The earliest reference to a "button that can destroy a country/the world" that I found was from 1896 — starring Thomas Edison, "The wrecker of worlds"!pic.twitter.com/8bystIuiGE
Show this thread
Because I've been getting a lot of question about the term "nuclear button" lately... here is my post from the @Radiolab episode we did about "The Button" from a couple years back:http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/12/15/button-isnt/ …
-
-
-
Which is to say explicitly, I think William Safire was wrong that the idea of "the button" is a reference to obscure WWII bomber hardware. The trope is *much* older, but was easily and almost instantly grafted onto the atomic age. CC:
@goldmanrussell re: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/03/world/asia/nuclear-button-trump-north-korea.html?_r=0 …Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
And just keeping in mind that Russian button is grey, not red (well, Soviet definitely unless they changed the color).pic.twitter.com/yxPM5Jy7x1
-
That faux-wood panels are awesome.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Look at the button the shiny red button....
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.