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Security clearance holders now number about 4.6 million people, a drop of 10 percent from last year’s tally of 5.15 million, according to new White House budget documents (see page 51). Even if you subtract a couple of million who automatically get low-level clearances just for joining the military services, this is still a lot […] The death this week of physicist Charles Townes at the age of 99 casts fading light on the generation of technologists whose sensibilities about science and society were infused with Cold War militarism. Townes will be remembered for his seminal research on lasers when he was young, but his long career was just as notable […] Bus service through a contaminated “difficult-to-return zone” near the ruined Fukushima no. 1 power plant will start on January 31. Moving at 40 mph along the 46-mile route, passengers will be exposed to about 1.2 microsieverts per hour of radiation. The ICRP recommended maximum for external irradiation of the human body above natural background, excluding […] Tucked into the 2015 budget for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is $12.75 million worth of “subsidies” to help convince local municipalities of the wonderfulness of nuclear power. The more electricity they produce, the more money they get. There’s also cash forIn other cases, there are underlying health issues that need to be addressed […] The death of Walter Berns, part of a clique of reactionary professors who quit the Cornell faculty in 1969 after the campus movement against institutional racism failed to conform to their academic protocols, recalls an era when scholars of his brand grew fantastically out of touch with the world beyond the ivy. (Sam Roberts, who […] Contrary to the impression of some American news media, Paris is not an armed camp. Compared to New York, Washington, Baltimore, or any other American city, where hardly a minute passes without the appearance of a police car on the street, the “forces of order” in Paris are remarkably low-profile. One of the most notable […] […] On Tuesday night, a usually popular Paris cafe of deep pedigree in St. Germain des Pres was nearly empty, with only a few American rich kids and imperious Japanese beauties drinking Champagne. Where was everyone? The answer: it was Epiphany. What? The French–that is, the ones of Catholic lineage, who still comprise an overwhelming majority–were […] |