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Design Observer has an article about “blast door” art, painted by the people who man nuclear launch control centers in the US.
Like the garish and cheeky illustrations etched across the noses of World War II aircraft, these images in launch control centers across the United States testify to the bravado of the men (and, from the mid-1980s onward, women) of what has been called “America’s Underground Air Force.” But they also reflect the sometimes surreal pressures faced by two-person missile crews on 24-hour duty alerts, waiting for a call to turn their missile launch keys and perhaps end civilization as we know it. “You’re sitting there waiting for the message you hope never comes,” says Tony Gatlin, who painted the Domino’s homage as a young deputy flight commander at Delta One in 1989. “That’s a pretty screwed up way of looking at the world.”
Now an Air Force major and deputy director of staff with the 100th Air Refueling Wing, based at the Royal Air Force’s Mildenhall Base, in England, Gatlin was struck by the similarity of Domino’s delivery time and that of his missiles. “One went with the other kind of well,” he deadpans. Gatlin’s painting is one of only a few the public can see, following the transformation in 1999 of the Delta One control facility and the nearby Delta Nine missile silo into an historic site by the National Park Service (NPS). Under the terms of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the then-Soviet Union and the United States, many Minuteman missile sites have been deactivated or destroyed.
Link (Thanks, William!)
Gaddafi condemns Arab leaders
Posted on: March 29, 2008
- In: Arab | Arab summit | condemns | Gaddafi | leaders | Libyan | Muammar Gaddafi | President | Saddam Hussein | united states | usa
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Opponents of Chinese rule in Tibet set fire to vehicles and shops on Friday as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to witnesses and human rights groups.
The protests — initiated by Buddhist monks — have been growing since Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule. Tibet, an autonomous province, has long sought independence from China.
Roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces and military trucks pushing back riot police, a witness told CNN.
A Tibetan guide said armed police backed by armored vehicles were blocking major intersections in the city center and that an entire street in a busy shopping area outside the Jokhang temple “seemed to be on fire.” He said he had heard “cannon fire” and had heard reports of tear gas being used against protesters, The Associated Press reported.
In a statement, the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader and the head of the Tibetan government in exile, said he was “deeply concerned” by the developing situation and said the protests were “a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people” under Chinese rule.
“I appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence,” the Dalai Lama said.
Protesters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.
A main market in the capital was set on fire, and some Tibetans were hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet, which promotes human rights and democratic freedom in Tibet.
Friday’s violence started when police tried to stop a peaceful protest by monks at the Ramoche Temple, Tashi Choephel of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights told CNN from Dharamsala, India.
“The monks from the Ramoche Temple on the north side of Lhasa, they started a peaceful demonstration and they were blocked by the People’s Armed Police,” Choephel said.
Speaking to The Associated Press, a witness said hundreds of monks and civilians were involved in the protests, setting police cars and army vehicles alight. A Lhasa resident said police had imposed a curfew, closing off all roads into the city center.
A photo e-mailed to CNN from a source in Lhasa showed what appeared to be Chinese military vehicles containing security forces armed with riot shields at the Ramoche Temple. Video Watch reports of rioting in Tibet »
Saunders said violence broke out as bystanders joined the protest. “Apparently local people — lay people — got involved, and a police car was set on fire. This was followed by Tromsikhang Market being set on fire,” she said from London.
The market has many Chinese traders. Saunders said Tibetans are concerned about the influx of Chinese into the area. Some ethnic Tibetan shopkeepers hung scarves outside their stores in an effort to spare them from the protesters’ wrath, a witness reported.
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