Tuxedo Park 204
| Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II | |
| author | Jennet Conant |
| pages | 330 |
| publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Steve Mushero |
| ISBN | 0684872870 |
| summary | A biography of one of the greatest scientists and catalysts of our time, helping inventing RADAR and LORAN along with jumpstarting the Manhattan Project. |
Loomis, a Harvard lawyer from a well-to-do WASP family, went from practicing law to doing artillery research in WWI to one of the most spectacular accumulations of Wall Street wealth in the go-go 1920's. He personally drove the creation of the electric utility industry and helped form or run most of the major Wall Street banks of the day (nearly all of which are still with us in original or merged form). Smart enough to see the 1929 crash coming, he sold his stocks early and entered the depression worth $50-100 million, all in cash.
How did he use this money ? By retiring to his real love, science and inventing, eventually being elected to the National Academy of Science. A brilliant man, at parties he would often play several games of chess simultaneously, with his back to the boards and while maintaining lively conversation with his other guests. When tackling scientific problems, he generated dozens of ideas to try and had dozens of teams running down these ideas, setting the stage for the Manhattan Project, which pursued all available avenues simultaneously.
During the Depression, Loomis built a huge laboratory in Tuxedo Park, a very wealthy enclave 40 miles northwest of New York City. The first gated community, it was largely populated by the Rockefellers, Morgans, and other rich scions of industry and finance. Considered the premier research establishment of its day, a typical day at the lab featured visits by Fermi, Lawrence, Einstein, Bohr, and scores of others, all helping Loomis work on important problems of the day.
Not content to be an observer, Loomis himself ran many of the experiments and published dozens of papers on a very wide variety of subjects. He would typically solve some major stumbling block in an area such as ultrasonics, microwaves, or biology and then leave others to work out the details.
Called to action in WWII by patriotism and is famous cousin, Henry Stimson, the War Secretary, he personally made RADAR a reality (borrowing heavily from British, who he convinced to give us all they knew), building the MIT Rad Lab from scratch into a war-time R&D lab of 5,000 people.
I had always thought RADAR played a minor role in WWII, but it turns out to have been extremely important, with nearly 25,000 units produced. It was conceived to help stop the German night raids on Britain, but beyond that helped end the U-Boat menace since Loomis' system could detect subs on the surface and even periscopes. Bombing RADARs guided bombers over the Continent and LORAN, which Loomis personally invented, guided all aircraft navigation in Europe, the Atlantic, and Pacific for the second half of the war.
Loomis helped kick off the hunt for the atom bomb more than a year before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, largely via his close friend the brilliant Nobel Laureate Ernest Lawrence at Berkeley (for whom the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore labs are named). While Loomis did not actually work in the atom efforts (he was too busy with RADAR), he mobilized the money, scientists, and political will to make it happen. He foresaw in the 1930's how nuclear fission and Germany's war-mongering would spell bad news for the world.
The book itself paints all of this in very concrete ways, moving back and forth between Loomis' private and public life, including quotes from nearly all involved. The author is related to many players in the story, including some of Loomis' closest friends, and thus had access to personal papers and numerous family members through the ages.
Writing in a witty and sometimes humorous style ("[T]he RADAR scientists knew they needed a single transmit/receive antenna. The trouble was, no one knew how to build one.") the book is an engaging read all the way through. A fair amount of scandal is mentioned, as the book opens with the suicide of one of Loomis' closest friends (the author's great uncle) and moves from there to gradually expose all that was going on through three of the most exciting decades of this century.
The book left me very impressed with Alfred Loomis and motivated to work even harder pursue more advances in technology and science, not to mention finance. I hope none of are called to support a war effort in the manner he did, but there are many discoveries that remain for us all; if we are one-forth as productive as Alfred Loomis, we'll do very well indeed.
You can purchase Tuxedo Park from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
RADAR did play a minor role in WWII (Score:4, Funny)
what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:5, Interesting)
I might be wrong, but I thought the Brit, Robert Alexander Watson-Watt invented radar.
Don't be silly, it had to be an American! (Score:4, Funny)
Why, even that less than stellar inventor Al Gore came up with the internet! That Tim Berners-Lee guy (and the folks at ARPANET) were a figment of everyone else's imagination!
Anyone else fed up of revisionist history? Is is right that the version of Microsoft Encarta sold in the US credits Bell as inventing the telephone but that the one sold in Italy says it was Marconi? And that neither version even mentions the other guy, even in passing?
WHO GIVES A SH*T WHERE HE'S FROM?! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't be silly, it had to be an American! (Score:3, Informative)
Regardless, the research they performed together was conducted at Cambridge - the original Cambridge in England, not the one in New England. Crick was by far the more senior figure (12 years more older than Watson) and it was he rather than Watson who led their team.
Re:Don't be silly, it had to be an American! (Score:2)
Believe it if you will.
Re:No it was Tesla...Marconi is a Marketer (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:No it was Tesla...Marconi is a Marketer (Score:2, Funny)
In 1901 Marconi made the first successful radio transmission across the Atlantic in 1901. In 1904 the US patent office reversed its previous decisions and granted Marconi a US patent. In 1909 Marconi received the Nobel prize for "contributions to wireless telegraphy". This apparently frosted Tesla's shorts, and he filed suit for infringement. In 1943 the US patent office finally upheld Tesla's earlier patent.
It seems to me that it is reasonable to honor both Tesla and Marconi as inventors of radio. If you really want to get picky, it seems to me that Marconi's British patent gives him priority (which bring us back to the start of this sub-thread).
As shown above Tesla and Marconi made their contributions almost simultaneously. Before Marconi (and Tesla), there weren't any 2-way radios. Radio as entertainment didn't arrive until 1920 (KDKA). This is 25 years after Marconi began his work on radio, and 11 years after he was awarded the Nobel prize.
Re:No it was Tesla...Marconi is a Marketer (Score:2)
Ooo... you mean Zero Point Energy [erols.com] is real, and the Gubbermint is covering it up to keep the OilPigs in power?!
Seriously though, there's no Tesla conspiracy unless you want to believe in one. Anything he invented couldn't be so advanced as to have not been independently rediscovered in the many decades since.
--
Nationalist History. (Score:5, Informative)
Englishman, Watt, was most definitely the inventor of RADAR. The Americans knew nothing about it until they were approached by the British regarding the need for a process to manufacture a single component in high volumes. This process, developed at Westinhouse, turned out to be the simple lamination of copper plates to make the part. The information about RADAR that was learned by the Americans lead to further R&D on Loomis' part as well as Westinghouse's development of the Microwave oven, the RADAR Range.
Loomis did contribute a lot of R&D to the further advancement of RADAR but, he most certainly did not invent it.
Re:Nationalist History. (Score:2, Interesting)
Centimetre Wave (SHF and above) Radar (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem was that the wavelengths used were not sufficiently well reflected by smaller objects such as periscopes or to give the resolution neccessary for bomb navigation. Hence the invention of the magnetron by the British which produced RF at 3cm or above at high power. Unfortunately British industry couldn't produce the device cheaply enough (a magnetron dpends upon a very precisely engineered cavity). Loomis was responsible for the ideas for mass production of the magnetron in the mid 40s.
The magnetron was used in warships and by planes (such as night fighters) but it was not permitted over German held territory until towards the end of the war so it didn't help bomber command much (the Americans flew by day, so they had less problems with navigation). It was decided that the wreckage of a magnetron (it is basiclly a precisely machined lump of metal) would give German intelligence enough information to be able to duplicate it.
Re:Centimetre Wave (SHF and above) Radar (Score:2)
The magnetron is also credited to a Dutch engineer (mr. Staal, who worked for Philips), who created one in 1935.
More on Dutch contributions to radar development here [www.stw.nl].
Re:Centimetre Wave (SHF and above) Radar (Score:2)
I suppose the truth of it is probably that the compact and relatively high power magnetron was invented by the British for use in radar and this was why a prototype was sent to the US as they didn't know how to make them in this form before. The previous microwave amplifiers such as the klystron were large, fragile an not so efficient.
It was these factors (size, robustness and efficiency) that made the magentron so useful for mobile warfare.
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:2, Insightful)
Called to action in WWII by patriotism and is famous cousin, Henry Stimson, the War Secretary, he personally made RADAR a reality (borrowing heavily from British, who he convinced to give us all they knew), building the MIT Rad Lab from scratch into a war-time R&D lab of 5,000 people.
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:1)
"In March 1936, the Orfordness group were moved to Bawdsey Manor a little further down on the Suffolk coast. By this time plans were being put into action to construct enormous radar chain of detection aerials all around the eastern coastline of England and Scotland. The first of these were built between June 1936, and June 1937"
Let's see, 1936 was before the outbreak of WWII wasn't it?
Re:World War, Amerikans and Lateness (Score:2)
Watson-Watt invented it, Loomis enhanced it (Score:3, Interesting)
Watson-Watt Invented it [rampantscotland.com]
"Watson-Watt became the superintendent of the radio division of the National Physics Laboratory in Teddington. In 1936 his radio stations were able to detect aircraft up to 70 miles away."
"He persuaded the government to set up a network of radar stations to provide early warning of aircraft attacking over the English Channel. "Radar" was short for "radio detecting and ranging." It was due to radar that the over-stretched resources of the RAF were able to be in the right place at the right time as Luftwaffe aircraft streamed over during the Battle of Britain from August to October 1940. The Germans could not understand why the defending aircraft (such as the Spitfire, illustrated above) were so often there to meet them."
Loomis helped mass produce it for mobile use and developed it [businessweek.com]
"In the 1930s, British scientists were at the cutting edge of radar technology. While crude by modern standards, their systems could spot Nazi bombers up to 150 miles from the English coast, enough of a warning for Royal Air Force fighters to intercept them. But the radar apparatus was too bulky to mount in planes, and the equipment was not sensitive enough to detect a U-boat's periscope. That changed in early 1940, when physicists at the University of Birmingham invented the magnetron. This plump copper disk was only four inches across, but its glass horns emitted short-wavelength pulses of extremely high power--just the ticket for small radars that could probe much farther and resolve details far finer than any previous system."
"When Prime Minister Winston Churchill learned of the magnetron, he sensed that it marked a turning point in the war. Given the state of British industry, though, he needed U.S. help in refining the magnetron and, most of all, producing them in volume. That August, he sent a mission to Washington, where it presented a top-secret magnetron to astonished U.S. researchers."
So, as usual, a joint effort.
BigTom
Re:Watson-Watt invented it, Loomis enhanced it (Score:1)
Bell X-1 anyone?
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:1)
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:1)
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:2)
Radar: from the book "Confound and Destroy" (Score:2)
"During the 1930s, as Europe prepared itself for a seemingly inevitable war, Britain and Germany began the practice of 'seeing' with radio energy. Radar, as this branch of electronics would later be known, was not new; the principle had been laid out by a German, Christian Hulsmeyer [historylea...site.co.uk] , in a patent of April 1904. "
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt? (Score:2)
RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:5, Informative)
After finishing work on the radar project, Loomis actually turned his efforts into supervising the mass production of radar systems.
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:2, Interesting)
British scientists had made semi-working radar systems
British scientists had made a totally working radar system. What they didn't have was one you could fit into a plane (for night fighting/maritime stuff/etc).
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've also read that the Germans were working on RADAR applications at the same time the Brits and Americans were -- it just so happens that the Brits built the first application from the research. And, technically, the man who was mainly responsible for developing RADAR into a usable application was actually a Scot, not a Brit -- Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt [about.com]. You can talk all you want about how Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and NORTHERN Ireland, but most Irish and Scots I know would say a Scot!=Brit.
Like most other inventions (airplanes or cars, anyone?) nothing is "invented" without the cooperation of scientists from ALL countries. There's no such thing as a single man inventing any of these things -- we may have been taught that in elementary school, but we all have to grow up and realize that things are quite a bit more complicated than that.
You're geography is screwed (Score:2)
By definition, if you're from any of those four countries then you're British - there isn't an equivalent adjective for the United Kingdom so it applies to the Northern Irish too. For example, the British Olympic Association is made up of athletes from all four nations.
(Please, no unnecessary debating about the Northern Ireland situation - this isn't a political posting, it's a geographical one.)
Saying that someone who's Scottish isn't British is ridiculous. It's like saying that someone who's a Californian or Floridian isn't American. Just because you're associated to one place doesn't mean you're not associated to a larger place that encapsulates it.
Of course, being Scottish doesn't make you English, as so many American sitcoms seem to think (Suddenly Susan springs to mind as a particularly guilty party). Saying that it does is about as stupid as suggesting that someone from Alaska is a Texan.
So, to recap:
Glasgow > Scotland > Great Britain > United Kingdom > European Union > Europe
and;
Los Angeles > California > United States of America > North America
Hope that's useful for future reference.
Re:You're geography is screwed (Score:2)
Your example would have been better if it had included a resident of a North or South American country other than the United States of America.
Re:You're geography is screwed (Score:2)
I assume you meant "live" when you said "leave" just like I meant "Your geography is screwed" or You're geographically screwed" and not what I wrote as the subject line of this thread.
Anyhow, on to the heart of the matter.
Technically, you're right. And, technically, so am I. Because the entire archipelagos that comprises the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (or, if you like, Great Britain and Ireland), is called the British Isles.
In practice, people from the Republic of Ireland would never refer to themselves as British (for obvious reasons) whilst people from Northern Ireland would describe themselves as either British or Irish according to their individual personal preferences. Ask a loyalist and he'll say he's British. Ask a republican and he'll say he's Irish. (And there's a glimpse of the politics that I was trying so hard to avoid.)
It still doesn't change the fact that someone who's Scottish is inherently British, which is the point I was trying to make originally.
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:2)
I seem to recall that there was a demo of a radar system that could lock on to floating barrage balloons and control a mortar. I saw an old film of it, it was pretty impressive even now, the gun moved the direction it was pointing in fired, moved onto the next, fired, and one by one each baloon exploded.
I don't recall when that was, but it was definately in England during the war.
I guess it depends on what you mean by "working state". Radar was most useful at first simply for detecting planes flying the Blitz, rather than the sort of stuff we use it for today. BTW I work at the organization formaly known as DERA, where a lot of the radar research took place and they still do a lot of radar and tracking work to this day.
RADAR controlled anti-aircraft guns (Score:2)
My dad was in the US Army after Korea, and was a service technition on some of the guns they were developing at that time. Recently, he was telling me about some of it. Apparently, the prototypes had an analog computing element that was essentially mechanical. Those never made it into production because they wouldn't work well unless you kept the mechanism moving (probably either or both static friction and followers making little dents and getting stuck). The vaccume tube based stuff worked better. The first models could only track a straight line path.
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:1, Funny)
Seems like a fair trade, doesn't it?
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:1)
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:3)
WDYM, "more practical"? By the time Loomis started working on radar, the Brits had the system that was the deciding factor in the Battle of Britain in place.
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:2)
Yes, it was huge and immobile. But that doesn't mean it was impractical. It achieved its objective, ie early warning against German air raids.
Loomis' main contribution seems to have been the mass production of magnetrons. A significant contribution, for sure, but one that was more a matter of logistics than British inability.
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:RADAR was invented by the brits! (Score:1)
The Cavity Magentron was invented by Boot and Randall at the University of Birmingham (UK !!)
The safe transport of probably the most precious cargo of WWII to the US and its subsequent rapid development to mass production is what won the war, not the atomic bomb, though it helped.
The Magnetron and milli-metric radar is what gave us the ability to see 'U' boats. Seeing U boats allowed us to get shipping again. Shipping brought the supplies and troops from the US to start 'D' day.
Steve
Cambridge, England and Cambridge, Massachusetts??? (Score:2)
Isn't it also suspicious that Loomis's secretary's name was Watson-Watts, and Watson-Watts secretary's name was Loomis?
Coincidence, or just a freak event of the statistically unlikely?
Re:Cambridge, England and Cambridge, Massachusetts (Score:2)
At first glance (Score:1)
~S
LORAN (Score:1, Informative)
Obscure name (Score:1, Funny)
Until his book ends up on Slashdot and then *EVERYONE* knows his name... =)
LoomCo (Score:3, Funny)
Alfred Loomis? Are you sure that's not Ron Popeil [ronco.com]?
Re:LoomCo (Score:1)
Re:LoomCo (Score:2)
Not quite! (Score:3, Informative)
Not quite the same thing as "inventor of RADAR", as the reviewer stated. Credit where it's due .....
Re:Not quite! (Score:2)
A google search threw up this link [about.com] which discusses in detail the invention of RADAR (invented by a Scotsman, BTW). Anyways ...
Radar in WWII (Score:4, Informative)
It was conceived in order to see at night, actually. Radar will up show coastlines and cityscapes clearly at night, through cloud cover. The resolution was very poor, but it allowed the RAF to attack Germany. It was not so much a defensive gadget, it was more for a primitive night vision. Plane mounted radar was a decisive factor in the war in the air over Europe.
Seeing German planes coming wasn't a problem, they could be detected by noise (they had to bomb from low down) and only stopped by launching bad surface to air missiles (there were of course plenty of coast stations armed with guns and launchers) or launching the RAF squadrons to attack them.
Accuracy was the key really, and that is what RADAR allowed at night, or from above low clouds during the day.
Re:Radar in WWII (Score:2)
Actually, radar made a big difference [geocities.com] during the Battle of Britain.
Quote from that site: Britain had one great advantage, radar. Invented by a Scotsman, James Watson Watt, it was still rudimentary and often unreliable but it allowed Fighter Command to have a good idea of where German attacks were heading and how strong they were. It allowed the RAF to keep its planes on the ground until they were needed and then the fighter controllers would vector them in onto the attackers. It was a less than perfect system but it was the best in the world at that time, and it worked.
Re:Radar in WWII (Score:1)
I wonder if the platform that Sealand is built on is left over from this kind of duty?
Re:Radar in WWII (Score:1)
RADAR: an interesting fact (Score:5, Interesting)
The reason spoon-fed to the Nazis (via British double agents) for the RAF's sucess was that their pilots were being fed lots of carrots, which helped to improve the aviators' eyesight and hence improve their accuracy.
Of course, this was all rubbish but the myth that eating carrots can dramatically improve your eyesight still lives on today.
The ruse played its part though - by the time the Germans discovered the true story, the Battle of Britain had been won.
Re:RADAR: an interesting fact (Score:3, Informative)
The TRUTH was they used red lights in the cockpit. They do not ruin night vision and the powers that be did not need the Germans adapting it.
I remember my mom feeding me carrots as a kid, telling me it would improve my night vision.
After we were taught this in the Canadian militia, we all got to strip and assemble the regiment's rifle.
Re:RADAR: an interesting fact (Score:2)
You all got naked and played with a long straight firm object? Maybe you should away from carrots.
Re:RADAR: an interesting fact (Score:2)
Re:Radar in WWII (Score:2)
RADAR was, as the name suggests, designed for Detection and Ranging, and very luckily for Britain a significant number were integrated into Fighter Command, the sophisticated command and control network which received raw information from radar plots and rapidly assessed it to determine numbers and trajectories of incoming enemy aircraft. This allowed them to direct the use of Britains scarce resources of pilots and aircraft to the best possible effect. It played a huge part in the Battle of Britain where the Brits were greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, but could respond by putting up the right number of fighters at the rigth time. Before the RADAR they would have had to guess.
Re:Radar in WWII (Score:2)
Re:Radar in WWII (Score:2)
Radar invention - more info (Score:3, Informative)
Depending on your definition of 'invent', you can go as far back as 1880 [fi.edu] (finding that radio waves reflect) or 1924 [newcastle.edu.au](first succesful radio ranging) for the invention of radar.
Practical radar systems were first built in 1935 by Watson-Watt.
AFAI can determine, Loomis didn't get into the radar business until 1939 [yahoo.com], when he copeid all the information the British had.
Read the review not the editors summary (Score:1)
Re:Read the review not the editors summary (Score:2)
Rad Lab (Score:1)
Re:Rad Lab (Score:1)
Bastard! (Score:3, Informative)
It even guided the Germans and Japanese? Bloody sell out!
I realise this may come as a shock to some US readers, but the Second World War started in '39, not December 7th 1941. Half way through therefore being 41/42 as opposed to 1943. At that point the Germans were very definitely still bombing a lot and the Japanese (who'd been fairly busy for a decade already) were just getting started on Pearl Harbour.
Don't get me wrong, everyone (well, except possibly the Germans and Japanese) appreciate you turning up at all, just stop taking so much damn offence when all the Europeans turn up to your wars (like Iraq) two years late.
Try 1937 (Score:2)
Riiiight... (Score:2)
Or when Britain and France declared war, that made it a world war?
Or when Italy joined in, that made it a world war?
Or maybe when Germany invaded the European part of Russia, that made it a world war?
Or maybe when Italy and Germany invaded nearby North Africa, when it finally reached a continent outside Europe, that still wasn't quite the 3 or 4 continents you claim necessary?
So, exactly how does Europe equal the world but China, a much bigger area, not?
Re:Riiiight... (Score:2)
Roosevelt (Score:1)
Re:Bastard! (Score:2)
-- You all look alike.
Just a little joke.
Jonathan
Re:Bastard! (Score:1)
Actually it doesn't bother me that non-US nations would rather not be involved in US wars (their choice), but it does bother me when democracies that were created by US military action stand in the way when the US wants to create another democracy or two.
Re:Creators the Democracy? (Score:2, Insightful)
In some countries the US literally manufactured democracy from whole cloth, right down to writing new constitutions for them (Germany, Japan, and a few more, maybe including Afganistan, although the verdict isn't in yet).
In some countries the US restored democracy after invading and ousting foreign powers, or domestic dictatorships (Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Grenada, Panama, and many others).
In some countries the US took indirect military action to establish democracy (Nicaragua for example).
Of course you are right that they also installed many dictators, and once or twice even took action that looked a lot like overthrowing democratic governments (the most obvious example is Chile where they had a hand in overturning a Socialist government that was actually elected). But even looking at those countries is instructive - all (at least all the one's you mentioned and I can think of) countries where the US got the government they wanted are now democracies (Nationalist China, S Korea, the Filipines, Chile, and so on). In the places where they failed to get the dictator that they wanted, dictatorship still prevails (Communist China, N Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, etc). Which suggests that the the US really was trying to pick the lesser evils.
Anyway, it is not hard to find democracies that have "Made in USA" stamped on them, even if there are (or were) many dictatorships with the same label.
Re:Creators the Democracy? (Score:2)
Re:Creators the Democracy? (Score:2, Insightful)
So now explain to me how the whole of Western Europe is just a big scheme by the US to exploit natural resources and cheap labour. What resources? What cheap labour?
Marxist explanations (i.e. the kind of explanation you just tried to give) don't even fit the facts very well for 19th century imperialist powers, let alone the US in the 20th century.
Oh, and in case you forgot the pre-WWII German democracy was also created by Allied military action.
Re:Name one (Score:2)
Maybe they should revise their foreign policy back by about half a century?
Re:Bastard! (Score:2)
The last time the US went to Iraq, we conferred no benefits on them. None. There was no rebuilding and no aid. Just bombings which killed many, followed by sanctions which starved many more.
What the Germans and the French find offensive is that the US feels it can make these decisions alone--the Bush administration wants to violate a UN resolution to enforce that same UN resolution And that our policy on Iraq is partly personal vendetta and partly in the service of cheap oil; improving the life of the average Iraqi is the last of our concerns.
Re:Bastard! (Score:2)
Re:Bastard! (Score:2)
I'll be happy to join Bush in condeming Hussein as evil, although not because "he tried to kill my daddy". That doesn't mean that replacing him with anything which will actually improve the lot of the average Iraqi is easy, or that military force is the best way to do it.
The nascent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq is interesting. It sure makes the Turks nervous, because they have a large Kurd population. Left to itself, Iraq may splinter several ways. Even if that is ultimately for the best, a violent transition to such a state is not.
Indeed, so far, the US has not acted unilaterally; unless perhaps you consider our documented placement of CIA agents among the inspectors back in 1998
Re:Bastard! (Score:2)
1) Prop up some asshole dictator who'll give us cheap oil until he goes nuts and starts eating jailed Saddam supporters
2) Prop up some half-assed democracy that'll degenerate into a extremist Islamic state within 3 elections since the people aren't ready or happy for it
3) Make it into another horribly hot, non-english speaking, tourist-oriented, semi-socialist, low-taxed territory that we'll use as a bombing range
4) Make it a state and have some of the most hilarious national elections in years. Yee-haw!
I like it.
I'm sure there were lots of people who... (Score:1)
Re:I'm sure there were lots of people who... (Score:2)
Interview and History on NPR (Score:3, Informative)
Here's the link to the interview with the author... http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfI d=1146217 [npr.org]
Everyone at UofI's heard the name. (Score:1)
Alfred Loomis was a close friend of my dad's (Score:5, Interesting)
Alfred Loomis was a close friend of my dad's, so I grew up with a good many stories about him (he died before I was born so I never met him personally). I'd always hoped someone would manage to write a biography of him.
My dad (who was a physicist) told me that during the depression there was a box you could check on the subscription form for Physical Review Letters (the most important Physics journal) which said something like "I can not afford to subscribe to this journal." If you checked that box, you would receive your subscription free of charge. Alfred Loomis's name never appeared anywhere in connection with this offer, but all those unpayable bills were sent to him and he paid them so that science could continue in some way during the depression years (government funding of basic research didn't become a big thing until after WWII).
Re:Alfred Loomis was a close friend of my dad's (Score:2)
But did he ever win? (Score:1)
I'm sure I could play several games of chess at once.
I'd never win a game though.
Sounds like someone ... (Score:2)
if I remember roccectly... (Score:3, Informative)
Just FYI, if I've got the right guy. I thought it was kinda neat.
MIT's RADAR building (Score:2)
Me too. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I like spending less for things.... (Score:1)
Re:I like spending less for things.... (Score:2)
Re:I like spending less for things.... (Score:1)
then... four bucks less than Amazon & free shipping.
Re:Membership Violation (Score:2)
Re:I couldn't put it down (Score:1)
Re:I couldn't put it down (Score:2)
Re:First Karma burn! (Score:1)
Re:Another Loomis ? (Score:1)
I too found the similarities eery. I haven't found any indication of relations though.
Re:Ask Slashdot: (Score:2)
It's not a doll, it's a toy. Don't you keep up with tax court cases*?
*and X-Men stuff in general