MetaFilter posts tagged with nuclear and weapons

Arms Control Wonk

Burhanistan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:33:39 -0800

Arms Control Wonk - a collaborative blog detailing the ins and outs of strategic weapons programs around the world. Originally started by Jeffery Lewis (published articles). Some fun recent posts: The Blue and Yellow Bomb (a history of Sweden's canceled nuke program) Votkinsk Portal Monitoring Facility (detailing the US team stationed in Russia tasked with counting mobile missiles produced there) A criticism of the recent Seymour Hersh article on Pakistan's nukes And of course, The Fall's response.

Keeping an eye on and old friend

Burhanistan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:47:55 -0800

Russian strategic nuclear forces - an online watchdog of the movements of Russia's nuclear forces. With informed comments, a book, and six years of archives. Also, the Russians are going to name a ballistic missile submarine after Santa.

Nuclear Redux

puckish — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:41:12 -0800

Photographer Paul Shambroom has spent the last sixteen years documenting a much-discussed but little seen aspect of American foreign policy -- our nuclear arsenal. "More than ten years after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. maintains 10,000 active warheads. Concerns about nuclear aspirations in Iraq and North Korea dominate foreign policy, and in the wake of September 11, the possibility that terrorists might obtain and use weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real. Paul has documented the nuclear reality we have created in a series of striking and eerily beautiful images that offer an inside look at America's nuclear arsenal." Portfolio includes detailed images of missiles, warheads, bombers, submarines, and command centers, as well as new warhead designs and missile defense prototypes that may be deployed well into the twenty-first century. Also worth checking out Shambroom's website for more pretty pictures. (nukes, meetings, factories, and first responders) Related links for Cold War junkies: Press the little red button! Truck driver John Coster-Mullen spends a decade researching and constructing a full-scale replica of the Little Boy atomic bomb. “Coster-Mullen sees his project as a diverting mental challenge—not unlike a crossword puzzle—whose goal is simply to present readers with accurate information about the past." (New Yorker slide show essay) Studio 360 goes atomic: Oppenheimer, Strangelove, and Richard Rhodes (PRI link) Complete back issues of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, now available (along with EVERYTHING ELSE!) via Google Books (courtesy of Design Observer)

Nuclear Weapons Transparency

augustweed — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:47:40 -0800

Video: Nuclear Weapons: Who's Got 'Em?

Six places to nuke when you're serious

lupus_yonderboy — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 23:27:59 -0800

Six places to nuke when you're serious

Iran: “We Have The Oil, Go Fuck Yourself” America: “OK”

stilgar — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 05:37:53 -0800

Iran may be trying to get nuclear weapons. In the process potentially starting a new war with Israel, fun times. America on the other hand isn't going to do all that much because Iran controls a large amount of the worlds oil, and with prices already high, they don't want to spark another oil crisis.

Trademarked Nukes

jimjam — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 02:59:26 -0800

Tomahawk® Brand Cruise Missiles Because not all Block II Nuclear Variant cruise missles are alike... Look for the name you can trust!

Oh, THOSE wmd's?, well.............

troutfishing — Sun, 16 Mar 2003 06:52:22 -0800

"Weapons of Mass Destruction", you say? Question: If Iraq is the vicious rat and North Korea the furious pygmy of WMD threats, where is the 800 pound gorilla? Answer - "...law enforcement officials worldwide have seized 40 kilograms of Russian-origin uranium and plutonium since 1991. Stanford researchers have also estimated that only 30 to 40 percent of the nuclear material stolen from facilities in Russia and other territories in the former Soviet Union are ever recovered by authorities." the collapse of the Soviet Union left vast stores of Nuclear weapons and weapons grade plutonium and uranium, and stocks of chemical and biological warfare agents lying about at dangerously underfunded facillities scattered through the vast expanse of the ex-Soviet realm. "Russian stockpiles of weapons and materials are the most likely source for terrorists attempting to acquire weapons of mass destruction", said US Senator Richard Lugar, Republican chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. An international effort to destroy these stores of ex-Soviet WMD's is currently funded at a tiny fraction of the estimated cost of a possible US invasion and occupation of Iraq. (more inside)

Leaked Pentagon Document on Mini Nukes and Treaty Challenges

fold_and_mutilate — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 10:32:47 -0800

Mini Nukes - Major Treaty Threats. "A leaked Pentagon document has confirmed that the US is considering the introduction of a new breed of smaller nuclear weapons designed for use in conventional warfare. Such a move would mean abandoning global arms treaties." The document was made available by The Los Alamos Study Group, which comments "It is impossible to overstate the challenge these plans pose to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the existing nuclear test moratorium, and US compliance with Article VI of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which is binding law in the US....These plans deserve outrage – first in the United States, and throughout the world. It may or may not be obvious that if allowed to proceed further -- especially in the present jingoistic atmosphere now prevailing in Washington -- the process outlined here will be quite hard to stop. "

Degaz — Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:09:43 -0800

North Korea is working on a nuclear weapon?? Maybe that whole Axis Of Evil thing wasn't too far fetched.

gravelshoes — Wed, 07 Aug 2002 12:37:57 -0800

"The old doctrine was that nuclear weapons were far too big and nasty to use, and now they've moved towards developing nuclear weapons they can actually use". On the aniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, does the development of 'low-yield nukes' threaten to blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare.

johnnyboy — Sat, 06 Jul 2002 09:33:24 -0800

new counterbalance to israeli nuclear capability if you can't beat 'em join 'em (sort of)

fold_and_mutilate — Tue, 28 May 2002 16:40:54 -0800

J. Robert Oppenheimer, watching the first mushroom cloud rise above the American nuclear test heartbreakingly codenamed Trinity, said: "Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." Today, a half century after the first use of atomic weapons, in the birthland of the sacred text Oppenheimer quoted, 12 million people could die at once in a nuclear exchange.

Ah, Shiva as each of us...one hand on The Button, the other writing: "The only way to live humanly - still - is in resistance to war. The prevention of war, in the nuclear age, must be a central purpose of every person's life."

Espoo2 — Tue, 13 Nov 2001 10:57:31 -0800

Would you survive nuclear blast? With all the talk of Bin Laden's nuclear capabilities lately, you may be interested in this link again. Its been posted before, but not in this context I presume.... I wonder where the fallout would have the worst affect?

youthbc1 — Sun, 21 Oct 2001 19:15:13 -0800

"Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks. I've also seen this in the newsgroups, but it hasn't come to my various email accounts yet. While the article seems pretty reasonable, there doesn't seem to be any info on who this SFC Red Thomas is, nor is there any scientific backup (no links to further reading etc.).

christina — Sun, 16 Sep 2001 10:52:39 -0800

The Shadows Project In 1988, a group of artists painted shadow outlines of people in public places reminiscent of those created when people were disintegrated by the bomb in Hiroshima. Is it time to resurrect this project, to remind people of the price of nuclear weapons?

jonathanbell — Mon, 09 Jul 2001 06:23:26 -0800

US may resume nuclear weapons tests (while keeping the supply of small arms unhindered). Knowing next to nothing about nuclear weapons, can anyone tell me if there are there any sound scientific reasons for re-starting testing? Or is this just more left-wing media bias?