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posted by takyon on Friday April 14 2017, @01:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the unconventional-conventional dept.

The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, also known as the "Mother of All Bombs", has been dropped in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. It is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal.

CNN reports:

The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission. A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB, was dropped at 7 p.m. local time Thursday, the sources said. [...] A MOAB is a 21,600-pound, GPS-guided munition that is America's most powerful non-nuclear bomb.

The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command, according to the military sources. They said the target was an ISIS tunnel and cave complex as well as personnel in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province.

Gen. John Nicholson, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. "This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against [ISIS]." The statement said U.S. forces took every precaution to avoid civilian casualties.

Also at Fox News. The bombing came days after the death of a Green Beret in the same province, but a defense official said the bombing was unrelated. Another official had this to say:

The MOAB had to be dropped out of the back of a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane due to its massive size. "We kicked it out the back door," one U.S. official told Fox News.

Update: The Afghan defence ministry says that 36 ISIS fighters were killed by the strike.


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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 14 2017, @05:32PM (15 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday April 14 2017, @05:32PM (#494093) Journal

    Or, as i believe, they simply cease to exist. There is nothing else.

    Sooooo.... we need to TAKE REVENGE NOWWW!!!!
    Revenge is a dish best served with the death of a thousand cuts/scraping the skin slowly from their bodies/slowly removing all the oxygen in their locked office (but don't let them die right away: remove oxygen, then put it back, then take away again... such fun!)

    ......
    Does this mean i'm going to hell for thinking like this? Nah, i'll just die--

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @05:52PM (14 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday April 14 2017, @05:52PM (#494110) Journal

    I wish to fuck you were right, but my girlfriend's past- and between-life memories and some of the research I've done strongly point to there being...well, "afterlife" is the wrong word, if anything our earthly lives are the interregnum, but it's entirely just. There seems to be some sort of physical, unconscious law like gravity that leads to the emergence of something you could well call karma.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @06:47PM (8 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @06:47PM (#494146)

      I look at how Science manages to converges on the truth.
      I then look at the thousands of religions that have existed (with most of them now being extinct) and I observe how their dogmas DIVERGE in an ever-widening shamble of made-up nonsense.

      I had religion figured out as a power-grabbing scam by the time I was 13.
      ...but it's clear that some folks need fantasies to cling to.

      I'm not saying that the notion of karma is not very appealing, but the evidence is severely lacking.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 14 2017, @07:10PM (2 children)

        by kaszz (4211) on Friday April 14 2017, @07:10PM (#494153) Journal

        What gave religion away as a scam?

        I guess many other just get dronized.

        • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:37AM (1 child)

          by anubi (2828) on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:37AM (#494333) Journal

          What gave religion away as a scam?

          In my case, it was preachers demonstrating disobedience to the Bible, browbeating for tithes.

          We were instructed to live by faith, and they of all people should adhere to their own advice.

          --
          "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
          • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:04PM

            by kaszz (4211) on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:04PM (#494373) Journal

            System inconsistency...
            Don't mind the man behind the curtain ;)

            Almost like the government and taxes.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @07:15PM (2 children)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday April 14 2017, @07:15PM (#494155) Journal

        Oh, I'm with you on that. NO religion has it correct and the vast majority are somewhere between hilariously and horrifyingly wrong. I look at this as just another branch of science, because it seems to be conforming to a set of natural laws. We humans have a very bad habit of distancing and "othering" ourselves from the rest of nature and reality; it's a kind of ego-sickness.

        As near as I can tell "God" isn't the best word to use here, but it's a kind of metaphor not unlike "Mother Nature," when what's being described is a sort of base-concept to matter, energy, and intelligence, the old philosophers' "ground of all being." I don't think it's conscious, certainly not as a personal, egoistic entity. Why couldn't there be a naturalistic "afterlife" anyway?

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday April 14 2017, @08:06PM (1 child)

          by Gaaark (41) on Friday April 14 2017, @08:06PM (#494174) Journal

          A mother nature given soul?

          (I like the Phillipe Jose Farmer thing: (No, i'm not going to google the spelling, no i cant remember the name of the series... i'm old and tired, lol))

          I just don't see it: i'll be dust returned to dust and i have no soul to be reborn.
          I. got. one. shot.

          Also, i think there should be a law that you can kill one person EVERY year, no consequences, so long as you register the fact that YOU (state your name) are going to kill HIM (state his name).
          Once per year, no consequences.

          Wouldn't the world be a better place without all the dead assholes who piss off EVERYONE!!
          :)

          Tired... rambling... need vodka.... sleep....

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 14 2017, @08:34PM

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday April 14 2017, @08:34PM (#494182) Journal

            "To Your Shattered Bodies, Go." Notable for the fact that some NDE researcher appears to have fabricated or confabulated his own NDE from his memories of the book.

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @09:17PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @09:17PM (#494194)

        I found a somewhat different result: grew up without religion clubbing me over the head and was amazed to find some very common threads running through most religions. The problem with religion is it is based on belief so there is very little flexibility in updating the concepts. Science suffers the same way, however once you get evidence that your new concepts are better then there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. With religion the power structure keeps the status quo by burning the heretics.

        Anyone who has a glimpse into spiritual aspects of life (prophets, etc.) probably have the same problem as someone trying to explain color to a blind person.

        Yes religion is used as a massive tool of power and oppression. Ignoring other aspects is like judging the US Constitution by the screwed up crap we have today.

        Perhaps there are just a bunch of crazy people who need to believe something, but there is a massive amount of anecdotal information that points to there being "something more". Maybe its a collective telepathic hive-mind which can lead to people getting memories from others, or maybe there is a spiritual dimension not contained in our physical reality. I can't say its all bunk, and I can't say any of it is 100% true, but after a long time of believing only in scientifically proven facts I realized the hubris of science and reason. They are still my guiding principles, but I try and keep a more open mind.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:09AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @02:09AM (#494624)

          With Anubi, religion seems to be in no small part a social thing.
          He seems to have found a sect/congregation/community that gets it right.
          Take away the mumbo-jumbo and you'd still have something worthwhile.
          His bunch seems to have avoided/expunged the Sister Bertha Better-Than-You types. [google.com]
          (With over 10 million people in Los Angeles County, you'd hope there would be 1 bunch that aren't simply about tribalism.)

          Heh. Aaron Sorkin had a field day with this notion.
          Dr. Jenna Jacobs [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [memoryhole.net]

          ...and comedian Emo Philips really kills it WRT the "can't reach consensus" thing. [theguardian.com]

          I figure the Bible could be boiled down to 1 thing [google.com] and the rest could be tossed.

          I find scripture to be wholly unimpressive. [google.com]
          Basically, a book of fairy tales with a really bad editor.

          The "slaves, obey your master" crap and the condoning of violence are particularly troubling in a "holy" book.
          the Quran has only 532 cruel or violent passages, while the Bible has 1,321 [alternet.org]

          In northern Europe, they have lower rates of religiosity and more functional democracies.
          I think they have things figured out better.
          ...and there's some stats that say religious folks just aren't that bright. [google.com]

          As for the deity thing, a guy had this figured out a long, long time ago:

          Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
          Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
          Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
          Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
            --Epicurus (341 BCE - 270 BCE)

          .
          a collective telepathic hive-mind

          You should write books.
          Make sure that the publisher understands that those are fiction.
          We don't need another L. Ron Hubbard.

          a massive amount of anecdotal information that points to there being "something more"

          ...only if you deny evolution and claim that all other creatures don't possess a "soul".
          The notion of an afterlife is just wishful thinking and denial that you won't live forever.

          If you don't want the memory of your existence to fade, produce children and raise them in a way that they will want to have children.
          ...or accomplish something that is really memorable.
          Still, it's unlikely that many will know your name 1000 years from now (assuming that there is a sentient species left to even do that).

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:25AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @12:25AM (#494239)

      were there 7.5 billion souls 4000 years ágo?

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:49AM (1 child)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:49AM (#494262) Journal

        No idea. I suspect this isn't confined to Earth, and would be very surprised if there weren't intelligent life elsewhere, as well as possibly some "promotion" to our type of soul from other sentients like whales or orangutans. I'm told you don't get "busted down" in that sense, i.e., the Buddhist idea of reincarnating as an animal simply does not happen.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:00AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @02:00AM (#494267)

          I dunno, I would gladly opt to reincarnate as a whale or bird after the madness of being human...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:24PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @01:24PM (#494392)

      Wasn't it extremely lucky that her past life just so happened to be on the same planet as her current one. Not any of those other worlds with intelligent life you just mentioned.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 15 2017, @03:26PM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday April 15 2017, @03:26PM (#494441) Journal

        Yeah, wasn't it? I don't entirely understand this stuff either, not even close. For all I know, if there are other planets with intelligent life, maybe the beings on them have different sets of life lessons to learn. I'm getting all this secondhand and am not by any means an expert on any of this.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...