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nullcharstring t1_jefxwxu wrote

Reply to comment by nomad_556 in TIL that, during the Cold War, every infantry and armor battalion in the U.S Army had one officer trained to deploy the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), commonly known as the backpack nuke by nomad_556

Believe it or not, I agree with you. That said, there are still inconsistencies that ought to be cleared up. There's no doubt that the device exists and that there were units deployed. There's also no doubt that there were 3 American battalions and 2 German battalions of Pershing 1a missiles deployed and their mission was to deny the Red Army access to Western Europe. It would be very interesting to see some actual battle plans rather than reading the somewhat contradictory oral history of this device.

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nullcharstring t1_jed7at3 wrote

Reply to TIL that, during the Cold War, every infantry and armor battalion in the U.S Army had one officer trained to deploy the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), commonly known as the backpack nuke by nomad_556

With all respect to a fellow Cold War veteran, I think Mark Bentley's memory is a little foggy. I was in Germany with the U.S. Army during the Cold War and I maintained Pershing 1a nuclear missiles. Although actual targeting data was and probably still is classified, it was well understood that it was their express purpose was to deny Red Army access to Western Europe by making the Fulda Gap and whatever else required, impassible, not backpack nukes. As for OP's post, I could find no reference to the statement "every infantry and armor battalion in the U.S. Army had one officer trained to deploy the Special Atomic Demolition Munition". Further confusing the issue is that Bentley enlisted and as-such would not have been an officer himself. There were backpack nuclear weapons available, but they certainly were not as widespread as the article describes.

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nullcharstring t1_iyfdcz8 wrote

Reply to TIL Soren Kierkegaard's first publish work was a panned review of Hans Christian Andersen. It ignited a life-long feud between the two Danes. Andersen responded by caricaturing the existentialist in "The Galoshes of Fortune," where Kierkegaard is portrayed as an annoying parrot who makes no sense. by Rowan-Trees

"An annoying parrot who makes no sense"

I thought it was just me when I tried to read "Sickness onto Death"

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nullcharstring t1_iyf9yap wrote

Reply to comment by UAForever21 in TIL The inventor of the television was a 15 year old farm boy who got the idea for scanning an image in rows from the back and forth motion of plowing a field. by chapstickninja

The person that actually made TV was none of the above. Vadimir Zworykin working for David Sarnoff at RCA was able to tie up all the technology, monopolise it with patents and refine it for mass production. The popular narrative was that the technology was stolen from Farnsworth, but even so, it still took all of the resource of RCA to build the hardware to capture, broadcast and receive television, mass produce it in quantities of millions and have the political clout to obtain the radio bandwidth from the federal government needed to broadcast the signal.

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