I HAVE A DREAM to end war.

A friend, just sent me a few statistics from the book NO-NONSENSE GUIDE TO THE ARMS TRADE.

This is new brainwork for me, never bothered to concern myself with how much capital there is to be gained, trading and selling weaponry. No wonder the human greedy animal desire wars to be waged... with its hi-tech slaughter...

THERE LOTS OF IN THEM THAR HOSTILE ENCOUNTERS!

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I'VE GOT A DREAM to end war.


If I ruled the world, I would take all the
weaponry and melt it down into golf clubs,
then sell these clubs to the many countries, organizations, terrorist groups, imperialists, warmongers and the rest of the murder-mongers of this world who wish to wreck havoc upon us for monetary gain, and tell them PLAY GOLF INSTEAD...

Winners take all.

What a lovely picture I would paint... Instead of watching TV and seeing a big billowing mushroom cloud rise up from infrastructures, we would see lovely grass fields with military uniformed individuals or Asian men, garbed in long flowing robes, chasing around little white balls, trying to get a HOLE IN ONE...

I know, blissful thinking and I also sadly understand, IT WOULD NEVER WORK!

After a day or two of this pleasant little game with big stakes... the players would stop aiming at the little balls and start bopping each other over the head with their irons... AND IT WOULD BE CALLED THE GOLF WARS...

The human condition is piteous and if we didn't laugh we would cease to exist.

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HOLY MUSHROOM CLOUD, NO WONDER THE NEOCONS ARE INFATUATED WITH WAR!

thinkingblue aka Carolyn
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PS: Take a look at this sport of killing people and see what a big business it is... With sales for the apparatus (tools) of this disgusting trade, skyrocketing... There are major bucks to be made by those who speculate in this MARKET OF MASS DESTRUCTION (but I wonder, how in the world do they live with themselves?)...

Judy wrote: excerpts from the book
No-Nonsense guide to The Arms Trade
by Gideon Burrows
New Internationalist / Verso, 2002, paper
p14 Who sells the weaponry?

Unsurprisingly, the West dominates the world arms market in terms of sales. Over the last six or so years, the US has towered over the other countries in weapons sales, clocking up $49,271 million worth of sales (at 1990 prices) between 1996 and 2000. Its nearest competitor, Russia, made $15,690 million worth in the same period, but a large majority of these were of second hand weapons.

According to SIPRI, just under half of all transfers (movements) of
major conventional weapons between 1996 and 2000 came from the US,Russia and France each accounted for 10 per cent, and Britain and Germany each accounted for between five and 10 per cent. The seven following biggest sellers - the Netherlands, Ukraine, Italy, China, Belarus, Spain and Israel - accounted for around 15 per cent of the world total transfers between them.

So it is clear that the global arms market is controlled by just a
few players. The six biggest arms selling countries - four of whom,
ironically, are permanent members of the UN Security Council -
accounted for almost 85 per cent of all arms transfers over the
last six years.

P16 The top 7 largest arms companies, in terms of military
sales. The figures in italics represent the percentage of arms
in total sales for each company. Figures for arms sales are in US $
billions at constant (1998) prices and exchange rates.

Lockheed Martin (US) $15.9 63% $17.6 70%

BAE Systems (UK) $ 9.1 62% $15.7 77%

Boeing (US) $4.5 18% $15.3 27%

Raytheon (US) $3.9 35% $11.3 58%

Northrop Grumman (US) $6.2 85% $7.0 79%

General Dynamics (US) $3.2 94% $5.5 62%

Thomson-CSF (France) $4.2 65% $4.1 56%

p17 Selection of top arms-purchasing countries between 1996 and 2000.

Taiwan - Saudi Arabia - Turkey - South Korea - China - India - Egypt - Israel - Pakistan - Kuwait Malaysia - Brazil - UK
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Please Click Above Picture To Read Ithaca Hours Archive:
City Hall vs Ithaca. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why does an atom bomb form a mushroom cloud?
01-Jan-1999

Dear Cecil: Why do nuclear explosions form a mushroom-shaped cloud? If you would tell me why frantic and furious fusion and fission have a fondness for the fungus form, I would certainly appreciate it. --Paul Smith, Tampa, Florida

Cecil replies: Shame on you, Paul. You know I cringe at F-words. You don't need an atom bomb to make a mushroom cloud, just convection. Mushroom clouds typically occur when an explosion produces a massive fireball. Since the fireball is very hot and thus less dense than the surrounding air, it rises rapidly, forming the cap of the mushroom cloud. In its wake the fireball leaves a column of heated air. This acts as a chimney, drawing in smoke and hot gases from ground fires. These form the stalk of the mushroom. Since the center is the hottest part of the mushroom cloud, it rises faster than the outer edges, giving the impression that the cap is curling down around the stalk. Thus the familiar fungal form.

Hydrogen bomb explosions are so huge the cloud may reach the
tropopause, the boundary in the atmosphere where a fairly sharp rise in temperature starts. The cloud generally can't break through this and the top flattens out, producing an especially pronounced mushroom shape. (The tropopause also forms a ceiling for thunderheads, producing their anvil shape.)

Mushroom clouds aren't necessarily big. One of the Teeming Millions tells me he once set off a carbide noisemaker-type cannon with the igniter mechanism removed. Out of the hole where the igniter was supposed to go there issued a 10-inch mushroom cloud with a stem of fire and a cap of black smoke. And, we must suppose, a fabulously fierce FOOMP. --CECIL ADAMS

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