US Gots THAAD

Uncle Ken seemed skeptical the other day when I mentioned that the US has a working anti missile missile. His skepticism was understandable, since they have been talking about that since we were kids, and even I was surprised to find out that they finally did something about it. The only information I had was a brief mention of it in our local newspaper, and they have been wrong before. Well today there was another mention of it in our paper, but this time they gave it a name: Terminal High Altitude Air Defense, THAAD for short. The Wiki article about it is titled "Terminal High Altitude Area Defense" but, if you search under "THAAD", it will take you there. It seems this thing has been deployed since 2008, but I had never heard of it.

I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" some years ago. I remember the part that Uncle Ken told us about, and it made sense to me. I don't remember whether or not this was in the book, but another reason that Columbus discovered America instead of the other way around was that the indigenous Americans didn't have access to horses. The "wild" horses they have out west today are actually feral horses, being descended from domestic stock brought over by the Spanish. I understand there were paleo horses running wild in North America in pre-historic times, but they were extinct before the Indians got here. We tend to think of horses today as a luxury item but, for much of recorded history, they did all the work that is now done by tractors, trucks, and bulldozers, as well as private automobiles. Once the Indians got their hands on some horses, they became some of the finest horsemen in the world, but it was too late.

Uncle Ken may remember that I told him, some years ago, that a bunch of Indonesians bought my favorite social networking site and turned it into a commercial marketplace. I was indignant that the rest of us had been forced into exile by a bunch of heathen savages who, last I heard, were still running around the jungle naked and eating each other. Now he tells me that they have become the fourth most populous nation on Earth, and that, Malaysia, another cannibal kingdom, had the tallest building in the world for awhile. Last I heard, that distinction was held by Dubai, which isn't much of an improvement. I don't think they have ever eaten each other but I have heard that they are particularly fond of their camels. Make of that what you will.