Thousands of nuclear bombs. Thousands of blips.

How many nuclear bombs have been detonated on Earth, and for what purpose? Only the first question will be answered by the following video by Isao Hashimoto, which logs all of the nuclear blasts until 1998 (this video was created in 2003).

Via Discover Magazine.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Avatar of Dave
    Dave

    A fascinating video. Rolled together and condensed down like this, it's easy to see how nuclear tests were just as much about posturing and chest-thumping as they were about conducting actual science. Just last night I was reading about the Castle Bravo tests that went forward despite some concerns for fallout– and the bosses decided to "keep going" because of the timeline they were on "against the Russians". This was the language used between the superpowers.

    Put in that context, it's relatively easy to see the motivations behind Iran's pursuit for a bomb– it wants to be a player just as much as it (may or may not) wants to nuke Tel Aviv.

    1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
      Erich Vieth

      Dave: With the phrase "posturing and chest-thumping," I think you captured the phenomenon precisely.

  2. Avatar of Niklaus Pfirsig
    Niklaus Pfirsig

    The video immediately reminded me of Isaac Asimov's short story "Silly Asses".

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