What are some notable blunders in history that resulted in huge loss?

Bady@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 306 points –

Loss in terms of money or efforts. Could be recent or ancient.

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Chernobyl comes to mind as the biggest fuck up ever. Whenever I think I fucked up I try to remember, it can never be as bad as Chernobyl.

Ended up taking down the soviet union. The whole meltdown is fascinating. I read a book about it. I think it was called midnight at chernobyl, so something like it.

What I know of it is mostly from the HBO mini-series that aired a few years ago. Did it really have that much impact on the fall of the USSR? My understanding was that the gradual attrition of competing with the West was the ultimate cause. I'm interested to learn more. Gonna go read some wikipedia on it.

It was one of the reasons, as it required huge spending on extinguishing the reactor, draft up to a million personnel, dosimetry equipment, helicopters, thousands of trucks, then cleaning the zone around the reactor, building the sarcophagus on rush, evacuating people from the exclusion zone, digging up upper layer of dirt in a radius of several kilometers, patient treatment, and keeping everything in secret.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration that the costs of the liquidation compare to costs of a small war. Besides, the Soviets were involved in a harsh Afghanistan war.

Yeah it struck fear, we could never fully utilize nuclear energy because people are scared.

I was going to say something like the Hindenburg, but I think you have me beat.