Nuclear Threats: A Picture Book

The BBC is really awesome about making big, abstract news stories much more digestible, usually using pretty pictures. As a follow up to last week's briefing about the whole missile defense shield brouhaha, here are some pretty pictures from the BBC that explain the heart of the conflict.


And see, this is why the BBC is great. Before I saw this, I was definitely of the "Seriously, isn't Russia just overreacting?" mindset. Then I saw this map and switched to "Holy shit, no wonder they're freaking out, we're batshit crazy."

Even better than that map, though, is today's animated illustration of how a missile defense shield works. Watch as a missile is launched by "an enemy of the US!" Very exciting. And by 'exciting,' I of course mean 'holy shit we're all going to die.'

In conclusion:
Russia = justifiably freaked
USA = batshit crazy
rest of world = doomed