ARMS-D-Request@MIT-MC.ARPA (Moderator) (12/27/85)
Arms-Discussion Digest Thursday, December 26, 1985 10:51PM
Volume 5, Issue 73
Today's Topics:
Propaganda
Comprehensive Test Ban
Sometimes I feel like nuking somebody
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From: decwrl!decvax!utzoo!henry@ucbvax.berkeley.edu
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 85 20:34:29 est
Subject: Propaganda
foy@aero comments:
> Did anyone on this net besides Charlie Crummer and myself attend the Beyond
> War award ceremony? It was a six country, five continent live tv tele-
> conference where the heads of states of Mexicao, Argentina, Greece, Tanzania,
> Sweden, and India were given an award for their Five Continent Peace
> initiative. It was the most impressive thing that I have been a part of for
> a long time. If Gorbachev and Reagan were able to really hear what those
> heads of state said we would be well on the way towards real solutions.
Did the head of state of Argentina say anything about signing a peace treaty
with the UK over the Falklands? Or with Chile over the disputed areas in
the Beagle Channel? Did the Greek head of state say anything about a firm
and lasting settlement with Turkey? Did the representative from India swear
eternal peace with Pakistan? If not, this was a farce.
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
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Date: Mon, 23 Dec 85 21:54:49 pst
From: "Dave Caulkins; Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; 415-322-3778" <cdp!caulkins@glacier>
Subject: Comprehensive Test Ban
>From the New York Times of 21 Dec 85:
"...Moscow offered Thursday [19 Dec] to permit some on-site
inspection of [underground nuclear] testing ranges in return for
American participation in a Soviet test ban moratorium which
began in August and which is scheduled to expire at the end of
the year.
The White House said it would not join the Soviet moratorium...
Western diplomats ... said ...Soviet officials had tended to see
inspection as taking place only after tests were completed or
only if the United States challenged Soviet compliance with a
moratorium or with the present limit for the explosive power of
underground tests.
Washington, they said, wants regular on-site inspection of
nuclear test ranges, not necessarily linked to doubts about a
particular test. ..."
Isn't this a new demand by the US ? If competent seismological
authorities* are to be believed, a Comprehensive Test Ban could
be adequately verified by a network of unmanned seismometers in
the Soviet Union; this together with inspection of the sites of
questionable events should make a CTB quite secure against
cheating.
Advances in the development of the nuclear-pumped X-ray laser
require underground testing; I suspect this is the real reason
for Washington's reluctance to join the Soviets in the
moratorium.
A sort of semi-moratorium might be an interesting strategy for the
Soviets (or the US): Tit-for-tat testing. Everytime we carry out an
underground test, they perform a test with the public anouncement that
they will not do another until we do one more.
* - Drs. Lynn Sykes and Jack Evernden, Oct 82 Scientific American
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Date: 23 Dec 1985 2320-PST
From: Rem@IMSSS
Subject: Sometimes I feel like nuking somebody
The California State Lottery ought to be nuked for the way their spokespeople
murder mathematics/statistics. Tonite they claim that on the average there
should be about one $3,000,000 winner each week, but the past two weeks
there haven't been any, so we expect three $3,000,000 winners next week.
(Forgive this short off-subject message, but sometimes even peaceloving
people can think of killing somebody who really raises their ire. Hmmm,
I wonder if that's why Ireland is having so much killing. :-)
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End of Arms-Discussion Digest
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