“In a post 911 world…” what the fuck does that even mean? I’m sick of hearing it.

Personally, I don’t know anyone in my life who’s interested in physics, or science in general, for that matter that doesn’t wonder about the design and construction of nuclear weapons.
As for me, I’m sorry they didn’t show any interior details of his model. Doesn’t mean I have any desire or intention to build or use one.

Thanks anyway Anonymous. Have a nice day.

Too bad we’ll never know since you’re not likely to be back, Anon.

He shows an amazing level of self-motvation, learning and growing. So I have no doubt he might have been able to do this without the Internet, but I think that the past 20 years has opened up a world of knowledge where people can truly learn and grow past their formal “education” to learn and master new skills.

Right now my 15+ years experience as a coder washes away my piddly BA degree. And I think more and more people will find that practical experience counts as much—or more-so—than classroom learning nowadays.

I understand where you are coming from, but I embrace the fact his lack of formal education in the topic has not stood in the way of his dreams. It’s really admirable and I think this guy’s story needs a wider audience.

PS – you said you were commissioned? By who?

And then there are injuries – probably a similar number of people injured.

And how it relates to Portland today is really rather irrelevant, it is firslty, the physical impact on Hiroshima that it made at the time that matters. Here’s the US Strategic Bombing Survey map of the damage: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Hiroshima_Damage_Map.gif

Secondly there’s the social-psychological impact it made, which was enormous, and so it should be. I can’t see the moral imperative in trying to play this down or the logic in comparing physical impact to metaphysical impact – do you have special scales for that? ;-)

It just scares me to death, that it only takes the 1940′s level of technology to build a real one. Hmm Maybe that is why we keep bombing places back to the stone age?
(Yes its a bad Joke)

I used to be a truck driver. Some of you would be surprised by how many of them are pretty bright people. Of course, most of the people who look down on truckers couldn’t be convinced to change their minds anyway. Some people need to feel superior to somebody or else their worldview crumbles. I just hate to see the derision towards truckers. As a group, they’re nearly all extremely honest, amicable and generally worthy people, and their choice of vocation means you get a reliable source of groceries, new clothes and building supplies anytime you need them. It seems a bit dim-witted to hate someone who fills that need in our society.

Just a reminder that 911 was perpetrated with a bunch of cutters (not even knives I believe) and exploiting massive amounts of jet fuel, using the airplane itself as a delivery mechanism.

Nuclear devices were not involved at all (or did Bush say they were? So many lies that I can’t remember anymore …)

I do commend you on your work. I used to work at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson KS. I am sure those guys would really appreciate the work. The Cosmosphere had to take basically and empty shell of a mercury capsule, and put all of the wiring et al. back in. They were the ones who made the props for Apollo 13, to give you an idea on the detail.

It means you don’t need an atomic weapon to cause mass destruction?

I absolutely can’t stand the use of that term. There is plenty of reason to debate the use of the atomic bomb on Japan but it is in no way equatable to the Sept 11th 2001 terrorist attacks. The US vs Japan was a situation of two nations in a state of declared war.

I can completely understand the fascination of the weapons. I have only basic layman’s understanding of how they work but irregardless of the destructive result, the physics are amazing. The same goes for nuclear reactors.

Is there a Godwin equivalent with 9/11? There should be.

Also – he should blare this out of his truck as he drives down the road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMzCpy0fXc

If we plot this on a graph it’s safe to say they’ll be moving the moon’s orbit pretty soon.

For the record, Japan was working on a nuclear bomb too. Don’t feel TOO sorry for them. How quickly people forget (or maybe we need more FPS games about it) that Japan killed 20 Million Chinese, were notoriously cruel and ruthless, and used chemical and bio weapons against them. The 2 bombs dropped saved millions of Japanese and Allies from the deaths that would have occurred from a traditional invasion.