There's a lot of nuclear weapons out there. That probably won't suprise anyone, but so far, according to a documentary I saw last night, there are at least 23,000 warheads out there and probably more unaccounted for. America, Russia, Britain, France, Israel, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea are countries known to have them. South Africa briefly built three before deciding such weapons weren't desirable, opting out of the big league by disassembling them.

It's a chilling thought isn't it? Of course the documentary made a meal of it, scaring their viewers with advice from ex-CIA agents about the difficulties of stopping nuclear proliferation on the black market.

There's nothing new in this threat of random destruction. I grew up during the Cold War with both sides ready to launch within minutes of the other making the wrong move. it so nearly happened. The 1961 Cuba missile crisis for instance, when both sides stared each other in the face.

There was a moment in the 70's when a technical fault convinced senior russian officers that a first strike was in progress against them. A lowly lieutenant managed to restore commonsense before the soviets mistakenly responded in full.

During the 90's the soviets wwere advised of a mundane missile launch off Norway by the Americans, and because the message hadn't reached the Kremlin, senior officers marched into Boris Yeltsins office asking for permission to respond. As it happened, this was a day when Yeltsin wasn't drunk.

Finally, a failure of a small microchip caused the Americans to prepare for a retaliation strike. Mutally assured destruction was within minutes of actually happening.

As if improvied explosive devices in afghanistan weren't enough of a worry. Al Qaeda have stated their intention to kill four million americans to 'even the score'. We used to say in the 80's how mad this all was. Where's the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament now? CND made a huge fuss back then, but why aren't they telling rogue countries and religious nutcases that nuclear weapons aren't as good as woolly hats and songs around a camp fire?

Big Collisions

I've seen the latest Hubble photographs of a pair of galaxies about to collide - or rather, about to collide 450 million years ago, because that's how long the light has taken to reach us. The same thing will happen to our galaxy eventually since Andromeda is speeding toward us. Don't hold your breath though. Might be a few billion years before both galaxies begin to coalesce.

Nevertheless, that gives us time to organise efforts to prevent this calamity. So stock up on tents, gas stoves, woolly clothes, and join the Campaign for Galactic Avoidance. Stop this madness now!

Protest of the Week

Talking about daft protests, it seems the civil rights brigade have decided that sentences handed out to rioters in the wake of disorder in Britain more than a week ago are too severe. It seems these poor helpless rioters are being given draconian sentences for a little bit of fun here and there.

Yes. I know. Hanging's too good for them. I've heard the expected calls for National Service to be brought back, and even some suggestions of adopting the american 'three strikes and you're out' rules, which is ordinarily unthinkable in kind caring britain.

You know what? I don't care what happens to these louts and looters. They can moan about how bad society is toward them, but if they can't get on with society and observe its laws, what in the name of all that's sensible do they expect?

I don't suppose Australia is still open for business, is it? Can you imagine Mad Max in british yoof style? Look, those survivalists have got petrol! Wicked! Lets joyride our stolen cars around their camp!