Atomic Flashback: Nuclear Fourth of July, 1951

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• [Roy Trumbull]

  There was a lot that went on that you won’t find in history books. The above ground testing at the Nevada Test Site caused very high cancer rates in the towns in Utah to the immediate east.
  M.T. Silvia has just finished “Atomic Mom” which is about to be released. Her mother was scientist who worked on animal experiments in the blast zone. M.T. is one exceptional woman and I know the film will be fantastic. http://www.atomicmom.org

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  That’s entertainment.

• [millrick]

  damn, but i really miss the good old days, when i would lay awake at night worrying about nuclear annihilation….

• [WaylonWillie]

  that was no entertainment. that’s how we take care of finks down here in b’more.

  • [Nash Rambler]

    WaylonWillie’s right; whole neighborhoods look bombed, shelled, and burned out around B’more. Next week they’re napalming Highlandtown.

• [yri]

  Yeah, the constant fear of global nuclear war lent such a frisson to life back then.

• [mr.skeleton]

  There was a recent story on NPR about a 1962 nuclear test in space! ‘Atomic Rainbow Over Honolulu’!
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128170775

• [Anonymous]

  Better dead than Red….

• [Haakon IV]

  Also found this to be cool, creepy, and sobering:

  http://www.ctbto.org/specials/1945-1998-by-isao-hashimoto/

  Over 2000 nuclear explosions.

• [Anonymous]

  Buddy of mine worked on simulated nuke explosions. Want to test blast effects of a nuke, but pesky treaty in the way? Just fill a warehouse in the middle of the desert with a couple million pounds of conventional explosives, prop your stuff up around it, light the fuse and run.

  He said it tore up the desert pretty good.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Scale

• [Ugly Canuck]

  I like the phrase “atomic flashback”: it sounds like an actual blast effect, but there is no such physical thing.
  Perhaps it comes from the new field of nuclear psychiatry?

  • [Anonymous]

    ICD-9 309.81 with a code from E996, PTSD resulting from wartime use of nuclear weapons. You can get pretty specific with ICD codes.

  • [Gerald Tarrant]

    ICD-9 309.81 with a code from E996, PTSD resulting from wartime use of nuclear weapons. You can get pretty specific with ICD codes.

• [alexx]

  WAR IS PEACE

  FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

  IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

  Rereading 1984 is coming in handy.