Chart of the Day: Manufacturing Employment Edition

From Bloomberg:

While the number of manufacturing jobs is up from the low set during the Great Recession, the total is still lower than any other time since 1950.  Unfortunately, I believe it will plumb new lows in the next recession, and will almost certainly never get back to pre-2008 levels.  A few of the reasons for that are that manufacturing is hard, it is extremely capital-intensive, and new technology is eliminating the need for some employees.  It is a lot easier to make money in advertising or mergers and acquisitions or technology. 

Digging Up a Nuclear Bomb

More about the Goldsboro Incident here.

MLK Day Links

Interesting stories from the last week:

Don’t Worry, MLB — Hitters Are Killing The Shift On Their Own – FiveThirtyEight

Government shutdown puts ranchers in a bind – Rapid City Journal

What Life Is Like When Corn Is Off the Table – The Atlantic (h/t Kaye)

Is Trump Trying To Politicize Agricultural Data? Some Former USDA Officials Suspect Yes. – FiveThirtyEight

Quinoa Whiskey? Modified Crop List Spurs Distilleries To Try Alternative Grains - The Salt

On Prohibition's 100th anniversary, Supreme Court tackles state liquor laws - USA Today
How the Klan Fueled Prohibition – New York Times

In Rural America, There Are Few People Left to Drive the Ambulances - The New Yorker

A Farmer Found a Trojan Horse Inside an Insurance Contract.  Now He Might Bring Down the Canadian Insurance Industry. - Institutional Investor.  Bwahahahahaha

Welcome to Tax Breaklandia - Bloomberg.  This is going to blow a large hole in the U.S. Treasury.

Europe’s Most Important River Is Running Dry – Bloomberg

Farms, More Productive Than Ever, Are Poisoning Drinking Water in Rural America – Wall Street Journal

Making America Great

Awesome photo gallery at The Atlantic featuring photographs of Chicago's rail yards by Jack Delano.  Bonus points for the ones of the Illinois Central yard featuring the giant neon PBR sign.

Late July Links

I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to the blog, but I've got quite a few rapidly aging links I need to use, so here you go:

Family spat leads to two town ball teams in little Milroy, Minn. - Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  I sure would have loved to have town ball around western Ohio when I was young.

The Family Ownership Dramas That Roil the NFL - Sports Illustrated.  As far as I saw, no mention of the Brown family, who beat the IRS.

How the Braves came to Buffalo – and why they left - Buffalo News.  This is a couple of years old, but has a lot of interesting historical deal about college basketball in Buffalo and the NBA as a minor professional league.

Lake surfers say polluted waves are making them sick—but they love it too much to stop – Chicago Reader

Sinking land, poisoned water: the dark side of California's mega farms- The Guardian

I Was Wrong About the Rural–Urban Divide - YES! Magazine.  It was previously noted on the blog that diary farmers were more likely to skew Democratic than other farmers in Wisconsin.

We Have No Idea How Bad the US Tick Problem Is – Wired  

Catastrophic drought threatens Iraq as major dams in surrounding countries cut off water to its great rivers – The Independent  

The Entire History of Steel – Popular Mechanics 

An ICE Raid Leaves an Iowa Town Divided Along Faith Lines – New York Times.  Evangelical Trumpians vs. Christians.

American History for Truthdiggers: Whose Revolution? (1775-1783) – Truthdig 

The fallacy of obviousness – Aeon 

How to get away with financial fraud  - The Guardian

As churches close, a way of life fades – Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  The declines in baptisms are horrific.

Mid-June Links, Part II

More stories for you, as I avoid working in the heat:

This ex-Detroit football player is vowing to become a nun - Detroit Free Press

Ashes of an industry: A Pennsylvania tradition is dying, one baseball bat at a time - Philadelphia Inquirer

No more cathode ray tubes from China, says Trump Administration - Asia Times

Philadelphia Shipyard Struggles to Survive on Order Drought - Wall Street Journal.  Calling Donald Trump....

Billions in U.S. solar projects shelved after Trump panel tariff - Reuters.  I guess if your goal is to bail out coal, this is a win.  If your goal is to have a sane energy policy, this is idiotic.

When North Dakota Farmers Blew up Partisan Politics - Zocalo Public Square.  Nonpartisan League.  I knew North Dakota has a State Bank.  I didn't realize they have an elevator and flour mill.

The Failed State of Franklin - ThoughtCo

The bishop and the brothels – Wellcome Collection

Farm Bill Targets Food Stamps -- But Not Handouts to Well-Off Farmers – Governing.  For Republicans, that is a feature, not a bug.

Lone Star Rising - Fortune.  Fracking in the Permian Basin.  The avoidance of Peak Oil means we will probably drill until the climate is completely wrecked.  It might be a good think I don't have kids.

T. Boone Pickens on Selling the Ranch - Texas Monthly

The preventable tragedy of D’ashon Morris – Dallas Morning News.  Think of this when you hear Republicans say they are pro-life.

How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People - The Cut

These Harvard Kids Got The Lesson of Their Lives in the Heartland - New York Post.  A noble effort, but I don't know how much can be gleaned by these junkets.

The Strange Case of the Missing Joyce Scholar – New York Times.  The line between genius and madness is often blurry.

America’s Largest Private Company Reboots a 153-Year-Old Strategy – Bloomberg

Early April Weekend Links

Here are a few stories from the last few days:

Playing for Pop - San Antonio Express-News

The Broncos’ Futures program saved football in Denver Public Schools. But an even bigger impact of the feeder teams might still be seen- Denver Post

“The Clock Is Ticking”: Inside the Worst U.S. Maritime Disaster in Decades – Vanity Fair.  I highly recommend this article.

So 2 Goats Were Stuck On A Beam Under A Bridge ... - Goats and Soda

Iowa producers say ethanol limits would be 'war' on rural U.S. - Des Moines Register 

The Great Lakes Are Filling Up With Giant Green Blobs - Mother Jones  

AP sources: EPA chief spent millions on security and travel - Associated Press.  Scott Pruitt is an asshat.

Humankind’s Most Important Material - The Atlantic 

How Congress Used the Post Office to Unite the Nation – Bloomberg 

The Future of America's Economy Looks a Lot Like Elkhart, Indiana - Wall Street Journal.  People are crazy, and this boom will end in tears.

Have we reached peak English in the world? - The Guardian and Brits are in denial about their diminishing importance – Handelsblatt

A Betrayal - ProPublica.  This is an awful mess.

There's no good reason to stop felons from voting - George Will (?!)

How One Man Got Rich Selling Machine Guns – Bloomberg.  Another terrible investment idea.

4/4 Mainly Ag Links

I've had some time at work to find links, so I've got some more today:

GMO Yeast Mimics Flavors Of Hops, But Will Craft Brewers Bite? – The Salt 

A Novel Virus Killed 24,000 Piglets In China. Where Did It Come From? – Goats and Soda 

Lawsuit Targeting Smelly Hog Feces Pits in North Carolina Moving Forward – Modern Farmer  

When the Death of a Family Farm Leads to Suicide – NYT

What this Silicon Valley VC learned on the ‘Rust Belt Safari’ – Recode

Scott Walker Dismayed That Wisconsin Apparently Smarter Despite Cuts in Education – Borowitz Report.  A little humor for you.

The Whitewashing of King’s Assassination - The Atlantic  


The Dynamite Cruiser Was Nearly as Dangerous to Her Crew as She Was to the Enemy – War Is Boring 

Turning Poultry Poop and Scrap Wood Into Electricity - Bloomberg

Trump and His Tariffs - Counterpunch 

Trump Tariffs Stick It to U.S. Manufacturers  - Bloomberg and Midwest Farmers Have Trump to Thank for Their Latest Export Woes – Bloomberg.  I'm getting the feeling that Bloomberg thinks the tariffs are stupid policy. 

Locations of U.S. Elevators

Late March Weekend Links

Well, I forgot to make my NCAA hockey predictions (and saved myself from demonstrating my ignorance), but I did read a few interesting stories in the last few days (and I forgot a few links that I was planning on including in the last links):

How Charles Koch Turned Wichita State into a College-Basketball Powerhouse – The New Yorker

Sisters of Sister Jean Embrace Her Loyola Team and Marvel at Her Fame – New York Times.  The Times has been all over the Sister Jean story.  I guess I'm not the only one who thinks cultural Catholics love a good nun story.

 How $42K-a-year priest built mansion worth millions - Detroit News.  And this is one of the reasons there are so many cultural and not practicing Catholics.

Robots Are Trying To Pick Strawberries. So Far, They're Not Very Good At It - The Salt

Offutt's former SD farm goes all-organic for General Mills - Ag Week.  Even if farmers think it is garbage, the corporate titans are buying into organic.  In other words, the consumer is steering the ship.

The last whalers - Aeon

American History for Truthdiggers: Were the Colonists Patriots or Insurgents? - Truthdig.  This is a question.  I have considered similar thoughts when reading about the nation's birth. 

Tom and Jerry – why they’re a cat and mouse double act for the ages - The Conversation

The Intellectual We Deserve - Current Affairs.  I've generally avoided the Jordan Peterson hype, but this seems like an epic takedown.

Dearborn mayor backs Ford expansion to Michigan Central Station - Detroit Free Press.  It would be amazing if this comes to fruition.

How One Houston Suburb Ended Up in a Reservoir – New York Times.  Mainly it is that the Corps didn't buy all the ground they should have, and nobody had the balls to tell developers to GTFO.

Radar images show large swath of West Texas oil patch is heaving and sinking at alarming rates - SMU Research.  This may be nothing, or it may end up being very significant.


The Democrats’ Rural Voter Problem (and How to Fix It) - The New Republic.  The argument is interesting, if flawed, but it gets at the central issue with the Democratic party: how have they ceded economically populist voters to the party of Oligarchs (it is because they have become the party of socially progressive Oligarchs)?

Everyone Tries To Dodge The Tax Man, And It Keeps Getting Easier - FiveThirtyEight.  The perfect chart for the week of National Ag Day.

Early March Links

Here are a few of my favorite stories from the last week or so:

We X-Rayed Some MLB Baseballs. Here’s What We Found. - FiveThirtyEight

Sweet Redemption As Men's Curling Team Brings Olympic Gold Home To Duluth - NPR

Schuyler, Nebraska, school officials call state intervention a 'scarlet letter'- Omaha World-Herald.  The state declared the school was low-performing because of changing demographics.  Translation: the town has a meatpacking plant so the school-age population is is over 85% immigrant.

California Fruit Will ‘Die on the Vine’ After ICE Raids, Labor Warns - Bloomberg.  Stupid.

Harvard Blew $1 Billion in Bet on Tomatoes, Sugar, and Eucalyptus - Bloomberg

Jerry and Marge Go Large - Highline (h/t my former boss).  Good story about a screwy lottery game that got gamed.

The Rise Of Yeast: How Civilization Was Shaped By Sugar Fungi - The Salt

Impact of warming seas felt by northeastern fisheries - Toledo Blade

Some of the World's Biggest Lakes Are Drying Up. Here's Why. - National Geographic

The Slow-Motion Catastrophe Threatening 350-Year-Old Farms - The Atlantic 

The Man Who Bottled Evolution - MSU Today

How Trump’s Hudson Tunnel Feud Threatens the National Economy - Bloomberg

The Radical Left-Wing Theory That the Government Has Unlimited Money - Vice.  Well, not so radical.  It is Modern Monetary Theory.

Who Was Marjory Stoneman Douglas? - Portside

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie - The Atlantic 

WH quietly issues report to Congress showing benefits of regulations - The Hill

Trump steel tariffs to hit these 8 countries the hardest — and China isn’t one of them - MarketWatch.  Actually, they will probably hit the U.S. the hardest.

End of February Links

Here are some stories from the last few days that caught my eye:

Canadian Grief: Curling and Hockey Losses Are “Terrible, Terrible, Terrible” – WSJ and The Worst Tickets at the Winter Olympics – WSJ

The Doomsday L Train Shutdown Just Might Save NYC - Wired
 
Like Lemons? Quinoa? Thank This Food Explorer For Bringing Them To Your Plate – The Salt

Refiner goes belly-up after big payouts to Carlyle Group - Reuters.  Ted Cruz is blaming the Renewable Fuel Standard and RINs.  I'm guessing Carlyle bled them more than the RFS.

Rainfall's natural variation hides climate change signal – Phys.org

Worst Roommate Ever - New York Magazine 

A Well-Regulated Militia - Part 0 - Advice Unasked.  A good explanation of the most poorly understood part of the Second Amendment.  I think this will have to figure in any assault rifle ban that may come about.

 'This is not normal': Glitches mar new tax law - Politico.  Democrats will have to help these idiots fix these fuckups.

The Frat House of Representatives – Politico

Here are two bonus medical history stories I was talking about this weekend.  I think I've posted each at one time or another, but they are both fascinating.   How Moldy Hay And Sick Cows Led To A Lifesaving Drug - All Things Considered, and The 'Man Who Touched His Own Heart' Changed Medicine - All Things Considered.

35 Minerals Absolutely Critical to U.S. Security - Visual Capitalist

First Fish Fry Links

The Church League Softball team was serving up fish tonight, but I'm still getting out some good links:

Tough Job: Norway’s Ski Wax Chief Is Only Noticed When He Fails - New York Times

What Canola Can Tell Us About Crops And Climate Change – The Salt

The Price-Fixing Scandal Rocking Big Chicken – Mother Jones

Slow Fade of the Pennsylvania Irish – American Conservative

The Magnetic Field Is Shifting. The Poles May Flip. This Could Get Bad -Undark.  This is low on my list of things to worry about.

How Humans Sank New Orleans – The Atlantic

Useful Only for Scrap Paper – LRB

Delaware’s Opioid Crisis - The Outline

How $225,000 Can Help Secure a Pollution Loophole at Trump’s E.P.A. - NYT.  This is bullshit.

Are White Evangelicals Sacrificing The Future In Search Of The Past? - FiveThirtyEight. Yes:

Chart of the Day: Corn Products

From Brian C. Colwell:

Lots of interesting historical corn facts there, too.  Here are a few:

• 1847: Robert Reid, by accident, created Reid’s Yellow Dent.
• The western corn rootworm was first collected in 1867 while surveying for a railroad extension from Kansas to Fort Craig.
• From 1865 to 1935, average corn yield in the United States was essentially unchanged.
• Corn cob pipes were first manufactured in the United States in 1869.
• By 1878, Iowa led the US in corn production, followed by Illinois and Missouri.
• In the late 19th century, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in parts of the southern US.
• Dr. W.J. Beal conducted experiments with corn hybrids at Michigan State in 1878. He called his hybrid mule corn since the corn was the result of a cross, just as are mules.
• In 1892, the Corn Palace was built in Mitchell, South Dakota, with corn murals as a way to prove to the world that South Dakota had a healthy agricultural climate.
• James Reid, son of Robert Reid, won a blue ribbon with his Yellow Dent at the Illinois state fair in 1891 and then a gold medal at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.
• 1893: George Morrow proposed new corn production methods, which were similar to those used today.

Blood Money

If you don't read anything else today, I recommend reading this.

The Trump Budget

FiveThirtyEight:

Idiots.  Note that Trump claims to want to fund massive infrastructure investment, but his cuts to the Ag Department hit investment in water and wastewater projects in rural areas.  Army Corps cuts are going to hit inland river navigation.  And DOT cuts? WTF?  He's the old-time patent medicine salesman ripping off the rubes.  Fuck that asshole.  He's going to be the worst President of my lifetime.

Pre-Mardi Gras Links

Unbelievably, Lent is almost here and winter is pretty much over.  Here are some stories that caught my attention:

The Next Babe Ruth - Sportsnet

In a Champion's Corner, a Real Coach Who Inspired One on 'The Wire' - New York Times

 A Taste For Pork Helped A Deadly Virus Jump To Humans - Goats and Soda

A Bee Mogul Confronts the Crisis in His Field - New York Times

Farming Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese-Americans Remember WWII Incarceration - The Salt

Red state rural America is acting on climate change – without calling it climate change - The Conversation

Wary of Modern Society, Some Christians Choose a Life Apart - Wall Street Journal

The Secret Art History on Your Money - New York Times

What Happens When Two Bankers and an Engineer Get a Billion Dollars - Bloomberg

The enormous scale of the erosion problem at the Oroville dam site - AGU.  Awesome photos from 2 weeks ago.

Meet ISRO’s PSLV: The rockstar of Indian rockets - Quartz

The 20th century saw a 23-fold increase in natural resources used for building - The Conversation.  I think this is the definition of unsustainable.

End of a golden age - Aeon.  The product of the unsustainable development (in the West) described above.

Scott Pruitt's Back-To-Basics Agenda for the EPA - Wall Street Journal and Environmental Chief Promises Swift Rollback of Obama-Era Rules - Bloomberg. 

“People across the country look at the EPA much like they look at the IRS -- and I hope to be able to change that,” Pruitt said.

I doubt that he meant that both agencies are endlessly attacked and undermined by Republicans, to the point that they are woefully unable make sure existing laws are followed, but that is the case.

The fallacy of Trump's "send in the Feds" fix for Chicago - Vox

The Two Kinds of Trump Voters - Politico

Outside coastal cities an ‘other America’ has different values and challenges - The Guardian

"I Feel Forgotten": A Decade of Struggle in Rural Ohio - The New Yorker

What happened when factory jobs moved from Warren, Ohio, to Juarez, Mexico - LA Times

Under A New System, Clinton Could Have Won The Popular Vote By 5 Points And Still Lost - FiveThirtyEight.  Gerrymandering (or stealing elections) on steroids.  I'd originally meant to write a post about this, but never got around to it.

Chart of the Day - Trump "Landslide" Edition

FiveThirtyEight:

By most measures, Trump’s victory was modest

		ELECTORAL COLLEGE SHARE		POPULAR VOTE SHARE		POPULAR VOTE MARGIN		OVERALL
YEAR	PRESIDENT	SHARE	RANK	SHARE	RANK	MARGIN	RANK	AVERAGE RANK
1936	Roosevelt	98.5	1	60.8	2	+24.3	3	2.0
1972	Nixon	96.7	3	60.7	3	+23.2	4	3.3
1964	Johnson	90.3	5	61.1	1	+22.6	5	3.7
1984	Reagan	97.6	2	58.8	5	+18.2	6	4.3
1920	Harding	76.1	13	60.4	4	+26.2	1	6.0
1932	Roosevelt	88.9	6	57.4	7	+17.8	7	6.7
1928	Hoover	83.6	9	58.2	6	+17.4	8	7.7
1956	Eisenhower	86.1	7	57.4	8	+15.4	9	8.0
1924	Coolidge	71.9	14	54.0	11	+25.2	2	9.0
1940	Roosevelt	84.6	8	54.7	10	+10.0	11	9.7
1952	Eisenhower	83.2	10	55.2	9	+10.9	10	9.7
1980	Reagan	90.9	4	50.8	16	+9.7	12	10.7
1944	Roosevelt	81.4	11	53.4	12	+7.5	15	12.7
1988	GHW Bush	79.2	12	53.4	13	+7.7	14	13.0
2008	Obama	67.8	17	52.9	14	+7.3	16	15.7
1996	Clinton	70.4	15	49.3	21	+8.6	13	16.3
2012	Obama	61.7	18	51.0	15	+3.9	19	17.3
1948	Truman	57.1	19	49.6	20	+4.5	18	19.0
1992	Clinton	68.8	16	43.0	25	+5.6	17	19.3
2004	GW Bush	53.2	24	50.7	17	+2.5	20	20.3
1976	Carter	55.2	23	50.1	18	+2.1	21	20.7
1960	Kennedy	56.4	21	49.7	19	+0.2	23	21.0
1968	Nixon	55.9	22	43.4	24	+0.7	22	22.7
2016	Trump	56.5	20	45.9	23	-2.1	25	22.7
2000	GW Bush	50.4	25	47.9	22	-0.5	24	23.7

Sources: Dave Leip, Statistical Abstract of the United States, David Wasserman, Wikipedia

Looking Toward An Uncertain Future

The day I've been dreading is almost here.  Tonight is the last night that Barack Obama will be president, and tomorrow the world's most famous eight-year-old-trapped-in-a-seventy-year-old's-body will succeed him.  I really have no idea what to expect for the next four years, but if I had to make a wager, I'd go with something between Bush-era failure and absolute disaster.  Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised, but very little about the transition period gives me confidence that will be the case.  In fact, this Jonathan Bernstein column lends credence to my wager position:

There's no Trump appointee for any of the top State Department jobs below secretary nominee Rex Tillerson. No Trump appointee for any of the top Department of Defense jobs below retired general James Mattis. Treasury? Same story. Justice? It is one of two departments (along with, bizarrely, Commerce) where Trump has selected a deputy secretary. But no solicitor general, no one at civil rights, no one in the civil division, no one for the national security division.
And the same is true in department after department. Not to mention agencies without anyone at all nominated by the president-elect.
Overall, out of 690 positions requiring Senate confirmation tracked by the Washington Post and Partnership for Public Service, Trump has come up with only 28 people so far....
First of all, the government actually does things, and without all the jobs filled it's not apt to do them very well. Even if there's no catastrophic failure, lack of leadership will, as should be no surprise, yield inertia and low morale, leading to steadily worse performance....
If I had to guess, however, I'd say that the failure to get his administration up and running on time isn't a deliberate choice by Trump; he just has no idea what he's doing, and hasn't surrounded himself with people well-equipped to translate his impulses and his campaign commitments into a full-fledged government. This isn't exactly a surprise.

To drive home this point, farmers and rural voters were absolutely essential to getting Trump elected, and he didn't get around to announcing a Secretary of Agriculture until today.  Even worse, the career politicians in the Republican Party also have little to no interest in actually governing, and I would anticipate a train wreck to result from the "united" government we got out of the disastrous election of 2016.

On the other side of the aisle, the situation is just as bleak.  The Democrats have seemingly lost their collective minds over the election results.  They put on their tin foil hats and have been wailing and gnashing their teeth over the supposed Russian interference in the election.  I believe the Russians may have been behind hacks of the DNC, but I'm pretty sure they had less impact on the general election than the phase of the moon (which, if you've read previous posts, I put little faith in for anything).  Many of my neighbors were solidly Trump since the first Republican debate in August of 2015, and almost all of them were anti-Hillary since 1993.  Nothing that came out in September or October was going to change how they were going to cast their ballots.  Even worse for the Democrats, their party is more dead than Elvis in rural areas throughout the country.

While I am pretty pessimistic about the near-to-medium term outlook for our political situation and for civil society in general, I would like to take a minute to thank President Obama for his eight years of service for our country.  In the face of unprecedented opposition from Republicans, he was able to lead the nation with grace and dignity.  Even though I think he made some serious miscalculations, especially in believing he would be able to convince Republicans to work with him, I believe that history will judge him as one of the best Presidents of the post-WWII era. 

In closing, in order to highlight the general decency of Obama, and of the American people in general, and to distract you a little bit from the narcissistic con man who will replace him at noon tomorrow, I would suggest you read this extremely well-written article about the people who sorted the letters and emails that Americans wrote to President Obama, and who decided which ones to pass on to the President to read, and who later drafted responses to these letters.  (h/t to my former boss for highlighting this story).  The article caused my eyes to fill with tears several times.  I challenge you to imagine the next President in soon-to-be citizen Barack Obama's place, and how he will handle the same kind of correspondence.  I wish our nation good luck as we proceed beyond tomorrow's change in leadership.  I really think we'll need it.

Start of 2017 Links

Here are some stories to start the year out on:

Jack Johnson, still unforgivable? - The Undefeated

Big Battles Over Farm And Food Policies May Be Brewing As Trump Era Begins - The Salt

Where the Beers Are:A Regional Guide to U.S. Craft Beers - Wall Street Journal

Rogue One: an 'Engineering Ethics' Story - SciFi Policy and Architects and Engineers Shove a Light Saber Through the Death Star's Bad Design - Wired, along with a speculation on real-life ethics and scientific research, The Private Heisenberg and the Absent Bomb - New York Review of Books
A Bigger Problem Than ISIS? - The New Yorker. On the potentially imminent failure of the Mosul Dam.

The Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion and the O-Ring - Priceonomics

Meet Henry Orenstein, The Man Who Changed How The World Plays - Newsweek (h/t my former boss).  Unbelievable life story.

Fuck Work - Aeon. 

Holy Wars - Boston Review

The Ad That Moved People the Most: Bernie Sanders's 'America' - The Upshot

What History Has to Say About the Economy Trump Will Inherit - Bloomberg

America's electoral college and the popular vote - The Economist.

The New Cold War

60 Minutes:

View More: Newsmakers News|60 Minutes News|Live News|More News Videos

This is scary:

At the end of the Cold War both sides pledged to point their missiles at the open ocean. But it would take just minutes to change back to real targets.
That provides a small hedge against an accidental war triggered by a false alarm of the kind Perry experienced in 1979 when a watch officer mistakenly inserted a training tape into a computer.
William Perry: It looked like 200 ICBMs were on the way from the Soviet Union to the United States. Happily we got that situation figured out before we had to go to the president. But had we not he would have received a call at 3 o’clock in the morning and said, “Sir you have seven or eight minutes to decide whether to launch those before these missiles land on our ICBM silos.
David Martin: And what was the fail-safe there?  What stopped it from going to the president?
William Perry: What stopped it was an astute general who sensed something was wrong.

How many times have we almost nuked somebody accidentally?  It seems like a lot.  We were very lucky in the Cold War.