Bomb Train
I gave this post the title "bomb train" not that there is any particular significance to that - it's a song by the Mekons. And when you think about it, do things really need more significance than that? But perhaps I also wanted to put thought of the Mekon (from whom the band took their name) in your head, or (and) put you in mind of the film Closely watched Trains. I saw a book that came into the library this week Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the
Pentagon's Scientific Underworld. Written by Sharon Weinberger, it is a look into the world of daft mindsets of the Department of Defense's myriad research programs. The book is an expansion of an article Ms Weinberger wrote for the Washington Post two years ago
Scary Things Come in Small Packages (washingtonpost.com) Not to go off on too many tangents but this also reminds me of a novel I skimmed through early this year the Begum's Millions: a recently translated Jules Verne book . [I am convinced I remember this story from a film strip presentation I once saw on the Boston PBS station while I was home sick from school one day -- somewhere back in the 1970's.] An Indian millionaires widow gives two men a million dollars, a frenchman and a german as it happens. The frenchman builds a utopia in the American west, the 'city of well-being'. The german uses his money to build a big big cannon a few miles away to blast the utopia into rubble. Consider the mixed reviews this got:
The New Atlantis - Jules Verne: Father of Science Fiction? - John Derbyshire. This sort of comparison causes some to blush and conclude Verne just didn't understand things. Those who invent techo-magical militaristic solutions to their problems are not the bad guys - they're the good guys. So go ahead and set up your alternative to the globalizing corporate market. We will take its measure and determine the amount of dynamite we need. The heart of Weinberger's book is a bomb, the hafnium bomb. There is a wikipedia node:
Ballotechnics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Ballotechnics involves something called "induced gamma emission" (IGE). The DoD keeps an ad hoc group on tap; the Jasons to look over things like this - they didn't see anything in it at all. But it was going to win us the war on terror, so a great deal of money was spent anyway. I want to read this book when it emerges from processing and hits the shelves. From stem to stern this country is awash in junk science. The current administration not just a-scientific but anti-scientific. I recall the junk science debate from '04. (when I last wrote about this). A point of concern then was the Proposed Bulletin on Peer Review and Quality Information - Office of Mananagement and Budget's OIRA Regulatory Matters. The idea was to quietly rewrite the rules on the advisory boards that supply technical advice to government agencies - to allow scientists from regulated industries to staff these committees. The
Union of Concerned Scientists U S was very concerned. They still are and have pieces to read and view on their web site on the problematic nature of the new class of nuclear bombs being readied for Iran
The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP). And on the faint possibility that our missile defense will be enough that we can cease being serious about nuclear proliferation
U.S. Missile Defense Would Offer Little Protection against North Korean Missiles - these days the fastest growing world sport.
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