Iran Nuclear Row & More News

(that's what the BBC graphic calls it)

I really do not know enough about the laws/treaties involved to make a judgment on this, but I have to say that the announcement that the foreign ministers of all the permanent members of the Security Council (including China and Russia) agreeing that the IAEA should refer Iran to the Security Council seems kind of circular. I mean -- if all the foreign ministers (who are themselves the ones who sit on the Security Council for the nations they represent) have already agreed that Iran should be referred to the Security Council then *I wonder what will happen* once Iran is referred.

When they sat down for the press conference Rice was BEEMING (they had been negotiating all day and late into the night, according to the BBC, but she sat down at that table grinning from ear to ear).

What I think happened is that the US and maybe the EU-3 told China/Russia that they would provide super high compensation for any processing work they could convince Iran to outsource (so it wouldn’t be, like, on a voluntary basis that Russia would be transporting and processing these materials), and once the price they named was met, they gave in.

I think US policy can be described by what I call the “Being Poor for Peace” plan. With reconstruction funds ending this year in Iraq, sanctions being placed on Iran, and aid being cut to Palestinians, it looks like from the Sinai to the Caspian Sea, we’re looking to have a whole lotta poor.

Finally – the most unlikely use of technology I’ve ever seen (I will try to find photos): Robotic camel jockeys. Small robots that can be used to “ride” camels in races across the Gulf (Sheikhs have traditionally raced camels against each other in widely-attended events not dissimilar to horseraces in Europe and the US) and are quickly replacing the small children (many of them boys as young as 3, according to the BBC) trafficked from South Asia and Africa to ride the camels. Imagine some Swiss engineer (the robots were designed in Switzerland -- another reason to love that country!) tinkering with a robot helping to end a form of child trafficking. Very cool.











VC