In March 1969, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird was asked “Did the deployment by the Russians of their antiballistic missile system around Moscow and Leningrad encourage us to negotiate or didn’t it encourage us to retaliate …” Laird replied, “I don’t think we really retaliated.” Oh really? The Soviet Union deployed ballistic missile defense systems …
Polyus Skif
by | 2004-11-22 | No Comments
Slashdot notes the recent publication of images of Polyus-Skif—a Soviet satellite unsuccessfully launched in May 1987 Polyus-Skif is an object of interest because some space hawks claim it was a space-weapon. Typical is Jim Oberg, who wrote in the New Scientist that “A working particle beam is believed to have been on board the mysterious …
"Is Iran set on building a nuclear bomb?"
by | 2004-11-22 | No Comments
The answer to that question determines whether or not one supports the Iran-EU3 deal. NPR asked Matt Bunn that very question this morning. (You can listen to they story, “Iran Agrees to Halt Uranium Enrichment, here and Matt’s answer at 3:50 in the story) Matt’s answer was a good one; though I would have tackled …
Edward Tufte
by | 2004-11-21 | No Comments
Belated praise to Edward Tufte who skewered Colin Powell’s UN presentation on Iraq at the time, noting: The cognitive style of Powell’s PP presentation resembles that of JFK assassination theorists: small highly selected bits of information that, along with some heavy breathing, are then alleged to provide a conclusive insight. His essay on the subject, …
