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[flame99]

Like babies! See, that's why the Chinese were right all along. Child chow mein, anyone?

Child mein, you could say.

*snrk*

I love you.

oi m90 back off

In more terrifying news I heard a kid argue, completely seriously and without a trace of irony, that we should kill everyone in Syria (including non-combatants) because "that's how you win a war quickly and efficiently."

[Yoink]

Well, they're not exactly wrong.
The backlash resulting from such a course of action would render it incredibly impractical, though- unless you're okay with nuking the rebellious populous of your own country in the same fashion shortly afterwards.

[Graknorke]

They are technically correct, the best kind of correct.

[Loud Whispers]

In more terrifying news I heard a kid argue, completely seriously and without a trace of irony, that we should kill everyone in Syria (including non-combatants) because "that's how you win a war quickly and efficiently."

Worked for Genghis Khan so that kid's not wrong
For that matter at age 12 Genghis Khan had fled his own tribe to avoid being murdered, by age 16 he was uniting the Mongol tribes and by his 40s was poised to conquer the entire world
You must murder this child to make sure he does not take over a tribe
Should he take over a tribe anyways abandon all hope and do not murder his envoys

Well, they're not exactly wrong.
The backlash resulting from such a course of action would render it incredibly impractical, though- unless you're okay with nuking the rebellious populous of your own country in the same fashion shortly afterwards.

Mountains of skulls don't rebel
-Genghis Khan

[Yoink]

The real 'terrifying' thing here is probably that humankind has access to the kind of weapons that would make "kill the entire enemy country" an actual possibility, in ruthless enough hands.

[Loud Whispers]

The real 'terrifying' thing here is probably that humankind has access to the kind of weapons that would make "kill the entire enemy country" an actual possibility, in ruthless enough hands.

That technology is called salt, bow and arrow

[scrdest]

Apparently there are health concerns related to eating human blood/brains, though, I believe?
From what I vaguely remember reading in the past you just have to make sure it's cooked well.

Not good enough to stop the prions which cause those diseases I listed. According to the Wiki, the process for sterilizing instruments that might have been contaminated with prions involves copious amounts of bleach and lye.

It's because prion diseases are even less alive than viruses are. Where a virus still has a basic wall to hold it together, a prion is basically just a uniquely folded protein that your brain essentially "trips" on, in the process breaking the protein apart into two pieces (each of which then pull parts from their surrounding to become two complete copies of the original). Since it's essentially just a free floating protein in your system without even anything to hold it together, it's even less destroyable than most viruses are, which are basically just a bit of dna surrounded by a protein wall. Less important parts to target and all that jazz.

Err, whaddyamean, less destroyable? Viruses aren't that hard to destroy, per se - the problem is, you can only get so many of the free-floating ones, whereas the real problem demands the engagement of Immune System KGB and if they fail, you suddenly get a LOT of them to deal with.

Prions, meanwhile, aren't tough because they are proteins - most proteins can be and are easy pickings - heat 'em up, digest 'em with proteases, stick 'em in a stew... The problem is prions are not 'most proteins', they are abnormally resistant to the usual tools of the trade, similarly to the issue with amyloids causing Alzheimers and whatnot but with added fun factor of converting your own proteins. Damn things are essentially protein equivalent of zombies, come to think of it.

[Yoink]

The real 'terrifying' thing here is probably that humankind has access to the kind of weapons that would make "kill the entire enemy country" an actual possibility, in ruthless enough hands.

That technology is called salt, bow and arrow

You need assloads of dudes/dudettes to wield said bows and arrows, though. Plus there's nothing quick or efficient about it, and at least some of the enemy people are likely to escape. Unless you have a bow large enough to fire arrows the size of skyscrapers, tipped with a nuclear payload...

[Teneb]

Minor scare, but still got me stressed. I hear a noise and turn my head to see what I think is a huge cricket in the ground near me. I absolutely detest insects, so it gave me quite the scare. Thing eventually got into the bathroom, where I closed the door behind it (too big to crawl under it). I'll have to go there eventually, but I am less than enthusiastic about it.

[Tawa]

I assume you're sigging Cinder's baby-eating pun, and not my confession of love.

Well you know what they say about assuming.

[Loud Whispers]

The real 'terrifying' thing here is probably that humankind has access to the kind of weapons that would make "kill the entire enemy country" an actual possibility, in ruthless enough hands.

That technology is called salt, bow and arrow

You need assloads of dudes/dudettes to wield said bows and arrows, though. Plus there's nothing quick or efficient about it, and at least some of the enemy people are likely to escape. Unless you have a bow large enough to fire arrows the size of skyscrapers, tipped with a nuclear payload...

1. You don't need arseloads of dudes, you only need one army
2. They were very quick and very efficient
3. Cannot escape when encircled and besieged, nor can you outrun Mongolian steeds
More to the point, where would you run to when there is no food and no water everywhere - only Mongolians?
Look at the Maoris, they successfully genocided an island full of people not even with bows and arrows but even less, and if we're going to use modern weapons then frankly we've always had the logistical capability to make cities nonexistent since WWI Babylon

[Orange Wizard]

To be fair, the Chatham Islands are, like, nipple-sized, at best.

And where do you plan to get enough horses for an army?

[FearfulJesuit]

IIRC from Guns, Germs and Steel, didn't the Maori have rifles they bought from the British?

[Orange Wizard]

Not on the Chathams. Those are like a thousand kilometres away.

[Amperzand]

While we've had the logistical capacity for genocide since probably like Carthage, it's never really been quite so feasible to turn a large area into a crater to bedrock. I mean, if the effects of megaton-yield weapons are linear, something like the Tsar Bomb would heat a 150-mile area to several thousand degrees instantly. That's less "Kill everybody on the island" more "Burn the entire island chain into a crater on the seabed"