North Korea missile test: update 1

I could fill you in about all the diplomatic minutiae that's taken place here at and around the United Nations Security Council during the past 12 hours I've been following this...

or I could just link you to this hilarious update from Arms Control Wonk. This from a wonkish commenter on the site:

"According to the US Navy the highly unique North Korean satellite has entered subaquatic orbit in the Pacific Ocean, and is transmitting melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans Song of General Kim Il-sung and Song of General Kim Jong-il on a 15 kHz acoustic channel."

the crackdown begins

Just as Iowa and Vermont are moving to allow gay marriage, Iraq is going in the other direction, in a big way. Ridiculous.

Obama calls for a nuclear free world

Reuters is on the case. A lot of smart people have started making this call from across the political spectrum. It's nice to hear the President do it too.

great moments in marketing!

So the venerable hockey team the Montreal Canadiens are up for sale. PETA offered to "rent" them for one game in exchange for getting to rename them the "Canadien Seal Pups" to publicize baby-seal clubbing that continues unabated in Canada.

But then a Sports Illustrated writer pointed out that, um, PETA, what if Montreal loses that game? Headline the next day: SEAL PUPS BEATEN.

Seymour Hersh does it again

Fascinating article on Syria in this week's New Yorker. Hersh argues that Syria is badly wanting, if not a total strategic realignment, then certainly improved relations with the West and a peace deal over Golan with Israel. The article also says that the incoming Obama Administration persuaded Israel to end its Gaza campaign before the inauguration, over the objections of Dick Cheney. Definitely worth reading.

Avigdor Lieberman: worst Foreign Minister ever

In remarks that could scarcely be believed if reputable newspapers weren't reporting on them, Avigdor Lieberman today eschewed the Annapolis Peace Talks (okay, fine, understandable, it was a futile attempt anyway, but still...), the 2-state solution, and peace in general. From the Guardian:

Israel's new foreign minister dismayed the international community today with a rancorous analysis of the peace process and an announcement that the new government favours aggression rather than concessions to the Palestinians.

In his first speech since taking office, the rightwinger Avigdor Lieberman dismissed the last round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, arguing that Israeli concessions made in a bid to secure peace had all been fruitless.

He refrained from his previous well-publicized Egypt-bashing, however, perhaps demonstrating that Netanyahu has a bit of a leash on his pit bull:

Lieberman was more amiable towards Egypt, which he described as an "important element in the Arab world". This is an improvement on a few weeks ago, when he said the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, could "go to hell".

A triumph for diplomacy and rationality!

sea cucumbers in danger

The UN reports that sea cucumbers are at risk of overfishing. Somehow, FAO's press release, in the grand tradition of its infamous Army Worms scare in Liberia, manages to be hilarious.

The real trouble with sea cucumbers is that they're not nearly as adorable as, say, orcas or belugas on the list of endangered things. Even walruses are more majestic. If a sea cucumber is in a Hollywood movie, it's much more likely to be the villain (The Cucumber Who Killed would be a good C-movie on Sy-Fy) and much less the hero, a la Free Willy. It's just really hard to rally behind this one.

That said, overfishing is a serious problem and if we've exhausted the oceans to the point that we're overharvesting mobile blobs like the sea cucumber, we're in real trouble.