Wikipedia says the term originally was used to describe an axeman serving in a U.S. military unit. “Towards the end of the 19th century, the phrase was used to describe a Chinese assassin who carried a handleless hatchet…” The common current use is to describe a person who performs unpleasant tasks such as firing people for a superior. It is also used in sports to describe someone who is given the role of retaliating against opposing players.
Author Archives: RF_Alum
The Manhattan Project: Bioscience and the Atom Bomb
This small book by Jeff Hughes explores how science in the twentieth century changed everything as it spread from universities to the government and to the military. It has good information about the Manhattan Project in “condensed form,” but it spends time and words on the wisdom of “Big Science.” The Manhattan Project was symbolic of the greatest change of all; “…science’s growth in scale, scope, and cost as it transformed from …small groups or individuals into…”Big Science”—a large-scale enterprise that is carried out by multidisciplinary and multinational groups of researches, cost enormous sums, demanded massive institutions of its own, and often represents a significant fraction of national budgets.” The Project brought together American, British, Canadian, and refugee European scientists to design and build the world’s first atomic bombs. It employed 130,000 people, cost $2 billion, and changed the world forever.
The book gives a brief history of the scientists who began to unlock the mysteries of the atom. Henri Becquerel accidently discovered that uranium had “spontaneous emission” recorded on a photographic plate. Marie Curie suggested the name “radioactivity.” Earnest Rutherford collaborated with Frederick Soddy and many others to work out the theory of radioactive decay by emission of alpha, beta, and gamma. Hans Geiger developed methods for measuring the emissions. Enrico Fermi and co-workers discovered that elements bombarded with neutrons could be turned into isotopes of other elements. Otto Hahn and Fritz Stassman reported they had apparently produced barium by bombarding uranium with neutrons. Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch deducted that “a splitting” had been achieved. Frisch conferred with a biologist who explained that biological cells dividing was called “fission,” and the term stuck. Researchers around the world began replicating the results. Continue reading
Butterfingers
The candy bar by this name was one of my favorites when I was a youngster, but the term is described by the Phrase Finder as “A name playfully applied to someone who fails to catch a ball or lets something slip from their fingers.” I was surprised that Charles Dickens used the term in The Pickwick Papers written in 1836. “At every bad attempt at a catch, and every failure to stop the ball, he launched his personal displeasure at the head of the devoted individual in such denunciations of ‘Ah, ah! – stupid- Now, butter-fingers’.” The Phrase Finder points out there was reference to the term as early as 1615, when it was used to describe “…someone likely to drop things – as if their hands were smeared with butter, like a cook’s.”
Rocky Flats Benefits Changes
Rocky Flats retirees recently received a packet of information in an envelope with a warning in bold type, “Must Read Special Announcement: Information About Important changes to your Retiree Benefits.” The letter inside dated June 27, 2014 from Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) announces in the first paragraph, “If you and/or your spouse are age 65 or older, we want to let you know about some important changes coming in 2015 for your Rocky Flats retiree healthcare benefits. If you are not yet 65, please understand these changes will not affect you until you or your spouse reach 65.” The letter then “sprinkles saccharine” on what is coming. It says “This new coverage will allow you and your spouse to enroll in retiree healthcare coverage that’s right for each of you.” It also says the changes will allow “…added flexibility and customization.”
The meeting about the changes did not present quite as positive a spin on what is coming. The contractor from WRPS led with the explanation that the company who won the contract to administer the benefits had to agree that they would analyze the total package and make adjustments if it provided benefits greater than 105% in comparison to sixteen other plans. The Rocky Flats benefits were found to be nearly 200%, or twice as generous as the average of the other plans. The contract therefore forced remedial action, and it was stated this was being done for the taxpayers. It‘s too early to attempt to judge or calculate the impact of the changes, because the costs for the different health care plans will not be available until later. I have no doubt I’ll be paying more for coverage that has higher deductibles. Continue reading
Grounded
The sub-title of this book by Robert M. Farley, “The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force,” reveals the premise. I requested it from the library because I read that it discusses the founding of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in 1947. Military planners had decided many more nuclear weapons were needed for Soviet targets at about that time. That led to the construction of the Rocky Flats Nuclear weapons Plant where the plutonium parts were constructed for all those weapons. I worked at the Plant for many years beginning with the end of my U.S. Army assignment to NORAD in1969. I was therefore interested in what the military planners were thinking in the late 1940s that led to the beginning of construction at Rocky Flats in 1951. I was disappointed. There is no mention in the book that I found to mention anything about the expansion of Soviet military targets that led to the need for more nuclear weapons. All I could find was that the USAF was assigned most of the nuclear arsenal because of their long-range bombers and the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). I decided to post a review, although I believe the book is flawed, at least for my purposes, by what it does not describe.
The book has several discussions of how the USAF being a separate service creates conflicts in military resource allocation, training, procurement, and strategies that are counterproductive. There is no doubt air power is needed for military missions. However, it is explained the war is an extension of politics and adding the politics of competing military services simply makes the act of engaging in war less than efficient. The author even observes that “…independent air forces make war more likely.” The reasoning is that the independent USAF will argue for policies that “…increase its visibility and access to resources” (which will make the USAF commanders more eager to go to war). The service will vie for political advantage by recommending use of its capabilities, and that certainly could and probably has influenced political policy decisions. Continue reading
The Die is Cast
The Phrase Finder describes the meaning to be, “An irrevocable choice has been made.” The expression refers to the rolling a die as a singular of dice. “Julius Caesar is supposed to have spoken this phrase when crossing the Rubicon,” although the Phrase Finder is a bit skeptical. The earliest citation found was a 1626 quote from Sir Thomas Hebert, “Aiijb, Is the die cast, must At this one throw all thou hast gaind be lost?”