Wasteland Wrap-up #27

NUKEMAP before NUKEMAP, David Lynch, MacArthur's "D-Day atomic capability" memo...

Somehow the winter break has come to an end and I have to go back into the classroom next week. How fast that went by…

The book is nearly, nearly out the door. Finalizing bits and pieces. Finally. I’m at the “100% ready to be done with this” stage of the project. But of course, such projects never really feel like they end, as even the “ending” involves more editing, proofing, finalizing, and then, eventually, it will exist in the world, and I’ll then have to talk about it, and it is understandable that by the time one has gotten to that stage, there is little one would rather talk about less… but such is how it goes! In my mind I am halfway to the next book, but I understand that is a procrastination mechanism…

Lyndon has taken to napping next to a little sun lamp we use for the indoor plants this time of the year, when the natural light is so scarce. I thought this particular snuggle next to one of Ellen’s (many) book stacks was pretty cute.

The weather keeps vacillating between “uncomfortably cold to walk in” (for me, that is anything at the freezing point or below) and “well, I’ll take it, by comparison” (anything that is at 40ºF or above). Not the worst. Not the best. We have well passed the winter solstice, so theoretically the days are getting longer, although it is hard to tell.

While walking Lyndon on a different route than usual, I spied this really wonderful fallout shelter sign on a “Gothic Revival” building from the mid-1920s. I love the little bit of ossified ivy on the sign. The building apparently used to be housing for employees at a nearby hospital, and may still be used for medical facilities of some sort, but its status is not entirely clear to me. There is, of course, no way into whatever part was once designated as a fallout shelter, as there is a modern (locked) gate barring the way.

ICYMI: Despite being totally bogged down, I did manage to get a Doomsday Machines post out this week, about a proposal for a NUKEMAP-like computer that the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory pursued in the mid-1960s: “What if NUKEMAP had been made in the 1960s?”

This will be Part I of a two-part series; Part I describes the proposal and its details a bit. Part II will describe the machine that they actually built. I am waiting to see if Livermore will provide me with copies of a few documents relating to the latter, which would help tell the story a bit, so there is no firm promise on when Part II will be, but if Livermore can’t (or won’t) provide the documents quickly, I have enough material as it is to write up something interesting within a few weeks.