Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room What In The World Happened Here?

What In The World Happened Here? I:

One participant was heard to say "Now we are all sonsabitches!"

It's perfectly OK to post cryptic answers.

Thorium.

You missed by exactly 7.

The Gadget. Which was assembled by Rudolph Peierls. Who had this postdoc:

So who didn't wear goggles?

One young theorist made the claim, but Richard Rhodes claims there were others.

So what you do care what other people think?

God in Three Persons

With a Hindu twist: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

You guys are too deep for me.

Blame it on wagga. Or just nuke the entire thread.

Good answers!. I expect AlanK got it first.

The place is Trinity Site, where the first nuclear weapon was fired. The photo shows Oppenheimer & Groves (two of the most important people in the country) wearing regular clothing at ground zero shortly after the war. On open-house days you can walk right in & stand in that very same place. An hour's exposure here is about equal to 10 hours of normal background exposure.

Obligatory wiki here.



I have another place in mind, but if anyone wants to post a puzzle - go ahead.

In the interest of full disclosure:

Klaus Fuchs (he had something to hide, but that is not the reason for the goggles)

Not so sure. Thorium (+@) is technically incorrect (it was plutonium) but shows understanding of the nature of the site.

I had dinner with +@ the night before & we did discuss various nuclear decay chains. Actually it was a rather clever remark...

And 239-232=7.

I'm still astonished at his ability to demolish all-you-can-eat ribs.

AlanK: The Fuchs picture is obviously not 1940-era Kodachrome - where did you find it?

National Geographic

I had a thought along the lines of yours -- it does not look like a 40's photo. I found it identified as a photo of Fuchs, but I won't be surprised if someone identifies it as a photo of an actor in a documentary. National Geographic should be provide photo credits that would make such details obvious. Nice picture, though -- it has the nerdy spy thing goin' on.

My guess would be that the picture, and others at the link, are of re-enactment actors that National Geographic did for the show.

wagga, where did you find that picture in your initial post?

+@ answered "Thorium" because it wasn't so much a discussion as a monologue by wagga. I believe the term "waggapedia" was expressed after wagga left.

Found it in the Waggapedia. Do you want the 1024-bit Triple-DES
encoded password?