Response to North Korea

North Korea may have crossed a major threshold towards developing a nuclear missile capable of striking the United States with its successful launch of a rocket into space. But Doug Ross, an SFU political scientist and arms control expert, says it’s unlikely the U.S. will respond for several reasons. “This missile launch has been under preparation for many weeks now, and is not a surprise,” explains Ross. “With Japanese and Chinese ships menacing each other at the Senkaku/Diao Yu islands, Washington is going to be preoccupied with trying to keep a lid on that escalating issue. And Syria’s use of Scud missiles against rebels is intensifying the conflict there.”

Doug Ross, 778.782.4782, douglasr@sfu.ca

Talking numbers

While the number 12 has people pondering globally the impact of today being the 12^th day of the 12^th month in the year 2012, Carl Schwarz says we’re obsessing over the wrong number. The SFU professor of statistics and actuarial science can explain why he believes March 14, 2015 at 9:26:53 will be a much more fascinating date. It turns out nine digits in that date — 3.141592653 — form the nine decimal digits of pi.

Carl Schwarz, 778.782.3376, cschwarz@stat.sfu.ca