Scientific Progress Goes ......

Hiroshima Cenotaph

Today, Japan held a peace memorial marking the 67th anniversary of the worlds first atomic bomb attack. The Hiroshima bombing claimed the lives of more than 140,000 people and destroyed 70% of the city of Hiroshima itself.  The bomb, named Little Boy, was said at the time to be 2000 times more powerful than the largest bomb ever used before. It was the equivalent of 12-15,000 tons of TNT and devastated an area of 5 square miles. The "Atomic Age/Era" was well under way.
The first nuclear device had already been tested on July 16th 1945 by the U.S. Army in the Jornada Del Muerto desert. The test of the 20 kiloton nuclear device was considered a success and less than a month later the only 2 atomic bombs ever to be used in actual warfare had been used. This was indeed a new age for science and technology. 67 year's later there is not a single element of life as we know it that is not affected by that event. Political and environmental, social and financial, biological and technological: all of these things are influenced across the globe by the single, massive event 67 year's ago today. The world was struck so hard that the reverberations are still being felt. The 67 year anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing is marked by a somewhat different technological advancement.

Friday Favourites #3

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful, a miracle, it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily, joyfully, playfully, watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical.