This is an excerpt from "Always/Never: The Quest for Nuclear Safety, Control, and Survivability," a documentary made by the Sandia National Laboratories in 2010, categorized as OFFICIAL USE ONLY, and never released to the public. The film was produced, directed, and edited by Dan Curry.
In this sequence, Sandia weapon designers discuss how a 4 megaton hydrogen bomb almost detonated in North Carolina on January 23, 1961, when a B-52 bomber broke apart midair, three days after the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.
A single switch---the arm/safe switch in the cockpit--prevented a nuclear detonation that would have destroyed much of North Carolina and blanketed the east coast with lethal radioactive fallout. But as the Sandia engineers note in the film, that type of switch failed on numerous occasions and was subsequently replaced. What they don't say in the film is that stray electricity from loose wires in the airplane, as it broke apart, could also have fully armed the hydrogen bomb and detonated it.
The details of this nuclear weapon accident and of many others can be found in the book, Command and Control, by Eric Schlosser.
The official video of the most popular song of John Lennon's solo career. Its simple language and graceful harmonies proclaim a powerful vision of all humankind organizing itself around moral principles. See also this Emmy-winning animation based on a brief interview of Lennon by a 14-year-old fan.
In this movie, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich uses humor and a wide array of facts to explain how the massive consolidation of wealth by a precious few threatens the viability of the American workforce and the foundation of democracy itself. Now opening: check for local listing.
This video by the Center for Media and Democracy exposes the privatizers and profiteers selling out our democracy.
To express his opposition to Obamacare, Ted Cruz cites a children's book about a stubborn jerk who decides he hates something before he's tried it.
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