Publisher @OrbisBooks, saint-whisperer @GiveUsThisDayLP. #TolstoysTalesofTrump. #MastersofSocialIsolation. Seeking meaning in the sacred and the absurd.
Joined December 2016
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Very sorry. Many nuclear casualties in our own country. Not to mention the toll it takes on our souls.
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75 years ago today. If pressing a button entailed the risk of destroying all life on earth—what odds would be too high? Anything more than 0? Since the dawn of the Doomsday era in the 1960s we have faced that risk every day. What are the odds of avoiding that for another 50 yrs?
75 years ago at 5:29 a.m. on 7/16 1945 scientists gathered in the desert of NM to witness the first A-bomb test, code-named Trinity. The countdown began, followed by a burst of white light and a fireball that seemed to transform the sky. One of them thought, “Fermi was right.”
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A mysterious dwarf had promised the master’s family he would fulfill all their hearts’ desires—whether for power, beauty, or lustrous hair. In exchange, all he demanded was that they tout his favorite beans. #TolstoysTalesofTrump
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75 years ago at 5:29 a.m. on 7/16 1945 scientists gathered in the desert of NM to witness the first A-bomb test, code-named Trinity. The countdown began, followed by a burst of white light and a fireball that seemed to transform the sky. One of them thought, “Fermi was right.”
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Three years before, as the scientists calculated the physics behind the atomic bomb, they had come upon a troubling possibility: that the chain reaction set in motion would not stop—that it would ignite all the hydrogen in the air and oceans and set the whole world aflame.
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The calculations were uncertain, yet so serious was the risk that Robert Oppenheimer consulted the project director. They decided to continue the project while trying to prove that this catastrophe was impossible. That was never proved, but they decided the risk was negligible.
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The night before the test, Enrico Fermi offered to accept odds on whether atmospheric ignition would occur. When Gen. Groves heard this he was upset, afraid such talk would upset the enlisted men. Some thought Fermi was joking--others who had done the math were not so sure.
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The next day the explosion did not destroy the world or even New Mexico. Phew! And yet the effect was powerful enough to remind some of them of Fermi's "jest." As the fire rose in the sky, Oppenheimer thought of the Sanskrit text: “I am become death the destroyer of worlds.”
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The next stop for the bomb was the people of Hiroshima on 8/6. But already Edward Teller and others were dreaming of a bigger bomb—a hydrogen bomb—a 1000 times more powerful. He trusted that the odds of destroying the world were slim. See @DanielEllsberg The Doomsday Machine.
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Addressing the peasants the master invited them to imagine a world with no masters. He painted a dystopian picture of an estate with no windows, where windmills replaced coal, where their heritage was erased and they would be paid in cash instead of bulgur. #TolstoysTalesofTrump
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The Donner party (who didn’t whine about the weather) as examples of American pluck—didn’t see that coming.
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FD of St. Kateri Tekakwitha (d. 1680), the first Native American to be canonized. Like many women saints she had to grope her way forward in a church and world that provided no clear path or options for her. She died at 23. (art: Terezia Sedlakova)
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“For years 1 of the best running commentaries on our time has come from @RobertEllsberg’s #TolstoysTalesofTrump. Future historians will cite these tweets 2 understand what happened.”—INSERT Your Name Here @JamesMartinSJ @gtconway3d @sarahcpr @Lawrence @chrislhayes @tonyschwartz
It had been months since mines on the estate had closed with the promise of new health and safety measures that never seemed to occur. Nevertheless the master insisted he had waited long enough. “It is essential that all children get back to work,” he said. #TolstoysTalesofTrump
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