Post archives
Filtering for posts tagged with ‘Bad ideas’
2024
September 2024
2021
November 2021
19
Visions
The Rosatom historical website has an entire section devoted to "Atomic Fun" — jokes and stories from the Soviet nuclear program. It's... something.
October 2021
29
Redactions
The untold story of the world's largest nuclear bomb, the Tsar Bomba, and the secret US efforts to match it.
2020
January 2020
8
Articles
Why the problem of "the President and the bomb" isn't about the "crazy President," but something far more pernicious and possible.
2018
June 2018
29
Redactions
What would it take to turn the world into one big fusion reaction, wiping it clean of life and turning it into a barren rock? Asking for a friend.
2016
May 2016
9
Visions
Taking a close look at the targets and consequences of a declassified US nuclear war plan.
2015
January 2015
7
Meditations
Was a "Nazi nuclear bunker" recently discovered? Almost certainly not — but that hasn't stopped the story from being passed around.
2014
December 2014
15
Visions
Is there a big red button that can launch nuclear war? No — but thinking about why there isn't is a nice way into the complexities of command and control issues.
July 2014
25
Redactions
Would the bomb have won the war? A JASON report on the question from 1967 explores the limits of tactical nuclear weapons.
February 2014
28
Meditations
What is the legacy of the Castle Bravo nuclear test? How do we assess the human costs of the arms race?
January 2014
31
Visions
How the wonderful, terrible display of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb changed Andrei Sakharov's views on the responsibility of scientists.
2013
October 2013
25
Redactions
The 37th President had a strange relationship with nuclear weapons — he didn't think they mattered very much.
September 2013
27
Redactions
New details about a nuclear weapons accident makes it clear how close we came to an accidental, full-yield, megaton-range detonation.
6
Redactions
During World War II, the United States didn't just fear a German atomic bomb, but also a German dirty bomb. But secrecy made acting on such fears difficult.
June 2013
21
Redactions | Visions
Making sense of the worst radiological accident in US history.
April 2013
5
Visions
A vision of future war, only a few months after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
January 2013
4
Meditations
Herman Kahn on the relationship between price and control, and what it might mean for the biological revolution underway.
2012
November 2012
15
Redactions
What would make a nuclear bomb attack even worse? How about a nuclear attack that generates its own thunderstorm?
2
Meditations
Are there new things to be said about the Cuban Missile Crisis after 50 years of talking about it?
October 2012
25
Meditations
Contrary to popular perception, Kennedy's "quarantine" of Cuba during the Missile Crisis wasn't a complete success — there were already lots of nukes there.
September 2012
19
Visions
Nuclear strategy is one part cold logic, one part emotional terror.
12
Redactions
What drove Edward Teller to push for a 10,000 megaton hydrogen bomb?
July 2012
23
Meditations
Milton Leitenberg and Raymond A. Zilinskas' new book on the Soviet bioweapons program, answers big questions, and raises new mysteries.
20
Visions
A step-by-step guide to firing the Davy Crockett, the "atomic bazooka," and the smallest nuke in the Cold War US arsenal.
9
Meditations
"Be sure that no open flame, lighted cigarette, or other spark potential is present when the bomb is uncovered and opened..."
May 2012
23
Redactions
Why praise of Operation Argus gives me the willies.
16
Redactions
Why Norris Bradbury didn't want to build the bomb... again. And what they ended up eventually doing about it.
9
Redactions
Barely a month after the bombings of Hiroshima, the Army Air Forces made its first request for more atomic bombs — and a list of targets.
April 2012
27
Visions
Stalin was a paranoid guy, but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.
2011
December 2011
22
Redactions
The attempt by staffers on the Joint Committee of Atomic Energy to run-around the AEC while pushing for a second nuclear weapons lab.
