Monday, 26 November 2012

Another Absurd Headline.

This time from ANI. The headline read:

US Planned to ‘Blow Up Moon’ with Nuke

This struck me as implausible. For a start, isn’t the moon just a bit too big for such an endeavour? And secondly, wouldn’t it have had a bit of a catastrophic effect on our oceans’ tidal systems? They were the first two thoughts to arouse my suspicions; I’m sure it would have been possible to think of a few more. So I read the article.

What it actually said was the US prepared plans in the 1950s to detonate an atom bomb on the moon’s surface. It was proposed, apparently, that the flash of the explosion would be seen from earth and would intimidate the Soviets after the embarrassment (to the US) of the success of the Sputnik mission.

Well, I have to say that even the diluted version sounds a bit nutty, but it isn’t quite the same as ‘blowing up the moon’ is it?

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