Spelunkers Beware

~More wonderful news from over here: North Korea has apparently conducted its first nuclear test. It was done underground and sent out seismic waves detected around the world:

^ The detonation was estimated to be quite small, perhaps an atomic bomb with a yield as little as 1 kiloton (equivalent to 1,000 tons of TNT). By comparison, the atomic bomb that obliterated Hiroshima had a yield of around 15 kilotons, and the largest nuclear bomb ever built, the U.S.S.R.'s Tsar Bomba (nicknamed Ivan), had an estimated yield of 100 megatons (100 million tons of TNT), capable of wiping out everthing in a 50-mile radius.

^ Given the history of Japan, nukes, and North Korean missiles occasionally flying over the country, the natives here are getting increasingly nervous. The newly-elected Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe (pronounced, "ah-bey") has made re-writing the pacifist Japanese Constitution the central focus of his career. The demands to re-arm are becoming increasingly louder, but I don't think anyone seriously wants it to happen. Well, except for Lockheed Martin and United Defense, of course.

I think the real problem here is not so much North Korea being able to launch nuclear missiles, but the political ramifications of the test. Let's face it: now that they officially have nukes, they're untouchable (yet we sit here, and wonder just why Iran and the rest of the world wants these terrible weapons so badly). You just wait: over the next few weeks/months/years, America and the rest of the world will quietly send increasing amounts of "foreign aid" (i.e. blackmail payments) to North Korea to keep them off our backs. They, in turn, will occasionally test more and bigger bombs to keep us scared.

We can't do any more than that, really, and it's sad. We can only hope that the North Koreans will revolt against their leader, or that their leader will die...but then again, that kind of thinking hasn't helped much in the past.

~On a cheerier note, archaeologists working in Syria have discovered a 100,000 year old fossil of a gigantic species of camel, twice as large as modern camels:

^ On the left is the foot-bone of a "King Camel", while on the right is the foot-bone of a modern camel. Where does this camel sleep? Why, anywhere it wants to, of course.

~Oyasumi!