Casillic

Sixty years ago today—50 days after a 1.45 Megaton B28 thermonuclear bomb fell from a B-52G bomber flying over southern Spain and disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea, spurring a massive underwater search—US Ambassador to Spain Angier Biddle Duke went swimming in an effort to dispel public fears.

Possible person-to-person swine flu case reported in Spain. Should we be concerned? Health officials in Spain reportedly informed WHO of a possible human case of swine flu that may have been caused by human spread. Is there reason for concern?

Over the weekend, health officials in Spain reportedly informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of a possible human case of swine flu that may have been caused by person-to-person transmission.
abcnews.com/Health/human...

Billions of dollars, decades of progress spent eliminating devastating diseases may be lost with undoing of USAID Public health campaigns had made significant strides toward eradicating diseases like elephantitis and river blindness. But this progress has since unraveled with the second Trump administration.

Billions of dollars, decades of progress spent eliminating devastating diseases may be lost with undoing of USAID.
theconversation.com/billions-of-...

Special Ops To Get The Uranium - Lawyers, Guns & Money There are folks out there dreaming about a daring raid by special ops forces to grab Iran’s stock of enriched uranium. Trumpies would like to grab the Ayatollahs’ goodies. People concerned about proliferation would like the material under positive control. I would advise against such a raid. The enriched uranium seems to be at Isfahan […]

Special Ops To Get The Uranium

Trinity Site

Crazy! Something happened to friends. They wound up getting remarried again just to get documents. Best of luck.

Iran but Not North Korea: Trump and Wars of (Nuclear) Choice | Martin Pfeiffer Get more from Martin Pfeiffer on Patreon

Why did Trump attack Iran in 2025 & 2026 but not North Korea in 2017-2019?

Free, open post for all about when & why Trump starts wars of (nuclear) choice.

www.patreon.com/posts/iran-b...

#PhDLife

A one-sheet poster for "The Hunt for Red October." The colors are black and red with white type. At top left is a large three-quarter portrait image of the head of Sean Connery as Captain Marko Ramius, printed in red on a black background. Next to his left cheek, rising out of the red as though rising out of the ocean is a submarine conning tower. The tagline to the right reads, "The hunt is on." The title, top-line stars, and credits are printed in the lower third of the poster against a red background.

Today in 1990, “The Hunt for Red October,” adapted from insurance salesman Tom Clancy’s bestselling 1984 first novel, opened in theaters across the United States.

“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”

These little drawings of proposed diagnostic experiments from Operation CASTLE (1954) fascinate me — the little "devices" (thermonuclear weapons), the palm trees, waves, the isometric views. I find "top secret art" pretty fascinating as an emergent visual genre in the 20th century...

Guess they don’t remember their “The House in the Middle” Civil Defense lessons. Light colors reflect thermal energy but dark colors absorb it. A fact that is very important for nuclear warfare survivability. Always thought that drove AF-1 lighter color scheme? Maybe not…?

MISSILE is streaming for free on Kanopy (www.kanopy.com) in the United States, along with all of Frederick Wiseman’s films.

Here’s a taste (two US Air Force missileer trainees at Vandenberg Air Force Base practice the process for launching a Minuteman ICBM):

Stockpile Stewardship and Nuclear Testing: A Technical Assessment
November 2025
Interesting read! Full document at link www.osti.gov/servlets/pur...

Best scientific advice I’ve seen thus far!

Interesting question

Enjoy my friend! Sound fabulous

Release the hounds!🐶

Four different views (three in color) of the glowing mushroom cloud produced by the FOX nuclear bomb test (which looks like it has small triangular ears like a cat). The caption reads, "February 6, 1951 — 'Fox' detonated 1,434 feet (437m) above Frenchman Flat at 13:46 GMT with a yield of 22 kilotons from the LANL MK-6D 'Freddy' device after being air-dropped by a B-50 bomber. These are four perspectives of the detonation. The glow around the fireball is air being ionized by the intense radiation. These are the first publicly available photos of a nuclear detonation at the Nevada Proving Ground."

75 years ago this morning, the United States conducted FOX, a proof test of a Mk-6 atomic bomb, at the Nevada Proving Ground, its fifth test there. The yield was 22 kilotons (the predicted yield was 34 kilotons). Below, the first published photographs of a mushroom cloud over Nevada, from that test.

Marines Drill on Establishing Arming, Refueling Point at remote Tinian Island in the Pacific - USNI News The U.S Marine Corps recently trained in establishing a forward arming and refueling point (FARP) on Tinian Island, a storied and strategic foothold for U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific. Marine Wing Su...

Marines Drill on Establishing Arming, Refueling Point at remote Tinian Island in the Pacific — USNI News
news.usni.org/2026/02/04/m...

Yes, sad. LASL was in on it too!

A.E.C. matchbook...

An archival black and white photograph of the tall Soviet R-5 medium-range ballistic missile erected on a firing stand on a flat, desert-like landscape. A few men are visible at the base of the missile, perhaps checking fuel line connections or making adjustments prior to launch..

A color screenshot from an official film (linked in the next post) showing the orange-yellow fireball and early-stage mushroom cloud following the explosion from this nuclear test.

A color map of a portion of Kazakhstan showing the approximate flight path (in blue) of the R-5 missile from Kapustin Yar to Aralsk.

70 years ago today, in a first, the USSR launched an R-5 medium-range ballistic missile (NATO designation: SS-3 Shyster) carrying a live warhead across populated areas of Kazakhstan from the Kapustin Yar test site to the Sary Shagan test range. The 0.3-kt warhead detonated on the ground near Aralsk.

Looks like they colorized it but nothing new added

There's an May 9, 1952 accident at Eielson AFB, Alaska, listed in one heavily redacted accident I have. This might be the one Hansen has listed. Again, little info on it. Note that this was declassified in 2014 — hard to know why this would still be classified!

Stan Chambers

75 yrs ago today at 5:47 AM local time, television station KTLA made an unauthorized live broadcast from atop Mt. Wilson just to Los Angeles of the 1-kiloton EASY nuclear test at the Nevada Proving Ground more than 200 miles away. It was watched by an estimated 30,000 people (start video at 22:30).

A graphic showing the interior of the Explorer-1 Satellite.

A NASA image of the launch of the Jupiter - C launch vehicle ascending from Launch Complex 26A, Cape Canaveral, Fl.

January 31, 1958: 10:48 PM EST- The United States puts its very first satellite into Earth orbit, Explorer-1. To learn more about the science around the mission here's a link to a JPL website that explains more explorer1.jpl.nasa.gov

Sad…

Great list. Two of the most profound to me were American Sign Language and Film. Something about the visual languages and I am half blind. Go figure. Anthropology and Ethics were pretty profound too.

Some of the recently declassified images of the NRO's Cold War-era JUMPSEAT HEO signals intelligence satellite program. lnkd.in/eGym2xBj

The world just passed a surprisingly positive milestone on nuclear weapons It’s been more than eight years since the last nuclear explosion. How long will the pause last?

Here @joshuakeating.bsky.social points out that, as of January 14, 2026, we've entered the longest period since July 16, 1945, without a full-scale nuclear test explosion (exceeding the time between the 1998 Pakistani test and North Korea's first test in 2006) www.vox.com/future-perfe...

W80-5 “Just Came Up,” Will Go On SLCM-N, Weapons Directors Say - Defense Daily The W80-5, a new variant of the W80 warhead family, is on a “more aggressive schedule” to go on the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N),

"W80-5 “Just Came Up,” Will Go On SLCM-N, Weapons Directors Say"