Bikini was just the beginning, bombs still threaten the islanders

 I was recently in the Marshall Islands, which lie in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, north of Australia and south of Hawaii. Whenever I tell people where I have been, they ask, ‘Where is that?’

When I mention Bikini, their reference is the swimsuit. Few seem aware that the bikini was named after the nuclear explosions that destroyed life on Bikini atoll; its Paris designer hoped his ‘unique creation’ would ‘cause an explosion right round the world’. Sixty-seven nuclear bombs – each of them massive – were exploded in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958: the equivalent of more than one Hiroshima every day for 12 years. - John Pilger

https://newint.org/features/2016/12/01/bikini-was-just-the-beginning

https://vimeo.com/277068625


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What happened before Kodak's moment

Kodak, once an iconic American brand  valued at $30 billion , has been in dire straits for more than a decade. It filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and emerged in 2013. But Kodak, which built its business selling film, never successfully transitioned to digital.  After bankruptcy, Kodak's old stock was worthless, but the newly issued shares peaked at over $36 in early 2014. But since then, it has rapidly declined, with the price mired well below $3 since March. In recent years Kodak has been  selling its patents, buildings, and other assets  for cash. In 2018, the company attempted a pivot to cryptocurrency.  Then, late Tuesday afternoon, everything changed. President Trump  announced  that he was "using the Defense Production Act to provide a $765 million loan to support the launch of Kodak Pharmaceuticals." Kodak would now "produce generic active pharmaceutical ingredients," reducing the country's reliance on China. Trump described it as "one of the most ...
Read more

Gray Whales Were Thought to Be Extinct in the Atlantic. So How Did Wally End Up Off the Riviera?

Image
  The young whale was sighted off the southern French coast this month. A scientist took a skin sample from Wally this month. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS A walrus rested at a lifeboat station in Tenby, Wales, in March. A stranded juvenile minke whale in the River Thames last week. Gray Whales Were Thought to Be Extinct in the Atlantic. So How Did Wally End Up Off the Riviera? 6 minutes This feature is powered by text-to-speech technology. Want to see it on more articles? Give your feedback below or email  audiofeedback@wsj.com . Somewhere in the Mediterranean, a 26-foot-long gray whale is exploring harbors and inlets as it tries to find its way back out to the Atlantic after veering thousands of miles off course. Biologists, who have named the whale Wally, have been tracking its progress since it made its way into the waters separating southern Europe from North Africa in April. After first being spotted off Morocco, it passed Gibraltar and made its way as far as Italy before doubling...
Read more