In 1984, at the height of the Cold War, the Doomsday clock moved its hands to 3 minutes to midnight as US-Russian relations hit an all time low and Ronald Reagan announced a space-based anti-ballistic missile capability.
In 1991 the clock moved to 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War officially ended and nuclear bomb owning countries began making cuts to their nuclear arsenals which stood at 70,000 nuclear warheads globally.
Considering the damage just one nuclear weapon can cause, the thought of 70,000 of them is scary enough but 23 years on and after a raft of disarmament agreements, according to the Federation of American Scientists we still have approximately 17,300 nuclear weapons globally ready to be aimed and fired.
Russia has the most with 8,500, then the United States (7,700), France (300), China (250), UK (225) Israel (100), Pakistan (100), India (90) and North Korea (10).
There are a few who argue that we still need to retain our nuclear weapons although recent years has seen terrorist attacks in America, UK, China and Russia so the possession of nuclear weapons does not make a state secure and are absolutely no use against terrorists.
It is hard to make a case of why in the 21st Century we still need nuclear arms apart from the status it provides but America hold the dubious honour of being the only country to use nuclear weapons but with India and Pakistan not as stable as they could be and North Korea making regular bellicose statements and Israel in a constant state of warmongering with its neighbours, they may not be the last.
Throw in the horror of an accident, and recent examples show just how close we have come to wiping ourselves out with our own nuclear weapons, and it appears that we are holding on to these extraordinarily dangerous weapons not out of necessity but because of the cachet and feeling of superiority it gives us.
As the people who would give the decisions to use the weapons would be the safest ones in their countries as they retreat to secure nuclear bunkers, it does seem a huge risk to hold onto weapons we will never likely use at huge expense and massive danger to us all just for a lift to our fragile diplomatic status.
Sunday, 6 July 2014
Boys And Train Sets
I don't know what this governments fascination with trains is but a highly excitable chap from the Transport Department has announced that £90m is being spent to speed up internet access on commuter trains across England and Wales.
Already announced is the mind boggling HS2 north-south rail link which is costing £50bn and will result in shaving 20 minutes off a commuter trip from London to Birmingham.
The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said to try and justify spending the equivalent of the cost of two schools on internet access: 'We all know how frustrating it can be to have our phone calls and internet use constantly disrupted by poor signal while travelling on trains. At the moment it happens too often. Passengers expect and deserve better and with these plans, that is what they'll get'.
I use the trains and what i expect more than being able to check my emails quicker is for trains to arrive on time and be able to get a seat when they do turn up so if i was asked where to spend £90m that was burning a hole in their pockets i would suggest buying more trains.
My second suggestion would be replacing the ticket collectors with greased up male models in budgie smugglers but i can't see that one going through either.
Already announced is the mind boggling HS2 north-south rail link which is costing £50bn and will result in shaving 20 minutes off a commuter trip from London to Birmingham.
The transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said to try and justify spending the equivalent of the cost of two schools on internet access: 'We all know how frustrating it can be to have our phone calls and internet use constantly disrupted by poor signal while travelling on trains. At the moment it happens too often. Passengers expect and deserve better and with these plans, that is what they'll get'.
I use the trains and what i expect more than being able to check my emails quicker is for trains to arrive on time and be able to get a seat when they do turn up so if i was asked where to spend £90m that was burning a hole in their pockets i would suggest buying more trains.
My second suggestion would be replacing the ticket collectors with greased up male models in budgie smugglers but i can't see that one going through either.
Cheering On The Germans
Last four standing in the World Cup are Argentina and the Netherlands and Germany and Brazil and i usually root for the European countries but i am hoping that the Argentines kick the Netherlands out and Germany end up winning the whole thing.
Robben's criminal diving, especially to 'win' the penalty against Mexico, Tim Kruls gamesmanship during the penalty shoot-out with Costa Rica last night and the arrogant van Gaal overseeing it all makes me hope that Messi and his gang dismantle them completely.
Germany can then take on and beat a Brazil shorn of their best players at both end of the pitch and on Sunday night it's Saurkraut and Bratwurst in Berlin and jubiliations and a hearty rendition of Wir Sind Die Meister. Wunderbur!
Robben's criminal diving, especially to 'win' the penalty against Mexico, Tim Kruls gamesmanship during the penalty shoot-out with Costa Rica last night and the arrogant van Gaal overseeing it all makes me hope that Messi and his gang dismantle them completely.
Germany can then take on and beat a Brazil shorn of their best players at both end of the pitch and on Sunday night it's Saurkraut and Bratwurst in Berlin and jubiliations and a hearty rendition of Wir Sind Die Meister. Wunderbur!
Another Political Cover Up
The former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit has said he believes there 'may well have been a political cover-up' over child abuse by political figures in Westminster in the 1970's and 80s.
It seems almost certain that it was covered up as the Home Office has now announced that not only has the original document been lost but a further 114 relevant files have also gone missing from government files.
The missing dossier compiled by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens told his family that the information he handed over in 1983 and 1984 would 'blow the lid off' the lives of powerful and famous child abusers but it appears that the information he gave to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan was buried.
Brittan, himself under questioning in a rape claim from 1967, suggested at the time that the dossier would be passed to the police, but Scotland Yard says it has no record of receiving or launching any investigation into the allegations.
Brittan originally said that he didn't remember receiving the document from Dickens and then remembered handing it to officials to investigate.
On Saturday, the Home Office made public a letter to Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee, in which the department confirmed that correspondence from Dickens had not been retained and it had found 'no record of specific allegations by Mr Dickens of child sex abuse by prominent public figures' and were either 'destroyed, lost or missing'.
As Geoffrey Dickens died in 1995, Leon Brittan is the only other person who knows the names of the people involved and as politicians reputations are at an all time low following the expenses scandal, the idea that an even larger cover up is going on, and one of such serious allegations, will see even further disconnect between the public and the politicians.
It seems almost certain that it was covered up as the Home Office has now announced that not only has the original document been lost but a further 114 relevant files have also gone missing from government files.
The missing dossier compiled by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens told his family that the information he handed over in 1983 and 1984 would 'blow the lid off' the lives of powerful and famous child abusers but it appears that the information he gave to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan was buried.
Brittan, himself under questioning in a rape claim from 1967, suggested at the time that the dossier would be passed to the police, but Scotland Yard says it has no record of receiving or launching any investigation into the allegations.
Brittan originally said that he didn't remember receiving the document from Dickens and then remembered handing it to officials to investigate.
On Saturday, the Home Office made public a letter to Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee, in which the department confirmed that correspondence from Dickens had not been retained and it had found 'no record of specific allegations by Mr Dickens of child sex abuse by prominent public figures' and were either 'destroyed, lost or missing'.
As Geoffrey Dickens died in 1995, Leon Brittan is the only other person who knows the names of the people involved and as politicians reputations are at an all time low following the expenses scandal, the idea that an even larger cover up is going on, and one of such serious allegations, will see even further disconnect between the public and the politicians.
Saturday, 5 July 2014
Climate Change Effects Begin To Bite
Unbelievably there are still some people who refuse to accept climate change and the devastating effects but there is no such argument on the island of Kiribati in the Pacific Coast because the sea is rising at a rate of 1.2cm a year and they have made arrangements of how to deal with the inevitable taking back of the land by the sea.
The country has purchased a 20-square-kilometre chunk of forest on the Fijian island of Vanau Levu for £8.8 million ready for any evacuation of the 103,000 residents due to rising sea levels.
'We would hope not to put everyone on this one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it' Kiribati President Anote Tong said as he explained the many climate-related challenges his island faces including increasing salt pollution in its freshwater supplies, changing weather and storm patterns as well as the rising ocean.
Some villages on Kiribati have already been flooded out and the President estimates that his country only has 30-60 years left before it becomes uninhabitable leading him to pursue migration initiatives.
The IPCC agree that many smaller islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans risk being totally or mostly submerged in just the next few decades by rising sea levels with places like Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands under the greatest threat.
The movement of these people from low lying lands could be a foreshadow of what to come as the IPCC warns that by 2050, global warming will displace as many as 700 million people from the effects of rising sea levels and desertification.
Just a small taste of things to come but humans moving to higher ground to avoid the effects of the damage we have wreaked on the globe has started.
The country has purchased a 20-square-kilometre chunk of forest on the Fijian island of Vanau Levu for £8.8 million ready for any evacuation of the 103,000 residents due to rising sea levels.
'We would hope not to put everyone on this one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it' Kiribati President Anote Tong said as he explained the many climate-related challenges his island faces including increasing salt pollution in its freshwater supplies, changing weather and storm patterns as well as the rising ocean.
Some villages on Kiribati have already been flooded out and the President estimates that his country only has 30-60 years left before it becomes uninhabitable leading him to pursue migration initiatives.
The IPCC agree that many smaller islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans risk being totally or mostly submerged in just the next few decades by rising sea levels with places like Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands under the greatest threat.
The movement of these people from low lying lands could be a foreshadow of what to come as the IPCC warns that by 2050, global warming will displace as many as 700 million people from the effects of rising sea levels and desertification.
Just a small taste of things to come but humans moving to higher ground to avoid the effects of the damage we have wreaked on the globe has started.
Wimbledon Fortnight A Money Spinner
Wimbledon Final Weekend and not a Brit in sight as a Czech and a Canadian play out the women's final and a Swiss and a Serb contest the men's.
British tennis has been in disarray for decades and the only success we did have, Andy Murray, learnt how to play in Spain and owes his success to the Sánchez-Casal Academy more than anything he learnt here.
A ticket for Wimbledon isn't cheap but the prices are justified by the explanation that each year the All England Club who run Wimbledon help the LTA to develop British tennis.
Wimbledon fortnight is a roaring success, as a sporting event and financially with last years tournament income making £149.2 million.
This weekend at Wimbledon, the winners of the men's and ladies' singles titles will each pocket £1.76 million and the players they beat will each collect £880,000 as runners-up.
The entire prize fund for all players is £25 million which is the smallest of the prize funds of the four Grand Slams in Australia, Paris, Wimbledon and New York.
Although the All England Club makes the majority of its annual income in the two weeks in June and July, it also raises £40 million per year from a range of official suppliers such as Slazenger, Robinson, Rolex, IBM, Hertz and Ralph Lauren.
Factoring in the total cost of the tournament, prize funds, staff and ground maintenance amounting to £111.2 million, the All England Club profit last year was £38 million pounds which is a lovely little money spinner in anybody's language.
Doesn't explain why Brits suck as tennis so bad though, maybe the All England Club should dig a little deeper into it's very deep pockets and spend a bit less on the Pimms.
British tennis has been in disarray for decades and the only success we did have, Andy Murray, learnt how to play in Spain and owes his success to the Sánchez-Casal Academy more than anything he learnt here.
A ticket for Wimbledon isn't cheap but the prices are justified by the explanation that each year the All England Club who run Wimbledon help the LTA to develop British tennis.
Wimbledon fortnight is a roaring success, as a sporting event and financially with last years tournament income making £149.2 million.
This weekend at Wimbledon, the winners of the men's and ladies' singles titles will each pocket £1.76 million and the players they beat will each collect £880,000 as runners-up.
The entire prize fund for all players is £25 million which is the smallest of the prize funds of the four Grand Slams in Australia, Paris, Wimbledon and New York.
Although the All England Club makes the majority of its annual income in the two weeks in June and July, it also raises £40 million per year from a range of official suppliers such as Slazenger, Robinson, Rolex, IBM, Hertz and Ralph Lauren.
Factoring in the total cost of the tournament, prize funds, staff and ground maintenance amounting to £111.2 million, the All England Club profit last year was £38 million pounds which is a lovely little money spinner in anybody's language.
Doesn't explain why Brits suck as tennis so bad though, maybe the All England Club should dig a little deeper into it's very deep pockets and spend a bit less on the Pimms.
Friday, 4 July 2014
William Mullins
126 pairs of shoes in his pack, Now that's wack
A fishing rod, a plough, A pig, or a cow
Would have been a much better idea
But now there's no food for us to eat
Does this mean we will meet with de-feet!
Of all 102 passengers on the Mayflower that left Plymouth in 1620, William Mullins deserves his own post for his reckless disregard in ensuring that his family survived but making sure that they had comfortable footwear.
William Mullins was born around 1572 appropriately in Dorking, Surrey and then the records go quiet until 1595 when he was fined two pence by the manorial court for an unknown transgression and then again a decade later when he was up in front of the beak again and the recipient of another fine for another unknown transgression.
In 1619 he sold up his shoe business and home for £280 in preparation of his trip to the New World.
A year later William Mullins and other assorted smaller Mullins boarded the Mayflower and as the song picks up, he put the foot comfort of his family above things such as eating or surviving making him the first scrounger of the New World but as it never occurred to any of the Pilgrims to bring supplies, thinking God would provide, his poncing off others fell on death ears and he died shortly after landing at Plymouth. A case of 1619 making clogs, 1620 popping his clogs.
As befitting a man who dragged his family across the Atlantic Ocean with no food but many pairs of shoes, his will called for the distribution of his remaining goods so his wife, son and daughter were the proud owners of dozen of pairs of shoes and boots which ensured that they were cursing him and gnawing on leather uppers when the mother and son died a month later although the youngest daughter survived as the less well-shoed Pilgrims took her under their wing.
As we know the Pilgrim's went on to survive and develop America into the gun toting cheeseburger gorging nation we know today but William Mullins deserves a special place in history as probably the most stupidest person since the Trojan guard who decided that dragging in that very large hollowed out wooden horse that had suddenly appeared outside the city gates wouldn't do any harm.
Mr Mullins, we salute your flagrant contempt for your families welfare and immense stupidity.
Not Born In The USA
Thanks to Horrible Histories, we all know the story of Pilgrim Father William Mullins who took onto the Mayflower 126 pairs of shoes and boots instead of food or seeds and promptly died months after landing, probably furiously gnawing on a pair of loafers.The perception from the Olde World of the Fourth of July festivities is generally a bemused shrug and gentle mockery of Americans waving flags and shouting 'awesome' while wearing Uncle Sam hats and eating hot-dogs.
I once pointed out to an American that the Pilgrim Fathers, so desperate to leave behind everything England, then went and not only named many towns and cities after places in England and even named Plymouth where they landed after the city where they sailed from. She never got it but irony is not a strong point.
My own theory is that the Pilgrim Fathers didn't leave Britain to escape religious persecution, but because they had silly names like "Remember', Truelove', 'Wrestling', 'Humility' and 'Peregrine' and couldn't stand the endless ribbing.
As England invented America, and America is famous for taking in the tired (World Cup late night games are playing havoc with bedtime) and the poor (no pay rise for 4 years thank you austerity measures) and huddled masses (radiators need bleeding) tempest tost (??), we should be able to pass the US citizenship exam.
I scored 6 out of a possible 10 which means i am an average American so hand me the Uncle Sam hat, a crate of Miller Lite and a gun and a let's mock the limeys and Mad King George who we left behind all those years ago.
Hell yeah, awesome!
Thursday, 3 July 2014
Been Here Before Haven't We
The UK Government have announced an increase in airport security amid fears that terrorists in Syria and Yemen were developing explosives that could be smuggled undetected onto planes.
US intelligence agencies have passed on information that Syria and Yemen have been in contact to develop bombs that escape heightened security measures, although they do not have specific intelligence about an imminent attack or specific plot emanating from the collaboration.
If this were true it would be very worrying but the problem is that many don't trust the people making the claims as both the UK and US Governments have been using the terrorist threat at every opportunity for the past decade and its citizens are wary of falling for the propaganda again.
In the run up to the Iraq war we had tanks at Heathrow and the delightful picture of the old lady hitting the tank with her umbrella and telling them to go away and we asked them what use would a tank be against someone on a plane with a bomb in his underpants?
Maybe if these measure were not introduced with such fanfare it wouldn't be suspected that all this was a Public Relations exercise designed to scare us into not questioning all the safety measures that have chipped away at our civil liberties.
According to George W Bush, his actions have made the world a much safer place and we all know how smart he was so why should we believe that these actions are as credible as the previous lot as they scan our emails, note our telephone calls, increase surveillance and stifle any protests under the guise of anti-terrorism.
US intelligence agencies have passed on information that Syria and Yemen have been in contact to develop bombs that escape heightened security measures, although they do not have specific intelligence about an imminent attack or specific plot emanating from the collaboration.
If this were true it would be very worrying but the problem is that many don't trust the people making the claims as both the UK and US Governments have been using the terrorist threat at every opportunity for the past decade and its citizens are wary of falling for the propaganda again.
In the run up to the Iraq war we had tanks at Heathrow and the delightful picture of the old lady hitting the tank with her umbrella and telling them to go away and we asked them what use would a tank be against someone on a plane with a bomb in his underpants?
Maybe if these measure were not introduced with such fanfare it wouldn't be suspected that all this was a Public Relations exercise designed to scare us into not questioning all the safety measures that have chipped away at our civil liberties.
According to George W Bush, his actions have made the world a much safer place and we all know how smart he was so why should we believe that these actions are as credible as the previous lot as they scan our emails, note our telephone calls, increase surveillance and stifle any protests under the guise of anti-terrorism.
Wednesday, 2 July 2014
America Raises Bar In Mad Gun Laws
When we look across the Atlantic Ocean we see America, the land of the free and the home of some of the loopiest gun laws and just when you think they can't get any loopier, they take it up a notch.
This time it's Georgia and the 'Guns Everywhere Law' and as our media does like to have a chuckle at the mad Americano's who put the second amendment above everything else, it seems that they didn't have to go far as the local fruitcakes were only too willing to be put on show.
First up was a middle aged man in a baseball cap and wearing a 'Guns Saves Lives' badge who proclaimed the new laws that allow guns in bars, nightclubs, libraries and even churches as 'a victory for the second amendment rights', rights that he proudly boasted where 'given to us by God'.
When challenged that during the Afghan and Iraq wars, Georgia saw over twice as many people killed by guns than in combat, another gun nut called Bob ignored the question and explained that his motto was 'If you see me with pants on, my pistol's in my pants'.
Some people may well say that he hasn't got much else in his pants hence the fascination with guns but i prefer to be kinder and say the empty space was between his ears hence the fascination with guns.
It's their country, they can make as many doolaly laws as they like and all the time the rest of us will ask why the nation with the most gun violence, school shootings, spree shootings and mental illness legally allow weapons, into nightclubs, libraries and churches and how long before we hear of the fiction section of a Georgian library being shot up.
This time it's Georgia and the 'Guns Everywhere Law' and as our media does like to have a chuckle at the mad Americano's who put the second amendment above everything else, it seems that they didn't have to go far as the local fruitcakes were only too willing to be put on show.
First up was a middle aged man in a baseball cap and wearing a 'Guns Saves Lives' badge who proclaimed the new laws that allow guns in bars, nightclubs, libraries and even churches as 'a victory for the second amendment rights', rights that he proudly boasted where 'given to us by God'.
When challenged that during the Afghan and Iraq wars, Georgia saw over twice as many people killed by guns than in combat, another gun nut called Bob ignored the question and explained that his motto was 'If you see me with pants on, my pistol's in my pants'.
Some people may well say that he hasn't got much else in his pants hence the fascination with guns but i prefer to be kinder and say the empty space was between his ears hence the fascination with guns.
It's their country, they can make as many doolaly laws as they like and all the time the rest of us will ask why the nation with the most gun violence, school shootings, spree shootings and mental illness legally allow weapons, into nightclubs, libraries and churches and how long before we hear of the fiction section of a Georgian library being shot up.
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