Notable Events

Cold War

Titan Missile Museum (Green Valley, AZ, USA)- Looked down the silo of 100 foot missile.
Formerly armed with 9 megaton nuclear warhead (600x the power each bomb dropped on Japan) and toured the underground controls.

Looks inconspicuous enough!
 

Frank, one of the former employees at the site. Here before you are the controls that could have ignited Armageddon itself. Lovely.

Don't remember what these men are supposed to be doing. Checking the missile I suppose.

A little window allowed me to look down directly at the missle. This is when my opinion of mankind changed forever. (I hadn't even traveled the world yet!)

Wow. They thought of everything. Shock absorbers.

Frankly, if enough of these missiles were launched, I'd just as soon be dead.

 

Rio’s Carnaval
 Largest party in the world

    

The parade goes on and on. More people are lined up outside.

Color, sound, and skin is the name of this game.

Large floats are everywhere.

Bloco - street parties allow more intimate involvement.

The beach gets busy in the summer.
Natives are used to big crowds and showing skin.
 

Many of the participants in the parades come from "poorer" sections of
Rio - the favelas (Take a tour). Some consider them slums and dangerous.
Not as materially poor as India, but tight living with drug lords controlling some.

 

Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA (Nat'l Park Service)
US Constitution Center

Room where Declaration and Constitution of US were written

Continental Congress met here. Were things simpler in those days?

Independence Hall

State flags in the US Constitution Center
Washington is the only green one.

 

Incredible multimedia exhibits interpret the US Constitution.
This is one of my most favorite museums. If not the most.

"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women, when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court, can save it." - Judge Leanord Hand - 1944

 

Hiroshima, Japan – site of first nuclear bomb drop on a human populated center

The rebuilding has been so complete you can't tell anything happened at all.

Peace angel covered with origami cranes at the Hiroshima peace park.

Artist rendition of what occurred when the bomb dropped. People became shadows.

Building on right is the only major building left standing in the main blast area.

Before the bomb drop

After the bomb drop (Building above is near the top by the boy)

 

 Near Trinity, New Mexico (Wikipedia) – site of first atomic blast. DVD - Day After Trinity

It's just a sign.

Not much to see.

 

Los Alamos Museum
Public museum for national laboratory where nuclear weapons were first developed

Fat Man bomb replica - dropped on Hiroshima, Japan