Things change.(missile defense programs online)(Brief Article)

A BRITISH WEB SITE, THE "NOTIONAL MISSILE DEFENCE Initiative" asks visitors for their (tongue-in-cheek) suggestions on how to devise a missile defense that might actually work. According to the February 10 New Scientist, anyone who writes in receives a notice explaining that a response will be delayed because "a one-character error in a one-line computer script at an Internet service provider" has sent all messages to the wrong place. The notice adds: "Of course, the hundred-million-line computer programs on which the [U.S.] National Missile Defence [nmd] scheme would rely will contain no errors at all."

Jokes like these are not so funny any more, are they? Not since …