Overnight Open Thread

Alrighty it's Sunday all so let's run out the weekend clock.

The Hiroshima Dome That Survived The Bomb

Originally the Hiroshima Trade Promotion Hall it was only 150 meters from the hypo-center yet it mostly survived due to its sturdy construction. Some people in building basements only 100 to 200 meters from the epicenter also survived the blast though the buildings were destroyed. Today you can still visit the dome and epicenter as part of the Hiroshima Peace Museum.

A personal note

Years ago when I lived in Japan I visited Nagasaki and the Atomic Bomb Museum. For a city that had been nuked there was almost no reminder except for the museum and adjacent park - everything was new and modern and I was told that there no residual radiation left at all from the bomb.

The museum there has exhibits about the bombing that have never been seen outside Japan. It was both fascinating and horrifying. Pretty much everything that can happen when something or someone is exposed to 100 millions degrees F can be seen there. And there will be an entire room of it: eyeglasses fused onto skulls, arms and hands melted into bricks, a thousand clocks all stopped at 11:01, shadows of people burned onto walls. I remember in particular the shadow of a man carrying an umbrella caught in mid-stride when the blast hit. It was truly horrific stuff - things that Dante or Bosch leave to the imagination.

And yet. And yet if I had been in charge in August, 1945 and had the same information available to me they had, I think I would still have dropped the bombs.

Because it would have been the least worst option.

People were going to die no matter what - it was only matter of how many millions. Until Japan was occupied, the war would never really be over. And based on the casualties from the Battle of Okinawa among the military and civilians, it was estimated that Operation Downfall (the invasion and occupation of mainland Japan scheduled for October 1945) would result in up to 500,000 US KIA and the deaths of 10 million Japanese civilians and continue the war for another year.

It was going to be a bloodbath and equal all US losses up to that point in WWII. Compared to that the nuking of a few cities, horrible as it was, was a relative bargain in the larger bloody scheme of things. Needless to say I don't find the revisionists' arguments very compelling. And based on this letter from President Truman they were already active in 1946.

ObamaCare now Requires All Companies Over 50 Employees To Provide Breast-feeding Room
And no it can't be the bathroom or have viewing windows.

Some Clever Ads

The Woman Who Spends $47,000 Per Year On Her Hair
She also has "POSH" tattooed on her knuckles. That's so you'll know that she's classy.

Is Naomi Wolf Now a Tea Partier?
Nope. Sure she compares Obama to Hitler but don't be fooled - she's just a paranoid nutjob who'll glom onto whatever's popular at the moment.

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Carlsberg Brewery Workers Strike Because They Can't Drink On the Job Anymore
The Scandi company will only let them drink beer at lunch from now on. Bastards.

Take The European Geography Quiz
This one is kind of tricky - there are a lot more European countries than there were 20 years ago and they don't mark the water borders.

Weekly AoSHQ Commenter Standings
Top 10 commenters:
1 [685 comments] 'Kratos (missing from the side of Mt Olympus)' [96.17 posts/day]
2 [513 comments] 'Blazer'
3 [473 comments] 'wherestherum'
4 [394 comments] 'Miss'80sBaby'
5 [385 comments] 'The War Between the Undead States'
6 [340 comments] 'logprof'
7 [322 comments] 'conscious, but incoherent'
8 [306 comments] 'ParanoidGirlInSeattle'
9 [268 comments] 'Bomber'
10 [240 comments] 'curious'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [185 names] 'conscious, but incoherent' [25.97 unique names/day]
2 [86 names] 'fluffy'
3 [68 names] 'Y-not'
4 [62 names] 'kbdabear'
5 [56 names] '18-1'
6 [52 names] 'Blazer'
7 [50 names] 'Mallamutt'
8 [39 names] 'toby928'
9 [37 names] 'logprof'
10 [32 names] 'Cicero'

The group. Yeah.

Tonight's post brought to you by witches:

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posted by Maetenloch at 10:05 PM

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