How bad are Nukes? and is the risk rising?

[No-Nuke the Eskimo]

Nukes are pretty darn bad.

Around the anniversary of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, KPFK has been airing the audio book "Last Train from Hiroshima" which describes many first person accounts of how bad the smallest of nukes are.

archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_220809_000000somethingshappening.mp3  (audiobook begins at minute 17)
archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_220809_030000somethingshappening.mp3

archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_220810_000000somethingshappening.mp3
archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_220810_030000somethingshappening.mp3

archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_220811_000000somethingshappening.mp3

KPFK does this as part of their August pledge drive.  Therefore, there are several minutes of discussion sprinkled within them (e.g. the audiobook starts 17 minutes into the first link).

These links still work for now, but if they ever fail, just know that you might be able to construct ones that work by:

1. replacing
   each "22" with the last two digits of the most recent August's year
   (e.g. make it "23" this time next year, "24" the next)
2. substituting
   the rest of those date codes with those of the first 3 successive
   Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays following August 6, the day
   Hiroshima was A-bombed (e.g. "230808" "230809" and "230810" are likely
   to work a year from now).

OR just go to archive.kpfk.org and try playing episodes of "Something's Happening" shows around August 6.

-------------------

The rise of Artificial intelligence has been making the risks from nukes rise rapidly according to this article from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers because analyzing ALL the sensors and instruments with AI could make some groups (foolishly) believe that a first strike could make their own lives so much better (that ALL the suffering they would inflict would be totally offset by their own pleasure).

spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-submarine

Perhaps humans aren't as civilized as we like to think.

WWIII could go down in history books as having begun last February (and regardless of that, there has long been a perpetual chance that we're presently within about 20 minutes of its end).

[No-Nuke the Eskimo]

Not long after the above post, I realized that the about nuclear-submarines losing their ability to hide (and thus making first strikes more likely) may explain the latest push for a moonbase (nothing else seemed to).

Today's Democracy Now! featured Daniel Ellsberg discussing the high danger level of nuclear war. The entire episode was very good.

www.democracynow.org/2022/12/14/daniel_ellsberg_nuclear_war_risk



Lastly, I had meant to include a link about the moniker No-Nuke the Eskimo coming from Frank Zappa's Apostrophe album which featured Nanook the Eskimo in multiple songs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe_(%27)

"Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow" -wisdom from Frank Zappa

[Oss Rae]

I had just come across this and was coming here to post it, but you beat me to it.

My maternal grandfather was chosen to be on the jury in his trial, but of course the trial got cancelled. There was a victory party to which my grandfather was invited. My mom insisted on coming along and got to meet Ellsberg.

[Brian]

To complement the video that Oss Rae embedded above, here's the second part of Amy Goodman's interview with Daniel Ellsberg that No-Nuke the Eskimo had provided earlier in a link:



I've been a fan of Dan since I was 12, when he was prosecuted for releasing the Pentagon Papers. If my memory still serves after three decades, he was among my fellow arrestees at least one of the four trespassing excursions I took into the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada that ended in plastic handcuffs. I cherish every opportunity to listen to him because I always learn something and come away inspired to do more.

Thanks to No-Nuke for starting this thread! There are plenty of quick action threads in this message board's history addressing our ever present nuclear peril but precious few that ask thoughtful questions.

I also appreciate No-Nuke's clarification of his guest name's origin, having never bought "Apostrophe (')" despite owning and loving "Over-Nite Sensation," "One Size Fits All" and "Bongo Fury" with Captain Beefheart from those very few years of Frank Zappa's absurdly prolific canon.