What happens in a nuclear war? You lose...
OPE
The 'eye' is part of the HAL 9000 computer from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It killed four
of the five astronaut/scientists of the Jupiter Discovery Mission. It is not human.
The apes are also from Kubrick's 2001. After meeting the monolith, they learn to kill with the
first tool they ever used: a bone. Here we see one ape beating another to death over water rights.
When the ape throws the bone into the air - a famous cinematic sequence - the bone becomes an
orbiting nuclear weapon.
Theme so far: Lots of death by non-humans.
The quote is from Major Kong, pilot of the nuclear weapon-loaded B-52 bomber (named the
Leper Colony), in Kubrick'sDr. Strangelove (see my study guide to the film via the website for more).
The picture of someone reading is me. Note the 'H' in the book, as if I was really reading the
quote. An accident: I'm reading a kid's book to my daughter at Christmas.
Bottom line: neither the apes or the computer have any feelings about killing. Most Americans
do not seem aware of the nuclear (and biological) dangers hanging over them. The quote
criticizes this apathy: "Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human beings if you didn't have
some pretty strong personal feelings about nuclear combat." Most people do not have strong
personal feelings about nuclear combat. That's why I like to teach about WMD.
Supporting facts: the five major nuclear powers possessed more than 31,000 nuclear weapons in the year 2000: http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/nukenotes/ma00nukenote.html There are 9 states with nuclear weapons, 27 with chemical weapons capabilities, and 19 with biological weapons capabilities: http://cns.miis.edu/research/cbw/possess.htm and http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/wmd_state.htm
My, it's getting awfully warm in here...
What happens in a nuclear war?
You lose...
*****************************************************
What's all this CRM114 and OPE stuff?
Short answer: See Dr. Strangelove
Longer answer: here is General Turgidson's explanation to President Muffley:
As you may recall, sir, one of the provisions of plan R provides that once the go code is received
the normal SSB radios in the aircraft are switched into a special coded device, which I believe is
designated as CRM114. Now, in order to prevent the enemy from issuing fake or confusing
orders, CRM114 is designed not to receive at all, unless the message is preceded by the correct
three letter code group prefix.
5k hits on 11/13/02; 6k 3/27/03; 7k 7/3/03; 8k10/14/03; 9k 11/24/03; 10k 1/30/04; 11k 4/2/04; 12k 8/12/04; 13k 10/13/04; 14k 11/30/04; 15k 2/1/05; 16k 3/21/05; 17k 5/6/05; 18k 9/19/05
