A Little Eerie

Watch this video:

A nice litle display of lights and, at times, a sprightly tune. A tune played to the number of nuclear bomb tests conducted between 1945 and 1998. It's a little eerie, watching those lights and listening to the tones bubble along their merry way. The pauses -- the times when no tests were conducted -- are the oddest, as all you hear is that ticking of the clock, waiting for the next bomb to go off.

A few significant things I noticed:

• 1972, a significant year in my life, 23 tests by the US alone.
• Late 1980s: The United Kingdom conducts tests on US soil.
• December 1988, 1,000th US test. Merry Christmas.
• 1993, the US and USSR stop testing. China, India, France, and Pakistan keep having fun.
• 1997, the first year without a kaboom.
• 1998, Pakistan joins the nuclear club.

Now, of course, there's no evidence of Israel's tests, nor does this timeline include North Korea. And then there's Iran to worry about. The map, by the way, comes from the CTBTO, and can be seen in contest here.

What, you may ask, an advocate of nuclear power fretting over nuclear bomb tests? Well duh. I don't like all things nuclear, you know. We can do without the bombs, thank you very much.