by CKR
This is a continuation of yesterday’s blogging. I hope to have my own photos later today.
First, from nuclear abolition’s Fab Four, another January op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (more lasting link here). They’ve gained a few signatories in the past year, and they had a conference last October at which Ambassador Thomas Graham added the next steps after we get the Big Nuclear Two (US and Russia) down to a few hundred nukes each from the current ten thousand and more. A comment here on the op-ed that brings up a number of issues we’ve been discussing in our blog-tank policy development. Yes, I’ll be posting more on our project by the end of the week.
James Sterngold writes in Mother Jones about how a Republican congressman wanted to support the Bush administration’s nuclear policies, only to find out that there was no there there. The current version of the LANL Blog picked it up (for which h/t), and the commenters seem dumbstruck to learn that this is a problem. I’ll refrain from any more commentary on this lack of perception over there because the last time I did, the blog owner bullied his way over here with intemperate comments that had nothing to do with the subject matter. But that was a different blog owner than today’s.
Tim Rutten at the Los Angeles Times is offended that the government wants to pry into the private lives of the scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but he’s just uninformed. That sort of prying, and more, has been the norm at the weapons laboratories for a decade and more. Once upon a time, in order to get a security clearance, all you had to do was testify that you didn’t belong to the wrong sorts of organizations and say that you didn’t do things that you might be blackmailed for. But as times changed, so did the requirements, which, I agree, are much too intrusive, but the problem goes much further than JPL.
Meanwhile, the Pope canceled a speech at Rome’s oldest university (that’s Rome, Italy, home of the Vatican!) because of protests against his defense of the heresy trial of Galileo. The students were demanding a dialog, which apparently the Pope was unwilling to provide. (Guardian, LA Times)
The Pine River World News has a wonderful name and the whole world for a beat. Check them out. The folks over there cull a bunch of newspapers I don’t usually read, so they’re a valuable resource for articles like these:
Opposition rejects security advisory Tahir Niaz (The Frontier Post, Pakistan)
Thailand extends emergency rule in restive provinces (Vietnam News Agency)
Interview with Pervez Musharraf from Der Spiegel
Paul Goble has a couple of good posts: one on how some of the post-Soviet republics light up the night sky and some don’t, with links to overhead photos; another on the nonexistence of a Russian national movement, which raises questions both about how the US views Russia and what any national movement in any country might look like. I’ll register a small complaint about Window on Eurasia’s graphics, but for Goble’s commentary, I’ll live with them.
A site has been chosen to entomb the remains of Lithuania’s Ignalina reactors. It’s not clear whether the site will accept waste from outside of Lithuania; such a site is needed in the region. H/T to AR.
Here’s the story on the photo at the top of this post: giant rat found in Uruguay museum, weighing one ton. But it’s just the skelton, and it appears the little guy was a vegetarian. Aaaawwww! Cute! I also particularly like the way they have made clear which is the fossil and which is the reconstruction.
I saw “The Golden Compass” yesterday and recommend it unreservedly. Charlie Rose’s interview with Philip Pullman is worth viewing, too.