First Fusion Bomb Test Recordings Found

Another newsflash courtesy of Wired. Apparently, a retiree cleaning out an old safe at a geological observatory found recordings of the first fusion bomb test, which was carried out by the US in 1957. It would be the second fusion explosion in the solar system—the only other one being the one that started the sun.

The article is here.

The recordings, after the right permissions and phone calls, were declassified, and are now on YouTube, spreading through the world.

Not quite sure what to expect, I decided to watch the video.



I was eating a plate of spaghetti at the time, and stopped chewing mid-video. And here I am now, posting this entry. The fact that this is actually real, and is nothing more than a camera pointed at a building with a 10-Megaton bomb in it, gives me chills. I am totally against nuclear proliferation—but at the same time I can't understand how my country would ask other countries to get rid of their nuclear capabilities (i.e. Iran), while we refuse to get rid of our own. Sure, it's completely politically incorrect, especially for foreign policy matters—but out of principle I can't sit with us instructing the world to do something we won't do ourselves.

Frankly, it is frightening to think that any country could have this kind of capability—and that their first instinct would be to weaponize it. You would think that it would have been much more comforting or exciting to find decade-old videos of the first fusion-powered car or electric generator in some old University safe somewhere, rather than the same mechanism incarnated as a bomb. It's a shame that such a pioneering effort would also have to be so terrifying.

Krisja Hendricks and Health Insurance in the United States

With the fact that I'm no longer in college (not technically, but reality-speaking) and moving out of my parents' house, the health insurace/personal finances complex has started to come front and center to my attention. It's a scary complex. Which is why this email caught my eye today. Krisja Hendricks:

"Last week, I stood in front of 12 television cameras and dozens of reporters in the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Standing with me was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, other members of Congress, and over 100 young people from across the country. I was there to tell my story and to help announce that health care legislation making its way through Congress will include a provision allowing young adults to stay on our parents' insurance through the age of 26. "

Read the rest here: Rock the Vote Blog.

This is one of those stories that makes an example of why government should be in control of certain public-oriented services and fields, and not private corporations. Money is a great judger and balancer of energies. But it is not always the correct one, given the context. It's situations like this makes me wonder why people think corporate entities, large or small regardless, are the universal solvent. It hinges on the fact that competition will be numerous enough to keep each entity beyond a certain growing height. I think this is not the case with American capitalism—I think our flavor of capitalism actually encourages monopolies. Five or six big health insurance agencies is not competition.

The fact of it is that, even though there may be "competition", most of the corporate entities that give things like health insurance do not have a soul, nor a face, nor a mind with which to consider the situation. I'd be fine if there was a corporate entity, privately run and small enough to still have a soul, dealing with people face-to-face, to be taking care of people's health. My health. But that is not the current scenario in this country.

This is the simple fact: if you do not understand the reality of sickness and death, you do not understand the value of life. If you do not understand the value of life, you should not be taking care of people's health. Money is a means to an end in this context. If corporate entities can't turn this leaf, they should not be in control.

Get this through the thick, national head of the American people, who are so scared of the "possibility of government-run" stuff. Like it's 1984. Please, soon.

Happy Cog Redesigns MICA (or, why I'm not a Republican)

It's been awhile since I last checked Jeffrey Zeldman's Blog—Zeldman is the grandfather of things such as web standards, accessibility and usability evangelism, and the movement to ban tables and flash-based web design in favor of XHTML and CSS—but I got quite the surprise when I happened by his site yesterday. It appears that Happy Cog, his web design firm, just finished a complete re-design of the website for Maryland Institute College of Art—my alma mater back up in Baltimore. What a strange twist of connections! Apparently they even visited the campus to get a personal feeling as to what MICA is—which is kind of a shame, because I would have loved to have met Zeldman by chance. But oh well—of course, the first painting I see on the homepage when I visit the site is the work of an old friend of mine.

I did happen to get a pang of sadness for not being back at MICA—I won't lie, I have been having some homesickness/wanderlust lately here at Arcosanti. But then, Baltimore isn't going anywhere—and if I want an MFA, I can always go back to MICA (if I can afford it).

Strangely though, I realized during this same moment of missing Baltimore that there was a thread of anger, and I found out why I am not a Republican. Odd segue, I know, but it's true. I had to leave MICA for economic reasons after two years. And if the Republican theory of economics is right, that implies that I was not working hard enough—that somehow, I did something wrong, or my middle-class parents did something wrong, or that we laid on our haunches, or that I didn't pursue my education hard enough. Which is entirely not the case. Especially now, given the work I am providing for myself as a re-capitulated freelancer via Proteus Creative—even while many firms would not hire me due to my lack of degree. The reality of it was that my family got screwed when the housing bubble burst.

I'm sorry, but if Republicans want to reach out to my generation, the first have to use a tagline other than the moldy idea of the Carnegie-Vanderbilt "American Dream". They have to convince me first that "socialist" countries like Denmark, for example, where they pay a 50% income tax, is much worse than our economic model—when all the Danes get their college paid for from the day they step into pre-school.

It's funny, those Danes may be "socialists" (I'm so scared), but at least they have a college degree. Which is more than what can be said of me.

Anyway—odd political byway, but it was somehow tied into it. And I didn't quite realize how strong my feelings were in the area. It deserves its own post in all reality—but there it is.

Congrats Happy Cog on both a beautiful website and a wonderful client to work with.