In southeastern Colorado, robots carefully disarm WWII-era chemical weapons | Hacker News Reader

In southeastern Colorado, robots carefully disarm WWII-era chemical weapons

arstechnica.com

48 pointsTomte8 comments

Pretty sad. We made all these weapons for WWII that were illegal by convention since 1925, never used them, and now have to destroy them at huge expense. Such a waste.

Well, there's the other interpretation: Such a government jobs program!

I mean, in many cases most of that "huge expense" is going to be salary for the people that manufacture and then dispose of these arms. Of course, that puts the automation of such disposal in an interesting light: the robots are taking our jobs! Admittedly, as in most cases of "robots taking our jobs", these aren't really the sorts of jobs that most people would want to do anyway, but it does change the economic calculus of the whole military-industrial complex.

I recently drove near Walker Lake, in Nevada. This place is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, between Reno and Las Vegas. Then suddenly, I see thousands of those little igloo bunkers start popping up, just dotting the landscape in strange patterns.

I was amazed at the simple engineering put into them, the spacing was perfect, they had been buried, but like a pill, a line had been cut into them with a door, to prevent the blast going through the door unprotected.

I later found out that I had driven past the Hawthorne Army Depot, which has one of the largest reserves of ammunition in the world. Very neat and strange. Something I would expect out of Nevada.

I had a similar experience driving through northern Oregon. Little bunkers dotting the landscape as far as you could see. It was the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot. It took maybe 30 minutes of driving at 70 mph to traverse it north to south. Massive complex again in the middle of nowhere.

Why do they need such protection against mustard? If I understand the article correctly it's a liquid that is only dangerous on contact. Why simpler protection akin to what Ebola responders wear (face shield, respirator, apron, gloves and boots) wouldn't do?

I was just in Pueblo a few weeks ago. It seems to be thriving selling pot to college kids in New Mexico and the panhandle of Texas.

That is its best hope for economic growth, but I don't think anyone in the area would refer to Pueblo as "thriving."

Department of Defense motto: "Hold the mustard."

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