Live data from Hacker News

The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

businessinsider.com

11–20 of 142 posts

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#12
The UK did the same between 1940 and 1979 in various tests with zinc cadmium sulphide, e.coli and bacillus globigii. I suspect these kind of things are largely the basis for the Chemtrails conspiracy theories.

More: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/apr/21/uk.medicalsc...

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#13
post #10

"... the court held that the government was immune to a lawsuit for negligence and that they were justified in conducting tests without subjects' knowledge.". I sincerely hope there was some rationale to this decision that I do not know or understand. Otherwise it would be very hard for me to have any faith left in our judicial system.

You still have faith left in our judicial system? Have you been on vacation? Comatose? Welcome back!

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#15
post #10

"... the court held that the government was immune to a lawsuit for negligence and that they were justified in conducting tests without subjects' knowledge.". I sincerely hope there was some rationale to this decision that I do not know or understand. Otherwise it would be very hard for me to have any faith left in our judicial system.

O_O

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#16

We're going to test the effect of nuclear weapons on San Franscisco so we can understand the effects of nuclear weapons on San Franscisco so we can protect San Francisco from a future attack by nuclear weapons or so we can understand the effect of the nuclear blast on Vladivostok. Sounds rather like the Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiment. To be fair though, the United States of far from the only country that has done this…

See also: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/radevents/1954USSR1....

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#18
post #10

"... the court held that the government was immune to a lawsuit for negligence and that they were justified in conducting tests without subjects' knowledge.". I sincerely hope there was some rationale to this decision that I do not know or understand. Otherwise it would be very hard for me to have any faith left in our judicial system.

>rationale to this decision

They probably argued that the test was more like surveying defenses than an experiment. i.e. "we need to try it because we need to know if we should be concerned about the Soviets doing it with seriously harmful bacteria."

Additionally, when you do anything involving a group that large there's bound to be an few outliers. Winning the lottery, getting bitten by a shark and dying from complications caused by normally harmless bacteria are all incredibly uncommon but they still happen.

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#19

We're going to test the effect of nuclear weapons on San Franscisco so we can understand the effects of nuclear weapons on San Franscisco so we can protect San Francisco from a future attack by nuclear weapons or so we can understand the effect of the nuclear blast on Vladivostok. Sounds rather like the Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiment. To be fair though, the United States of far from the only country that has done this…

Obvious troll but I'll bite.

They were testing the distribution method and trying to do so in a harmless way.

A better comparison would be "we're gonna load a shipping container with a bomb casing full of concrete and irradiated enough to look like a live nuclear weapon, then try to sneak it into the port and see if we get caught."

Re: The military tested bacterial weapons in San Francisco in 1950

#20
post #14

Does this have anything to do with the measles outbreak and the ensuing vaccination/anti-vaccination debate in California?

no; read the article it's in the 50's

Damn! There goes my "Get those Hippies" theory..
Post reply on HN