News Brief, Hands Away Edition
Joshua Foust on May 10 2007 at 9:26 pm | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
- Philip Carter has by far the best response to the Army’s misguided new OPSEC rules.
- Interesting report on nuclear submarine dismantlement, though the end contains a curious gaffe: the submarine in that picture is not being towed. Russian subs are not allowed to be towed after the K-159 disaster, in which a Russian sub being towed in rough waters sank with its nuclear fuel still aboard, killing nine people. Further, the sub (which looks like an Alpha) was not lifted onto that boat by a crane; it is on board a semi-submersible heavy lift craft, which can partially sink itself to load and then carry heavy loads (at the link is a picture of a similar craft carrying, not towing, the USS Cole back to Mississippi). Some cool, if haunting, pics of the U.S. submarine dismantling service in Puget Sound can be found here.
Around the World
- The Greeks apparently made the first computer. In 200 B.C. So, the ancient Greeks were vastly more sophisticated than we originally thought, and we already had a pretty damned high opinion of them. This blows me away.
- A Registan.net update? Kazakhstan and Russia are creating a world bank for uranium, Russia moves to maintain its hold on Turkmenistan while we watch, and I see reason for hope in Afghanistan.
- European energy giants have their eyes set on Iran. It also seems Israel has the ability to first-strike Iran’s nuclear sites. Should it? Absolutely not—unless you want an apocalyptic regional war with a high likelihood of nuclear weapons use.
- A lot of Russians think the election will be fixed, but they continue to support Vladimir Putin. Interesting. I can’t wait for the Victory Day celebrations (and neither can Putin).
- Speaking of Putin, he has reportedly compared the U.S. to the Third Reich, since, between the two of us, it is the U.S. which has murdered dissident journalists, denied the right of immigrants to work, threatened all of our neighbors with economic starvation for not toeing the line, sold nuclear and other advanced weapons to known sociopaths, and randomly nationalize multi-billion dollar foreign ventures. Alright, well, we have sometimes sold weapons to bad people… Ironically enough, because of Russia. Anyway, Putin can’t be seriously comparing us to the lazy Germans—even the descendants of respectable tyrants, like Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck, can’t be bothered to show up for work. We’re a bit scarier than that, right?
- Debbie Does Kabul? Pure gold. I probably noted the NYT review of her book, but I don’t feel like digging it up.
- I see the need to go metric—not only will it save future space probes from humiliating failures, but being on the same measuring system as the world is good for business. But gosh darn it, I like gallons, as much as I like the Brits.
- The unheard victims of the violence in Iraq? Assyrian Christians.
- Tehran has thrown a prominent American-Iranian scholar into prison. Foreign Policy, for which she was a contributor, has more thoughts.
Back at Home
- Wow, it seems homeland security is as much of a racket as defense. Only here, towns can receive untold amounts of federal money for no reason, instead of a few government contractors.
- Hahaha, white men joking about raping black women is awesome because Republicans suck!
- Woah: former senior Bush administration official calls for Bush’s impeachment. “I do believe that they would have thought had they been asked by you or whomever at the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia ‘Do you think this will be exercised?’ they would have said ‘Of course it will, every generation they’ll have to throw some bastard out’. That’s a form of accountability too. It’s ultimate accountability.” I forgot that many the Founding Fathers really saw nothing of tearing the entire system down every 20 years or so. The levels of incumbency, entrenchment, and lack of accountability today probably would astound them, as it has begun to astound me over the last two years.
- That albatross and I have something in common, heh.
