ACA has posted an interesting “Israeli proposal”:http://armscontrol.org/pdf/20070927_Israeli_NSG_Proposal.pdf submitted to the NSG last March. It details a criteria-based approach for future NSG-states cooperation with countries that never bothered to sign the NPT.
Both the proposal and the “accompanying media advisory”:http://armscontrol.org/pressroom/2007/20070927_IsraelNSG.asp make for interesting reading. For geeks, anyway.
Normally, I think it’s lame to post this sort of thing. But this time I cannot resist.
Someone found this blog by Googling
bq. how+much+money+those+a+person+that+works+with+a+centrifuge+machine+make+a+years+
I’ve never blogged about that particular aspect of uranium enrichment, but wish the individual the best in his/her endeavors.
Unless they involve things that can blow a lot of shit up.
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Or The Dan Ponemantown Massacre , Big Poneman, MC 900 Ft. Poneman…
Former NSC proliferation guru Dan Poneman is “in a band”:http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/10903/ called Coalition of the Willing. The photo is from their gig at the Knitting Factory. Seriously.
The band includes other luminaries, such as Hungarian ambassador Andras Simonyi and former Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (about whom _ACW_ has “previously blogged”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/612/showing-skunk-baxter-some-love).
A documentary about them is below. That still is of Tommy Ramone.
[Thanks to FoKerr _MAP_ for the tip. ]
China’s “MFA has the text.”:http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx/t369084.htm of the “Second-Phase Actions for the Implementation of the [September 2005] Joint Statement.”
Here are the highlights of what the six parties agreed to after four days in late September.
*The disablement of the 5 megawatt Experimental Reactor at Yongbyon, the Reprocessing Plant (Radiochemical Laboratory) at Yongbyon and the Nuclear Fuel Rod Fabrication Facility at Yongbyon will be completed by 31 December 2007.* Specific measures recommended by the expert group will be adopted by heads of delegation in line with the principles of being acceptable to all Parties, scientific, safe, verifiable, and consistent with international standards. At the request of the other Parties, *the United States will lead disablement activities and provide the initial funding for those activities. As a first step, the US side will lead the expert group to the DPRK within the next two weeks to prepare for disablement.*
*The DPRK agreed to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programs in accordance with the February 13 agreement by 31 December 2007.*
*Recalling the commitments to begin the process of removing the designation of the DPRK as a state sponsor of terrorism and advance the process of terminating the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act with respect to the DPRK, the United States will fulfill its commitments to the DPRK in parallel with the DPRK’s actions based on consensus* reached at the meetings of the Working Group on Normalization of DPRK-U.S. Relations.
The DPRK and Japan will make sincere efforts to normalize their relations expeditiously in accordance with the Pyongyang Declaration, on the basis of the settlement of the unfortunate past and the outstanding issues of concern. *The DPRK and Japan committed themselves to taking specific actions* toward this end through intensive consultations between them.
In accordance with the February 13 agreement, *economic, energy and humanitarian assistance up to the equivalent of one million tons of HFO (inclusive of the 100,000 tons of HFO already delivered) will be provided to the DPRK.* Specific modalities will be finalized through discussion by the Working Group on Economy and Energy Cooperation.
Given that North Korea tested a nuclear weapon less than year ago, not bad.
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This is sweet.
Areva has an “animated
tutorial”:http://www.areva.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=arevagroup_en%2FFolderGameQuiz%2FFolderGameQuizFullTemplate&cid=1033576020007 on the nuclear fuel cycle.
Just click the part that says “Follow the guide!”.
[ Thanks to FoKerr _MBN_ for this. ]
Steve Aftergood has the “unclassed exec.summary”:http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/10/jason_on_the_reliable_replacem.html of the JASON RRW study. As far as I know, the _Post’s_ Walter Pincus was the first to “report”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/29/AR2007092901569_pf.html on it. Jon Fox from GSN also has a “good article”:http://204.71.60.35/d_newswire/issues/2007_10_1.html#8216110E on the report.
Bottom line seems to be that the idea of “certifying a new warhead w/o testing” is still in the “not gonna happen” category, at least for now.
It is worth noting that former NNSA head Linton Brooks “said”:http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/index.cfm?fa=eventDetail&id=1019&&prog=zgp&proj=znpp at the CEIP conference a few months back that the RRW
bq. *will put the final nail in the coffin of nuclear testing* because in the next term when we take a serious look at the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the technical argument against ratification will be taken away by a concept that drives any question of the need to test for future problems out.
Just saying.
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I’m not sure this cultural reference means what “this blogger”:http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359814775&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull for the _J Post_ thinks it means.
According to this post, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger missed a chance to embarrass Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the latter’s recent visit to the campus. I’ll spare you the details, but the post argues that
bq. At a time when US objectives should be making every effort to sway Muslim public opinion over to its side, American stupidity has morphed the Iranian president into the *Persian Bon Jovi.*
Wow. Even I feel young now.
Turning Ahmadinejad into Bon Jovi would, in my mind, be a US PR victory. The “Persian Steve Albini” would, I think, be a much better metaphor for the _JP_ blogger. But what do I know?
Speaking of Mr. Albini, here’s some live Big Black:
While discussing his previous life in NYC, the IAEA DG “disclosed”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/middleeast/elbaradei-sep.html?ref=middleeast&pagewanted=all to the _NYT_ that he reads blogs:
Q: New York is home for me: I spent 15 years in New York. New York is still home. I have lots of friends, memories. I love New York not because what it represents, an effort to look at the big picture, integrate and learn how all of us need to work together, succeed together. It’s a merit system. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. And you are rewarded on your merit and tolerate each other. That’s to me, still an elusive goal we haven’t reached. *You see sometimes the comments on the blogs saying, “His name is Mohamed and that says it all”.* That makes you feel that there is still a lot of work to do.
Q: Meaning?
A: Meaning that I’m inherently biased, because of my background, my identity, religious origin… It just shows how much we still have stereotyping. How much we cannot come to understand that we can rise above all these petty allegiances and identify, simply with each other as human beings.
If this one is in his bookmarks, I’d like to know.
The “entire _NYT_ profile”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/middleeast/17elbaradei.html?ref=todayspaper of ElBaradei is pretty good, but one part is just outstanding.
The article talks about US efforts to keep ElBaradei from obtaining another term as IAEA DG. Apparently, he didn’t want the job until he heard that J Bolton was trying to oust him:
He said *he had been “99 percent decided” against running until he learned that John R. Bolton,* then Washington’s United Nations ambassador, *was determined to block him.*
Dr. ElBaradei recalled “a sense of revulsion” that such a personal decision should be made “by anybody else.”
*His wife said she had told him, “Mohamed, you run — tomorrow!”*
Strong work.
Excerpts from two _NYT_ interviews with ElBaradei can be found “here”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/middleeast/elbaradei-aug.html?ref=middleeast and “here.”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/middleeast/elbaradei-sep.html?ref=middleeast
FoKerr _LH_ sent along “this piece”:http://www.nypress.com/17/5/books/books.cfm by Mark Ames which makes the case that there are a number of similarities between neoconservatism and black metal.
This part is hilarious:
Then there’s [Richard] Perle, who…has his own infamous Black Metal nom de roque: The Prince of Darkness. Arrrggghhh! *Launch fireworks and pyrotechnics from front of stage, set off explosions, lower giant skull as The Prince of Darkness and David “Axis of Evil” Frum take to the stage in their End to Evil monsters of hardline ideology tour!*
The similarities don’t stop there. Whereas Vikernes and other Black Metalists saw heathen Norway in a life-or-death struggle for existence with the Semitic tribes’ Judeo-Christianity, Perle and Frum see Judeo-Christian America under threat from Islam. And both have the same solution: War, dude!
Speaking of metal (OK, grindcore) and hilarious, this is Napalm Death doing what is perhaps the shortest song ever recorded: