Musings

OMG! Did the US nuke Canada sixty years ago?

Thu, 10 Oct 2013 15:46:13 GMT

I just saw the note below from JD Nicoll in my 'network'. For those who aren't familiar with his work, Farley Mowat has been one of Canada's leading contemporary writers for much of my lifetime. I fear the report below is true, and it sure explains the cancers three aunts who lived together in that area had, along with many of their neighbours, even though cancer isn't prevalent in the family. The things we don't get told, no doubt to avert 'a panic'. ::shudders::

From wikipedia:

November 10, 1950 – Rivière-du-Loup, Québec, Canada – Non-nuclear detonation of an atomic bomb

Returning one of several U.S. Mark 4 nuclear bombs secretly deployed in Canada, a USAF B-50 had engine trouble and jettisoned the weapon at 10,500 feet (3,200 m). The crew set the bomb to self-destruct at 2,500 ft (760 m) and dropped over the St. Lawrence River. The explosion shook area residents and scattered nearly 100 pounds (45 kg) of uranium (U-238) used in the weapon's tamper. The plutonium core ("pit") was not in the bomb at the time.

Not only that but it tangentally involved Farley Mowat

In the summer of 1954, Mowat was sailing down the St. Lawrence River, making an “Eastern Passage” from Montreal to Halifax. A deckhand “spotted a large, corpse-white something just beneath the surface directly in our path,” he writes. Mowat swung the tiller hard and avoided a collision, but recognized the semi-submerged object as a six-metre beluga whale, clearly sick or injured.

Further east, from an old sailor, he learned of a horrific explosion that had occurred in these waters four years before—the result, apparently, of an American plane having jettisoned several bombs. Almost half a century passed, Mowat writes, before he pieced together the whole story.

An American bomber had run into engine trouble while transporting a version of “Fat Man,” the nuclear bomb that in 1945 had obliterated the Japanese city of Nagasaki. The pilot, acting on standing orders, released the bomb into the St. Lawrence before attempting an emergency landing. The official version claimed an empty “Fat-Man casing” and three conventional bombs were released, but admitted that the blast “was felt for 25 miles.”

Mowat flashes forward to a 1988 New York Times article. It described how, since 1950, “a mysterious die-off of beluga whales” in the St. Lawrence had shrunk the colony from 1,200 to 450. It noted also that the area “has Canada’s highest level of human birth defects, although no direct cause-effect relationship has been shown.”

I like how they try to imply the US may have covertly nuked Canada without outright saying it. Yields on Mark 4s ran from 1 to 31 KT; not sure what this one would have had.

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AUCTION DONATIONS DUE BY 12 OCTOBER -- AND EVEN BETTER DEALS STILL AVAILABLE!

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 01:40:36 GMT

::PLEASE PASS THIS ON::

It's Monday, the 7th and the Final Payment Due Date for all items and animal adoptions is Saturday, the 12th.

Until then, ALL items unsold are still open, including the Bidding Items located here:
http://gmfor-moonridge.livejournal.com/19328.html
All Open Bidding Items are now "First One-First Won" meaning that for AT LEAST a donation of $10 (unless otherwise noted as being lower), the item is yours if your email reaches me first. The original "First One-First Won" items that remain open are available for the price set by the individual who donated it/them.

Same goes for the Special Donated Items & Make A Wish Items which can be found here:
http://gmfor-moonridge.livejournal.com/20005.html

Animals remain available for adoption up to October 12th as well!!
http://gmfor-moonridge.livejournal.com/19905.html

Please remember if you take any of the open items, and plan to pay by check, please do so PRIOR to October 12th so your check will reach the Zoo BY that date. Paypals can be done ON the 12th!

FINAL NOTE: Now is the time to double check the site and all pages if you've won, taken, granted a wish, adopted an animal AND PAID. If I've received:
A) A copy of your PAYPAL, or
B) Both your email with check number and info AND confirmation from the Zoo of receipt of same
then your name will be GREEN.

If you've paid but your name is still RED, email me ASAP.

SPECIAL NOTE:
In addition, if you won one of the GMOH calendars or the PHOTO, or any of the items offered by Marj for Garett's signature at GMOH, and you're paying and sending me proof, DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS - or else no CALENDAR or PHOTO or OTHER won items signed by Garett!!!

Thank you, and in the next couple of days, I'll be continuing the Connect Notices AND sending out a notice announcing the "tentative" monies raised during our 10th Anniversary Moonridge Auction and Animal Adoption!
:: Please Pass this Message on::

aly,
GMFOR_MOONRIDGE UPDATE SITE:
http://gmfor-moonridge.livejournal.com/
Photo Restoring:
http://ajmsphotofix.blogspot.com/

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Switching Over to Dreamwidth

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 17:16:18 GMT

Given the latest round of concerns about how LJ's Russian owners may handle certain accounts, I've finally copied all of my LJ stuff over to Dreamwidth and plan to the DW site more actively. I hope I've set everything up properly. If you're posting there, too, and haven't 'friended' me there, please do. I'm worried about losing links with people by moving there.

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