Martyl Langsdorf, Designer of the Doomsday Clock, R.I.P.
Martyl Langsdorf, die die weltberühmte Apokalypsen-Uhr gestaltet und damit eine eigene Metapher geschaffen hat („5 vor 12“), verstarb vor zwei Wochen im Alter von stolzen 96 Jahren. Das Design entstand für die Juni 1947-Ausgabe des Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, zwei Jahre nach den Atombombenexplosionen von Hiroshima und Nagasaki. Die Uhr wurde seitdem in „echt“ nachgebaut und die Zeiger wurden bislang 18 mal umgestellt, derzeit steht sie wieder auf „5 vor 12“.
Die Dame war die Ehefrau von Alexander Langsdorf Jr., Mitarbeiter des Manhattan Projects, der mit dem ersten Bit tatsächlich nutzbaren Plutoniums für die Einsatzfähigkeit der ersten Atombombe sorgte – und sich danach gegen den Einsatz der Bombe eingesetzt hatte.
Nachruf bei der Washington Post, der Design Observer hatte vor zwei Jahren anlässlich der „Zeitumstellung“ ein längeres Stück zur Uhr:
Martyl had set the minute hand at seven to midnight on that first cover “simply because it looked good.” Two years later, the Soviet Union tested their own nuclear device and the arms race was officially launched. “We do not advise Americans that doomsday is near and that they can expect atomic bombs to start landing on their heads a month or a year from now,” wrote the Bulletin’s editors. “But we think they have reason to be deeply alarmed and to be prepared for grave decisions.” To emphasize the seriousness of the moment, the Clock was moved forward to three minutes to midnight. The static graphic emblem was thus transformed into a sort of political performance art, and the clock has been moved 18 times since, each time signifying an intensification or moderation of nuclear tensions.
With each change, Martyl’s Clock became more deeply entrenched in the public imagination. The Doomsday Clock has been referenced in songs by Iron Maiden, The Who, and Bright Eyes. As a theme it dominates Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen and Senator Tom Harkin’s treatise Five Minutes to Midnight. Over the years, the non-specific simplicity of the symbol was able to accommodate the new threats of climate change and bioterrorism.
Nuke Beer for Science!
Das Restricted Data-Blog postet jede Menge Details zu den Atombomben-Tests der Amerikaner in den 50er Jahren, jetzt haben sie Versuche ausgegraben die während der Operation Teapot stattfanden, das waren jene Atombomben-Versuche, während der sie leere Test-Käffer gebaut und mit Schaufensterpuppen vollgestellt haben. Kennt man aus der Eröffnungsszene von Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls.
Als Teil dieser Tests haben sie Atombomben auf Bier geschmissen, um die Versorgung der Überlebenden mit Wasser zu untersuchen, wenn die natürlichen Ressourcen verstrahlt sind. Nuke Beer for Science!
The Atomic Energy Commission did what they did best and dropped a nuke on bottles of beer and soda cans. (They were “exposed,” in the euphemism of the report. I also love the phrasing above, “the needs of humans for water” — it’s like the report was written by extraterrestrials.) […]
The results were somewhat interesting. Even the bottles pretty near the test had a fairly high survival rate — if they didn’t fall off the shelves, or have something else smash into them (a “missile” problem), or get totally crushed by whatever they were being housed in, they had a good chance of not breaking. Not super surprising, in a way: bottles are small, and there’s a lot of stuff in between them and the shockwave to dissipate it. […] As for radiation, only the bottles closest to Ground Zero had much radioactivity, and even that was “well within the permissible limits for emergency use,” which is to say, it won’t hurt you in the short term. The liquid itself was somewhat shielded by the bottles of the containers which picked up some of the radioactivity. But there were, of course, still pressing questions to be resolved… how did it taste?
Examination made immediately upon recovery showed no observable gross changes in the appearance of the beverages. Immediate taste tests indicated that the beverages, both beer and soft drinks, were still of commercial quality, although there was evidence of a slight flavor change in some of the products exposed at 1270 ft from GZ [Ground Zero]. Those farther away showed no change.
Beer and the Apocalypse (via MeFi)
Vintage Vegas Atompilz-Postcards
Retronaut hat ein paar alte Illus und Postkarten aus Vegas, die damals anscheinend ziemlich stolz auf die Atomtests auf der Nevada Test Site ganz in der Nähe waren. Die haben damals sogar Atomtest-Cocktail-Parties geschmissen:
Between 1945 and 1962, about 100 above-ground tests were carried out. The light pulse, shock wave and mushroom cloud could all be seen from Las Vegas. Many times, residents threw cocktail parties and gathered outside while a test was being carried out. The early growth of Las Vegas was due almost entirely to the boost in prosperity it got from the huge numbers of scientists, test ground staff and soldiers that worked on the atomic tests. (BBC)
Ich hab’ ein wenig gegoogelt und die Retronaut-Motive in HighRez gefunden, dazu noch ein paar weitere. Kaboom-Vegas nach dem Klick.
Tourists watching Atombombs
Schicke Fotoserie von Clay Lipsky, der Touristen fotografiert und nukleare Explosionen in die Bilder shoppt. Because they are awesome.
This Series recontextualizes a legacy of atomic tests in order to keep the reality of our post-atomic era fresh and omnipresent. It also speaks to the current state of the world and the voyeuristic culture we live in. Imagine if the advent of the atomic era occurred during today’s information age. Tourists would gather to view bomb tests, at the “safe” distances used in the 1950′s, and share the resulting cell phone photos online.
Atomic Overlook (via Petapixel)
Nukemap
Karten, auf denen man Atombombenexplosionen simulieren konnte und die den Radius des Feuerballs und der Strahlung anzeigten, gab’s schon oft. Die neue Version basierend auf Googlemaps von Alex Wellerstein ist bislang die beste, die ich gesehen habe.
- Easily draggable target marker (which has an adorable little atom on it)!
- Bright, stomach-churning colors indicating major negative effects of atomic detonations!
Effects described include zones of 500 rem exposure, major overpressures, and fire! Plus, the legend breaks these down into easy-to-understand descriptions of what they mean for your average person caught inside of them.
- Lots of pre-sets for both places to drop them (I didn’t want to discriminate) and yields of historical weapons! It has never been easier to put a 50Mt H-bomb on the Eiffel Tower.
- Automatically tries to drop the bomb on wherever Google thinks you are accessing the Internet from (based on your IP address)!
Gallery of Nuclear Explosions
The Atlantics In Focus (quasi der inoffizielle Nachfolger von The Big Picture) hat eine schicke Galerie voller Atombombenexplosionen: When We Tested Nuclear Bombs.
Since the time of Trinity — the first nuclear explosion in 1945 — nearly 2,000 nuclear tests have been performed, with the majority taking place during the 1960s and 1970s. When the technology was new, tests were frequent and often spectacular, and led to the development of newer, more deadly weapons. But starting in the 1990s, there have been efforts to limit the future testing of nuclear weapons, including a U.S. moratorium and a U.N. comprehensive test ban treaty. As a result, testing has slowed — though not halted — and there are questions about the future. Who will take over for those experienced engineers who are now near retirement, and should we act as stewards with our enormous stockpiles of nuclear weapons? Gathered here are images from the first 30 years of nuclear testing.
Und nur falls es jemand vergessen haben sollte oder es tatsächlich jemanden gibt, der Stephen Colberts Atombomben-Simulation noch nicht gesehen hat: A nuclear Explosion is awesome!
Atomic Bomb Filmmakers
Die New York Times hat einen superspannenden Artikel über die Filmer der Atombombentests im kalten Krieg: The Bomb Chroniclers. Hier der Link zur Slideshow.
They risked their lives to capture on film hundreds of blinding flashes, rising fireballs and mushroom clouds. The blast from one detonation hurled a man and his camera into a ditch. When he got up, a second wave knocked him down again. Then there was radiation.
While many of the scientists who made atom bombs during the cold war became famous, the men who filmed what happened when those bombs were detonated made up a secret corps.
Their existence and the nature of their work has emerged from the shadows only since the federal government began a concerted effort to declassify their films about a dozen years ago. In all, the atomic moviemakers fashioned 6,500 secret films, according to federal officials.
(NYTimes Direktbomb, via Gizmodo)
Exploding H-Bombs In Outer Space
(Youtube Direktbomb, via MeFi)
NPR hat ein Video über H-Bomben in space. Die hat man da hochgeschickt um den damals frisch entdeckten Van-Allen-Strahlungsgürtel („Der Van-Allen-Strahlungsgürtel (benannt nach James van Allen) ist ein Torus energiereicher geladener Teilchen, die durch das magnetische Feld der Erde eingefangen werden. Diese Teilchen stammen überwiegend vom Sonnenwind und der kosmischen Strahlung.“ Wikipedia) hochzujagen.
Das ist so dermaßen typisch Menschheit, ey. Kaum entdecken wir irgendwas neues, schon schicken wir erstmal H-Bomben hin, to blow shit up und um mal zu gucken, was passiert. Und wenn uns die Scheiße um die Ohren fliegt, will’s wieder keiner gewesen sein. People, what a bunch of bastards.
The plan was to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth’s atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb’s radiation would make it harder to see what was up there (like incoming Russian missiles!); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to an earthly target (Moscow! for example); and — most peculiar — d) if a man-made explosion might “alter” the natural shape of the belts.
Vintage Atombombendummies
Interweb3000 hat ein paar Fotos alter Dummies aus dem kalten Krieg im Fotoarchiv vom Life Mag rausgesucht, die während Atombombentests aufgestellt wurden und nach den Nukes nicht mehr ganz so frisch aussehen.
Somehow related: Polkarobot hat einen original russischen Atombombenschlüssel.
Stephen Colberts Nuclear Explosion
(Youtube Direktatompilz, via YBNBY)
Stephen Colbert macht eine Atomexplosion nach und ich lieg hier unterm Sofa vor lauter Fallout. Awesome! Und weil er Recht hat:
Atomic Fruchtschale
Das hier ist eine Fruchtschale in Form eines Atompilzes. Meine Fruchtschalen aus verbogenen Schallplatten sind zwar auch nicht schlecht, aber so ein Keramikatompilz macht sich da nochmal ‘ne Spur besser. Und die Produktbeschreibung auf der (sehr nervigen Flash-)Website mag ich ja sehr.
Enola Fruit is a miniature household catastrophe, a mini-domestic apocalypse, inspired by the atomic mushroom cloud. It’s an apotropaic object with great cathartic value that plays with one of the most disturbing themes of our daily lives, which we have lived with since the Fifties. The atomic explosion is part of our collective imagination; it terrorises and fascinates us at the same time, like a symbol loaded with ambivalence – it is our personal boogyman, which we share with the rest of humanity.
Ooohdesign (Intro skippen, auf Progetti klicken, dort auf Enola Fruit) (via Notcot)
Weird Al Yankovic: Christmas At Ground Zero
(Youtube Direktapocalypse, via Dead Lantern)
Ein Weihnachtsgruß von Weird Al Yankovich mit Atombomben und Apocalypse.
It’s Christmas at ground zero
There’s music in the air
The sleigh bells are ringing and the carolers are singing
While the air raid sirens blareIt’s Christmas at ground zero
The button has been pressed
The radio just let us know
That this is not a testEverywhere the atom bombs are dropping
It’s the end of all humanity
No more time for last-minute shopping
It’s time to face your final destinyIt’s Christmas at ground zero
There’s panic in the crowd
We can dodge debris while we trim the tree
Underneath the mushroom cloudYou might hear some reindeer on your rooftop
Or Jack Frost on your windowsill
But if someone’s climbing down your chimney
You better load your gun and shoot to killIt’s Christmas at ground zero
And if the radiation level’s okay
I’ll go out with you and see all the new
Mutations on New Year’s DayIt’s Christmas at ground zero
Just seconds left to go
I’ll duck and cover with my Yuletide lover
Underneath the mistletoeIt’s Christmas at ground zero
Now the missiles are on their way
What a crazy fluke, we’re gonna get nuked
On this jolly holidayWhat a crazy fluke, we’re gonna get nuked
On this jolly holiday!
1,000,000,000th Of A Second of an Atomic Blast
These photos have been around a long time but I have to thank my son for pointing them out to me. They were taken by the legendary Harold Edgerton in the Nevada desert at a range of 7 miles at 1/1,000,000,000th of a second, at night. These 3 pictures show the first 3 milliseconds of an atomic bomb detonation.
