Alex Wellerstein
@wellerstein.bsky.social
Nuclear historian. Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. Visiting researcher at Nuclear Knowledges program, Sciences Po (Paris). Author of THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY (2025). Creator of NUKEMAP. Blogging at https://doomsdaymachines.net.
Pinned
The Most Awful Responsibility :: Photographs – Alex Wellerstein
alexwellerstein.com
As I get closer to the launch of my new book, THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY, I have started to really in earnest update some pages relating to it. Here is one that contains photos relating to the book — some well-known, some unusual/rare. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...
Wait, so the actor who played the singer who used the godfather's influence to get a movie role in "The Godfather" (1972) apparently got his role in "The Godfather" because of the intervention of his own real-life godfather???
![Pasted in quote from Wikipedia:
Johnny Fontane
Johnny Fontane, a mob-associated singer and Vito's godson, seeks Vito's help in securing a movie role; Vito dispatches his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to Los Angeles to persuade studio head Jack Woltz to give Johnny the part. Woltz refuses until he wakes up in bed with the severed head of his prized stallion.
Al Martino, a then famed singer in nightclubs, was notified of the character Johnny Fontane by a friend who read the eponymous novel and felt Martino represented the character of Johnny Fontane.[3][4] Martino then contacted producer Albert S. Ruddy, who gave him the part.[3] However, Martino was stripped of the part after Francis Ford Coppola became director and then awarded the role to singer Vic Damone.[3] According to Martino, after being stripped of the role, he went to Russell Bufalino, his godfather and a crime boss, who then orchestrated the publication of various news articles that claimed Coppola was unaware of Ruddy having given Martino the part.[3] Damone eventually dropped the role because he did not want to provoke the mob, in addition to being paid too little.[5][3] Ultimately, the part of Johnny Fontane was given to Martino.[3][6]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d6lghffuwlinx22c2rtfbdwv/bafkreiau7qifl7tt7pnmjtjjfv3yaejlpct66frjtufm57yuga66fxjpqa@jpeg)
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Wait, so the actor who played the singer who used the godfather's influence to get a movie role in "The Godfather" (1972) apparently got his role in "The Godfather" because of the intervention of his own real-life godfather???
Anybody got a spare $25k burning a hole in their pocket that they'd like to convert into an atomic bomb casing? historical.ha.com/itm/space-ex...
historical.ha.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Anybody got a spare $25k burning a hole in their pocket that they'd like to convert into an atomic bomb casing? historical.ha.com/itm/space-ex...
I took an important step today and renamed the folder on my computer of all of the book assets from "ATOMIC PRESIDENT BOOK" to the actual title of the book ("THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY"). A sign of acceptance, perhaps...
November 20, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I took an important step today and renamed the folder on my computer of all of the book assets from "ATOMIC PRESIDENT BOOK" to the actual title of the book ("THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY"). A sign of acceptance, perhaps...
As I get closer to the launch of my new book, THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY, I have started to really in earnest update some pages relating to it. Here is one that contains photos relating to the book — some well-known, some unusual/rare. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...
The Most Awful Responsibility :: Photographs – Alex Wellerstein
alexwellerstein.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:26 PM
As I get closer to the launch of my new book, THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY, I have started to really in earnest update some pages relating to it. Here is one that contains photos relating to the book — some well-known, some unusual/rare. alexwellerstein.com/writing/book...
Pie charts usually have such low information density that they are worth avoiding, but these ones from a classified December 1945 report by the US Naval Technical Mission to Japan on the "medical effects" of the atomic bombings carry much more information than was perhaps intended... wow and yikes.
November 20, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Pie charts usually have such low information density that they are worth avoiding, but these ones from a classified December 1945 report by the US Naval Technical Mission to Japan on the "medical effects" of the atomic bombings carry much more information than was perhaps intended... wow and yikes.
Somehow "autocorrect spelling of words" got switched on in my Keynote and it is remarkable to me how it makes writing anything academic impossible. Names, concepts, whatever — it just unhelpfully changes them all to totally different words with barely an indication that has done it. Amazingly bad.
November 18, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Somehow "autocorrect spelling of words" got switched on in my Keynote and it is remarkable to me how it makes writing anything academic impossible. Names, concepts, whatever — it just unhelpfully changes them all to totally different words with barely an indication that has done it. Amazingly bad.
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
My biggest fear when visiting a foreign country is that after a day of wandering I'll happen upon a little museum of me. Shuffling along with other tourists through rooms of my discarded effects and lost memories, unable to translate the labels. Learning nothing about myself.
November 16, 2025 at 8:32 AM
My biggest fear when visiting a foreign country is that after a day of wandering I'll happen upon a little museum of me. Shuffling along with other tourists through rooms of my discarded effects and lost memories, unable to translate the labels. Learning nothing about myself.
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
Mafia governance in action
"the only offer on the table was that I needed to resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA... If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate."
"the only offer on the table was that I needed to resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA... If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate."
November 14, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Mafia governance in action
"the only offer on the table was that I needed to resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA... If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate."
"the only offer on the table was that I needed to resign by 5pm that day or the DOJ would basically rain hell on UVA... If I did not resign that day, I was told that the DOJ would extract/block hundreds of millions of dollars from UVA before they would even negotiate."
For this week's DOOMSDAY MACHINES, I wrote a little bit about Martin Amis' essay "Thinkability," which I think is just one of the sharpest pieces of writing on nuclear war that I am aware of... doomsdaymachines.net/p/nuclear-we...
"Nuclear weapons repel all thought, perhaps because they can end all thought"
Martin Amis on the difficulties of writing about nuclear war
doomsdaymachines.net
November 14, 2025 at 4:14 PM
For this week's DOOMSDAY MACHINES, I wrote a little bit about Martin Amis' essay "Thinkability," which I think is just one of the sharpest pieces of writing on nuclear war that I am aware of... doomsdaymachines.net/p/nuclear-we...
Woke up this morning, and the "correct" way to do what I wanted appeared in my brain. Works great now. Kind of amazing. Thank you, unconscious mind, that apparently does all the hard work while I am not directly thinking about the problem I am trying to solve...
I spent the good part of today debugging an algorithm that I had come up with that was sometimes working, sometimes not. I discovered that the reason it was sometimes not working is because it was *fundamentally* flawed and could not be used. Which, although annoying, is learning, nonetheless!
November 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Woke up this morning, and the "correct" way to do what I wanted appeared in my brain. Works great now. Kind of amazing. Thank you, unconscious mind, that apparently does all the hard work while I am not directly thinking about the problem I am trying to solve...
I spent the good part of today debugging an algorithm that I had come up with that was sometimes working, sometimes not. I discovered that the reason it was sometimes not working is because it was *fundamentally* flawed and could not be used. Which, although annoying, is learning, nonetheless!
November 13, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I spent the good part of today debugging an algorithm that I had come up with that was sometimes working, sometimes not. I discovered that the reason it was sometimes not working is because it was *fundamentally* flawed and could not be used. Which, although annoying, is learning, nonetheless!
Tried to do the good thing by scooping up a bug and putting it in the windowsill. Came back a minute or two later to find it hand blundered into a spider's web and was in the process of getting eaten. I guess I helped the spider out?
a bird sitting on top of a rock with the words " the cirrrrcle of liife " above it
ALT: a bird sitting on top of a rock with the words " the cirrrrcle of liife " above it
media.tenor.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Tried to do the good thing by scooping up a bug and putting it in the windowsill. Came back a minute or two later to find it hand blundered into a spider's web and was in the process of getting eaten. I guess I helped the spider out?
The new book... exists!!! Got my author copies in the mail today! Looks quite readable! Spelled my name right on the cover, even!!!
harpercollins.com/products/the-most-awful-responsibility-alex-wellerstein
harpercollins.com/products/the-most-awful-responsibility-alex-wellerstein
November 12, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The new book... exists!!! Got my author copies in the mail today! Looks quite readable! Spelled my name right on the cover, even!!!
harpercollins.com/products/the-most-awful-responsibility-alex-wellerstein
harpercollins.com/products/the-most-awful-responsibility-alex-wellerstein
I participated in The Naked Scientists' podcast primer on nuclear weapons, talking about different types of nuclear weapons. As I am not a scientist, I was in fact fully clothed while doing this.
www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak...
www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak...
80 years of nuclear weapons
A blast from the past, present, and future...
www.thenakedscientists.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I participated in The Naked Scientists' podcast primer on nuclear weapons, talking about different types of nuclear weapons. As I am not a scientist, I was in fact fully clothed while doing this.
www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak...
www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/nak...
buddy, if it was up to me, you wouldn't be running at all. like hell I'm going to give you unfettered access to my keychain.
November 12, 2025 at 1:24 PM
buddy, if it was up to me, you wouldn't be running at all. like hell I'm going to give you unfettered access to my keychain.
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
He is a computer safety researcher.
And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.
In under 1600 words.
aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
November 5, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
By popular demand (read: maybe three people asked me) — some thoughts on Kathryn Bigelow's new film, "A House of Dynamite." TOTAL SPOILER ZONE, you have been warned! doomsdaymachines.net/p/bolt-out-o...
Bolt out of the blue
Kathryn Bigelow's "A House of Dynamite"
doomsdaymachines.net
November 7, 2025 at 10:07 PM
By popular demand (read: maybe three people asked me) — some thoughts on Kathryn Bigelow's new film, "A House of Dynamite." TOTAL SPOILER ZONE, you have been warned! doomsdaymachines.net/p/bolt-out-o...
By popular demand (read: maybe three people asked me) — some thoughts on Kathryn Bigelow's new film, "A House of Dynamite." TOTAL SPOILER ZONE, you have been warned! doomsdaymachines.net/p/bolt-out-o...
Bolt out of the blue
Kathryn Bigelow's "A House of Dynamite"
doomsdaymachines.net
November 7, 2025 at 10:07 PM
By popular demand (read: maybe three people asked me) — some thoughts on Kathryn Bigelow's new film, "A House of Dynamite." TOTAL SPOILER ZONE, you have been warned! doomsdaymachines.net/p/bolt-out-o...
The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
November 6, 2025 at 10:41 AM
The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
I'll be doing this tomorrow!
Tomorrow at 11:30 AM CST / 12:30 PM EST, join the Bulletin for an expert discussion unpacking "A House of Dynamite"—what was real, what was exaggerated, and what would happen next.
Register for free below. ⬇️
Register for free below. ⬇️
Experts React: Netflix's A House of Dynamite
On November 6, join the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for an expert discussion on Netflix's A House of Dynamite movie, including US capacity to defend against a direct nuclear strike, arms…
pages.thebulletin.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:22 PM
I'll be doing this tomorrow!
"All you have to do now is run the city..."
The Wire: The parable of the bowls of shit.
YouTube video by Jon B
www.youtube.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:31 AM
"All you have to do now is run the city..."
Loving this Reddit exchange about a bug in which Arthur's mouth doesn't move during a mission of Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC
November 4, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Loving this Reddit exchange about a bug in which Arthur's mouth doesn't move during a mission of Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC
The half-life of a relevant analogy: instances of the terms "atomic Pearl Harbor" and "nuclear Pearl Harbor" (combined) across the Google Books corpus using Google Ngrams. Unfortunately doing the same search for "nuclear 9/11" turns up too much OCR noise.
November 4, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The half-life of a relevant analogy: instances of the terms "atomic Pearl Harbor" and "nuclear Pearl Harbor" (combined) across the Google Books corpus using Google Ngrams. Unfortunately doing the same search for "nuclear 9/11" turns up too much OCR noise.