tagged w/ Atomic Bomb
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Iran's Supreme Leader says his country will never develop an atomic bomb, but will not abandon its controversial nuclear program.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told leaders of developing nations Thursday at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran that Iran will "not give up its national right to peaceful nuclear energy."
The supreme leader's speech also took aim at the U.N. Security Council, describing it as illogical, unjust and a defunct relic of the past that the United States uses "to impose their bullying manner on the world."
Visiting United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also addressed the summit, urging Iran to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding it curb its nuclear activities. Ban warned that heightened international rhetoric over the issue risked degenerating into "war."
The U.N. chief also reprimanded Iran for "outrageous" comments denying the Holocaust and Israel's right to exist, and called on the two foes to drop threats against each other.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi attended the summit, making him the first Egyptian leader to visit Iran in decades. Iran cut diplomatic relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution due to Egypt's support for the overthrown Shah and its peace accord with Israel.
In comments that embarrassed Tehran, Morsi harshly criticized what he called Syria's "oppressive regime." Shi'ite Iran strongly supports the Damascus government while there is widespread sympathy in Egypt for the mostly Sunni rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Egypt's Islamist leader has not addressed the issue of whether ties with Iran would be upgraded, only promising a more balanced foreign policy. Iran welcomed Egypt's 2011 revolution that brought Morsi to power.
At the summit, the Egyptian president is to transfer the rotating leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement to Iran.
The NAM is a Cold War organization that was supposed to provide a forum for countries that were allied with neither the United States nor the Soviet Union. But since the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 the group has struggled for both identity and clout.Iran's Supreme Leader says his country will never develop an atomic bomb, but... more
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Every August arrives with thoughts of both darkness and light; my mother Mary’s birthday on the fifteenth (also the Feast of the Assumption of divine Mother Mary) and the 1945 anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th respectively. These dates are etched on my cerebral wall; the latter two changed our world forever in ways never before imagined.
A primitive race of beings had broken some say a forbidden barrier. Energized by fossil fuel and the desperation of world war scientists near Santa Fe New Mexico harnessed the power responsible for the formation of star systems.
http://infinitetolerance.com/music-2/buddhakan/Every August arrives with thoughts of both darkness and light; my mother... more
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“Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945” is a new exhibition of once-classified images of atomic destruction at Hiroshima presently on display at New York City’s International Center of Photography. The collection of photographs both repels and fascinates the viewer, with its powerfully ugly portraits of an unpeopled and obliterated city. The photographs were originally part of a governmental analysis of the atomic bomb’s effect on concrete, wood and steel, and this catalog of devastation was meant to be seen only by postwar architects and engineers tasked with erecting the “bombproof” cities of the future.
The Hiroshima photos have a strange and contorted history. In the mid-1990s, the owner of a diner in Watertown, Massachusetts, was walking his dog when he spotted a beat-up suitcase sitting in a pile of trash. It turned out that the photographs inside had once belonged to Robert L. Corsbie, an engineer and expert on the effects of the bomb. Just how those photos wound up in his possession remains unclear. Corsbie belonged to a cadre of ordnance experts, engineers, photographers and draftsmen who were sent by President Truman to analyze the nuclear devastation.
The Hiroshima photographs are fundamentally different from the more familiar World War II pictures of European cities, such as Cologne, where the stones of the cathedral rise from the debris, and blown-out buildings loom like hollow-eyed zombies. Those ruins have a perverse but palpable grandeur, a gothic desolation that is missing from the scenes of Japan’s ravaged emptiness. In hauntingly stark contrast to the images of European destruction, the Hiroshima photographs are eerily mute. There are no people, only twisted metal, blistered walls and miles of rubble. Except for a few skeletal structures poking out of flattened wreckage, the city simply vanished. Hiroshima didn’t look like a bombed city; it looked instead as though a monstrous steamroller had passed over it and just squashed it out of existence. The Japanese city centers, constructed mostly of wood, simply went up in smoke when bombed.
Wary of the conquered people’s anger and grief, the US government imposed strict censorship in September 1945, confiscating pictures and ordering that no image be printed which might, directly or by inference, disturb public tranquility. It was not until 1952 that “Life Magazine” published a handful of photographs taken in the first days after the attack. Even now, such images are rarely displayed. That is why this cache of photographs is so important. Once part of a classified archive, then buried in a basement, thrown away and resurrected, it counteracts the universal tendency to aestheticise violence. There is nothing awe-inspiring here, or even poignant, just plain devastating facts.
This piece includes a number of photographs from the exhibition, a photo-gallery, a documentary short film and the acclaimed Japanese animated film, “Grave of the Fireflies.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/the-hiroshima-photographs-ground-zero-1945/“Hiroshima: Ground Zero 1945” is a new exhibition of once-classified... more
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As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns, we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000. By official Japanese estimates, nearly 300,000 people died from the bombings, including those who lost their lives in the ensuing months and years from related injuries and illnesses. Other researchers estimate a much higher death toll. We play an account of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the pilots who flew the B-29 bomber that dropped that bomb, and feature an interview with the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Weller, who was the first reporter to enter Nagasaki. He later summarized his experience with military censors who ordered his story killed, saying, "They won." Our guest is Greg Mitchell, co-author of "Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial," with Robert Jay Lifton. His latest book is "Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki and The Greatest Movie Never Made." [includes rush transcript]
Watch the video at the link.......... http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/9/atomic_cover_up_the_hidden_storyAs radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi... more
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A-bomb veteran wins Appeal
Court Greenlights Cancer Gene Patent
Judge orders release of grand jury testimony of President Richard NixonA-bomb veteran wins Appeal
Court Greenlights Cancer Gene Patent
Judge orders release... more
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March 25th, 2011
12:43 PM ET
Human Factor: Hiroshima survivor uses radiation to heal
In the Human Factor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces you to survivors who have overcome tremendous odds. Confronting a life obstacle – injury, illness or other hardship – they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn’t know they possessed. Be inspired by their successes, as we have been.
Ritsuko Komaki was just a baby when Hiroshima was destroyed. She lived less than an hour away, and the effects of that nuclear blast in August 1945 colored her life.
Like many survivors of the atomic bomb, she watched her mother, grandmother, family members and friends suffer from radiation sickness. The death of her childhood friend, who folded about 600 origami cranes while struggling with leukemia, inspired Komaki to pursue medicine.
Komaki realized that while radiation was lethal, it could also help and treat cancers. She is now an oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and says, radiation has always been part of her life.March 25th, 2011
12:43 PM ET
Human Factor: Hiroshima survivor uses radiation to... more
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A word or two about Atomic Energy and the world in 1961 by Father of The Atomic Bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer.A word or two about Atomic Energy and the world in 1961 by Father of The Atomic Bomb... more
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There is a spooky resemblance between the vast devastation caused by the bombing of Nagasaki on 9 August in 1945 and the earthquake that his Sendai on Friday 11 March 2011.There is a spooky resemblance between the vast devastation caused by the bombing of... more
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Hiroshima anniversary brings U.N. head's call for disarmament
By Brooke Elliott, CNN
August 5, 2010 9:29 p.m. EDT
A Japanese girl prays for victims of the atomic bombing at Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Thursday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* It has been 65 years since U.S. dropped bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki
* Ban Ki-moon is the first U.N. secretary-general to attend anniversary memorial
* It is also the first time the United States has sent an envoy to the ceremony
(CNN) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used an appearance at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial ceremony in Japan to advocate for his five-point plan for worldwide nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
August 6 marks the 65th anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States at the end of World War II on Hiroshima. Another was dropped a few days later on Nagasaki. The bombs devastated both cities and killed more than 200,000 people. Thursday was the first time a U.N. secretary-general took part in the ceremony.
"Together, we are on a journey from ground zero to global zero -- a world free of weapons of mass destruction," Ban said. "That is the only sane path to a safer world. For as long as nuclear weapons exist, we will live under a nuclear shadow."
This is Ban's first visit to Hiroshima. He also made the first visit of a U.N. secretary-general to Nagasaki when he participated in a wreath-laying ceremony on August 5.
Ban called for his plan for nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament to be acted upon. "It includes recommendations on security, verification, transparency, conventional weapons and the legal framework for nuclear disarmament," he said before laying the wreath in Nagasaki.
Video: Hiroshima survivor talks
In Hiroshima, Ban noted recent success in the nonproliferation movement. "We see new leadership from the most powerful nations. We see new engagement in the U.N. Security Council. We see new energy from civil society," he said.
Ban cited the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and Russia, which would replace the 1991 START that expired last year. He also noted progress made at a nuclear summit in Washington earlier this year. "We will build upon [that] in Korea in 2012. ... We must keep up the momentum," he said.
Ban said he will convene a conference on disarmament in New York in September. "We will push for negotiations towards nuclear disarmament. A comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. A fissile material cut-off treaty," he said.
Ban further advocated for "disarmament education" in schools, calling for the translation of survivor testimony in all the world's major languages.
"We must teach an elemental truth: that status and prestige belong not to those who possess nuclear weapons, but to those who reject them," he said. "Let us realize our dream of a world free of nuclear weapons so that our children and all succeeding generations can live in freedom, security and peace."
Ban said his experience of living through the Korean War as a child motivated him to be a leader who seeks peace. "One of my earliest memories is marching along a muddy road into the mountains, my village burning behind me," he said. "All those lives lost, families destroyed, so much sadness. Ever since, I have devoted my life to peace. It has brought me here today."
United States Ambassador John Roos also attended, marking the first time the United States has sent an envoy to the Hiroshima memorial ceremony.Hiroshima anniversary brings U.N. head's call for disarmament
By Brooke Elliott,... more
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The US Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from the indigenous people of the Marshall Islands over whether they can sue the federal government again for blowing up and irradiating the land during nuclear tests in the 1940s and 1950s.The US Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from the indigenous people of the... more
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The Francis Underhill Macy Hibakusha Initiative is a month-long educational opportunity for New York City school children to hear eyewitness accounts of one of the most significant events in human history— the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. The survivors are called Hibakusha.
Sponsored by Youth Arts New York in partnership with Peace Boat and Mayors for Peace, this program coincides with the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at the United Nations in May of 2010.The Francis Underhill Macy Hibakusha Initiative is a month-long educational... more
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;_ylt=Amtf7zAQmPOydQk75Iu4R6us0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNzZmtxb29sBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMzA5L2FzX2phcGFuX3VzX3NlY3JldF9wYWN0cwRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNqYXBhbmNvbmZpcm0-
TOKYO – Japan confirmed for the first time Tuesday the existence of once-secret Cold War-era pacts with the U.S. that tacitly allowed nuclear-armed warships to enter Japanese ports in violation of Tokyo's postwar principles.
While declassified U.S. documents have already confirmed such 1960s agreements, Tuesday's revelation broke with decades of official denials.
The investigation by a government-mandated panel is part of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's campaign to rein in the power of bureaucrats and make his government, which was elected to power last year, more open than that of the long-ruling conservatives, who repeatedly denied the existence of such pacts.
"It's regrettable that such facts were not disclosed to the public for such a long time, even after the end of the Cold War era," Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told a news conference, adding that the investigation was meant to restore public trust in Japan's diplomacy.
The panel examined documents surrounding four pacts, including Tokyo's tacit permission that U.S. nuclear-armed warships could make calls at Japanese ports — a violation of Japan's so-called three non-nuclear principles not to make, own or allow the entry of atomic weapons.
There is strong aversion to nuclear weapons in Japan, the only country to suffer atomic bombings — in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.
Speculation about the existence of such secret agreements have been swirling in Japan for years so the panel's findings most likely will simply confirm public suspicions rather than shock or anger people. Some are also aware of U.S. documents about these matters.
Analysts welcomed the move as a positive step toward more transparency in the Japanese government but said it probably won't revive the sagging popularity of Hatoyama's government or affect U.S.-Japan ties, which have grown strained recently because of a dispute about relocating a key Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.
"It's a good thing for Japanese democracy, given that the previous governments have been telling blunt lies to the public," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.;_ylt=Amtf7zAQmPOydQk75Iu4R6us0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNzZmtxb29sBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMzA5L2FzX2p... more
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I've seen tons of pictures of nuclear tests, but none this riveting. This set, from a French test in the '60s, is just so sharp and saturated. And the progression from the familiar mushroom cloud to something that looks more like... an alien squid?... is amazing. Horrifying. Amazing.I've seen tons of pictures of nuclear tests, but none this riveting. This set,... more
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sloan
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added this
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5 years ago
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"the term 'ground zero' initiated with Hiroshima and Nadaski...approx. 165 people who are believed to have survived Hiroshima onlt to wind up in Nagaski three days later.""the term 'ground zero' initiated with Hiroshima and Nadaski...approx.... more
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Due to our seemingly increasing anti-awareness of events past, this very old bomb testing footage is meant to bring to your attention, with the help of a song that I have written, the atrocity of violence by humans toward other humans.
Just remember, every single person shown in this film is dead, having died from the effects of the bomb blast. Some of them died quickly while others suffered for years. Also, many of them passed horrible genetics on to their children due to the radiation exposure.
...and you thought Erin Brokivich exposed some gritty details of "exposure".Due to our seemingly increasing anti-awareness of events past, this very old bomb... more
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Tomorrow the U.S. will meet with Iran to seal the deal that could take the country's uranium away. Michael Adler on why the moment is the ultimate test of Obama's engagement policy.Tomorrow the U.S. will meet with Iran to seal the deal that could take the... more
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The U.S. terror war as seen through the eyes of a prisoner
When we first began corresponding with Khalid Awan in 2007, we had no idea why he was serving time in U.S. federal prison. We soon discovered Awan was one of the first of thousands of Muslims taken prisoner in the post-9/11 U.S. “terror war.” As the story began unfolding in our letters, we began to realize that this honest, humble and sincere man was not only innocent, but the ongoing injustice being done to him provides critical insight into the mindless, meanspirited, bureaucratic-yes-men idiocy fueling the illegal U.S. “war on terror” (and just about everything else that is going wrong in this country). At our insistence, Awan wrote his story and supplied us with whatever documents we requested. And now, after three months of cooperative efforts, the story of Khalid Awan can be told. We have come to know Awan as a peaceful man engaged in peaceful work who has been wrongfully accused, detained and repeatedly convicted of crimes he did not commit because he was a Muslim with international connections and an office in New York on 9/11. We present this to you in faith that you will realize a deeper understanding of the levels of complicity necessary for the “land of the free” to tolerate the phony war on terror year after year and in hope that Awan—and all the other million or more political prisoners being held by this country—will one day be reunited with their families.
Khalid Awan # 50959-054
USP Marion
P.O.BOX : 1000
Marion, IL 62959
USA
http://www.freekhalidawan.com/,
http://blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=3759,
http://awankhalid.com/,
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60600467317The U.S. terror war as seen through the eyes of a prisoner
When we first began... more
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A confidential analysis by staff of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has concluded that Iran has acquired "sufficient information to be able to design and produce" an atom bomb..A confidential analysis by staff of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has concluded that Iran... more
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a story in Wired introducing us to the Doomsday Machine built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s — and that remains active to this day. It was called "Perimeter." The article explains why the device was built, and why the Soviets considered it to be something that kept the peace, even though they never told the US about it.
"[Reagan's] strategy worked. Moscow soon believed the new US leadership really was ready to fight a nuclear war. But the Soviets also became convinced that the US was now willing to start a nuclear war. ... A few months later, Reagan... announced that the US was going to develop a shield of lasers and nuclear weapons in space to defend against Soviet warheads. ... To Moscow it was the Death Star — and it confirmed that the US was planning an attack. ... By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, [an informant] says, was 'to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished.a story in Wired introducing us to the Doomsday Machine built by the Soviet Union in... more
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“Shadowplay” is a multi-award winning animated stop-motion short film, which was written, animated and directed by Dan Blank. The film was the winner of the 2002 Los Angeles Film Festival Best Short Award, the 2002 Student Academy Award (Bronze) and the 2003 Student Emmy Award (Gold).
In August 1945, the closing chapter of World War II, a blinding flash lit the sky over Hiroshima. In that searing light, huge slabs of concrete worked like emulsion paper, creating silhouetted photographs of that split-second of power, with only shadows left of the people who had been going about their everyday lives. “Shadowplay” tells the story of Akio, a shadow of a young boy, who wanders around the devastated city searching for his family, while trying to make sense of the unfathomable atrocity.
We should be reminded of these images when there is talk of nuclear threats or weapons of mass destruction. The faceless poses of Hiroshma should make us realize that this could have been anyone, anywhere.
This piece presents a number of colorful illustrations from the film and the acclaimed animated short, “Shadowplay.”“Shadowplay” is a multi-award winning animated stop-motion short film,... more
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