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How Many Minutes to Midnight?

James Carroll Tom Dispatach
In the upcoming season of presidential politics, the nuclear question belongs at the top of every candidate’s agenda. It belongs at the center of every forum and at the heart of every voter’s decision.

Common Ground: For Secure Elections and True National Security

An Open Letter by Steinem, Chomsky, Dean, Gov. Richardson, Mosley, Plame, and others. The Nation
The Nation launched a rare open letter signed by over 20 leading cultural and political figures who've joined together calling for a pronounced shift in the US’s approach to Russia, to protect US elections and reduce the chances of a nuclear war.

Mikhail Gorbachev: 'It All Looks as if the World Is Preparing for War'

Mikhail Gorbachev Time Magazine
The world today is overwhelmed with problems. Policymakers seem to be confused and at a loss. But no problem is more urgent today than the militarization of politics and the new arms race. Stopping and reversing this ruinous race must be our top priority. While state budgets are struggling to fund people's essential social needs, military spending is growing.

Theater Review: "Cuckooed" True Story by British Comic And Activist of How Arms Company Spied on Him

Lucy Komisar The Komisar Scoop
True story about BAE Systems, the UK's largest aerospace and weapons company. BAE is the major bad guy in the play, as well as a major bad guy among arms traders. (In 2010, BAE pled guilty in the U.S. to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements in connection with an arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The issue was bribery to get a Saudi contract. British Prime Minister Tony Blair quashed an investigation there, as he wanted the contract.)

The U.S. Ought to Un-Swivel Its China Pivot

Buddy Bell Portside
The U.S. has Beijing surrounded by 200 bases lining the East China Sea, it has already caused the beginning of an arms race. For the first time in many years, China is increasing its military budget at the same time the U.S. continues to spend more than China and the next 11 highest-spending countries. The U.S. is depriving its own people of money that could be used to fund scientific research, healthcare, education; it is also backing China into a corner.

Every Nuclear Test

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea's two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing"the fear and folly of nuclear weapons." It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

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