So, Mr. Bond, We Meet at Last

Moscow News reports on a paper revealing Soviet plans for an "invulnerable" base on the moon. Despite the economic calculation problem, the Kremlin apparently realized the project was too expensive to pursue.

Comments

[Sarnath]

They'd like you to believe there isn't already an invulnerable base on the moon.

[Freddy Krueger]

Jesus, Reason, could you pretend you're even slightly with it. Stop with the fact-indexes, or thefreedictionary.coms, and get your references from wikipedia, the source. It's a better to support via links an independent effort to establish an alternative encyclopedia, and of course, the article is more up to date.

/rant.

[mike]

And Wikipedia has an entry on itself. How cool is that?

[Micha Ghertner]

The article Julian linked to is in fact lifted from Wikipedia.

[Shawn Smith]

I like Wikipedia, also, but you should be careful when using it. This article describes a problem with wikipedia. I found the link via this Slashdot article.

[Freddy Krueger]

The article Julian linked to is in fact lifted from Wikipedia.

I know; it's pretty easy to build a wiki mirror using their nightly db dumps, altering the templates to allow advertising.

My point was, link to the source, not the succeeding version (the mirrors aren't updated regularly, and it's just better form).

[Shannon Love]

I would note that the wikipedia article gives only the most skeletal definition of the EC problem and then spends the rest of the entry trying to refute it.

Maybe I should go do some editing.

[Jason Bourne]

You know, the Pentagon (particularly General Curtis LeMay) in the 1960s busted McNamara's nuts over the Test Ban treaty. They claimed that the Soviets would cheat and test their weapons on the other side of the moon.

Shannon Love,

A large portion of the claims of the critics are response to those claims; and the claims of the critics are hardly treated as gospel either.

[Harry Merlin]

OT: the RNC 'kicker'. Here's a photo of Scott Robinson from the Koch website. It looks just like the guy in the video. (Particularly the hair).

http://www.theihs.org/images/slides/221.jpg

if it asks for user/password, use

guest
libertyordeath

[Shannon Love]

Jason Bourne,

"They claimed that the Soviets would cheat and test their weapons on the other side of the moon."

The Soviets most likely didn't attempt this because the U.S. deployed satellites to detect such test before the Soviets had the capacity to reliably launch large packages in a circumlunar orbit.

The EC problem is a core concept in free-market theories and a rather complex one. I don't think the wikipedia article treats it fairly. Compare the entry on EC to this one on the labor theory of value.

Of course, this in all the fault of people like me who see the post on wikipedia but don't spend the time to contribute. Leftist ideas still have predominance in academia and among many people who contribute to projects like widipedia and the information there reflects this.

[Jason Bourne]

Shannon Love,

The Soviets most likely didn't attempt this because the U.S. deployed satellites to detect such test before the Soviets had the capacity to reliably launch large packages in a circumlunar orbit.

Well, that and exploding nuclear weapons on the other side of the moon would be detectable from ground facilities! This is the reason McNamara thought it was a crock of shit.

I don't think the wikipedia article treats it fairly.

I thought that it was completely fair; it explained the basic outlines, described some of the critiques and the responses to those critiques; and didn't take sides either way.

Compare the entry on EC to this one on the labor theory of value.

Wikipedia has never claimed to be completely comprehensive (indeed, that's why it begs people for entries); its not the Encyclopedia Brittanica after all. Hell, I wish they had something to say about the Bourne Ultimatum or a myriad other subjects (take British Blasphemy laws for example), but they don't.

Leftist ideas still have predominance in academia...

Where exactly? In economics? Hardly. In history? Hardly. You quite frankly need to leave the 1960s.

[Malak,]

Fools!! We already have an invulnerable base on the moon! Once we target our "LASER" you are all doomed.

[yep.]

There's a picture of the moon base linked at Atrios.

[Jason Bourne]

Frobenius,

That's not my experience. Indeed, my experience is that what tends to happen is that individuals who are predisposed to think that the left dominates universities select (consciously or not) traits of a university that reinforce this idea. I've had far too many ranging, wide-open debates with academicians to state that they lean one way or another. Needless to say, my evidence is anecdotal, but so is yours.