@Urabutln:
It was the Cold War.
"You'd think that blowback from the Deepwater oil disaster would make companies more cautious about drilling deep into the Earth in search of black gold. "
As usual, physics and weapons technology are mysteries to Hollywood. The "alien sea mine" is especially hilarious - "400 square feet", oh, the humanity!
The only sensible answer is "maybe".
I really hope I'm dead before this crap becomes too prevalent. Driving is one of the great joys in life, I really hope to not have to watch it be extinguished in favor of temporary safety.
@ms17: "Who in Canada would support merging with America?"
@Belabras:
@Belabras: On the extreme side, it's possible to place the "Gate" fantasy-ish novels in the Alliance/Union setting.
I always though it was just a take-off of the Red Weed from The War of the Worlds.
These seem to be gas-jet devices.
"This is the first book of Cherryh's Alliance-Union series"
I guess the SW universe is amazingly inhospitable to life. That's a lot of area, and not very many locations, all very widely spaced.
@Mekklesack: @Roklimber: