Bits and Pieces - February 5, 2014

Nuclear Diner is down, so I'll post here the links I ordinarily would have posted there.

A good summary of the pros and cons of the Joint Plan ofAction with Iran. Bonus: explains why Fareed Zakaria’s “train wreck” is nonsense.

Congressional Democrats are getting behind negotiations withIran.

Background on what the Iranian Revolution accomplished.

Russia says Syria will get their chemical weapons moving. Before that happened, Charles Duelfer, who was in charge of looking for WMD in Iraq, speculated that Russia couldn’t be too pleased about the slowdown, which is what I thought too. Imagine chemical weapons in Sochi. Russia is learning the downside of being a big internationalplayer.

Experts believe that more public outreach is necessary in the Mediterranean region about the chemical weapons recovery and disposal mission.

In the meantime, Libya’s remaining chemical weapons havebeen destroyed. Good job.

Identifying North Korean mobile missile launchers and wherethey’re produced. Excellent study in open-source intelligence.

Background on Ukraine.

Good commentary on the fight between nuclear and renewable energy. Totally unnecessary.

Deer in Germany still migrate according to where the fenceswere during the Cold War.

A science chat on Twitter. 6:00 PST on Twitter. Hashtag: #sciencechat

Snowden Stuff:

An important point: Daniel Ellsberg knew what he wasleaking; Snowden can’t possibly know.

Long read on Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.

And yet one more “revelation” that turns out to be wrong.