In case you're not aware I am petrified of Nuclear Everything. Just the thought of it is enough to send me into a frenzy worthy of portrayal on Doomsday Preppers. I'm not joking.
I actively try to avoid any research or article reading that involves nuclear things but alas in my field,
and as... like... a person in the 21st century it's hard to avoid (although our society sure tries to).
So Eric Schlosser (the guy who wrote Fast Food Nation and certified badass) has written this book, Command and Control, about all the near misses we've had within the broad category that I have intellectually named "Nuclear Things". I was unexpectedly dragged into a discussion of the storage of nuclear weapons in the United States while reading Rachel Maddow's book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power a few months ago (it's phenomenal you should read it). When I got to the bit about near disasters with nuclear weapons in North Dakota/ Louisiana I just about jumped out of my seat... This book appears to go further into those incidents and more.
The only safe thing about this book is that it is going to confirm every fear I've ever had about all things nuclear. Here's a bit from this article I just read over on Mother Jones:
"In short, Schlosser delivers a book full of revelations that left me agape. While we still worry in the abstract about Iran and North Korea and Pakistan, it's easy to forget that we still have thousands of our own ungodly devices on hair-trigger alert at this very moment. And even if we never drop or launch another nuke on purpose, these weapons are, in Schlosser's words, 'the most dangerous machines ever invented. And like every machine, sometimes they go wrong.'"
With comments such as, "I spoke to people who had been involved in sensitive nuclear positions who were smoking pot at the time. You don't want people smoking pot and handling nuclear weapons" I'm pretty sure this book will confirm my fears of not only the interaction of Nuclear Things with nature and bad people, but also STUPID people.
There is a time for substance use folks - while handling nuclear weapons is not that time.
Also... we'll save the conversation on Space Wars for another day because I have quite a lot to say...
I actively try to avoid any research or article reading that involves nuclear things but alas in my field,
So Eric Schlosser (the guy who wrote Fast Food Nation and certified badass) has written this book, Command and Control, about all the near misses we've had within the broad category that I have intellectually named "Nuclear Things". I was unexpectedly dragged into a discussion of the storage of nuclear weapons in the United States while reading Rachel Maddow's book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power a few months ago (it's phenomenal you should read it). When I got to the bit about near disasters with nuclear weapons in North Dakota/ Louisiana I just about jumped out of my seat... This book appears to go further into those incidents and more.
The only safe thing about this book is that it is going to confirm every fear I've ever had about all things nuclear. Here's a bit from this article I just read over on Mother Jones:
With comments such as, "I spoke to people who had been involved in sensitive nuclear positions who were smoking pot at the time. You don't want people smoking pot and handling nuclear weapons" I'm pretty sure this book will confirm my fears of not only the interaction of Nuclear Things with nature and bad people, but also STUPID people.
There is a time for substance use folks - while handling nuclear weapons is not that time.
Also... we'll save the conversation on Space Wars for another day because I have quite a lot to say...