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Albert Pinto Profile picture
@70sBachchan
Jul 16, 2020 • 17 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
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75th anniversary of the Trinity atomic bomb test! Some wondeful stories about how the Manhattan Project influenced science & culture.
insidescience.org/manhattan-proj… Image
What would have happened had Trinity test failed? Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Soviet declaration of war & invasion of Manchuria, US rejection of the conditional surrender offer, an abortive coup by Japanese officers all took place in the same week!
blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2020/07/16/wha… Image
Hasegawa's "Racing the Enemy" (based on US, Soviet & Japanese archives) was eyeopening. Stalin accelerated plans to invade Japan as soon as Truman told him about Trinity test in Postdam. Both atomic bomb & Soviet invasion about securing terms of surrender.
books.google.com/books?id=iPju1… ImageImage
FANTASTIC thread. Lots of these stories are part of physics lore. "Last night Fermi took bets on whether the bomb will ignite the atmosphere and roast the entire Earth to a crisp...the guards don’t realise Fermi is joking...
HILARIOUS, FERMI"
The Atomic Age that started 75 years ago wasn't just a rip in time. It changed the very atoms of our atmosphere permanently. It changed geopolitical world-order. It changed biology & physical space too. Thread.
Postwar civilian use of nuclear transformed biology & geosciences more than electricity. Consider
Photosynthesis: trace "hot" C-14 tagged CO2 through plants to crack defining feature of life on earth
Cracking Genetic code w "hot" phosphorus
Carbon dating
insidescience.org/manhattan-proj… Image
Ecology itself is product of Atomic Age. Physicists, biologists & chemists use of radio-isotopes in 1950s made new view of Nature as series of networks described by flow of energy & materials. Bioaccumulation up food-chain key msg of Carson/Commoner. newyorker.com/magazine/1962/… ImageImage
8/ Bomb led to ppl seeing physics as queen of Cold War Science. 21stC Global Warming will lead to reevaluation & a new origin story. Biology, Ecology, Geosciences & Climate Science all have their birth in the Trinity atomic bomb test. #GeopoliticsOfGHGs
9/ Without Trinity, radio-isotopes & fallout from insane number of atmospheric nuclear testing, there'd be no scientific understanding of Global Warming or Ecology or modern envtl movement. Its a strange irony.

Nuclear test animation by Isao Hashimoto
10/ Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is remembered for pesticides,but its her Strontium-90 that sparked envtl mvmt. Baby Tooth Survey showed most US children by late 50s had that isotope that came from fallout-> grass -> cows ->milk, in their teeth. It replaced Calcium in food chain ImageImage
11/ 'Disturbing the Universe' has more tales of how Atomic Age & Ecology are intertwined. Imagine Freeman Dyson sits you down and goes "Listen. Let me tell you what went down in the 20th Century". Highly recommend this interview manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories…
75 years ago, this very moment in August changed the world forever. Much to consider in these Bulletin of Atomic Scientists articles as we navigate, once again, a dangerous period of the Atomic Age as arms-control treaties are ripped up ht @BulletinAtomic thebulletin.org/collections/hi…
Hershey on 6 survivors. #Hiroshima75 #NeverAgain
newyorker.com/magazine/1946/…
Image
"One of the lessons I take from Hiroshima is that while you & your culture are made up of the deeds of the past, where you go from that is up to the living. We can't ignore or deny the past—but we have choices in how we mobilize it towards a better future"
#Hiroshima75 commemorations in America are more critical than yrs past. They "place the use of atomic weapons within the larger history of US violence & white supremacy" and dismiss the now hoary claim that bomb “saved American lives” ht @ColdWarScience neverjustscience.substack.com/p/remembering-… Image
Hasegawa's Racing the Enemy is a riveting book that integrates US/Japan/Soviet archives. Such a fog of war that Japan's physicists took 2 days to verify that Hiroshima was an atomic bomb! Truman too had been kept in dark by US military.Thread on highlights Image
Thread on Nagasaki atrocity. "The decision to drop the 2nd bomb... was not made by Truman, Stimson, or even Groves — it was made on the island of Tinian, by lower-level people. It was not part of a grand strategy, contrary to popular opinion" #NeverAgain

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More from @70sBachchan

Albert Pinto Profile picture
Aug 14
“The market will solve climate”

The market:
“The market will solve climate”

The market: Electricity hungry BigTech created a credits "system is akin to buying the right from a fitter colleague to say you have cycled to work, even though you arrived by a car that runs on petrol." @CamillaHodgson
ft.com/content/2d6fc3…

Image
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“The market will solve climate”

The market: Oil Pipelines are ESG and low carbon! This giant tub of ice-cream won't make you fat because the tub is made of zero-calorie material & by athletes.
Read 9 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
Aug 2
Netanyahu assassinates Haniyeh in Tehran & Hezbollah’s Shukr in Beirut. We are on cusp of regional war in Middle East. Forces are being deployed, Defences readied, Redlines of targets communicated.

Thread to track ‘response function’ of each adversary
nbcnews.com/news/world/hez…
Image
2/ In Israel's corner are US, UK, Egypt, Saudis, Jordan &Abraham Accord (informal milvalliance) with oil Kingdoms - UAE, Bahrain.

They have communicated to Israel that they will defend Israel if it is attacked by Iran axis but will not participate in a war initiated by Israel Image
3/ "US is expecting the anticipated Iranian attack may be similar to the barrage of ballistic missiles & drones launched against Israel on April 13...But this attack could be larger...including the possibility of a coordinated attack with Iranian proxies from multiple directions" Image
Read 22 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
Jul 26
Unbelievable vibe shift in the US with Kamala Harris
Image
The vibe shift, on the ground, in swing state Wisconsin

" Kamala Harris electrified the crowd in her first campaign rally as presumptive Democratic nominee. "I haven’t felt anything like this in many, many years,possibly since President Obama’s first run"
therecombobulationarea.news/p/in-west-alli…
Image
For 2yrs, gap between sentiment & economics widen. Did Kamala end vibecession? @kylascan
"There's layers to the cake:
How people expect things to be (expectations)
How things are supposed to be (theory)
How things are (reality)"

kyla.substack.com/p/the-vibecess…
Read 6 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
Jul 12
Latest @polycrisis dispatch is out. @kmac & I show just how deep the finance-ecology-geopolitics rabbit hole Hurricane Beryl goes. Sign up here:

buttondown.email/polycrisisdisp…
2/ Ecology: With super hot oceans, we are very worried about this Atlantic hurricane season. THIRTY storms are predicted plus minus 5, depending on el nino

Finance: Worry that coming devastation will shake insurance industry to the core just as 2004-5 did
phenomenalworld.org/analysis/globa…
Image
3/London, Zurich, Bermuda are home of reinsurance.
Insurance model rely on risks being 1 Uncorrelated 2 Calculable 3 Paid for by mkt returns elsewhere
But #globalwarming upends Insurance
It correlates risks (global!); creates catastrophic fat-tails; and crimps returns everywhere. Image
Read 4 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
Jul 4
what reading one book by Brett Christophers does to a mf
‘while it is possible to prevent businesses from doing profitable things, it is impossible to make them do things they consider insufficiently profitable’. Why do all this 'market failure' nonsense
ft.com/content/b2b6fb…
Brett Chrisopher's work on Rentier Capitalism has been eyeopening. Asset Managers like Blackrock now run the roads we drive on; the pipes that supply our drinking water; the farmland that provides our food; electricity & heat. Nice profile

@ddhitchens
compactmag.com/article/how-as…
Under capitalism, profit expectations drive companies’ invstmt decisions. Building solar/wind & selling the electricity they generate, however, generally is not a very profitable business What sort of returns do investors earn, asks Brett Christophers time.com/6958606/climat…
Image
Read 9 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
Jun 4
Yes, BJP still sets the terms in the Indian parliament. But it will not have the decisive electoral majority of 2019-2024 lok sabha where it ran bills with zero opposition or consultation. After this election it will have to respect India’s opposition and democracy
India's stock market slides. Their logic?
BJP not winning in a landslide -> forced to have a NDA coalition government that will inevitably have to be more pro-welfare
--> hence the BJP cannot do nakedly pro-rich liberal reforms --> Oops, sell sell sell

Image
Adani's reversal tells you everything.
"In 9yrs of Modi’s tenure, Adani’s wealth grew from $8bn to $137bn. In 2022 alone, he made $72bn, which is more than the combined earnings of the world’s next 9 billionaires" ht @AnnPettifor

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Image
Read 42 tweets

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