Lower Slobovia

Cartoonist Al Capp (1909-1979) created “Li'l Abner,” regarded by many as the greatest comic strip of all time. When readers thought there was no sadder and poorer place than Dogpatch, Capp would take his readers to frostbitten and poverty stricken Lower Slobovia, a pointed satire of backward nations and foreign diplomacy. Lower Slobovia was conceptually based on Siberia, or perhaps specifically on Birobidzhan [ the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast]. Slobbovian politicians were even more corrupt than their Dogpatch counterparts. Their monetary unit was the "Rasbucknik" - one was worth nothing, and a large quantity was worth even lessgiven the trouble of carrying a big bundle of cash. The entire population lived eternally in shoulder-deep snow.

The term, having entered the language, remains a contemporary reference. An imaginary country, Slobbovia wa used in examples in textbooks. A great deal of time, money, and effort are invested in forensic analyses of every accident even though, in such (fortunately) rare events, the factors entailed in the next one will, most likely, be totally different. But, how does the vice president for safety of Lower Slobovia Airlines know how well they are operating in between these rare events? Or how about the manager of the air traffic control (ATC) facility at that major hub at Slivovitz, the capital of Lower Slobovia? Or the minister of aeronautic transportation of Lower Slobovia?

The press of the USA carried statements to the general etrect that durng World War II the US broke various Japanese codes. How this must interest Intelligence officers and also the Communication Security Officers of prpspective enemies. Consider the questions which such a statement cculd raise in the minds of the mil1tary authorities of Lower Slobovia who regard the United States as a primary target country. First, what type ot Japanese codes does the United States so loosely claim to have broken? Second, wbat is the connection between the Japanese code so claimed to have been broken, and the codes now used by Lower Slobovia? There is a sanewhat limited number o£ cryptographic procedures available, and that other countries can and do use systems and techniques similar to those employed by the Japanese. To release information about US success against one would advertise to the others that the USA has been able to develop the tools and techniques, the necessary "know how" to attack their systems successfully.

Fundamentalism-creationism is endemic in parts of the USA, and somehow that noisy minority has convinced the indifferent majority that to be a Christian of any sort, one must reject evolution. No wonder on those international comparisons American students score worse than kids in Lower Slobovia or wherever.

Some sort of review body might suggest that the government of Lower Slobovia hadn't enforced its law, and the WTO review panel says Lower Slobovia had systematically not enforced its law, does that mean then that the US can keep Lower Slobovian brandy and blue cheese out of the United States under a WTO proceeding?

In fact, Los Alamos National Laboratory [LANL] Technical Area TA-36, Kappa Site replaced TA-9, TA-23, and TA-12 in 1950; five active firing sites (Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Lower Slobovia, and IJ, and a storage magazine at Moe; non-nuclear ordnance and armor. In 1983, boundary of TA­ 36 changed to incorporate I-J Site (formerly part of TA-15) which was used for firing non-nuclear explosive shots up to 500 lb. TA-36 also includes former TA-27 and part of TA-54 (located north of TA-18). Lower Slobovia also contained a firing site debris pit.

Upstream (on restricted DOE land) were firing sites with names such as “Lower Slobovia”, where open-air (non-nuclear) weapons tests have been conducted since the mid-1940s. Depleted uranium (a byproduct of uranium enrichment processes that is depleted in the isotope 235U) is one contaminant that has been widely dispersed near the firing sites. Becker (1991), in a study of uranium transport in this canyon, identified a broad unchanneled part of the canyon with high transmission losses where all surface flows infiltrated during her study (a “discharge sink”). Examination of airphotos dating back to 1935 showed that a channel existed through this reach at least until 1965, illustrating the dynamic nature of these canyon bottoms and documenting a historic aggradation event.