This was a little too good to pass up. The International Herald Tribune today had an article about a court case in Hawai’i where they are suing the the U.S. Department of Energy, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and CERN to put a restraining order on them in hopes of preventing them from starting up the Large Hadron Collider outside Geneva.

But Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth.

My favourite quote? “Scientists say that is very unlikely - though they have done some checking just to make sure.” [Tom, I think that means they’re double-checking the Engle Factor]

Surely the world revolves around ‘just in time’ paychecks, right? Of course, with me forgetting to hand in time sheets for two months, I’m feeling a tight squeeze at the moment. And also, with my thesis pressure at submarine-crushing levels, I haven’t done much work for Sir Crispin lately. Meaning? No dough. My supervisor assures me that everything will be fine and to not do any ‘work’ right now, focusing all my efforts on my thesis. I’m just worried about the old adage, “empty tummy, empty mind.”*

*Is that really an old adage? I’ve certainly been using it for. . . weeks now.

We all have our woes when it comes to calling technical support. In the UK, there is the particular joy of amazing poor customer service for Internet Service Providers. I invite you to raise your blood pressure a little by reading over the letter below that I have just sent to Tiscali, after five months of not receiving the service I am paying for. I post any replies I get from them here, so do check back. (more…)

The second post in the new Wassenaar category, this one higlights a lesser error, but nonetheless still an error. Ariel Cohen’s article in the Middle East Times, The Real World: Iran’s space rocket launch has this to say about the Wassenaar Arrangement:

Attempts to thwart Iran’s missile ambitions are hampered by the fact that Tehran is being backed by Russia and China. These powers are actually partners in the Iranian ballistic missile and space programs which they view as both geopolitically desirable (to dilute U.S. influence) – and lucrative. Russian, Chinese and North Korean cooperation would be desirable and necessary to stop Iran’s missile program. Although China is not a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement which limits the spread of advanced weapons technology (the successor of CoCom – the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) and the Missile Technology Control Regime, Russia is. Pressure should be exerted on Moscow to abide by these control regimes.

All went fine until the final sentence. While I cannot say whether Russia fully abides by these regimes, I can say that even if they do, that won’t stop them exporting to Iran. Wassenaar is not meant to prevent a country from exporting a technology, it is meant to make sure that, when a technology that is controlled is exported to a non-member, it is a purposeful decision of the exporting country. In that way, it reduces uncertainty about the exporting countries intentions because they knew (or were supposed to know) that the technology left their borders.

The point that Cohen could have made is that he believes the sale of these items to Iran creates a ‘destabilising accumulation’ in this region of the world. This is most definitely an argument that can be raised at the meetings of the Wassenaar Arrangement, as shown in paragraph 1 of the Initial Elements:

The Wassenaar Arrangement has been established in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations. Participating States will seek, through their national policies, to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities which undermine these goals, and are not diverted to support such capabilities.

The subtle point here is that Wassenaar does not tell countries what they can and cannot export (unlike the old COCOM system). Instead, it allows the 40 Member States to discuss their export control practices. If they think that technology going to Iran is destabilising the region, they may decide to not export there any more, but that decision must be unanimous in order for it to become part of the Arrangement. Whether or not this is the best way to handle the issue of technology exports, I leave to the reader. My point here is to clarify what Wassenaar is.

PhD Comics is really on a role for me right now. Or, put another way, I’m really feeling the pain of the nameless hero.