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Surprise Nuclear Strike? Here's How We'll Figure Out Who Did It (sciencemag.org)
sciencehabit writes: Many experts believe that a nuclear attack on U.S. soil is more likely than ever; a bomb set off in a city street is seen as the most likely scenario. The conceivable need to unmask a perpetrator, and mount an effective response, is propelling the emerging area of post-detonation forensics. Scientists are devising new sensors, manufacturing artificial fallout to hone analytical techniques, and studying how the glass formed in the furnace of an atomic blast would vary depending on the nature of the bomb and the city where it detonated. Discreet Oculus, a sensor array that would collect data during a nuclear attack on a U.S. city, was tested in the first exercise of its kind last summer.
>> Many experts believe that a nuclear attack on U.S. soil is more likely than ever
No, that's just the vendor speaking. Time to Google something called the "Cold War" I think...
I'm guessing that anyone who surprises us with a nuclear detonation, or more probably a radiological attack like a dirty bomb, is going to *tell us that they did it*, because you don't just set off nuclear bombs or dirty bombs and run away and go "tee hee".
It's not like someone had to figure out who flew the planes into the WTC towers, right?
Too interesting to save it for Monday. We posted it today.
Now the US government can retaliate against the wrong country with more precision than ever before!!!
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Autonomous vehicles turned into car bombs...Guy with a home wet lab and a lot of savvy creates a serious disease and releases it, someone poisons an an entire metro areas water system....
These things are several orders of magnitude easier, more damaging, and likely than a nuke. I'm not worried about those things, so how am I going to find the time and motivation to be worried about rogue nukes? Anything can happen, but I can also stub my toe.
It is important because it has the word "Oculus" in it.
It will no doubt be a zero cost operation to do all that crap. The simpler solution is to not be there when the US figures out where you were.
...zero. There is absolutely no possibility of such an attack, on US soil or anywhere else.
A dirty bomb? Those have bugger all effectiveness, except against the emotions of the weak. The amount of radioactive material required to build a dirty bomb that actually did something would exceed the amount needed to build a real bomb. It would be utterly stupid.
By far the most effective weapon is the human imagination. Tell enough people that a dirty bomb, or a biological weapon, has been released, in some location where there is strong mistrust of any kind of official source, and you wouldn't even need a bomb or to go there. The viral nature of the message, the paranoia of the citizens and the psychology of mass hysteria will guarantee that symptoms will be felt. If those people believe firmly enough that they will die, then - as is well known from studies in shamanism - those people will will themselves to die. There needn't be a single thing wrong with any of them, aside from their own credulity.
The US is reasonably well guarded. Certainly, it's enough to stop any serious physical weapon from getting through. A psychological bomb, where the "explosive" is the insanity demonstrated on a daily basis, that you can't stop, you can't trace and you can't respond. There is only one way to stop a psychological bomb and that's to have a rational, sane, well-educated nation. And nobody wants one of those.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Well, it was successful. Nobody died from nuclear attack during that time.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Just the way you support your scum bag government which bombs civilians at will round the world and destabilises legitimate governments. Which makes *you* a legitimate target.
"Not a bear in site. The bear patrol must be working like a charm."
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Yep. But that doesn't mean it won't happen. there are at least a couple of really messed up countries with nukes. I'm assuming you live in the US. Keep in mind that many countries are an order of magnitude or more screwed up than most western countries. Things that would never enter our minds as being possible are the norm in many other countries. If you ever have the chance, travel in the non-tourist areas of some third world countries and get to know some of the locals. You'll find that many of their assumptions are completely alien to you, and many of your assumptions are completely alien to them.
linquendum tondere
All terrorists would be hunted down and killed. Any nation that make the slightest attempt to protected them would be severely punished. This action would go on for decades. And you can forget about privacy.