Usually, I get into these Wikipedia holes that I call “wikipaths”, where one article leads to the next article, and as I approach the end I wonder “How did I get there?”
Here it goes:
- It started with a Youtube video by Veritasium called “Why Einstein Thought Nuclear Weapons Impossible” [link] The one thought that crossed my mind while watching this was “Who was the pilot that dropped the nuclear bombs on Japan?”…
- A basic google search led to “Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.”, and then we work our way into this wikipath [link]
- In the third paragram it mentions what he did after the war: “After the war, he participated in the Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946,”, and thus we lead on to Bikini Atoll
- Bikini Atoll was a HUGE READ, including the islands, the civilization, and the fact that the indigenous people only cared about the land until the US came in and blew shit up. Afterward, I read how they used tourism to try to bring people to the islands until their only plane crapped out [link]
- This also led to a film, “Mondo Cane” [link], and a reference to Bikini Atoll in that film. When I read about “Mondo Cane” I thought to myself “I have to have this movie”, so I found a torrent [magnet] that contains not only that 1962 movie, but 1963, 1966, 1971, and the 2003 movies as well.
- This also led to the first person who modeled the first Bikini, a lovely Micheline Bernardini [link], who not only is still alive but modeled the same bikini 40 years her elder in 1986. [link]
All in all I was really impressed with being able to backtrack this one. It wasn’t that huge of a path, but it was definitely a deep dive into a wealth of knowledge that I’m glad I went through.