The Order of the Elephant's Foot
This place is a message…and part of a system of messages…pay attention to it! Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture. This place is not a place of honor…no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here…nothing valued is here. What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger. The danger is in a particular location…it increases towards a center…the center of danger is here…of a particular size and shape, and below us. The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours. The danger is to the body, and it can kill. The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited. *** You Only Guide Me by Surprise is written, produced and edited by Landry Ayres. Clips from the following pieces are included: The Regulation of Atomic Radiation, courtesy of the U.S. National Archives The nun who broke into a US nuclear-weapons facility, The Washington Post The Doomsday Clock, explained, Vox Nuclear Waste: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) The Nuclear Radiation Series, CENCO and Periscope Films How an 85-Year Old Nun, Activists Infiltrated Top U.S. Nuclear Site, Exposing Dangers & Urging Peace, Democracy Now! Atomic Energy Can Be A Blessing, The Christophers Atomic Blast!, First Pictures (1946) Atomic Alert, Elementary Version (1951), courtesy of the Prelinger Archives Duck And Cover, a Civil Defense Film (1951) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) The sacred texts included in this piece are: שמות 26 1:5 (WLC) שמות 27:21 (WLC) Isaiah 2:4 (KJV) שמות26:31-37 (WLC) ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 27 (TR 1550) מלכים א 8:6-12 (WLC) All Western Leningrad Codex texts were read by Abraham Shmuelof. Greek texts courtesy of Anton Tasos. Isaiah read by David Suchet. FURTHER READING: Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarland 99% Invisible - Ten Thousand Years The Nuclear Priesthood by Paul Farley Reducing the Likelihood of Future Human Activities That Could Affect Geologic High-level Waste Repositories: Technical Report, May 1984 by the Human Interference Task Force, prepared for the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, U.S. Department of Energy Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia: Technical Report, May 1984 by Thomas Sebeok, prepared for the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, U.S. Department of Energy I Think I Am a Verb by Thomas Sebeok Measures: Monastery for an Atomic Priesthood; Hanford, WA Radioactive Waste Management and Constructing Memory for Future Generations: Proceedings of the International Conference and Debate, 15-17 September 2014, Verdun, France The Atomic Priesthood Project by Bryan McGovern Wilson Cumbrian Alchemy by Robert Williams and Bryan McGovern Wilson Lessons From Chernobyl for Japan by Ellen Barry - The New York Times A transcript of this episode can be found here.
