Thule

[_Choyo Chagas]

Thule (/ˈθjuːliː/; Greek: Θούλη, Thoúlē; Latin: Thule, Tile) was a far-northern location in classical European literature and cartography. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway, an identification supported by modern calculations. Other interpretations include Orkney, Shetland, and Scandinavia. In the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Thule was often identified as Iceland or Greenland.

but there is a real thule

1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash

On 21 January 1968, an aircraft accident (sometimes known as the Thule affair or Thule accident (/ˈtuːli/); Danish: Thuleulykken) involving a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber occurred near Thule Air Base in the Danish territory of Greenland. The aircraft was carrying four hydrogen bombs on a Cold War "Chrome Dome" alert mission over Baffin Bay when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft before they could carry out an emergency landing at Thule Air Base. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in North Star Bay,[a] Greenland, causing the conventional explosives aboard to detonate and the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in radioactive contamination.

"Thulegate" political scandal

Denmark's nuclear-free zone policy originated in 1957, when the coalition government decided in the lead-up to the Paris NATO summit not to stockpile nuclear weapons on its soil in peacetime. The presence of the bomber in Greenland airspace in 1968 therefore triggered public suspicions and accusations that the policy was being violated. The nature of the "Hard Head" missions was suppressed at the time of the accident; the Danish and American governments instead claimed the bomber was not on a routine mission over Greenland and that it diverted there because of a one-off emergency. United States documents declassified in the 1990s contradicted the Danish government's position, and therefore resulted in a 1995 political scandal that the press dubbed "Thulegate".

did any of you read the wiki article? or should i quote more from it?

anyway, it is a jubilee...

[_MeDotOrg]

The 1966 Palomares Crash was a similar situation. There has been numerous instances of nuclear weapon mishaps throughout our history.

The US government experimented will very small nuclear reactor designs that could power a military stations in remote areas that were difficult to supply. In 1961 during maintenance at Idaho Falls, a technician jerked too hard on one of the control rods, unintentionally causing a large spike in power. The explosion of steam pushed the control rod through the man's body, and he was pinned to the ceiling of the containment vessel by the control rod. When the man was removed from the ceiling, he was placed in an ambulance until people realized he was so radioactive that he could not be treated. The parts of his body that were not covered with clothing were so radioactive they had to be buried with the rest of the radioactive waste from the accident.

[_Maksutov]

Another bit of US embarrassment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey

In August 1943, Roosevelt approved the shipment of chemical munitions containing mustard agent to the Mediterranean theater. On 18 November 1943 the John Harvey, commanded by Captain Elwin F. Knowles, sailed from Oran, Algeria, to Italy, carrying 2,000 M47A1 mustard gas bombs, each of which held 60–70 lb of sulfur mustard. After stopping for an inspection by an officer of the 7th Chemical Ordnance Company at Augusta, Sicily on 26 November, the John Harvey sailed through the Strait of Otranto to arrive at Bari.

Bari was packed with ships waiting to be unloaded, and the John Harvey had to wait for several days. Captain Knowles wanted to tell the British port commander about his deadly cargo and request it be unloaded as soon as possible, but secrecy prevented him doing so.

On 2 December 1943 German aircraft attacked Bari, killing over 1,000 people, and sinking 17 ships,[3] including the John Harvey, which was destroyed in a huge explosion, causing liquid sulfur mustard to spill into the water and a cloud of sulfur mustard vapor to blow over the city.[4]

A total of 628 military victims were hospitalized with mustard gas symptoms, and by the end of the month, 83 of them had died. The number of civilian casualties, thought to have been even greater, could not be accurately gauged since most had left the city to seek shelter with relatives.[5]

Details of the attack were given in a 1967 article in the US Navy journal Proceedings, and in a 1976 book by Glenn B. Infield, Disaster at Bari.[6]

[_MeDotOrg]

Another bit of US embarrassment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey

I had no idea the U.S. shipped mustard gas agent in WWII. (I assume 'agent' means it's a precursor to mustard gas.) Do you have any idea what its intended use was?

[_subgenius]

but there is a real thule

Yes, and "Thule" is a common sight in suburbia.
https://www.thule.com/en-us/us

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Wtf.



It's winter. They have a baby and a surf board with them. Thule has some odd marketing ideas... Like, are they going surfing with the baby in Winter? Were the parents, who're presumably surfers, too lazy to put the surfboard away? Are they going to put the child in the surf? They appear to not be anywhere near a beach at the moment, so why surfboard? Why not a mountain bike? THULE, why you do this?

- Doc

[_Dr. Shades]

did any of you read the wiki article? or should i quote more from it?

Neither.

[_subgenius]

Wtf.



It's winter. They have a baby and a surf board with them. Thule has some odd marketing ideas... Like, are they going surfing with the baby in Winter? Were the parents, who're presumably surfers, too lazy to put the surfboard away? Are they going to put the child in the surf? They appear to not be anywhere near a beach at the moment, so why surfboard? Why not a mountain bike? THULE, why you do this?

- Doc

They are abandoning setting the baby free into the wilderness, and then with their new found liberation, they will drive to the coast and surf all day.

[_Maksutov]

Another bit of US embarrassment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey

I had no idea the U.S. shipped mustard gas agent in WWII. (I assume 'agent' means it's a precursor to mustard gas.) Do you have any idea what its intended use was?

In this instance, "agent" meant mustard gas. Military categories included blister, nerve, blood, tear and other incapacitating agents. At low temperatures, HD/HT (mustard) looked a lot like thick maple syrup. The deaths and injuries from the cloud across the town must have been horrific.

Early in my government career I inventoried one ton storage containers of various agents at an Army installation. They were stamped with the date they were filled. There were mustard and nerve agents dating from 1940. We were prepared to use them to fill various munitions, Geneva conventions or not. Churchill was prepared to use them against the Nazis at one point during WW2. They have always been in the background but are very problematic and unpopular weapons.

[_MeDotOrg]

Another bit of US embarrassment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey

I had no idea the U.S. shipped mustard gas agent in WWII. (I assume 'agent' means it's a precursor to mustard gas.) Do you have any idea what its intended use was?

In this instance, "agent" meant mustard gas. Military categories included blister, nerve, blood, tear and other incapacitating agents. At low temperatures, HD/HT (mustard) looked a lot like thick maple syrup. The deaths and injuries from the cloud across the town must have been horrific.

Early in my government career I inventoried one ton storage containers of various agents at an Army installation. They were stamped with the date they were filled. There were mustard and nerve agents dating from 1940. We were prepared to use them to fill various munitions, Geneva conventions or not. Churchill was prepared to use them against the Nazis at one point during WW2. They have always been in the background but are very problematic and unpopular weapons.

Thanks for the follow up information, much appreciated.

The only weird trivia I could offer in return: I interviewed a chemical professor at USC who was a part of the Manhattan Project. When the first atomic bomb was exploded at Alamogordo, There were large copper balls by the tower where the bomb was exploded. I don't remember the exact science, but when the bomb exploded the copper broke down into elements that were capable of generating vast amounts of birth defects, far more than if they had not been there. No one accounted for the copper balls initially, and it was assumed that the bomb would cause massive amounts of birth defects, far more than actually occurred. But the government continued apace with the project.

The other piece of bomb trivia I love has to do with the first Hydrogen Bomb, exploded at the bikini atoll in 1952. The bomb created the hottest temperatures ever seen on planet earth, and several new elements were discovered. Now the project name for the hydrogen bomb was Project Panda, so there was block of physicists who wanted to name one of the new elements Pandamonium . I can't think of a better name for an element born in a hydrogen bomb, but they ended with boring names like Lawrencium and Berkelium.