The Real Mother of All Bombs, 46 Years Ago

vaporland writes "Tsar Bomba is the Western name for the RDS-220, the largest, most powerful weapon ever detonated. The bomb was tested on October 30, 1961, in an archipelago in the Arctic Sea. Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb had a yield of about 50 megatons. Its detonation released energy equivalent to approximately 1% of the power output of the Sun for 39 nanoseconds of its detonation. The device was scaled down from its original design of 100 megatons to reduce the resulting nuclear fallout. The Tsar Bomba qualifies as the single most powerful device ever utilized throughout the history of humanity."

Comments

Re:I respectfully disagree...

[j-stroy]

"Your Mommma" qualifies as the single most powerful comedic device ever utilized throughout the history of humility.

Re:I respectfully disagree...

[smilindog2000]

The Romans were no better or worse than any other society on earth before or since

IMO, they had several strikes against them. Before the emperors, Rome became addicted to the spoils of war - partly in the form of slaves, who did most of the manual labor. Common people could not compete, and sold off their land, creating a huge poor class in Rome. The nobles in the Senate eventually became so corrupt that they were incapable of ruling. A famous quote about Rome shortly before Julius Caesar: "A city for sale, and doomed if it finds a buyer" - Jugurtha of Numidia, after a vote buying trip to Rome. Caesar basically had no choice but to convert the Roman Republic into an Empire controlled by an Emperor... Rome was too corrupt to rule itself any longer. According to the book, the nobles in Rome also studied little of Greek literature, but adopted all of Greek's vices. For example, there were actual professional "Orgy Planners" in Rome, yet philosophers where generally disdained.

I'm basically not a social relativist... I think the Golden Rule basically means that the slavery and gladiators of Rome were a bad thing, as was the easily bribed politicians, and the upper-class who lived off of others, doing little or no work of their own. In contrast, here in America, the vast majority of us work quite hard, try to live with integrity, and have adopted few vices. The majority of rich Americans made their own money. Our government could be better, but it's still a government of and by the people. The early history of Rome showed that government of and by the people was a more enduring form than kingdoms, which can be destroyed with one bad ruler. Rome conquered many kingdoms while it grew, but the spoils of war became addicting, and the transition from war-for-protection to war-for-plunder seems to be an underlying cause for the corruption of Rome. The corruption of Rome seems to have led to the need for an Emperor. The conversion to an empire controlled by a single person naturally made it less enduring, and several terrible emperors hastened the downfall.