Lies, Damn Lies

I sometimes vaguely wonder how I'd fare in warfare. I suspect, badly. Ignoring the fact that I am so unfit that if I have to run I am left panting for nearly half an hour afterwards modern warfare consists of random people dying, and I figure I'd start in the army at low rank, and die. This is assuming a competent enemy who we don't just bomb into the stone age, as we kind of did to Iraq. Which, as long term planning goes, wasn't. In all honesty unless there was some need for mass troops I'd probably serve my country far more effectively at home. Having said that I'd only truly "serve my country" if there was a cause I considered just. So meh.

In the future torches are rubbish. This seems to be true of many scifi/horror films. They will have lasers and super tanks and spaceships, but when they go to fight the alien in the enclosed space (preferably splitting up so they can get picked off one by one) they will have the most pathetic torch. This even occurs in star trek, where they have enough gadgets to sink a starship, but apparently having lights that illuminate more than a small dot poses some great difficulty. I wonder if perhaps lighting will be the one problem of the future, when all others are solved, we still won't be able to see very well in dark caves. It'll hardly be a horrible problem, but then, when you've got rid of all the others, you've got to take what you've got.

posted by Mr K @ 4:25 pm