Thought the cold war was over? Well how would you like to know that the US has 100 nuclear weapons stationed in Suffolk – that’s three times more than they previously admitted to having here in the UK! Oh and that’s out of a total of almost 500 they hold across Europe. The Guardian dishes the dirt
“The fact that the United States has some 480 nuclear weapons still stationed in Europe will come as a surprise to a lot of Europeans,”
“The big question is: ‘Why are they still there more than a decade after the cold war ended?’ Neither the United States nor Nato has been able to articulate a credible mission for the weapons.”
Not only that, but in the event of war, the US would give the bombs to other Nato members’ airforces to drop on their behalf. Never mind the fact that some of these countries, Belguim, for example, are not nuclear powers. Oh well, if it ever got to that point, nuclear non-proliferation treaties would be the least of our worries.
But getting back to the point, with the cold war over, its surely about time to get rid of these weapons – they’re surely not too practical in the current ‘war on terrorism’ which rather transcends nation states and focuses on small groups / individuals. And please don’t mention the Dr Stangelove scenario!
On a lighter (sic) note, it no doubt came as some surprise to the Sudanese government to discover their country used to be a US nuclear test ground. Finally, those crazy particle physicists have created what looks remarkably like a small black hole in their lab. Guess the feasiblity rating for item number 7 in How to destroy the World just increased in magnitude a little and/or came forward a few hundred years.
So I’ve just spent a worthy couple of hours watching the film Sideways. Billed as a film about two men on a trip to experience the (Californian) world of wine, this is really just providing the backbone on which the real story. On the one hand is a guy in search of new direction in life 2 years after his divorce, while on the other is a guy in search of confirmation that his forthcoming marriage is right move for him to take. The resulting film forms an absorbing story with a surprising amount of subtle & not so subtle humour thrown in. And although its perhaps a little sad for what it says about relationships, for example, both leading characters ultimately getting away with their lies / transgressions, it does end on an optimistic with the film ending with both characters finding some sort of direction in which to continue their lives.
While browsing around Alex’s site I came across this diagram which somehow seems rather to be a fitting analysis of current my day-to-day working practices 
Having planned to dive straight into Haruki Murakami’s latest book, I’ve found myself side-tracked into reading Noam Chomsky’s ‘magnum opus’, Understanding Power. It takes the form of a collection of transcripts / essays from talks Noam has given over the years, and provides an enlightening and rather frightening / depressing examination of the politics of power in the last of the last 60 odd years. A core target for attack is the idea that we live under a free market economy. The information presented through the book make it clear that current western economic model is anything but ‘a free market’; rather massive state intervention & indirect subsidy’s through, for example, the Pentagon & NASA research grants form the backbone of scientific research & development providing jobs for many & seed the market for later exploitation by corporations. Another target is the corporate media machine, showing how rather than providing broad ranging & honest reportage, it focuses its output within a tightly controlled range, ommitting vast swaves of news. Countries at the height of communism never had such an all-encompassing propaganda system – the general populous is completely unaware that the news is anything by balanced.