Big news
 

On Tuesday, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a federally funded facility outside San Francisco that focuses on nuclear research, released 63 rare, restored and declassified nuclear-test films. 

The films, uploaded to the lab’s YouTube account, are part of a trove of some 10,000 that have been in storage since they were originally shot between 1945 and 1962, and had been held in secure vaults since then. 

some old fashioned score settling became the sports story of the day as the nfl set out to embarrass the marquee franchise in the league for the past 15 years, the new england patriots. in short, the patriots didnt take their medicine when they got caught deflating balls in the playoffs last year. i didnt follow the legal manuevering that closely but a judge ruled in favor of the patriots in overturning a four game suspension to their quarterback tom brady. the ruling did not acquit brady of the charges, only that the evidence was insufficient with regards to whatever element of the collective bargaining agreement the nfl claimed was abrogated. 

so the nfl essentially went nuclear, or at least employed the bunker busters, by releasing information regarding the 2007 patriots cheating scandal that they were complicit in tamping down if not outright covering up. there was probably no smoking gun but there was a whole lot to make the patriots look bad and further tarnish their legacy. so instead of enduring this latest slap on the wrist, the patriots have opted for a black eye and all this to placate the bruised egos of owner, coach and quarterback. needless to say, a whole bunch of people that skipped a lot of classes in college learned the meaning of schadenfreude today.

Had a long conversation with a former co-worker who has turned conservative. Stayed away from politics, but at some point he started ranting about socialists. I told him that by current standards Nixon and Reagan would be considered socialists. I may have been pushing the envelope with Reagan, but certainly he espoused policies that would be anathema to the Tea Baggers: cut-and-run in the face of Arab insurgents, reduce nuclear weapons, etc. In any case, we didn't get to the fine points, as the response was spittle-flecked screaming.

Fox News causes brain damage.

It is unacceptable that television news brings Tom Delay and Karl Rove on as bona fide political commentators, when both are criminals. The same thing goes for Oliver North. Delay has been indicted on corruption charges and had to step down from his seat in Congress. Rove led a campaign to have the press out a covert CIA operative who was attempting to stop Iranian nuclear proliferation, essentially blowing her cover and that of her contacts to Tehran (i.e. he is a traitor).

There was a time when individuals so tainted with crime made themselves unacceptable in polite society, including on television.

Instead, these monsters are being given air time. CNN brought Delay on to accuse Barack Obama of being a "Marxist." To have that shameless embezzler given a platform to smear an honorable man just made my blood boil.

Folks, we need an organization that can blanket the corporate media with emails of complaint every time they bring on a criminal and parade him as a legitimate commentator. If they blow us off, it would be time to get up some advertiser boycotts.

Weird photos from a nuclear test explosion in the Nevada desert. I'm posting this only as an excuse to mention that I met a guy who was the first man dropped back onto Bikini Atoll after the hydrogen bomb test in 1952. He was collecting sensors that had been left there, but they were all vaporized. Yikes. He said he knew Teller, but I was too shocked by the whole thing to ask any interesting questions.

We've come a long way since the 1964 presidential election in which nuclear weapons were code for "bat shit crazy".

So my own hope is that -- if the American people do not find a way to choose democracy over empire -- at least our imperial venture will end not with a nuclear bang but a financial whimper. From the present vantage point, it certainly seems a daunting challenge for any President (or Congress) from either party even to begin the task of dismantling the military-industrial complex, ending the pall of "national security" secrecy and the "black budgets" that make public oversight of what our government does impossible, and bringing the president's secret army, the CIA, under democratic control. It's evident that Nemesis -- in Greek mythology the goddess of vengeance, the punisher of hubris and arrogance -- is already a visitor in our country, simply biding her time before she makes her presence known.

Debka, a right-ish Israeli military news source not very well respected, claims that Gates listed Israel as a nuclear power in his testimony before congress. That seems like maybe a big deal. Everyone supposes that Israel has nukes, but as far as I know no major US administration officials have ever confirmed this. Am I wrong? Certainly Israel has a policy of not admitting (or denying) this. Was it just a slip of the tongue, or is this a first step to maybe getting at the heart of the matter in the MidEast? (I can dream, can't I?)

"We Americans have never outgrown the narcissistic notion that the rest of the world wants (or should want) to emulate us. In Iraq, bringing democracy became the default excuse for our warmongers -- it would be perfectly plausible to call them "crusaders," if Osama bin Laden had not already appropriated the term -- once the Bush lies about Iraq's alleged nuclear, chemical, and biological threats and its support for al Qaeda melted away. Bush and his neocon supporters have prattled on endlessly about how "the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East," but the reality is much closer to what Noam Chomsky dubbed "deterring democracy" in a notable 1992 book of that name. We have done everything in our power to see that the Iraqis did not get a "free and fair election," one in which the Shia majority could come to power and ally Iraq with Iran. As Noah Feldman, the Coalition Provisional Authority's law advisor, put it in November 2003, "If you move too fast the wrong people could get elected.""

In February 2002, after a briefing on the status of the war in Afghanistan, the commanding officer, Gen. Tommy Franks, told me the war was being compromised as specialized personnel and equipment were being shifted from Afghanistan to prepare for the war in Iraq -- a war more than a year away. Even at this early date, the White House was signaling that the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was of such urgency that it had priority over the crushing of al Qaeda [...]

At a meeting of the Senate intelligence committee on Sept. 5, 2002, CIA Director George Tenet was asked what the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) provided as the rationale for a preemptive war in Iraq. An NIE is the product of the entire intelligence community, and its most comprehensive assessment. I was stunned when Tenet said that no NIE had been requested by the White House and none had been prepared. Invoking our rarely used senatorial authority, I directed the completion of an NIE.

Tenet objected, saying that his people were too committed to other assignments to analyze Saddam Hussein's capabilities and will to use chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons. We insisted, and three weeks later the community produced a classified NIE.

There were troubling aspects to this 90-page document. While slanted toward the conclusion that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction stored or produced at 550 sites, it contained vigorous dissents on key parts of the information, especially by the departments of State and Energy. Particular skepticism was raised about aluminum tubes that were offered as evidence Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. As to Hussein's will to use whatever weapons he might have, the estimate indicated he would not do so unless he was first attacked.

Under questioning, Tenet added that the information in the NIE had not been independently verified by an operative responsible to the United States. In fact, no such person was inside Iraq. Most of the alleged intelligence came from Iraqi exiles or third countries, all of which had an interest in the United States' removing Hussein, by force if necessary. former fla sen bob graham (d)

Note, that classified NIE was not available to every congressperson. Just to members of the Senate and House committees on intelligence.

Graham asked Tenet to produce an unclassified version of the NIE. But what the CIA produced was a propaganda piece absent any of the reservations or caveats presented in the classified edition of the document. The vast majority of senators and congressment, much less the American people, did not see the full classified document.

Hence, Bush's claims that congressional Democrats had access to the same intelligence that the administration had is pure bullshit.

daily kos

Number one in a series: half baked political theory quiz.

Why would the U.S. ignore North Korea in light of the general agreement that they are making nuclear bombs (maybe around 6 by the summer is one estimate I heard,) and have missles capable of reaching the U.S.? Please answer in two words.

Hey Steve, did you get a gig designing graphics for the new homeland security site?

a couple from wired news on past subjects -- the space elevator and nuclear powers role in future space exploration. gotta think that the elevator would become the ultimate target for terrorism.

What is up with the Republicans in congress? Have they taken to mispronouncing the word nuclear in the hopes that we might think George W. pronounces it correctly?

Thomas Friedman is at it in the Times again, this time attributing
the cooldown of nuclear tensions over Kashmir to GE,
American Express, Dell, and other enlightened companies
who job out white collar coolee labor in India. Seems those
companies would have to take their high tech crap jobs
elsewhere because of the danger, so the indentured
servants put pressure on the Indian government to stand
down. To Friedman this is another example of how wonderful
global capital is. Not a word is said about all the money and
jobs and training being exported from the US because the
Indians are willing to work for so much less. On the subject
of Hindus, we can only hope Friedman will be reincarnated
as a minority American in an inner city with poorly funded
schools and no industrial base.

Dusk's Gallery
124 Storms Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Telephone: 201-451-4404
Email: dusksgallery@aol.com

For Immediate Release

............................................................................................................

Mark Dagley - Sculpture
Bill Schwarz - Photographs

February 1st through March 2nd, 2002

Dusk's Gallery presents the work of Jersey City artists Mark Dagley and Bill Schwarz. In this exhibition, both artists address issues of non-function and altered physicality in objects, images, and memory.

Mark Dagley's recent sculptures are hybrid objects informed by furniture design and molecular models. Dagley has created home-furnishings--chairs, tables, plant stands--that are drained of most true function. Like science projects gone awry, these objects emit a contaminated haze of meaning and humor. They are bizarre structural fictions for a non-lifestyle, bomb-shelter decor for the nuclear family that has it all, except maybe something to look at.

Bill Schwarz's found photographs offer observational experiences that need no direct artistic mediation. Schwarz acquires images from a variety of sources, including the internet, or in this case, curbside refuse. This recent body of work consists of what appear to be legal documents, evidence from a liablity suit. The subject of these photographs, taken from a variety of angles and depths of field, is a residential or storefront stoop that has fallen into disrepair, causing, perhaps, a misstep, an injury. These images reflect upon the investigation of the familiar. Accompanying them are two photographs of Hungarian Airlines 767s, advertisements for the artist's former employer, an international import/export firm, once located in World Trade Center, Tower One.

For more information, please contact Charles Cano, Gallery Director.

So, is this like the "credible threat" against airforce one, or is this the other kind? Why can't they just say what it is? I guess because it's something like "Mossad says so."

Anyway, I'm moving the /treehouse to highest alert. So you know what to do. Or not.

And what's up with this? Mushroom clouds north of Kabul? Not good. I've been saying it privately but I'll go on the record here - we are going to drop some nuclear weapons on someone, real soon. Here's the formula:

"Experts" and various other talking head types - including many politicians - sense a chance to gain some points in the American public's mind by hitting Bush for being too timid. McCain, to take one example, is strongly calling for ground troops to take and hold land in Afghanistan. Thomas Freidman is calling for similar action (what's up with this guy - he's starting to scare me.) In any case, Bush is going to be forced to do something to seem strong, but as soon as we send ground troops into Afghanistan they will immediately and soundly get their asses kicked. We have the technology, but I'm guessing that doesn't mean much in the chaos of battle. Being accustomed to battle conditions is the only thing that matters, and these people are clearly accustomed. The US military would have to take 10 years of strong defeats before we'd be toughened up enough to really duke it out with a nothing-to-lose islamic fundamentalist army with decades of experience fighting on their home soil.

So, after we lose a couple Somalia style battles (with our soldiers being tortured, gutted, beheaded, and otherwised dragged through the streets of Kabul) our people, goaded by the McCain types, will demand blood. They will demand a victory that our conventional forces will be unable to deliver. So Bush will have no choice but to use nuclear weapons. Even if it's clear tactically that they won't do much good. They will appease the psychic need for a big hit.

(And two days later the Russians will drop one on Chechnya.)

Hope I'm wrong.

Has this story only been in the Australian media, I wonder?

A NUCLEAR bomb, 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, is lying 10km off the east coast of the United States.

Until now one of the most closely guarded secrets in US military history, its existence has been confirmed in newly declassified documents which reveal how it was dumped in the sea after a mid-air collision more than 40 years ago.

Pentagon officials, though admitting they do not know the bomb's exact location, insist it is safe.

More...

Yesterday I killed 2 rats with one hawk: I saw the re-released Japanese animation classic Akira and my first DLP (digital widescreen) movie. Akira is playing at the AMC 25 on 42nd Street, which is a spectacle in itself if you haven't been. It's a five-story, high-tech, high-kitsch multiplex with stadium seating, perfect sound, and NO CUSTOMERS! It's like the home entertainment system from heaven--GO, before AMC declares bankruptcy and lets the whole thing get run down.

Anyway, about DLP: Everything is in sharp focus, the colors are bright and true, there are no hairs or specks, but there is a faint, evenly-distributed grain that runs through the entire image. After a half-hour or so you don't really notice it. No eye-strain, no headaches; like CDs, in some ways it's superior to analog and in some ways not. I'll have to see a non-animated movie before I completely judge the process.

And about the re-released Akira: WOW! I've seen it several times on murky VHS and wasn't prepared for the Blade Runner-like depth and complexity of the widescreen version. The movie's been cleaned up and digitally remastered and everything's bright and sharp. The scenes of Neo-Tokyo are incredibly densely-layered, and when Tetsuo turns into a giant, mutating, HP Lovecraft Mecha-blob at the end, you can see all the horrible, sublime stuff you only thought you were seeing on the video. The little snots at Time Out call the movie "incoherent," but I prefer the Voice's "hermetic." One goes to anime for gorgeous drawing, surreal imagination, and lightning-fast action, not Raymond Chandler-like plotting. Animes are always delphic, weaving together post-WWII nuclear terror, cyborg speculation, and weird meditations on childhood trauma. One thing I'd forgotten about Akira: the characters are naturalistic (i.e., Japanese-looking)--no Bambi-like, swimming-pool eyes. Don't get me wrong, I love the eyes and exaggerated coiffure, but it's interesting that Akira broke the mold back in '88 and '90s productions didn't follow suit.

i guess salon has been running with the paranoia theme all week. today they have paranoid songs. heres a few i thought of that werent on the list. anybody have anything to add?

the kinks -- destroyer
nirvana -- territorial pissing
elvis costello -- watching the detectives
joe jackson -- is she really going out with him

and heres a bonus link to songs from the 80's that mention nuclear war.

As long as we're talking politics - what's the story in the middle east? I have very little intuition on this one (stemming, no doubt, from the fact that I know very little about the history of the region.) I can tell that I'm supposed to back Israel (as a good US media consumer,) and my intuition usually has me siding with them, but then I read things like this seemingly reasonable piece. Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Specifically, what's the deal with the 1967 borders? Is it true that the violence could be ended if Israel would agree to those borders? And why won't they? I have to think that in the next few (or at least 5 to 10) years both sides are going to have very nasty weapons at their disposal (bacteriological, nuclear, genetic, and eventually nanotechnological.) It seems crucial to work these things out now. Is there any hope?

My break away space colony plans aren't looking so stupid now, are they? ;-)

May 3rd 2000, at 5.54am GMT, the last piece of an amazing cosmic jigsaw fell into place. The picture will remain intact till the evening, at 8.18pm GMT. During those historic 14 hours and 24 minutes, the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will ALL be passing through the same zodiac sign at the same time. Hardly ever does the sky produce such a potent portent. Astrologers, all over the globe, see this as awesomely auspicious. If you want to see why, think of the sky as a cosmic pond. The planets, as they travel in their orbits, usually cast small, symbolic "pebbles" into this pool. By aligning so closely together, they are creating one gigantic boulder. It is about to land with an almighty splash. The ripples will reverberate for decades. And, for most of us, they will not so much be ripples as tidal waves of change. First though, we must look at the way in which it will influence the world as a whole. We are talking here, about a conjunction with the power to unleash energies, options and possibilities which people have long dreamed of yet never been able to reach. During the next twenty years, the human race is going to journey further than it has done in the last 200 years. Science will continue to stretch our imagination. It has been doing so for a long time now. None of us are surprised any more when, thanks to technology, impossible things suddenly become possible. But so far, our stunning advances in science have not been reflected socially. Seemingly impossible social changes (such as eliminating poverty or ending war) remain as remote as ever. We say, half in jest and half in sorrow, that we may be able to put a person on the Moon but we can't feed all the hungry people in Ethiopia. And we accept that this is just a fact of life that will never alter. Yet it is THIS very attitude of hopeless resignation which is about to alter as a result of today's big cosmic conjunction. For finally, after countless centuries, people are going to lose their pessimism and redefine their relationship with life itself. The seven fold conjunction of 531AD caused both Christianity and Buddhism to spread like wildfire across the globe, causing millions to redefine that same relationship. Both teachings invite reflection on an 'eternal spirit' and suggest that existence, here on earth, is but one of many possible states. The seven fold conjunction of 1962 coincided with the famous Cuban missile crisis. It placed millions in a state of fearful apprehension. In reaction, we started racing to the Moon and experimenting, en masse, with ways to reach alternate states of consciousness. Once again, human beings became keenly aware that existence, here on earth, is but one of many possible states. Now, here comes the next seven fold conjunction and the last for many centuries. It has the same basic message for humanity. "Existence, here on earth, is but one of many possible states." But this time, because the conjunction is taking place in a practical Earth sign, it carries a rider. "Do not, therefore, wait for another lifetime - or try to escape to another world. Recognise that future existence, here on earth, does not HAVE to reflect the pattern of past existence. Anything is possible. Anything you can imagine. Anything you can find the strength, wisdom and courage to reach for. The dream you are dreaming today will be the reality you find yourself living in tomorrow." This, by and large, is how astrologers are interpreting the current message from the cosmos. Hence the reason why all our predictions must be about preparing for a time when things we once considered 'unimaginable' become perfectly feasible. And hence too, the reason why all our advice must encourage people to start reaching for the brightest, most hopeful dreams they can envisage. The Future Starts Here Historic cosmic events are rather like buses. You hang about for a thousand years or so and none take place. Then suddenly, two come along in less than half a century. The world has been waiting a long time for a seven fold conjunction to reshape history. Since May 31, 531AD, to be precise. That event set a religious revolution spinning across the globe. Buddhism came to Japan. Christianity came to Europe. We can hardly imagine how deeply moved people must have been by the intensity of their new spiritual discoveries. But it is clear that, around this time, something shook millions of people into a new state of awareness. And that crucial values changed as a result. Since then, there has been a further sevenfold conjunction. It took place on Feb 4, 1962 - within hours of President Kennedy declaring a trade embargo against Cuba. This was to take the earth to the terrifying brink of global, thermonuclear war. It shook millions of people into a new state of awareness. And crucial values changed as a result. During the next few years, all over the world, young people began to question conventional belief systems. The Swinging Sixties gave us The Beatles, The Youth Revolution, The Permissive Society, The Hippy Dream - and the First Moon Landing. Spookily, if you trace back the social history of most modern attitudes, you can find a clear turning point just after that last seven fold conjunction of 1962. This though, was just a curtain raiser; part one of a two part sequence which culminates, May 1st, with one further sevenfold conjunction. Against the backdrop of history, those last four decades have passed in the blink of an eye. Now, the cosmic eye is blinking once more. By the time it opens again, the world is not just going to be exploring a new belief system. It is going to be embracing a different set of more enlightened values. Values which will dominate global culture for a further fifteen hundred years.