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blunaowl β Tickling The Dragon's Tail
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Published: 2007-07-21 23:04:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 2208; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 0
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Description
"It means doing a thing which seems small but has an enormous risk attached to it. It was first coined to describe an early experiment in nuclear fission. The dragon got pissed, as it turns out, and the experiment resulted in the death of physicist Louis Slotin: [link] "`livius 'tis the first time I've done anything like this.
So I'm like 
about it, but there're probably loads of things I could improve. I don't care. 
I was surfing `livius ' forum , and came across this. I'd never heard it before, but it sounded cool. Anyway.It's supposed to look as if the dragon's laughing, but I don't think it does. I don't care.
And I almost left the lil' doodad with the base colours on there, because the bottom right hand corner looked a bit boring empty. But I don't care. 
I like it too much.
Oh, and it's for `livius ' Idiom contest.
Use it for an avatar, and I'll hunt you down and set the dogs on you.
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Comments: 36
My grandfather was in Los Alamos when that happened, although he was not anywhere near the demon core criticality incident, or even anywhere near the room it happened in ... but he did know Louis Slotin personally and considered him to be a good friend
I've done extensive research on the whole criticality incident (I wrote most of the Wikipedia article that you linked to, and other people have added incredibly detailed and appreciated information to it since it was created) and it was really amazing what he did the instant that screwdriver slipped forward - he was a scientist and a hero to the very end, which was unimaginably horrifying and probably one of the most hellish ways that a human can die β¦ he insisted on having his every feeling, thought, emotion and sensation thoroughly and systematically documented for the sake of science even though his body was breaking down in an excruciatingly painful manner from severe radiation exposure ... he knew the value of having a live criticality event victim that was willing to explain in detail what the effects were first hand, even though he was the victim β¦ I think he really wanted the data to be put to good use and made damn sure there was plenty of it in great detail
Thereβs a lot that I couldnβt put in the Wiki page because it canβt be proven one way or another, and there aren't any references about it β¦ but the whole thing was a lot bigger and more involved than the article makes it out to be
He was accused of being a show off and somewhat careless at times, and that was how it was reported by some as how it happened, though never officially (officially he was listed as a hero and was not at fault at all, as if it mattered) β¦ playing around and showing off, and the screwdriver slipped on him, but I still prefer to think of him more of a hero -- the screwdriver slip could have happened to anyone, but what happened milliseconds after that is what really defines Slotin ... even though the core wouldn't have gone critical no matter what because the amazing and intense heat that the core generated within nanoseconds of the outer beryllium shell making full contact with the plutonium sphere and reflecting all those naughty neutrons by going critical would have massively heated the inner plutonium core itself, causing it to shrink in size and thereby stopping the critical mass anyways β¦ so in the end, there wasnβt any real danger of it going supercritical at all β¦ but he didnβt know this, and he actually grabbed the upper beryllium shell and disassembled it from the device and threw it on the floor β stopping the whole thing instantly β¦ it was a noble gesture, but all of the damage had already been done in the millisecond that the screwdriver slipped
I don't think he was thinking that far ahead when he selflessly removed the top hemisphere of beryllium and threw it on the floor, which from his perspective, saved the other 7 scientists that were in the room and that was the only reason he did it at the time (and in truth, he most likely did save the other 7 scientists from a much worse fate than they had to go through) - even though he instantly knew he was a walking dead man the instant the screwdriver slipped, even though he wasn't physically injured or burned by anything at the time of the criticality event, he still knew he had a chance to prevent a much larger disaster and save the lives of 7 of his friends that were in the same lab at the time ... he was successful for the most part
An interesting side note ... the plutonium core in question was the exact same core that killed physicist Harry Daghlian (who happened to be a good friend of Slotin) only 9 months earlier in a similar criticality accident - he died much more horribly than even Slotin did - just unimaginable when you think about it ... something happens that doesn't have any direct effect or cause any immediate injuries, but the instant it happened to each of them, they knew that they were walking dead men with a horrible death ensured, and one that wouldnβt take more than a week or so at the most ... this plutonium sphere was extremely bad luck in my opinion β¦ if it was mine, I would have just disposed of it instead of screwing around with the damn thing, especially after it killed Daghlian β it was more than obvious that this was one dragon that didnβt like to be tickled, touched or even looked at sideways β this was one piece of plutonium that just wanted to be left alone β¦ thatβs how this particular plutonium sphere got the name βdemon coreβ
I've tried to track down what ended up happening to the demon core over the years ... it was originally supposed to be the 3rd atomic bomb to be used on Japan, but after the first 2, the war was thankfully over... from what I can tell from my research, this particular plutonium core was going to be brought to life as one of the Bikini atoll nuclear tests β very big things were in store for this demon ... from what I have found out (officially and otherwise) - I'm pretty sure this same core that killed Slotin and Daghlian was installed into a 'fat man' type bomb code named "Baker" and suspended beneath the amphibious transport carrier LMS-60 (a HUGE ship that was only 2 years old and in perfect working order) and was detonated under about 100 feet of water, which amplified the blast so much that they stopped testing when it went off because almost all of the close to 100 huge battle ships, an aircraft carrier (complete with a full compliment of perfectly working planes no less), surrendered German submarines and other ships that were to be sacrificed so they could see the effects on actual ships were just obliterated and they didn't have much left to test on β¦ there was absolutely ZERO trace of any part, no matter how small, of the LMS-60 β and they looked for it really hard β¦ it is thought that it was completely vaporized by the fat man that was packing the demon core
I know this is too much information, and a bit nerdy at that ... but I do have a history with Louis Slotin and have devoted a lot of time, money and resources into trying to find out exactly what went down ... and you're the one that brought it up in the first place 
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I've been meaning to reply to this comment since I first saw it in my message centre, but everytime I think I'll have chance, it's pushed to the bottom of my messages and I forget about this lil' awesome piece of history. It's not very often I come across someone on dA that will go to lengths like this to expand on something pretty insignificant to begin with.
I'll definately give Wikipedia a flip through, see if I can come across anything you've not spoken about here, although that's unlikely. 
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Watta fak? lol for days now I thought *GirlFlash made this o.o Hah i'm serious it came up in my watch list and I totally mistaked it for GirlFlash's.
I just found out now when I looked at your avatar that it was by you . 3 . This is really nice!! I like the pixeling in the helmet and the background wall!
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hey! it's been a minute, i'm happy you are doing art again, this is kinda cool^^
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dragon's maybe a bit too vague, though.
meh.
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*goes and twinkishly uses it as an avvie* lookie! i made this!
ok, i know. lausy joke
anyway, great work as always! ^^ it took me to read the desc to realize there was a dragon laughing at the back Xwx oh, well. i still laughed at how you made the hands' movement show in a single scene =3 lovely
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This is a wonderful piece of petite art! I particularly like the fire, but the bricks and the helmet are awesome, too!
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Haha, noice.
Considering you decided to go static, you've done a good job bit the motion. I particularly like the fire and lighting around it.
Nice work.
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Love this, the lighting and shading on everything is excellent.
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You're welcome!
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And that means... what, exactly?
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"Never tickle a sleeping dragon".
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Super Princess Peach... reminds me of the dungeon level. ^^
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Is it me, or did i heard "i don't care" 3 times... you on the echo rant now? 
I like what you did with the bricks and the torch on it, gives it this dungeon feeling
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/me sings the I Don't Care song
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Is it tomorrow already?!
You are nothing but win, beeb.
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I still have to make "You fucking rock."
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Yes. Yes you do. And I still have to 
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