Faux Fu

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

Children of the Atomic Bomb!

We truly live in the Atomic Age.  Not because we live in a time where we invented and built nuclear bombs and reactors. But because we've actually tested atomic bombs, dropped them on human populations, and had have a number of nuclear "accidents."  Ever since July 16, 1945 when we did the "Trinity Test," the planet has been fundamentally altered. Caesium-137 can be found in trace amounts everywhere on the planet.

They can actually date a bottle of wine to determine whether it's older or younger than that fateful date in 1945. If Caesium-137 is in the wine it's "atomic age wine." And yes, of course, any of us, if we are born after 1945, we are literally and physically, children of the atomic bomb.

Freaky. I remember as a child, in school, hiding under my desk, running through the drill to protect ourselves in case of a nuclear attack.  It all seemed sort of silly.  We were already atomic kids.  If we didn't actually learn how to "love the bomb" we did learn how to live with it.  It became us, we incorporated it, embodied it, and it descended upon everything we eat and breathe. Atomic!

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