Is this slashdot or a garbage tabloid?
Isn't that basically applying the Identity Principle?
I guess for them those 72 virgins are worth it. Still, 72 virgins won't be virgins for very long.
That's why Bill got in line for the 72. (By the way, did anyone see the picture of Monica Lewinsky on the news this past week? She looks like she was possessed by a wraith.)
Meanwhile, back in a secret bunker, hidden beneath a nondescript concrete building:
General: Mr. President, it appears that we have located... Planet X!
Georgio: I'm not saying it's aliens... but it's aliens.
Sitchin: It's Nibiru! The Anunnaki are returning!
The world has relied on "Just in Time" delivery or maintaining minimal backups to cover brief weather interruptions for many years as globalisation became the norm.
That's the major problem. Nobody has any stockpiles anymore. In previous times, villages had granaries to store food to hedge them through a tough period. Today, the financial equivalent is futures contracts, but that doesn't help when the physical delivery can't happen. Your average neighborhood grocery store has maybe a couple or three days of supply; they don't have canned foods and such in the back now. That's inefficient, particularly for taxes where you have to pay tax t the end of the year on inventory.
Our system is horribly broken. Our supply lines are shot. Remember, "an army marches on its stomach."
Are they stupid?
Yes. Remember that these are the same kind of people who push shit like Starfleet Academy (aka Kurtzman Trek) and wonder why it bombs.
In order to dial out, it is necessary to broaden one's dimension.