Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • November 29, 2012 3:20 AM

@ Captain Obvious,

… then use Icarus to melt the icecaps enough to make…

I don’t think you could get enough energy collected by Icarus and beamed through it to melt the ice caps even fractionaly faster than it’s already currently happening.

If you wanted to be sufficiently evil then use Icarus on 740 Park Ave [1] around 3AM on a Wednesday morning. The resulting financial and political fallout should destroy a certain way of US life [3] amongst other things.

It might also destroy the criminal lobbying and hedgefund industries as a side effect as they effectivly go on strike as they are denied money or go into hiding as we ungratefull citizens don’ apreciate them [6&7] which gives you your opening to be even more evil 😉

[1] 740 Park Ave NYC [2] is for those that don’t know the address (known variously in the past as the Rockerfeller or Standard Oil building) contains the greatest density of the top 400 US Billionaires [4] anywhere on the planet.

[2] Although 740’s now regarded as “stuffy” rather than “chic” ( http://nymag.com/news/features/establishments/68493/ ) mainly due to it’s Co-Op board, it’s 32 appartments are home these days to a number of Ex Bankers and Hedge Fund Managers who were intimately involved with the dodgy mortgages and other practices that brought on the banking crisis.

[3] They significantly fund those who espouse the ideas of Ayn Rand via frequently shouting about one of her more unbalanced works “Atlas Shrugged” (though I suspect few have read and understood the implications of her ideas it is largly antireligion [6]).

[4] For those that don’t know the more peculiar nature of wealth distrubution in the US the top 400s unearned annual aggregate income is reportedly more each year than the aggregate earned income of all the US citizens below the average income. And unlike those at the bottom they have special tax breaks so that they pay little or no tax on it, and to keep this special status they are the biggest contributors to the campaign funds of both major US political parties [5] and several sub parties [3] are almost entirely paid for by them.

[5] It is known that GWB whilst US President and thus supposadly the most powerfull man in the world went there “cap-in-hand” to get money, but after being told what he should be doing for the rich for an hour or so he came away with just a few million, but still gave the US Ultra-Rich an eye watering tax break that is a very significant fraction of the US deficit.

[6] I read Ayn Rand’s book some considerable time ago when I was interested in pre70’s SiFi and to say it was a turgid read is an understatment. It is at best a badly writen romantic tragedy used as a convayance for a well over 50page monolog about how “greed is good” and “the rich are entitled to be rich” and “nobody understands the rich” and how the world will end if the rich are not alowed to be self interested and ultimatly compleatly selfish and above all free from the constraint of Church and Government. And before anybody asks no I’ve not seen the film because I really cannot see how it would make an entertaining film and in anyway stay close to the main ideas behind the book.

[7] Douglas Adams pointed out the perils of using fear to remove what many considered are the usless 1/3 of a population. In his version by using the fear of iminent destruction the 1/3 went onto a space ship to escape. Of the 1/3 were the likes of marketing executives and what Arthur Dent assumed was a “dead telephone sanitiser”. Unfortunatly the home planet got destroyed due to a virulant plague that originated from an unsanitised phone. The remaining useless 1/3 of the population still alive on the space ship crash landed on Earth and well “here we are” 😉

Clive Robinson • November 29, 2012 4:22 PM

@ Captain Obvious,

Another option is retasking Solaren’s power station to microwave the ice caps

Oh dear, I’m going to sound like a nit picker (but the OH bond and it’s dielectric effect have been discussed befor) Because Ice is in effect a crystal of H2O the OH bond does not have the freedom to vibrate and produce heat in the same way as it does in either liquid or vapour form (you can try this with a home microwave and a cube of ice fresh from the freezer on one side of the rotating plate and a half glass of water on the other the water normaly boils before the ice cube melts).

So chucking microwave energy at the polar ice caps won’t achive much unless you can find some way to turn the upper surface to liquid or have some other item which will absorbe the microwave energy and release it as heat. Funnily enough various forms of carbon (which is a largish part of what soot is) will absorbe microwaves as I’ve not realy experimented with carbon and high power microwaves (just low power to make antenuators) I don’t know how well soot will heat up.

I know for instance dry wood does not heat up but animal fats etc do and this knowledge some years ago gave rise to some experiments for a friend who owns a cottage thats over 500years old and the Oak beams have a “death watch beetle” problem (the grubs are way way bigger than the “carpenter beetle” bugs that are common in parts of the US). The result was to strip a microwave oven down put a horn antenna on the magie output and radiate the beams bit by bit thus cooking the grubs in their holes. We looked into patenting the idea and discovered some bod in the US had beaten us by a short margin 🙁

Clive Robinson • November 30, 2012 3:58 PM

@ Figureitout,

The Austin Powers trilogy makes quite the mockery…

Did you ever see the original Casino Royal with “Sir James Bond” played by David Niven tucked away in his retreat “playing Debusy untill the light fades and he can neigh read the music” and “jimmy bond” is wastral nephew comming to a rather climatic end after swallowing the atomic bomb pill?

If you have not I sugest you do it’s probably one of the best send ups of the ‘secret agent” films.

Clive Robinson • December 1, 2012 6:45 AM

@ Js,

You failed to mention that most of the characters one of them was Woody Allen

Woody Allen’s character was called “Jimmy Bond” and it’s the sense of inadequacy implied that he did not merit the full “James” that made him turn to “the dark side” as it where.

As for the other James Bond’s I vaguely remember that at least one of them was a woman as well…

But tthe final Casino scene is still one of the best “shoot them up” with indians and cowboys sliding down ropes from the ceiling etc.

Oh and there was that other spy spoof film we don’t talk about with “Hair Milchman” in “Carry On Spying”. And I also vaguely remember Bob Hope did one and two English comedians Morcom&Wise doing another…

All in all I suspect there are as many spoof spy films as actual James Bond Film’s