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Geoff Brumfiel

@gbrumfiel.bsky.social

15K followers 710 following 1.2K posts

I'm an editor/correspondent for NPR. Mostly smart on the radio. Mostly stupid on everywhere else. ChatGPT describes me as: "Aerospace Sleuth, Nuclear Nerd, and NPR Superfan — with a Side of Surreal Humor." Signal: https://signal.me/#eu/PoRoBSPUsb1fVLiml

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 19h

OOOPS! UPDATE: Two HHS officials tell me that disease detectives, measles response officers, global health officials and the MMWR staff were laid off by mistake and will be reinstated. But Washington office is still RIFed

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 19h

But even as cuts at SAMHSA became clear, confusion set in at CDC, where it appears many of the layoffs were suddenly revoked on Saturday evening. It remains how many CDC employees have actually lost their jobs.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 19h

Current and former employees at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) told NPR about the layoffs, which were part of a government-wide reduction in force. SAMHSA oversees substance abuse grants and the 988 suicide prevention hotline among other things.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 19h

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration has laid off more than 100 employees at the nation's primary mental health agency.

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Trump slashes mental health agency as shutdown drags on

Sources tell NPR that more than 100 employees have been laid off at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Agency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had some cuts reversed late Saturday.

www.npr.org

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 19h

Key section on CDC

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 19h

Full story, including new reporting on deep cuts to the nation's main mental health agency...
www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Trump slashes mental health agency as shutdown drags on

Sources tell NPR that more than 100 employees have been laid off at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Agency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had some cuts reversed late Saturday.

www.npr.org

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 19h

BREAKING: CDC is apparently reversing many of its layoffs. Letters seen by NPR indicate that many employees working with infectious diseases have had their RIFs revoked.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

First time in a Titan silo! Got to go to MMIII LCC about a decade ago. That was memorable!

Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

A Damascus survivor is here! (seated to the right)

Greg Devlin gave a talk yesterday and he was great.

Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

Definitely visit if you find yourself near Little Rock!

www.titanranch.com

Titan Ranch

www.titanranch.com

Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

Anyway it’s fun to see this old school complex which has been lovingly restored by the owner (who rescued it over a decade ago.)

I’m really glad I made the trip!

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

It’s also still suspended by huge shock absorbers that were designed to cushion the crew from a nearby nuclear blast.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

And again, I think because it was so shallow, the LCC is MASSIVE compared to modern control centers. It’s spread across three levels and now includes a very nice AirBNB space. It’s probably around 1500-2000 square feet.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

The old launch control center is down the left branch of the T junction. There are a lot of old feedthroughs for cabling to the middle.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

The Silo was blown up during the SALT treaty but the service corridor is still in tact as is an alcove where airmen who serviced the missile could suit up.

The stable liquid fuels for these missiles were NASTY and they needed to wear spacesuits to work near the missile.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

The other really interesting thing is that the missile silo is collocated with the launch control center. That means you enter the silo through a blast door into a “T” junction with two more blast doors to isolate the missile from the LCC.

(All these doors are lighter than MMIII LCC.)

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

I am very lucky in that I’m one of the few people who’s been in a “modern” Minuteman III silo. The first thing I noticed is that the Titan silo is much shallower.

I assume that’s because the CEP (accuracy) of Soviet ICBMs at the time the requirement for Titan was contracted was much worse.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

First off this site housed a single Titan II missile. The Titan was a two-stage LIQUID-fueled missile with a 9MT (!) W-53 nuclear weapon.

The missile was fueled with Aerozine 50 (a UMDH/hydrazine mix), and dinitrogine tetroxide—a stable oxidizer.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 2d

Day 2 of the @outrider.org summit inside a decommissioned Titan II nuclear missile silo in Arkansas!

While we’re down here, I thought it’d be fun to do a little tour. It’s a fascinating site.

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Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 3d

Benetick Kabua Maddison, executive director of the Marshalese Educational Initiative delivers a powerful talk on the consequences of nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands.

“Our message is simple: we need to get rid of these nuclear weapons.”