Michael Leunig Quotes
The human relationship to combustion is as mysterious as it is fraught with madness. From the candle flame to the nuclear blast, it has lit up the human imagination with fear and fascination.
Leunig, Michael. The Lot: In Words. Penguin Books, 2008.
The lecture was on radium and the radioactivity that scientists had recently discovered. This appears to be the first time a scientist suggested the possibility of using atomic energy to produce a powerful weapon. At the same time, note that he also mentioned the possible destruction of the earth. “Heavy matter” referred to the elements—many of which had not yet been discovered—that had larger atomic numbers than radium like uranium.
Philosophically, Rivera was a pacifist, but when in the Spanish Civil War he hfelt he had no other recourse but to protect his people from the onslaught of the German and Italian supported Fascists. Civilian populations were deliberately bombed from the air. However, when he had to give the order to fire he added this philosophical/religious wrinkle.
Breslin was criticized in a Federal report for his alarmist news coverage of the Three Mile Island nuclear mishap:
He was the first man to see the experimental evidence of nuclear power and he realized that it had the potential for an incredibly powerful weapon. It was his message about the possibilities about the atomic bomb that Albert Einstein transmitted to FDR, leading to American development of the bomb.(See {624449}.) By the time the atomic bomb had been developed, Germany had surrendered and Szilard and others felt that there was no longer a need to beat the Germans to the development. So he went from the biggest enthusiast to the most serious opponent.
Michael Leunig, typically referred to as Leunig (his signature on his cartoons), is an Australian cartoonist, poet, artist, philosopher and cultural commentator. His best known works include The Curly Pyjama Letters, cartoon books The Essential Leunig, The Wayward Leunig, The Stick, Goatperson, Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness and Curly Verse, among others and The Lot, a compilation of his 'Curly World' newspaper columns. Leunig has also written a book of prayers, When I Talk To You. He was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999.
