Happy Hiroshima Day!

Politics and other such topical creams.
Low Down Low
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 4921
Joined: 21 Aug 2014, 9:08am

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Low Down Low »

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.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115977
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Low Down Low wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 7:43am
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.
Last fall I listened to Eric Schlosser's book Command and Control, and he states the same.
https://clashcity.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 75#p598475
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Low Down Low
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 4921
Joined: 21 Aug 2014, 9:08am

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Low Down Low »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 7:55am
Low Down Low wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 7:43am
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.
Last fall I listened to Eric Schlosser's book Command and Control, and he states the same.
https://clashcity.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 75#p598475
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
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115977
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Low Down Low wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 8:27am
Dr. Medulla wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 7:55am
Low Down Low wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 7:43am
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.
Last fall I listened to Eric Schlosser's book Command and Control, and he states the same.
https://clashcity.com/boards/viewtopic. ... 75#p598475
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?
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).

(I recommend Schlosser's book, btw. Quite readable and sobering and something to angry up the conscience.)
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Flex
User avatar
Mechano-Man of the Future
Posts: 35799
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:50pm
Location: The Information Superhighway!

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Flex »

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
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

matedog
User avatar
Purveyor of Hoyistic Thought
Posts: 25797
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 4:07pm
Location: 1995

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by matedog »

Flex wrote:
11 Aug 2021, 12:45pm
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.
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.
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.

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115977
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Dr. Medulla »

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.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115977
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Dr. Medulla »

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.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Marky Dread
User avatar
Messiah of the Milk Bar
Posts: 58881
Joined: 17 Jun 2008, 11:26am

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Marky Dread »

Goddamnit Flex!

Image

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty


We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.

"Without the common people you're nothing"

Nos Sumus Una Familia

Silent Majority
Singer-Songwriter Nancy
Posts: 18702
Joined: 10 Nov 2008, 8:28pm
Location: South Londoner in the Midlands.

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
17 Aug 2023, 2:29pm
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.
Hah.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


www.pexlives.libsyn.com/

tepista
User avatar
Foul-Mouthed Werewolf
Posts: 37871
Joined: 16 Jun 2008, 11:25am
Location: Livin on a fault line, Waiting on the big one

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by tepista »

Image
We reach the parts other combos cannot reach
We beach the beachheads other armies cannot beach
We speak the tongues other mouths cannot speak

revbob
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 25326
Joined: 16 Jun 2008, 12:31pm
Location: The Frozen Tundra

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by revbob »

tepista wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 1:59pm
Image
Those look like the same woman

Dr. Medulla
User avatar
Atheistic Epileptic
Posts: 115977
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 2:00pm
Location: Straight Banana, Idaho

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Dr. Medulla »

revbob wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 2:19pm
tepista wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 1:59pm
Image
Those look like the same woman
Ha! Well, the 1950s was very conformist …
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Sparky
User avatar
Unknown Immortal
Posts: 4415
Joined: 01 Dec 2020, 5:31pm
Location: Left Of The Dial

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by Sparky »

revbob wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 2:19pm
tepista wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 1:59pm
Image
Those look like the same woman
At first glance I thought they were mannequins.
God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung

BostonBeaneater
User avatar
Autonomous Insect Cyborg Sentinel
Posts: 11944
Joined: 15 Jun 2008, 7:24pm
Location: Between the moon and New York City

Re: Happy Hiroshima Day!

Post by BostonBeaneater »

Sparky wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 3:06pm
revbob wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 2:19pm
tepista wrote:
19 Dec 2023, 1:59pm
Image
Those look like the same woman
At first glance I thought they were mannequins.
Back when the bomb was fun!
Image

Post Reply