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I can't see where anyone ever caused an explosion killing anybody, contrary to your assertion.

3 sabs dead, many more severely injured including personal friends of mine.

http://hsa.enviroweb.org/news/huntviol.html

"Born to Hunt,
Forced to March,
Prepared to Fight....."
Horse and Hound. July 1999.

I've been on the front line of animal rights mate, I know the drill, I've been on the receiving end of hunt violence, I've watched teenage girls get attacked and hospitalized by men on horseback. I was sat in the public enquiry into the death of 15 year old Tom Worby, run over by the hunt. I know David Blenkinsop and he'd never claim that he was on an ALF action.

You don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

We're not Mahatma Ghandi, push us and we push back.

# 1991 British hunt sab Mike Hill was killed after being run over by a hunt 4x4 vehicle.
# 1993 15-year old British hunt sab Tom Worby run over by hunt horsebox.
# 1995 UK animal rights activist Jill Phipps killed by truck during demonstration against live animal exports.
# 1998 US environmental activist David "Gypsy" Chain killed during tree protest while attempting to prevent logging. Activist eyewitnesses describe the incident as deliberate.
# 2003 US activist Rachel Corrie blockades Israeli military bulldozer with fatal consequences.
# 2003 British activist Tom Hurndall shot by an Israeli solider - after nine months in a coma, he dies in January 2004.
# 2003 US activist Brian Avery shot in the face by Israeli soldier. (See http://www.palsolidarity.org/activists/ISMattacked .php.)
# 2003 British activist Martin Shaw survives horrific fall after his - and Gesine Wenzel's - climbing ropes are cut by Swiss police during a G8-related blockade from a road bridge. Gesine survives, as fellow activists are able to grab her rope.

http://www.arkangelweb.org/barry/violence.shtml

The ABLE bomb was dropped off target, a tail fin on the bomb failed. That is why so few ships were sunk. Although the BAKER test did sink more ships, the water plume that was created was very radioactive and if the ships had been manned, there would have been serious radiation issues for the crew. For more information : Operation Crossroads or buy the Atomic Archive CD-ROM

A history of U.S. atomic testing can be found here:

http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Usa/index.htm l

Plenty of pics and interesting stories about how many of the tests went awry.

Great pic of the sausage can be found here:

The Sausage

It doesn't look too impressive until you see the guy sitting in front of it, which puts it into perspective. This was the United State's first thermonuclear device. Yield: 10.4 megatons. Made a big boom. =)

You've got the jist, but there's one detail I'm going to have to nitpick.

The 100 megaton test was not the United States. It was the USSR's "Tsar Bomba". The test was the "cleanest" nuclear explosion ever -- 97% of the energy was due to nuclear fusion. There's a lot of information on it's development here. There's mixed reports on if it was ever weaponized, but most people seem to agree that it wasn't.

The actual test blast was done at 50% power. The overall yield was 50 megatons (or 57, if you believe Khrushchev), and it was never tested at it's full yield.

Even so, 50 megatons is complete fucking overkill. Gotta agree with you there. But just turning our backs on a technology in hopes that noone will ever go through with the engineering -- and, for that matter, the use -- seems hopelessly naive. We are a rock-stupid race of warriors, and when we find a newer, shiner rock someone will want to bash someone else's head in with it.

The apocryphal nuclear suitcase bomb notwithstanding, it is very difficult to make nuclear weapons small enough for tactical use. To save you from greater chance of carpal tunnel syndrome, I am aware of nuclear artillery shells, but they only fit the largest of howitzers. On the other hand, weapons based on this technology could conceivably be deployed at the squad level in a manner similar to an RPG or bazooka. It makes it much harder to control its use when deployed in such fashion. With standing armies of hundreds of thousands of soldiers the fallout from such a weapon used in combat would probably litter the countryside in a manner similar to land mines in such now forgotten conflicts (by most in the Western world) as the Namibian war for independence from South Africa.

To join in with the amoral, technophilic point of view preferred in this forum. From a technical point of view the problem with fallout seems to be related to the rate at which the halfnium explodes compared to the rate at which its volume is exposed to an x-ray source. Thus it seems that forming the halfnium in a thin shell around, and surrounded by, an x-ray source should mitigate fallout. However, I can't think to too many switchable x-ray sources other than a fission reaction which off course will cause its own problems...

For what it's worth, IBM could settle it Dubya style for pennies compared to what SCO is suing for. Buy a pre-owned Soviet-era nuclear warhead for a mere $20 million, and just be done with it. No more expensive trademark litigation. *This is of course done in sarcasm, as nearby inhabitants would sue for damages, for $diety knows how much money. Only in America, of course.

No, sorry, plenty there

The U.K can level a few cities, too

Isreal probably can too but they're not technically in Europe, they have not declared their nuclear capability, and they're unlikly to attack the U.S (Even less likely than France and the U.K are!)

No, sorry, plenty there

The U.K can level a few cities, too

Isreal probably can too but they're not technically in Europe, they have not declared their nuclear capability, and they're unlikly to attack the U.S (Even less likely than France and the U.K are!)

No, sorry, plenty there

The U.K can level a few cities, too

Isreal probably can too but they're not technically in Europe, they have not declared their nuclear capability, and they're unlikly to attack the U.S (Even less likely than France and the U.K are!)

He says that he had no answer to more than half the questions.

In my world:

• Neo -> Neophyte / newbie / new In Fandom (Science Fiction fan world), a newbie is a newcommer -- often eager and with some promise, but definitely needing some support and mentoring to fulfill their promise. Also new-> source of newness (The New WOrld)..
• Trinity -> Nuclear weapons test site. Used to test The Ultimate Weapon.
• Morpheus -> Morph / change A source or change for Neo. Shifting him into becoming the ultimate weapon -- Final testing via Trinity.
• Mr. Anderson -> Anderson Consulting. A seemingly innocuous entity covering up nefarious activity which could fundamentally change the system (yes, I realize that Anderson imploded after Matrix, but why can't we assign this to prophesy??).
• Zion -> Zionizm Refers to the wish for some jews to retern to the old homeland (aka Israel) -- A return to the old ways of doing things and being. The real homeland.
• Cypher -> Secret code Both a method of communication and The Spy..

You are refering to the Tsar Bomba, a selectable yeild 50 or 100 Megaton weapon built as a one-off technology demo that was fired at the lower setting. The claim of a 57-58 Megaton yeild was the result of a misestimation by the west and the subsequent and understandable reclutance of the Soviet scientists to say "Um, no, it was actually a bit weaker than that"

Uh, no.
The M388 warhead had a selectable yield from 10 to 250 _tons_.
Here's some more info....
Also, take a look at another neat Cold-war toy: The 280mm Atomic Cannon....

Uh. The MK-7 was a variable yield weapon with a maximum adjustable yield of 61 kilotons. 7 or even 3 miles would be more than enough to escape all of it's harmful effects.

MK-7 picture

Please understand what you are talking about the next time you post your pacifistic drivel.

Oh and by the way, why wouldn't there be a carrier to return to?

This kind of idiocy is typical when nuclear weapons are the subject. Laymen think of them as the end-all of warfare and human existence (greatly contributed to by defeatistic soviet propaganda), when in reality they are just big bombs. All the nuclear weapons in the world are not nearly enough to exterminate all human life on earth. Just see how many athmosperic nuke tests have been done over the years, and surprise, surprise: we're still here.

The High Energy Weapons Archive offers more clues for the clueless:

High Energy Weapons Archive

Uh. The MK-7 was a variable yield weapon with a maximum adjustable yield of 61 kilotons. 7 or even 3 miles would be more than enough to escape all of it's harmful effects.

MK-7 picture

Please understand what you are talking about the next time you post your pacifistic drivel.

Oh and by the way, why wouldn't there be a carrier to return to?

This kind of idiocy is typical when nuclear weapons are the subject. Laymen think of them as the end-all of warfare and human existence (greatly contributed to by defeatistic soviet propaganda), when in reality they are just big bombs. All the nuclear weapons in the world are not nearly enough to exterminate all human life on earth. Just see how many athmosperic nuke tests have been done over the years, and surprise, surprise: we're still here.

The High Energy Weapons Archive offers more clues for the clueless:

High Energy Weapons Archive

Don't worry, do like Bert the Turtle - "Duck and Cover!".

I read a good book on this a long time ago, Tapping the ZPE by Moray B. King. The idea is that there are a set of circumstances that can cause a random system to move toward order. The work was based on the 1977 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, who discovered the circumstances that can cause that to happen. This was done without violating the second law of thermodynamics, and is probably why the guy got the Nobel Prize. I don't know his name.

If I remember right, the circumstances were that the system had to be non-linear, far from equilibrium, and energy had to be expended to maintain that state.

The question is if you can build some sort of device to make the ZPE less random and extract energy from, literally, nothing. Just to say that "that's impossible" discounts the fact that we realy do not have a unified theory of everything, and there is likely a long way to go before we do have a GUT. I would perfer to keep an open mind about these things, and look for results. It is especially difficult to attempt to apply science - engineer a device - when the science is a great unknown to even the best minds on the planet now. Nothing is impossible, and everything in the universe came from nothingness originally!

One problem of any device like that is the energy density of the ZPE is absolutely insane. You could make a very deadly weapon from it. Nikola Tesla, one of the oldschool proponents of ether theories oft noted that unlimited energy would not be a good thing for mankind. He was probably right.

We don't need a free energy device anyhow. There's a huge ball of free energy 93 million miles away. We just need to engineer better ways to use that "free energy", first.

Don't worry if your children are at school when the asteroid hits, their school desks will protect them.
Bert the Turtle said so in 1950

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

There was actually serious concerns within the KGB whether the so-called suitcase nuke the Russians built for demolitions work would even work correctly given its design and the instability of fissile materials.

This question leads to a set of interrelated topics. In the pages below I have collected a series of essays that treat different aspects of this question: the feasibility of terrorists building or acquiring nuclear devices; the claim that ex-Soviet suitcase nuclear bombs represent a real threat; the feasibility of suitcase nuclear bombs; and what is known about Osama bn Laden's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

* Can Terrorist Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
* Alexander Lebed and Suitcase Nukes
* Are Suitcase Bombs Possible?
* Could al-Qaeda go Nuclear?

Be sure and ask about their environmental initiatives, while you're at it.

Hmm, according to the High Energy Weapons archive, the Mark II, a low-efficiency plutonium implosion type bomb, was only a theoretical design and no units were manufactured. Even if one HAD been manufactured, it would have not been possible as early as July 1944 as large scale production of plutonium was started in mid-December and the explosive-lens design used in implosion type bombs was not finalized until March 1945.

How about This?

(Look for 'Thunderwell').

Maybe not, but makes for a neat story, though!

Here is an account from Dr. Brownlee himself about the manhole cover. He is highly doubtful it actually entered space.

Link

(Some infotainment cribbed from the HEW Archive.)

How long after Aug 6 1945 was Hiroshima safe from a radiation standpoint?

Probably within the short term (a few years, maybe a decade at most.)

How long until areas that had LOTS of bombs dropped on them be safe?

Depends on the size of the bombs and a lot of other factors. It'd be the time until the largest dose of fallout decayed to background.

Also, what does one do if a nuke goes off anywhere near them, other then kiss their ass goodbye? What can you do to avoid radiation poison? I always thought the key was to stay away from metal since that becomes contaminated quickly, but hell if I know.

Assume that the bomb in question is 20 Mt. The HEW archive states that a good rule of thumb is to take anyone within the 5 psi overpressure contour (the overpressure contour being, roughly, the extent of the shock wave) as a fatality. This contour is roughly (20000^0.33 * 0.71) = 18.64 km in radius. Out to ~40km, one can expect to receive 3rd-degree burns from the explosion. Within ~4km, you'll receive a 1000-rem dose of radiation (almost always fatal.)

Radiation is the least of your worries with high-yield bombs.

To ruin it for you, when the nuke goes off and it shows this big shockwave, I figured anything that gets hit by that is going to be contaminated. In my head this means you are going to get cancer sometime soon.

See above.

Also, slightly related, can someone explain the EMP to me?

Nuke goes boom, emits a bunch of gamma rays. Gamma rays knock electrons out of the air; those electrons keep knocking other electrons out, until you get ~30K of them for every gamma photon. The gamma rays emitted downward, however, don't knock away as many electrons, so you get a large electric current flowing upward, which bleeds off horizontally in broadband electromagnetic energy (think lightning.) Big masses of electrons moving around willy-nilly cause a large magnetic field to form in the earth and emit more EM radiation. The 100-gigawatt pulse travels out a long way (5 miles for a 1 Mt nuke), inducing a high current in sensitive circuitry, and causing lots of stuff (ICs, for one) to fry.

the High Energy Weapons Archive has the information you're looking for.

Operation Plumbbob ran from May to October 1957. It released 58,300 kilocuries of radioactive iodine into the atmosphere. It is projected that this will lead to 38,000 cases of thyroid cancer, estimated 1900 civilian deaths.

Which civilians will contract thyroid cancer? Who knows? The US? Anyone within the fallout shadow of the atmospheric testing...?

See also (Adobe Acrobat)

STF

The last couple weeks I have been knee deep in research about nuclear testing working on my web site (Buy a nuclear testing shirt! My kid's gotta eat!)

The only test I can think of offhand that was in New Mexico was the original Trinity bomb that was set off pre-Hiroshima.

There were, however, several criticality accidents at Los Alamos, and several "downwind incidents" in Nevada around the same time.

See the "history" page on my site for a description of the Army SL-1 that went critical in Idaho in the 60s. That's one I didn't learn about until recently, and apparently it was a pretty hot one too. The more I research into this, the more amazed I am about the amount of contamination there is scattered around the US, and on the islands we ran tests on.

The last couple weeks I have been knee deep in research about nuclear testing working on my web site (Buy a nuclear testing shirt! My kid's gotta eat!)

The only test I can think of offhand that was in New Mexico was the original Trinity bomb that was set off pre-Hiroshima.

There were, however, several criticality accidents at Los Alamos, and several "downwind incidents" in Nevada around the same time.

See the "history" page on my site for a description of the Army SL-1 that went critical in Idaho in the 60s. That's one I didn't learn about until recently, and apparently it was a pretty hot one too. The more I research into this, the more amazed I am about the amount of contamination there is scattered around the US, and on the islands we ran tests on.

The George Event, a thermonuclear physics experiment

It's been done. Short story, in the 1950's they were still testing nuclear weapons. They put one at the bottom of a long mine shaft and put a heavy metal plate on top to partially contain the explosion. The plate was last seen moving at about six times escape velocity.

On the other hand, it probably vaporized before leaving the atmosphere, see Operation Plumbob for more information.

This article appears to be largely responsible for the presence of the "Sputnik manhole cover" legend on the Internet, where it has been often discussed. It does not identify the test, but from the information in the article it can be deduced that it had to be Pascal-B, which has since be confirmed to me by Dr. Brownlee

...

If the description of the plate is accurate - 4 feet wide, 4 inches thick and made of steel - then it would weigh about 900 kg (a lower weight is possible if the dimensions are inaccurate or if it was not of uniform thickness). A velocity of 6 times Earth's escape velocity (67 km/sec, since escape velocity is 11.2 km/sec) would give the plate a kinetic energy 60% larger than the total energy released by the explosion. This is clearly impossible.

"Project Thunderwell" is a bit of a myth.

See This page for details about the real test (search for "Pascal-B").

According to this page, that steel plate's mass travelling at six times escape velocity, would be have kinetic energy than the total energy released by the explosion. (No, I haven't checked the math.)

Trinity Test Site

That would be, er, cool though.

Now convince me that such a thing exists.

I've read assertions like that before and a web search turns up more. But can you show me anything convincing that it's true? There is a patent on a disease resistance gene in Arabica, and fungicides or new variants based on that gene could be included under its protection. But telling farmers "We've patented your plant. Pay us to keep growing it?" I'm not convinced.

There are issues like when a company identifies a therapeutic compound from a plant grown in a foreign country. How do you sort out the conflicting claims of the country to which the plant is native, the culture which told the researchers their knowledge of which plants are valuable for health and the drug company that sorted through thousands of candidates, identified promising ones, isolated the active agent, created a less toxic and more effective variant and paid for the clinical trials? That's a tough question but it shouldn't be mixed up in what strikes me as FUD about telling the people they can no longer use the plant to treat their ulcers.

By the way, as I spend yet another Christmas Day in the lab, I invite all the people who are going to be yapping at me about how my work belongs to humanity and how I should be content with whatever bone they condescend to throw me to come over and run a few gels so I can eat lunch.

Sample quote from the article summary:
"By the time we get done, we have to walk away from everything we own, the lost profits, the medical and health costs--it will be well over $300,000, possibly $500,000," she said.

Some experts weren't surprised by Pheatt's findings.They say houses, offices and classrooms around the country have had problems with toxic mold. In Austin, Texas, last month, an elementary school was closed after officials found mold in the walls.

Outside scientists said that while they have not examined the Job Journal employees, the symptoms they described have been linked to the three strains of mold.

end quote

It appears that the 3 strains are the same ones mentioned in the article on Mir.

This is some serious shit here. As for why the business operators of Mir seem to be minimizing this, interesting question.

Note that the group in the office that got hammered was generally there during regular business hours, they weren't sealed in an air tank with the fungi and they still had serious consequences, not all of which were discussed in the article summary.

I'm trying to contact the publisher for more information.

--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy

--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy

--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy

--Fesh
"Citizens have rights. Consumers only have wallets." - gilroy

I agree. Check out this page and this page for some cool pics. Cool videos here.

My money's on picture #13 from the first set. The cloud tendrils have such a, err, cthulhic look. Although Oakie is kind of cute too- perfect form, good color, well balanced; at least a 9.3 (from this conservative judge).

Rev Neh

I agree. Check out this page and this page for some cool pics. Cool videos here.

My money's on picture #13 from the first set. The cloud tendrils have such a, err, cthulhic look. Although Oakie is kind of cute too- perfect form, good color, well balanced; at least a 9.3 (from this conservative judge).

Rev Neh

I agree. Check out this page and this page for some cool pics. Cool videos here.

My money's on picture #13 from the first set. The cloud tendrils have such a, err, cthulhic look. Although Oakie is kind of cute too- perfect form, good color, well balanced; at least a 9.3 (from this conservative judge).

Rev Neh