A Second Nuclear Age

This is an "I told you so" post.

From almost two years ago:

Many of us as children had to listen to the mournful, terrifying howling of civil air raid sirens being tested, and the whine of the TVs displaying the Emergency Broadcast System, and have gone to bed with the knowledge that it was possible to be burned alive while asleep. After the fall of the USSR, we thought it was a time when we had made it through, and had breathed a great sigh of relief that our own children need not fear what we feared.

A new age was upon us. If terrorism was the worst threat facing us, great! A fringe bunch of cultish lunatics was cerainly preferrable to thousands of nuclear missiles re-entering the atmosphere. We could handle it.

What a surprise to find suddenly that the UN is failing, and the dogs of war once again howling at our door. And when I say failing, I don't mean it in the same way as the usual anti-UN mantra mindlessly chanted by the right-wing. I mean that it is failing because the last remaining superpower has decided that it is irrelevant, and has given notice of such to the world. And it appears that the world is listening....

The Iraq invasion was the NeoCon message to the rest of the world that they intended to bury the UN, and shrug off the limits that the global community had on the last great superpower. They announced that they would accept nothing that limited American global military supremecy until the end of time, if possible. In doing so, they have instead weakened their nation, lost their role as international leader, and strengthened an unstable and dangerous set of international alliances, many now armed with or soon to develop nuclear weapons.

Welcome to the bad old days, guys.

Yesterday:

The scientists who mind the Doomsday Clock on Wednesday moved it two minutes closer to midnight -- symbolizing the annihilation of civilization -- adding the perils of global warming for the first time to acute nuclear threats.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons, advanced the clock to five minutes until midnight. It was the first adjustment of the clock since 2002.

"We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age," the group said in a statement.

This Explains a Lot

This quote from Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, at hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Keep in mind that this is one of the most powerful people in the world, and is responsible for planning and advising the President on US foreign policy, very much a non-trivial role.

"It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work."

Words fail me. Hopefully what she meant was that it's a bad idea to publicly talk about failure while pushing for a plan. But still, sheesh.

Gary Needs a Hand

Gary Farber's in a bit of a crunch, and could use a hand, and/or editing or research work. Please take a look and see if you can point him to something, or lend a hand directly.

Little Mosque on the Prairie

I've seen one very funny promo on TV for this new CBC comedy, and it looks like it's going to be good. Here are two clips.

Freaking Weather - BC Place Stadium Roof Collapse

So, Stanley Park devastated a few weeks ago by the mini-typhoon that blew in, our tap water undrinkable for a few weeks because of three major rainstorms that nailed us in one week in November, a building under construction blown down before that, and today the dome on our stadium collapses due to snow and wind.

The domed roof of B.C. Place Stadium collapsed with a loud bang on Friday afternoon and is completely flat.

Two City of Vancouver workers told CBC News that there appeared to have been a hole in the roof.

They said they heard some flapping, followed by what sounded like an explosion.

They said they believe the whole internal roof support structure may be gone.

Sheesh.

Photos here.

{UPDATE} Photos schmotos. YouTube video:

Hinterland

Any Canadian that grew up in the 60's and 70's would instantly recognize the mournful flute introduction to a series of one-minute nature video shorts produced by CBC during those decades, the Hinterland Who's Who.

Here's an example, starring the woodchuck.



Another on the wolf.



Aren't they great? Here's an unusual one - the effects of drugs on the wood spider.


(via Apostropher)

The official Hinterland web site has several other less edgy parodies, including one on the Canadian Mountain Kangaroo. And it looks like they have the complete library of original clips available on-line here.

{UPDATE} Via Terry Glavin, I see the spider film-maker is fellow British Columbian and fellow Glaswegian Andrew Struthers.