1. Port Townsend Film Festival free movie moves inside tonight
Because of expected windy weather tonight, a free showing of “Step Into Liquid,” an aquatic film descended from the surf classic “Endless Summer,” will move from the outdoor street theater on Taylor Street to The Uptown Theatre, 1120 Lawrence St.
The time changes, too — 9 p.m. instead of 7:30 p.m.
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2. Dallas Brass concert at 4 p.m. today.
From Henry Mancini’s “Pink Panther” and Louis Prima’s “Sing Sing Sing” to marches from John Philip Sousa, the Dallas Brass delivers.
And you can listen to them today at 4 p.m. at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center (the school’s auditorium), 304 E. Park Ave.
Tickets are available at the door and range from $10 to $15, with proceeds to benefit Port Angeles High’s band program.
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3. Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Seahawks — a blowout game for Seattle? The game just started at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. It’s on KIRO-TV, channel 7 (CBS Sports).
4. And maybe we should be thankful we’re all still here for concerts and NFL football?
U.S. reportedly came close nuclear disaster in 1961.
By The Associated Press
LONDON — A U.S. hydrogen bomb nearly detonated on the nation’s east coast, with a single switch averting a blast that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that flattened Hiroshima, a newly published book says.
In a recently declassified document, reported in a new book by Eric Schlosser, the supervisor of the nuclear-weapons safety department at Sandia National Laboratories said that one simple, vulnerable switch prevented nuclear catastrophe.
Fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City, according to the book.
The Guardian newspaper published the document http://bit.ly/1fi4Y2S on Saturday.
Two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, N.C., on Jan. 24, 1961, after a B-52 bomber broke up in flight. One of the bombs apparently acted as if it was being armed and fired: Its parachute opened and trigger mechanisms engaged.
Parker Jones at the Sandia National Laboratories analyzed the accident in a document headed: “How I learned to mistrust the H-Bomb.”
“The MK39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne-alert role in the B-52,” he wrote. When the B-52 disintegrates in the air, it is likely to release the bombs in “a near normal fashion,” he wrote, calling the safety mechanisms to prevent accidental arming “not complex enough.”
The document said the bomb had four safety mechanisms, one of which is not effective in the air. When the aircraft broke up, two others were rendered ineffective.
“One simple, dynamo-technology, low-voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe!” Jones wrote, adding that it could have been “bad news — in spades” if the switch had shorted.
Schlosser discovered the document, written in 1969, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request.
It is featured in his new book on nuclear arms, “Command and Control,” which reports that through FOI he discovered that at least 700 “significant” accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968.
