Bin ‘ot ‘ere

Our second week of 100 degree plus days and when the air conditioning on one’s car fails one is forced to get creative.

The window unit air conditioner was easily “foamed” into the right rear window, getting mains voltage requires the trunk mounted generator, a few sheet metal screws and it’s done.

All in all a simple and elegant solution to an overheated commute.

On this day 66 years ago.

July 16th 1945.

At 5:29:45 am at a place in Central New Mexico already known as “Jornado de Muerto” (Journey of Death) Richard Feynman barely 27 years old, removed his protective glasses because he doubted anything would happen, he saw nothing of the event but a purple blotch on the floor of the armored vehicle he was in.

I. I. Rabi said later “It blasted, it pounced it bored its way into you”

There was a crack like a rifle shot which startled a New York Times reporter, “What was that!” he shouted “That’s THE THING!” replied Feynman.

Nearby, Enrico Fermi tore pages from his notebook into quarters and dropped them slowly from his hand, mentally calculating the strength of the pressure wave from the fluttering leaves.

Feynman at last could see, and what he saw were clouds “What have we done to make clouds in the desert?” was his first thought.

Robert Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavid- Gita
“Now I am become death, the destroyer of Worlds”
He was closest to the truth.

The experiment was code named TRINITY and was the defining event of the 20th Century.

Within three weeks the two other bombs then in existence were exploded and the childhood of mankind was over.