UCS Summer Symposium at Fudan University’s Center for American Studies Hello from Shanghai! I’m here in this booming Chinese city for the 21st annual UCS Summer Symposium and it’s off to a great start. For those of you who don’t know about it, UCS brings together a small group of scientists (mostly in the hard …
Useful Fictions and Big Whoppers
by | 2009-07-17 | 21 Comments
Bernard Brodie wrote in The Absolute Weapon that, “Everything about the atomic bomb is overshadowed by the twin facts that it exists and that its destructive power is fantastically great.” From this simple truth, the dictates of state regarding the nuclear option have been advanced through partial truths, useful fictions, and the occasional Big Whopper. …
Where Is North Korea's IRBM?
by | 2009-07-16 | 41 Comments
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan all should have a pretty good idea of what kind of missiles North Korea is shooting into the Sea of Japan at any given time, what with all the radars and imaging systems available to them and the information shared between the U.S. and each of its treaty allies. …
Do You Know What This Thing Is?
by | 2009-07-15 | 20 Comments
click on the image for a larger version The Iranian video apparently showing some of the manufacturing stages of the Safir two stage rocket still has a lot of information that needs to be analyzed. One important aspect is a brief montage of this furnace and a cylinder obviously cooling down. I think it might …
