"Amazon's infrastructure is orders of magnitude better than what your average chump can manage themselves."

This is a common assumption, based in part by Amazon claiming that these services ran the same software that ran their store. Well, the store's uptime is terrible, maybe %98, and these services are written from scratch anyway.

I think they have their place, but the assumption that Amazon means good engineering is a very erroneous one. I know, I used to work there.

Hiroshima is a special case. Most of the structures were easily flattened wooden framed traditional ancient Japanese buildings. IIRC the local government building at the centre of town was one of the only concrete structures in the city, and it survived. (I think the twisted metal of the domed roof structure is still preserved as a monument -- http://pegasus.phys.saga-u.ac.jp/imagesMac-PC/ForP EACE/hq/Dome.jpg ).

The War Game http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/ is another stunning mid sixties british documentary that was banned by the UK government for years. Scary as all hell and revealed the fallacies behind the civil defence plans of the time. Well worth hunting down.