Author Archives: RF_Alum

Slow as Molasses

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This expression was used in our home today in an attempt to have one of our grandchildren get ready for an outing a bit faster. Idiomation says “slower than molasses in January” is the most frequently used version and has been used to describe something or someone as “painfully slow” since somewhere between 1840 and 1872. However, there was a disaster involving molasses in January when it would have been better if it had moved slowly. A tank containing 2.5 million gallons of molasses exploded on January 15, 1919. The 30 foot tall tidal wave of molasses calculated to have been moving at 25-30 miles per hour “killed 21 people, crumpled a steel support for an elevated train, and knocked over a fire station.”

I was skeptical that the Great Molasses Flood might be an internet hoax until I found a site with multiple photos of the aftermath that look quite real.

Nuclear Winter: The Evidence and the Risks

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nuclear-winterThis book by Owen Greene, Ian Percival, and Irene Ridge reminded me of Carl Sagan’s public campaign to frighten people about nuclear weapons while I wondered why what happened after a nuclear holocaust would be more frightening than the holocaust itself. I thought I should educate myself about what frightened people more than the direct effects of a nuclear detonation. The book mentions that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences published a study in 1982 that the smoke from nuclear explosions could “…blot out nearly all the sunlight from half of Earth for weeks on end. The key factor that scientists had neglected for over thirty years was smoke!” The warning prompted five American scientists; Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, and Sagan (revered in Nuclear Winter circles as TTAPS) to calculate that “…summer could be turned into winter…” Nuclear explosions would ignite fires of everything combustible in and around cities. The smoke would combine with the ejected dust to create a long list of effects. Harvests would be reduced for two years or more, countless plants and animals would become extinct, there would be deaths from collapse of medical services, famine, and epidemics. “Human suffering would be world-wide and on a scale almost beyond comprehension.

The book presents a list of nuclear weapons stockpiles as of 1985 (predating India and China). The overall total was estimated at 49,600 with a total yield of approximately 15,000 megatons. For those who often question why there were so many weapons, there is a listing of “Targeting Categories” from the U.S. Department of Defense dated March, 1980. The listing which was said to be “only illustrative,” includes: Soviet Nuclear Forces (more than 2,000 targets), Military and Political Leadership (about 3,000), Conventional Military Forces (about 15,000),Economic and Industrial Targets (about 15,000)

Soviet priorities were said to “…be similar.” Continue reading →

Upper Crust

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The Phrase Finder explains that the term refers to the “Aristocratic; society superior,” but disclaims that it originated from the fact people in high society received “…the upper crust of the unburnt part of a loaf…” The actual origin was its use to describe a person’s head or hat or even occasionally to describe the upper crust of the Earth’s surface. Those uses of the term “…connect upper crust with ‘top’ and there’s every reason to believe that our present application of the term to member of society is another use of that same metaphor. The connection between the ‘upper crust’ of society and the upper crust of loaves of bread is fanciful.”

Confusing Articles About Young Women

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George Will wrote an editorial about an ominous rise in dog ownership because an increasing number of women “are adopting dogs for security and/or companionship partly because of the great education divide.” Many more women than men are going to college. It was estimated that in 2013 there were 4.9 million more women age 25 or older with college degrees than men in that age group. Apparently women prefer to marry men who have educations at least similar to theirs, which translates to a shortage of suitable male partners. That leads to the women having a dog for companionship, and few would dispute that dogs are more dependable than men.

But that isn’t the end of the story. Amina Elahi writes that women represented 30 to 37 percent of computer science undergraduates in the 1980s. That number dipped to about 18 percent by 2010-2011. There are 75 percent of girls are interested in STEM in middle school, but apparently they then become more interested in makeup and having “the right body type.” There also continues to be a “nerdy” stigma with technology. Watching young girls and boys tells me they are all interested in technology, or at least they’re interested in the technology that keeps them texting each other as they gather for lunch.

It’s all very confusing. Why are many more women attending college but there are fewer of them in technology classes? I would think a young woman could fuss over her makeup and still attend a computer class. And why would they care about body type if they are going to opt for a dog as a companion?

 

Now it Can be Told

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now-it-can-be-toldThis book was written, as stated on the cover page, By Leslie R. Groves, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army, Retired. I’ve read several books about the Manhattan Project, and I would put this on at the top of the list to someone who has just developed an interest in the subject. It describes in no uncertain terms the complexity and difficulty of what was being sought and the remarkable achievements that resulted. To General Groves’ credit, he dedicates the book, “To the men and women of the Manhattan Project, and to all those who aided them in their yet unparalleled accomplishment.” I was impressed by the number of times Groves wrote about something going wrong because of something he had done. He shied away from blaming others for problems and gave credit to those who suggested some insight or approach that he had not considered.  My “personal review” of the book that I prepared for use in a new book I’m researching about the history of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant covers twenty-three pages. I promise to impose a much shorter version in this review.

Groves was in charge constructing the Pentagon when he was told he had been selected by the Secretary of War for an important project, and that his selection had been approved by President Roosevelt. I was surprised that Groves knew about what he called “…the atomic development program…,” and responded unenthusiastically, “Oh, that thing.” He met with his commanding General who told him, “The basic research and development are done. You just have to take the rough designs, put them in final shape, build some plants and organize an operating force and your job will be finished and the war will be over.” Groves admits in his book that it took weeks before he had a comprehension of, “…how overoptimistic an outlook he had presented.”

Groves describes the research by physicists that led some to conclude an atomic bomb was possible. Lise Meitner explained to Otto Hahn that the results of his research in Germany indicated the uranium atom could be split and that the resulting fission (a term developed by Meitner and her nephew) would release enormous amounts of energy. The genesis of the Manhattan Project was initiated by scientists Hitler drove out of Germany. Many came to America, and they feared what would happen if the Germans were the first to develop the bomb. One of the problems they faced was that the “…American-born scientists, in the main, did not have so acute and appreciation of the danger…” The process that resulted in Franklin Roosevelt approving research is described in numerous sources, but the Groves account is, in my estimation, adequately complete and to the point. Continue reading →

Namby-Pamby

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The Phrase Finder explains that the term means “Childish and weakly sentimental.” Ambrose Phillips was a poet and tutor to George I’s grandchildren in the early 1700s, and he wrote sentimental poems in praise of the royal children to curry favor. He wrote “…rather affected and insipid nursery language, of the ‘eency-weency’, ‘goody-goody’ sort.” Namby-Pamby was included in one of his poems.