Happy Hiroshima Day!
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Low Down Low
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Just skimmed the thread, some most interesting and informative posting in it. Remember reading John Hersey's celebrated account many years ago and one of the lines that stood out was how only a very small fraction of bomb's uranium reacted and was still sufficient to almost fully wipe out an entire city centre in one blow. Now, I'm not expert enough to know whether that was by design or not, but it is a chilling line that has always remained with me.
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Last fall I listened to Eric Schlosser's book Command and Control, and he states the same.Low Down Low wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 7:43amJust skimmed the thread, some most interesting and informative posting in it. Remember reading John Hersey's celebrated account many years ago and one of the lines that stood out was how only a very small fraction of bomb's uranium reacted and was still sufficient to almost fully wipe out an entire city centre in one blow. Now, I'm not expert enough to know whether that was by design or not, but it is a chilling line that has always remained with me.
https://clashcity.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 75#p598475
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Low Down Low
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Ah, not even sure if that wasn't my source. Had picked it up somewhere anyway. Think, in a different context, I've read a similar stat about Chernobyl, that it was a mere tiny fraction of plutonium that reacted. Just a case of dumb luck, in both instances, that the consequences weren't more wildly extreme or, in the case of Japan at least, that the bomb was so primitive, it only wreaked a small percentage of the damage intended?Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 7:55amLast fall I listened to Eric Schlosser's book Command and Control, and he states the same.Low Down Low wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 7:43amJust skimmed the thread, some most interesting and informative posting in it. Remember reading John Hersey's celebrated account many years ago and one of the lines that stood out was how only a very small fraction of bomb's uranium reacted and was still sufficient to almost fully wipe out an entire city centre in one blow. Now, I'm not expert enough to know whether that was by design or not, but it is a chilling line that has always remained with me.
https://clashcity.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 75#p598475
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Yeah, I don't know if it's the relative primitive nature of the early bombs or the way physics works (i.e., that there's necessarily a lot of "waste" involved in producing the reaction).Low Down Low wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 8:27amAh, not even sure if that wasn't my source. Had picked it up somewhere anyway. Think, in a different context, I've read a similar stat about Chernobyl, that it was a mere tiny fraction of plutonium that reacted. Just a case of dumb luck, in both instances, that the consequences weren't more wildly extreme or, in the case of Japan at least, that the bomb was so primitive, it only wreaked a small percentage of the damage intended?Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 7:55amLast fall I listened to Eric Schlosser's book Command and Control, and he states the same.Low Down Low wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 7:43amJust skimmed the thread, some most interesting and informative posting in it. Remember reading John Hersey's celebrated account many years ago and one of the lines that stood out was how only a very small fraction of bomb's uranium reacted and was still sufficient to almost fully wipe out an entire city centre in one blow. Now, I'm not expert enough to know whether that was by design or not, but it is a chilling line that has always remained with me.
https://clashcity.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 75#p598475
(I recommend Schlosser's book, btw. Quite readable and sobering and something to angry up the conscience.)
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
for some reason - possibly because of having the olympics in japan coinciding roughly with the anniversary of the bombings - the other day my wife out of the blue mentioned to me how horrible and unnecessary she thought the bombings were, something she hadn't thought too much about one way or the other before. I guess whatever coverage of it NBC had made an impression about just the sheer magnitude of civilian death and destruction in a way she never learned in, say, school.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
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Wiggle - you can raise the dead
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
It's interesting that the Lost Cause revisionism seems to be slowly going away. I wonder if/when the "Nuking cities ended the war early" revisionism will occur. That sentiment is a lot more entrenched. I haven't talked to my parents in years about it, but I doubt they've changed.Flex wrote: ↑11 Aug 2021, 12:45pmfor some reason - possibly because of having the olympics in japan coinciding roughly with the anniversary of the bombings - the other day my wife out of the blue mentioned to me how horrible and unnecessary she thought the bombings were, something she hadn't thought too much about one way or the other before. I guess whatever coverage of it NBC had made an impression about just the sheer magnitude of civilian death and destruction in a way she never learned in, say, school.
Look, you have to establish context for these things. And I maintain that unless you appreciate the Fall of Constantinople, the Great Fire of London, and Mickey Mantle's fatalist alcoholism, live Freddy makes no sense. If you want to half-ass it, fine, go call Simon Schama to do the appendix.
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Pretty sure I mentioned elsewhere in this thread that well into the 1960s and early 70s, the morality of the bomb was of public debate. The whole war is war or they deserved it perspective—i.e., the amoral view—is something that took hold in the Reagan era. Which in itself should give some pause that a person might be reinforcing a hard right militarism.
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
So I'm listening to this book about nuclear policy in the early Cold War. The early stages, where Truman understood the diplomatic power of the Bomb when dealing with the Soviets, made me think of Always Sunny's "Implication" scene:
In essence, Truman believed the Bomb would let him fuck Stalin.
In essence, Truman believed the Bomb would let him fuck Stalin.
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Goddamnit Flex!
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My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Hah.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Aug 2023, 2:29pmSo I'm listening to this book about nuclear policy in the early Cold War. The early stages, where Truman understood the diplomatic power of the Bomb when dealing with the Soviets, made me think of Always Sunny's "Implication" scene:
In essence, Truman believed the Bomb would let him fuck Stalin.
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
Ha! Well, the 1950s was very conformist …
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Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!
At first glance I thought they were mannequins.
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