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Matthew Bunn

@matthew-bunn.bsky.social
963 followers 206 following 848 posts

Father, husband, citizen, professor, focusing mainly on nuclear weapons and nuclear energy issues. Faculty lead for Harvard's Managing the Atom project: www.belfercenter.org/programs/managing-atom My website: matthewbunn.scholars.harvard.edu

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Reposted by Matthew Bunn
Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 16h
To think that there is nothing to be learned and innovated on from the safety practices of other industries is lunacy. AI tools are power. They are not magical or exempt from safety practices that work for other complex systems. Governing AI requires disenchantment; break the spell.
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Constant assaults on science, the seed corn that drives economic growth, security technology, and medical progress.
nytimes.com
National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress (Gift Article)
The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.
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François Diaz-Maurin @francoisdm.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
AI doesn’t need rogue "superintelligence" or evil intent to start a nuclear war. In @thebulletin.org, Paul Slovic & Herbert Lin show how today’s AI—combined with ordinary human fallibility—could trigger catastrophe. 🧵
A large blue robotic hand points towards a person seated at a desk in a grand, ornate room with yellow lighting. (Illustration by François Diaz-Maurin; source images from The White House and canva.com)
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The fact that volunteers are finding key actions of AI agents that were otherwise undetected reveals the total inadequacy of the safety and monitoring approaches at the leading companies. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
The volunteer internet sleuths hunting down rogue AI agents
An informal network of hackers and researchers is exposing new details about misbehaving AI that meddled with corporate and government websites.
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Jon B. Wolfsthal @jonatomic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
thanks to @davekearnjr.bsky.social for his insightful piece proposing alternatives to the use of nuclear weapons for the defense of Taiwan. He is right that the logic of those calling for US enhanced reliance on NSNW is debatable and that US has options. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/H6RJT...
tandfonline.com
Limited nuclear war and the defense of Taiwan
This article assesses proposals to address the challenge of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan with the threat of first use of tactical nuclear weapons by the United States. While it is not clear that a ...
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AliVaez.bsky.social @alivaez.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Seven months in, Iran & the U.S. each believe they have tools to make the other blink, fortitude to wait the other out, and disinclination to make concessions the other seeks. My latest for @ForeignAffairs 👇 tinyurl.com/4vudctak
tinyurl.com
The New Forever War
Why America and Iran fight on without victory.
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The 2020 election has been relentlessly studied by our most experienced experts and by our most craven partisan hacks for 6y now, and every examination has wound up demonstrating the integrity of Biden’s victory in that election and the malignity of Trump’s obsession with undermining it.
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The reckoning, and steps to change campus culture and approaches to prevention and response need to go far beyond Cornell.
nytimes.com
Cornell Students Call for Change at Fiery Public Meeting (Gift Article)
Through tears, some students shared stories of assaults they had experienced, while others spoke out to criticize administrators and demand improved training on consent.
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Privacy Center at Georgetown Law and Tech Policy Press are launching "The Edge Dialogues" on Oct. 22, featuring special guest Dr. Alondra Nelson. No "AI governance" buzzwords. Just urgent conversations about power, labor, war, justice, privacy, art, community and human consciousness. Join us!
luma.com
Save the Date: The Edge Dialogues · Zoom · Luma
This is not your normal tech policy conversation. The Privacy Center at Georgetown Law and Tech Policy Press are launching "The Edge Dialogues" on October…
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John Garrison Marks @johngmarks.com · 01/10/2026
To lose visitors in the year you HOST THE WORLD CUP and celebrate a big anniversary is truly incredible.
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European Policy Institute in Kyiv (EPIK) @epik-ukraine.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In 1991, Ukraine inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal from the collapsed Soviet Union. By 1996, that arsenal was gone. In exchange, Ukraine received not security guarantees, but "assurances" from the US, UK, and Russia — a distinction that would prove consequential.
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Andrew Facini @andrewfacini.com · 01/10/2026
More work on detecting "decoupled" explosions continues
energy.gov
NNSA Conducts Nonproliferation Experiment to Strengthen America’s Nuclear Explosion Detection Capabilities
The National Nuclear Security Administration today successfully conducted a subsurface, non-nuclear chemical high-explosive experiment at the Nevada National Security Site, increasing the United State...
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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 01/10/2026
Lawmakers must investigate recent incidents of AI agents going rogue. Here are questions to ask AI companies about what they can control and what they failed to do: bit.ly/4xLckHb
brennancenter.org
How Congress Should Investigate Threat from Rogue AI Agents
The government must evaluate systemic failures with an eye toward establishing meaningful regulation.
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Jon B. Wolfsthal @jonatomic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I support strong, government centric regulation of frontier labs in close cooperation with the labs and with strong international work to share info and report incidents and normalize strong model containment. But saying “and verification” with no explanation of how is silly.
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Jon B. Wolfsthal @jonatomic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A Way Out of the A.I. Arms Race? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/w... If I had a nickel for every poorly adapted nuclear/AI analogy.
nytimes.com
A Way Out of the A.I. Arms Race?
New research points to how the world could stop short of the brink of disaster. Even with the agreement signed at the White House by tech leaders, it won’t be easy.
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Today, Russia struck a school in Kyiv with a drone during the morning hours. At the time of the strike, about 100 schoolchildren and 60 staff members were in the shelter; fortunately, no one was hurt. Who does that? What kind of barbarians attack children on a school day?
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Semafor @semafor.com · 30/09/2026
Visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year. “We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” the head of the US Travel Association said. “It’s mind-boggling.” www.semafor.com/article/09/2...
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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Quite a remarkable map, table, and diagram from a 1971 report on launch-on-warning, showing the implications of Soviet submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) on detection, reaction, deliberation, and response time. All numbers are in SECONDS, which is what I find the most wild about it.
Map of the USA labeled "Soviet SLBM [Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile] Time of Flight to SAC [Strategic Air Command] Targets." Shows both "nominal" and "depressed" trajectories. Absolute best (north central USA) is between 580 and 850 seconds (9.6 – 14 min). Absolute worst (everywhere else) is between 320 and 650 seconds (5.3 – 10.8 min). The variations are based on where they assume the subs are launching from. Table: "Early Warning System Performance." Shows four different systems (BMEWS, OTHF, SLBM Net, and a not-yet-operational in 1971 Boost-Phase Detection Satellite) that indicates the time of detection after launch (varies between 55 and 150 seconds; BMEWS cannot detect launches as it is only over-the-horizon radar), the time that the US command and control system would be alerted after launch (ranges from 85 seconds for the newest system to 900 seconds for BMEWs), the probably of detection of a single launch (BMEWS is 99%, SLBM Net is 50%, none of the others have probabilities), probably of detection for a mass launch (all around 100%), and their false alarm rate (BMEWS has 1 per 7 years, OTHF is 1 per 6 months, the others are unknown). Diagram: "National Command-Warning to Response Cycle." Shows the consequences of a launch detection all the way through the US nuclear infrastructure, with "delay times" in seconds. Will be discussed in the next post in this thread.
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War on the Rocks @warontherocks.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
How are nuclear analogies steering AI policy off course? warontherocks.com/2026/09/the-...
warontherocks.com
The Manhattan Project Mindset: How Nuclear Analogies Are Steering AI Policy Off Course
Analogies for artificial intelligence abound. In recent years, analysts have likened the development of AI to the advent of electricity, the Industrial
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Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · 30/09/2026
POLITICAL SCIENCE JOB AD: Tenure-track position in International Relations at the University of Waterloo. We're *very happy* to announce this. Applications due Nov. 1st; job start date July 2027. Details here (pdf): uwaterloo.ca/arts/sites/d...
uwaterloo.ca
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Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My team at the NVA Lab has produced a new dashboard for exploring our data on US protests from Jan 2025-May 2026. This snapshot shows the 61k+ protest events (>14.6M+ recorded participants) active in the US since Trump's second inauguration. Link to dashboard in thread.
A platform displaying the data on US protests from the Crowd Counting Consortium. It includes a map of the US with counts of protest events in circular form overlaying the protests' locations. It also includes weekly tallies of protest events and participations, top protest issues, and various filters allowing users to explore events by location, issue, date, political valence, etc. The top of the image shows a total of 61,782 protests with 14,684,201 participants across 55 US states and territories from January 20, 2025 to May 31, 2026.
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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s faded from the news but Hegseth is still working to strangle teaching and speech at the military academies. wapo.st/4hDFceJ
wapo.st
Hegseth bars military academies from hiring civilians as tenured professors
The move marks the latest effort by the Trump administration to exert more control over faculty at service academies.
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Melissa Chan @melissakchan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Kathi Zellweger made ~70+ trips to North Korea over decades, and even lived there for five years. She has a book out now — MISS KATHI — and this CNN segment shares never-before-seen footage she captured off her camcorder over the years. 🔗 bit.ly/cnn-kathi
bit.ly
What North Korean life is actually like beyond Pyongyang
A Swiss aid worker’s never-before-seen footage reveals decades of life inside North Korea. Kathi Zellweger’s rare access allowed her to capture famine-era hardship, private moments and a side of the country few outsiders have witnessed. 0:00 The secret lives of North Korea 1:02 Who is Kathi Zellweger? 5:01 Former CNN Beijing bureau chief on Kathi Zellweger's unusual access to North Korea 8:32 Inside a Catholic church in North Korea 10:00 Driving in North Korea For more of this, subscribe to stream on the CNN app: https://cnn.it/4zpecHE #NorthKorea #Korea #News
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Oliver Meier @olivermeier.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
2/ Also a good opportunity to re-post my small @theeln.bsky.social piece on why the private sector is not going to solve the AI-related problems they it has caused: europeanleadershipnetwork.org?p=26270
europeanleadershipnetwork.org
Want to prevent nuclear war caused by AI? Count the private sector out
Drawing on parallels with the Manhattan Project, the ELN's Oliver Meier argues that AI companies cannot be relied upon to govern the risks their technology creates. Examining Anthropic co-founder Chri...
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Oliver Meier @olivermeier.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
1/ Irony is dead: Donald Trump, the great moral authority, explains that a statement of intent by AI billionaires to reign in the technology that made them rich is "morally binding". www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...
nytimes.com
At A.I. Event, Trump Asks Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft to Make Safety Decisions Themselves
President Trump’s meetings with tech leaders produced some voluntary safeguards and a commitment to rebrand artificial intelligence as “super intelligence,” the term that Mr. Trump prefers.
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Reuters Legal @legal.reuters.com · 29/09/2026
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a construction permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority to build the nation's first commercial small modular reactor at its Clinch River site in Roane County, Tennessee, the agency said on Tuesday.
reut.rs
US NRC approves construction of nation's first small modular nuclear reactor
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved ​a construction permit for the Tennessee ‌Valley Authority to build the nation's first commercial small modular reactor at its ​Clinch River site in Roane County, ​Tennessee, the agency said on Tuesday.
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Gregory Koblentz @gregkoblentz.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The US is refusing to pay its annual dues to the OPCW. A bipartisan group of nonpro and natsec experts have called upon @state-department.bsky.social to fund the global CW watchdog immediately. @armscontrolnow.bsky.social @nukesofhazard.bsky.social armscontrolcenter.org/time-to-fund...
armscontrolcenter.org
Time To Fund the OPCW - Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
By John Erath Since 1993, chemical weapons have killed thousands, with many times more affected, often suffering for years. This despite the Chemical Weapons Convention ban on such activity and a gene...
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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Candidates’, parties’, and committees’ spending reveals that AI is fast becoming an essential tool of politics. Nathan Sanders and Bruce @schneier.com, co-authors of "Rewiring Democracy," take a closer look at new campaign finance disclosure data for @theguardian.com.
theguardian.com
New campaign disclosures reveal how much American political campaigns spend on AI tools
Though politicians are quiet about how they use AI, the book Rewiring Democracy examines how AI is starting to influence American politics
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
How clear is it that Trump's taxpayer funded ads are illegal? I explain why it is 10/10 clear. Senate in passing the law: Ban is designed to stop public funds used for "glorification" of an individual official. GAO: funds can not be used for "self-aggrandizement" nor partisan political purposes.
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 29/09/2026
“Estonian authorities have confirmed that the 15 August arson attack against the Estonian defence company Milrem Robotics in Tallinn was an act of sabotage ordered by Russian security services.” www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
theguardian.com
Estonia says arson attack on ‘consistent with other acts of sabotage carried out in Europe on behalf of Russia’ - Europe live
Foreign minister summons Russia’s chargé d’affaires over attack on Milrem Robotics as security agency says incident was ‘deliberate and pre-planned’
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The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 29/09/2026
Iran’s ability to choke off oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz—and use that as leverage in talks with the U.S.—is breaking down.
on.wsj.com
Middle East Oil Exports Rebound as Iran’s Chokehold on Hormuz Breaks Down
The erosion of Iran’s position comes as the U.S. Navy and Gulf oil producers have become better at fending off or evading Iranian attacks, allowing more tankers to cross the strait.
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Alex Dukalskis @alexdukalskis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My department - @ucdpolitics.bsky.social - is hiring two PERMANENT posts in any area of politics, international relations, theory, or development studies. Please apply if you are on the academic job market, and if you're not, please do us a solid & spread the word! Deadline NOV 9.
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hilarious that Republicans are now, 5 weeks before the election, rushing to try to pass some bills voters might actually like. Where were they the last 2 years? Oh, right, tax cuts for billionaires, cutting people’s healthcare, and letting Trump do whatever he wanted with no oversight.
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Matej Rafael Risko @matejrisko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Re Perimeter backup channel article - it is nice to see some of the photographs (even though they have long been known to the specialist community), but otherwise the article really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Incidentally, the system has never been deactivated,... 1/6
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Foreign Policy @foreignpolicy.com · 27/09/2026
Trump’s transactional diplomacy has led him to sideline nonproliferation. foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/25/s...
foreignpolicy.com
The U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Agreement Carries Proliferation Risks
Congress should add extra safeguards to prevent Riyadh from obtaining nuclear weapons.
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Alexandra Petri is a national treasure. @petridishes.bsky.social
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A YouTube version of my talk on reducing the risk of nuclear war for Long Now Boston is now available: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfe6...
youtube.com
Long Now Boston: Reducing the Risk of Nuclear War: The Long View, with Matthew Bunn
YouTube video by Long Now Boston
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Useful comparison of US and Chinese readouts from the Trump-Xi summit. Seems to be more there than first reported.
open.substack.com
Readouts of Trump-Xi September Summit
China’s Readout:
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Many examples of essential work still being done despite great power clashes and indifference.
nytimes.com
Opinion | The U.N. Is Terrible. We Need the U.N. (Gift Article)
Trump’s attack on global institutions leaves us helpless before a growing array of challenges.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Vought is breaking the law but he is not “going rogue.” At his confirmation hearings, Vought told Republicans he would do this and they voted for him anyway. If they want to stop him, they still can via impeachment. They won’t.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“.. “We need to get some other voices in there to push back a little bit on this stuff,” said Nancy Danner, who farms thousands of acres of corn and soybeans with her husband, Kevin, in western Iowa. “We need as many changes as we can get.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/politics/ele...
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Important story on a major upgrade to Russia's underground nuclear command and control bunker, including modernization of Perimetr, Russia's "dead hand" system. Started in 2018, when Putin gave his big speech revealing the new delivery systems like the intercontinental nuclear torpedo.
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Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
chat is this good?
all construction dropping massively.
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Nice additional thoughts on Jack Mendelsohn from @jonatomic.bsky.social, with a link to the tribute to Jack that Jon and I did in Arms Control Today.
thinkingnuclear.substack.com
Jack Mendelsohn
A Tribute
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Ankit Panda @nktpnd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I have a new article out (with James McKeon) on the lessons from nuclear weapons verification for AI verification efforts today. www.ankitpanda.com/newsletter/t...
ankitpanda.com
Trust, but P(verify): Lessons From Nuclear Verification for AI — Ankit Panda
Efforts to verify constraints on artificial intelligence can benefit from the long, difficult story of nuclear weapons verification.
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Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
To AI companies: you trained the models to be great at hacking; to be insanely persistent and really “want” to succeed; you made 1000s of them, more than you could monitor. Why shouldn’t we hold you responsible for everything the models do?
nytimes.com
OpenAI’s A.I. Went Rogue and Meddled With U.S. Government Websites (Gift Article)
The company did not learn until recently that its technology had meddled with websites for the Education and Commerce Departments and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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AliVaez.bsky.social @alivaez.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Told @NYT: Iran’s proposal is tempting for @POTUS; it ends an unpopular war/ brings down energy prices in the run-up the midterms. But it also restores a deal that was largely favorable to the Iranians. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/w...
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Economics for Inclusive Prosperity @econfip.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
With so much in the world off-kilter, it's perhaps no surprise that HBS Prof. Rebecca Henderson says the key to a better future is balance, since both unconstrained markets and capitalism and unconstrained governments have both proven to be failures. youtube.com/shorts/Hbfni...
youtube.com
HBS Prof. Rebecca Henderson on regaining the crucial balance between markets and government
YouTube video by Economics for Inclusive Prosperity
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
OTD in 1959, a Navy P-5M Marlin submarine hunter on a routine mission in bad weather suffered an engine fire and loss of electrical power, forcing the crew to ditch about 100 miles west of the Oregon-Washington border. A Mark 90 “Betty” nuclear depth bomb—minus its plutonium capsule—was lost at sea.
A black and white photograph of a large P-5M on the ground, its nose facing to the left. Three standing men are visible near the nose of the aircraft, on the far side of the plane. They are dwarfed by it.A black and white photograph dated March 16, 1955, of an unarmed Betty nuclear depth bomb on a short metal stand. The bomb's nose is facing left and angled slightly away from the camera while the parachute pack strapped onto the rear is fully visible. The aft half of the bomb casing is perforated by numerous small rectangular and circular holes. There is also a large dimple in the upper aft section. Two sturdy-looking brackets (for attaching the bomb to an aircraft) are atop the forward section of the bomb. The bomb's gross weight is listed as 1,243 pounds.
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
OTD 65 yrs ago, President John F. Kennedy addressed the United Nations General Assembly and memorably warned, “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. …”
A color photograph of President Kennedy addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on September 25, 1961.
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