The Mad Rants of a Raving Genius

Of Nukes and Fanboys

How do you mistakenly transport nuclear cruise missiles across the United States? Better ask the Pentagon, which recently admitted a B-52 bomber flew over several states loaded with nuclear weapons. Scary? Just a little.

What’s even worse, the crew of the plane didn’t even know what their payload was. What would have happened if they lost an engine (or four) or ran out of gas? “It’s okay, we can ditch the plane! It’s not as if we’re carrying bombs on board!” Strange how the press secretary to the Defense Department said the public was never in any great danger. I think I hear Murphy’s Law calling.

I can’t even understand how this could have happened. My guess is that some hacker in New Jersey is laughing his butt off, having created false orders for ground crew or some such. I really have no idea. It’s not as if nuclear missiles look like, I don’t know, giant cardboard boxes filled with teddy bears for Katrina victims (the plane was headed to Louisiana, after all). Someone goofed.

In other (random) news, the iPhone is getting a much-needed $200 price drop, which means anyone who ran out and bought it the instant it came out is going to be crying themselves to sleep for a while. You’ll be getting no sympathy from Steve Jobs. While he did give out $100 store credit certificates to early adopters, the general feeling is “That’s what you get for succumbing to the hype, you geeks.” Okay, he didn’t say that, but it’d be funny to have Jobs calling people geeks.