Iran is just another bogeyman that's been trotted out for us to fear.

Quote from: zarn02 on December 15, 2011, 06:45:08 AM
Iran is just another bogeyman that's been trotted out for us to fear.

If there wasn't oodles of video of Achmadinejad saying stuff along with the Imran Khan folks helping in Iran, I'd agree with you.

Quote from: Grappa on December 15, 2011, 12:52:30 AM
Manhattan Project today?

I think Iran is busy working on one as we sleep.   

IBTL

Quote from: zarn02 on December 14, 2011, 04:14:42 PM
Why was there a Manhattan project? We needed to be able to kill a whole bunch of folks at once before someone else beat us to it.

Why did we go to the moon? If we didn't do it, the Soviets might. And that was unacceptable.

We could probably land on Mars in the next decade if we found aliens there that needed shot, or the Chinese threatened to get there first.

(And if our monumentally poor economic policies didn't destroy the dollar between now and then.)

+1 It's about competition. If China refocused their efforts to going to Mars, we would have a space race all over again 

Nope.

A) We're broke.
B) Not enough domestic engineers and scientists.
C) Would have to use foreign national engineers and scientists who leak IP back to their home countries like a sieve.
D) No great world threat exists to unify people toward a collective goal.

Quote from: Drjones on December 15, 2011, 09:52:00 AM
Nope.

A) We're broke.
B) Not enough domestic engineers and scientists.
C) Would have to use foreign national engineers and scientists who leak IP back to their home countries like a sieve.
D) No great world threat exists to unify people toward a collective goal.

Agreed on A & D

On B & C...there are plenty of great domestic engineers and scientists. For something theoretical and cutting edge like the Manhattan Project, many would come from universities, just as they did back then. Don't confuse the shortage of high numbers of everyday engineers/scientists with the lower number of high-caliber ones that would be required for a Manhattan Project style undertaking.

Related to the same issue, you do remember that quite a few of the Manhattan Project scientists weren't domestic right? This relates to D, and why they didn't leak information. Regardless, the US had a massive security/anti-espionage task force working on the Manhattan Project.

and didn't Oppenheimer give the h bomb to the Soviets?

Quote from: ducatiz on December 15, 2011, 11:08:49 AM
and didn't Oppenheimer give the h bomb to the Soviets?

No. He was a victim of McCarthyism though due to his liberal leanings and early involvement with a domestic communist party.

Quote from: Drjones on December 15, 2011, 09:52:00 AM
Nope.

A) We're broke.
B) Not enough domestic engineers and scientists.
C) Would have to use foreign national engineers and scientists who leak IP back to their home countries like a sieve.
D) No great world threat exists to unify people toward a collective goal.

There is no D) yet, but it is coming, one way or the other.  Could be famine, plague, global climate change, running out of oil, etc. 

mitt