"While the surface water initially showed significant contamination levels, the water dispersed and radiation decayed rapidly, so that by May 18 the maximum radiation reading found over an 80 square mile area was on the order of one milliroentgen per hour (mR/hr) at 3 feet above the surface."
A modern Teller-Ulam device does have Plutonium, Uranium Lithium, tritium and the casing to turn into radiative material, it they used one on the well, most likely they'd "airburst" it above the well head so the shock crushes the well head shut, rather than just plant it on the surface and blow it up.
Only about 15% of the energy comes from radiation.
We have test results from these sorts of explosions and have monitored the radiation from them, it's not going to poison the sea or cause any more problems than the oil is causing now.
"When the gas bubble's diameter equaled the water depth, 180 feet (55 m), it hit the sea floor and the sea surface simultaneously. At the bottom, it started digging a shallow crater, ultimately 30 feet (9 m) deep and 2,000 feet (610 m) wide. At the top, it pushed the water above it into a "spray dome," which burst through the surface like a geyser. Elapsed time since detonation was four milliseconds. During the first full second, the expanding bubble removed all the water within a 500-foot (152 m) radius and lifted two million tons of spray and seabed sand into the air. As the bubble rose at 2,500 feet per second (762 m/s),it stretched the spray dome into a hollow cylinder or chimney of spray called the "column," 6,000 feet (1,829 m) tall, 2,000 feet (610 m) wide, and with walls 300 feet (91 m) thick."
It only damaged ships out to 2000 meters, and since it'd be deep, the effect on the surface would be less visible than Wigwam.
The effects at the detonation site, the vaporized water, shockwave, etc would be similar, but no plume.
So, it'd mess things up for a couple thousand meters from the site of the detonation, but wouldn't do anything to the coast.
If they used one in this application (and I'm sure they never will), they'd be sure that the explosion would collapse the well head and stop the leak.
When one goes off, they explode with the yield they were set for.
They aren't going to make the sea explode, they won't make all the water drain out, the amount of radioactive material created and it's radioactivity is calculable, so what would go wrong?
The majority decision in DC v Heller discusses the difference between military weapons and the arms that the people have the right to keep and bear.
So in that case, the tools to break a foreign military's encryption wouldn't be protected under the 2nd amendment as they are military weapons.
And they won't be considered protected arms because the majority in DC v Heller has a long discussion about the history of what is an arm and cryptography and encryption are never discussed.
"The test was carried out without incident, and radiation effects were negligible. The device yielded 30 kilotons. Only three personnel received doses of over 0.5 rems."
They aren't going to create green house gases, they won't create fallout, they won't even kill that much sea life.
For the US - the smaller "tactical" nukes went from 0.3, 1.5, 5, 10, 60, 80, or 170 kiloton explosive yield Strategic nukes went from 170 kiloton to about 330 kiloton in the late cold war, with some larger bombs up to 9 and 25 megatons, 9MT was the most the US deployed on a missile and a 25MT dropped from a bomber, while the Soviets dropped a 57 megaton, their largest deployed was 25 megaton.
So, if you were going to nuke an oil well, you'd use a tactical warhead like the W87 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W87 300-475 kiloton yield and about 600 pounds.
"Between November 1955, and April 1958, a three-shift operation involving an average of 75 men worked to build a 174 meter vertical shaft from Maud Island, a 762 meter horizontal shaft to the base of Ripple Rock, and two main 91 meter vertical shafts into the twin peaks, from which "coyote" shafts were drilled for the explosives. 1,270 metric tons of Nitramex 2H explosives were placed in these shafts, estimated at ten times the amount needed for a similar explosion above water."
Apollo 8 orbited the moon Apollo 10 orbited the moon Apollo 11 landed on the moon Apollo 12 landed on the moon Apollo 13 went to the moon and returned to the Earth without landing Apollo 14 landed on the moon Apollo 15 landed on the moon Apollo 16 landed on the moon Apollo 17 landed on the moon
So, nine times going to the moon, 6 of 7 attempts to land were successes and no deaths from a launch.
Are free-speech advocates called "speech-nuts", are press advocates called "news-nuts" or are folks who hang out in groups called "assembly-nuts"? Of course not, rights spelled out in the Constitution are generally held up and honored, and things not in the Constitution like privacy and marriage are also generally up held and honored.
Except right to bear arms, if you support that you are a "gun nut".
The Supreme Court threw out the need to form clubs and established that firearm ownership, ammunition ownership are just as firmly established as speech and assembly.
There was nothing in District of Columbia v. Heller that would apply to DMCA.
Meanwhile in the history of Man, during the Younger Dryas the temperature was 15 degrees colder, then when it ended it warmed 10-15 degrees C in 40-50 years.
Alley, Richard B. (2000). "The Younger Dryas cold interval as viewed from central Greenland". Quaternary Science Reviews 19 Alley, Richard B.; et al. (1993). "Abrupt accumulation increase at the Younger Dryas termination in the GISP2 ice core". Nature 362: 527–529. Choi, Charles Q. (2 December 2009). Big Freeze: Earth Could Plunge into Sudden Ice Age. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
The problem is, nature is never in a "balance". Forest fires, wild fires, volcanos, tsunamis, global cooling, ice ages, global warming, desertification, floods, forestation, those things all happened before, during and after man.
I'm from South Dakota, so I've looked alot at the geological history there. It used to be under the sea, under glaciers, partially under glaciers, burned by wild fires that crossed the entire region, forested, then less forested, it used to have volcanos, it's been covered by ash from other volcanos, it will be covered by ash when Yellowstone cooks off.
Rural states, you know, the "fly over" or "red states" generally get more earmarks/pork than urban states. You know, things like the Bridge(s) to Nowhere that the darling of the Teabaggers, Sarah Palin, supported.
Note - I'm from a Red State (South Dakota) and fully support Senators and Congresscritters getting as much for their state or district as they can.
As for "auditing for Constitutionality", again, Jesus, its a slippery slope to a nightmare.
"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States" - No Air Force in there, no Marine Corps, so both are unconstitutional.
Therefore, the GPS isn't constitutional. Oh and 911, it's not in the constitution either.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
TSA, wiretaps, police wires, body wires, those aren't "constitutional". Nor is the EPA, lets throw it all out!
Tea Party - well, where is their "stop expanding the Federal Government" stance? They didn't whine about it under Bush's two terms, they just suddenly appear once a black president takes power, would they have appeared under a McCain/Palin administration? Doubtful.
I'm looking at their "contract" linked off Wikipedia.
Identify constitutionality of every new law - that's for the Courts to do, and it's a Ron Paulian thing, I'm not a fan of him or his politics, anti-semites rub me the wrong way. Reject emissions trading: I don't have a dog in that fight Demand a balanced federal budget: Sure, its been a goal for at least 30 years Simplify the tax system: Adopt a single-rate tax system; eliminate the internal revenue code and replace it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words. - Umm thats kind of specific, but I like the idea of a simple tax code Audit federal government agencies for constitutionality: - umm, no, Jesus, the Constitution says nothing about a space program or GPS, would those be done away with? Limit annual growth in federal spending: - sure, but what happens in case of war, natural disaster? Tough luck? That would have made WW2 untenable Repeal the health care legislation passed on March 23, 2010: Too specific Pass an 'All-of-the-Above' Energy Policy: - drill baby drill and no development of alternative energy sources, cause its not in the Constitution! Reduce Earmarks: That'll wreck the rural states, where the conservatives are from, good work guys Reduce Taxes: Sure
To me, a Bush and McCain voter, the teabaggers seem too white, too fringy astroturfy and too incoherent.
My undergrad degrees are in History, CompSci and Geology and I tested the waters of Political Science.
The problem with PoliSci isn't that they are "left liberal elitists" nor is it because they are "edumecated and stuff" or that they come from "hippy universities", the problem is that they believe the crap they are saying and it's all political with no "science".
The only field of modern Polisci that has any relevance or worth is international relations.
That said, the Tea Party is a bunch of garbage too.
The YAL-1 doesn't "heat up and short out guidance systems", it and the NC-135 used a laser to burn through the missile's wall and causes a structural failure.
These devices are networked and have storage devices attached to them. The official story is that the connectivity and storage is only active for testing and training.
Oh and the official story is that the naughty bits on screen are blocked out, well this proves that the naughty bits aren't blocked out and that the TSA folks here in the US and the UK, where there have already been problems, who will be seeing travelers naked are raging morons.
The United States, Mexico and Canadian road network isn't the UK road network.
Now I've lumped them all together because I've driven on them all, and all three countries share the same road design ideas, have the same sized vehicles and have the same basic geographical features.
All three countries have vast stretches of roads where there isn't a lot of people pulling into traffic and causing near collisions, nor are there a lot of close junctions. There are thousands and thousands of miles of two lane and elevated freeway/expressway/motorways in North America where you won't see another automobile for miles.
In those places its much better for the driver to drive the road and its conditions than to rely on a set limit.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, look at Operation Wigwam.
http://www.dtra.mil/documents/ntpr/factsheets/Wigwam.pdf
"While the surface water initially showed significant contamination levels, the water dispersed and radiation decayed rapidly, so that by May 18 the maximum radiation reading found over an 80 square mile area was on the order of one milliroentgen per hour (mR/hr) at 3 feet above the surface."
A modern Teller-Ulam device does have Plutonium, Uranium Lithium, tritium and the casing to turn into radiative material, it they used one on the well, most likely they'd "airburst" it above the well head so the shock crushes the well head shut, rather than just plant it on the surface and blow it up.
Only about 15% of the energy comes from radiation.
We have test results from these sorts of explosions and have monitored the radiation from them, it's not going to poison the sea or cause any more problems than the oil is causing now.
50 miles is a vast distance for a tactical nuke, especially one detonated 5000 feet under water.
The two underwater events I'm familiar with, Wigwam (was originally Crossroads Charlie) and Crossroads Baker, were both tactical yield nukes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads#Test_Baker
"When the gas bubble's diameter equaled the water depth, 180 feet (55 m), it hit the sea floor and the sea surface simultaneously. At the bottom, it started digging a shallow crater, ultimately 30 feet (9 m) deep and 2,000 feet (610 m) wide. At the top, it pushed the water above it into a "spray dome," which burst through the surface like a geyser. Elapsed time since detonation was four milliseconds.
During the first full second, the expanding bubble removed all the water within a 500-foot (152 m) radius and lifted two million tons of spray and seabed sand into the air. As the bubble rose at 2,500 feet per second (762 m/s),it stretched the spray dome into a hollow cylinder or chimney of spray called the "column," 6,000 feet (1,829 m) tall, 2,000 feet (610 m) wide, and with walls 300 feet (91 m) thick."
It only damaged ships out to 2000 meters, and since it'd be deep, the effect on the surface would be less visible than Wigwam.
The effects at the detonation site, the vaporized water, shockwave, etc would be similar, but no plume.
So, it'd mess things up for a couple thousand meters from the site of the detonation, but wouldn't do anything to the coast.
So why is 50 miles too close?
Well nukes are pretty well tested.
If they used one in this application (and I'm sure they never will), they'd be sure that the explosion would collapse the well head and stop the leak.
When one goes off, they explode with the yield they were set for.
They aren't going to make the sea explode, they won't make all the water drain out, the amount of radioactive material created and it's radioactivity is calculable, so what would go wrong?
The majority decision in DC v Heller discusses the difference between military weapons and the arms that the people have the right to keep and bear.
So in that case, the tools to break a foreign military's encryption wouldn't be protected under the 2nd amendment as they are military weapons.
And they won't be considered protected arms because the majority in DC v Heller has a long discussion about the history of what is an arm and cryptography and encryption are never discussed.
You don't know much about nuclear devices and their application underwater do you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wigwam
"The test was carried out without incident, and radiation effects were negligible. The device yielded 30 kilotons. Only three personnel received doses of over 0.5 rems."
They aren't going to create green house gases, they won't create fallout, they won't even kill that much sea life.
For the US - the smaller "tactical" nukes went from 0.3, 1.5, 5, 10, 60, 80, or 170 kiloton explosive yield
Strategic nukes went from 170 kiloton to about 330 kiloton in the late cold war, with some larger bombs up to 9 and 25 megatons, 9MT was the most the US deployed on a missile and a 25MT dropped from a bomber, while the Soviets dropped a 57 megaton, their largest deployed was 25 megaton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_weapons#United_States
So, if you were going to nuke an oil well, you'd use a tactical warhead like the W87
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W87
300-475 kiloton yield and about 600 pounds.
Or a bomb like the B83
15-1200 kiloton
Nukes are small, cheap and very efficient.
Here is a conventional underwater explosion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_Rock
"Between November 1955, and April 1958, a three-shift operation involving an average of 75 men worked to build a 174 meter vertical shaft from Maud Island, a 762 meter horizontal shaft to the base of Ripple Rock, and two main 91 meter vertical shafts into the twin peaks, from which "coyote" shafts were drilled for the explosives. 1,270 metric tons of Nitramex 2H explosives were placed in these shafts, estimated at ten times the amount needed for a similar explosion above water."
A nuclear underwater explosion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wigwam
The difference, with a nuke you just put it down where you want it with a cable, or more likely, a ROV, stand back and detonate it.
And one failed to land, but it orbited the moon.
Actually...
Apollo 8 orbited the moon
Apollo 10 orbited the moon
Apollo 11 landed on the moon
Apollo 12 landed on the moon
Apollo 13 went to the moon and returned to the Earth without landing
Apollo 14 landed on the moon
Apollo 15 landed on the moon
Apollo 16 landed on the moon
Apollo 17 landed on the moon
So, nine times going to the moon, 6 of 7 attempts to land were successes and no deaths from a launch.
Are free-speech advocates called "speech-nuts", are press advocates called "news-nuts" or are folks who hang out in groups called "assembly-nuts"? Of course not, rights spelled out in the Constitution are generally held up and honored, and things not in the Constitution like privacy and marriage are also generally up held and honored.
Except right to bear arms, if you support that you are a "gun nut".
The Supreme Court threw out the need to form clubs and established that firearm ownership, ammunition ownership are just as firmly established as speech and assembly.
There was nothing in District of Columbia v. Heller that would apply to DMCA.
What, her stance on fabricating evidence to wrongfully imprison people wasn't "tech" enough for you? That's some nerd stuff right there.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/05/nation/la-na-court-framed5-2010jan05
http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/28/the-infallible-prosecutor
http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/2009/3mer/1ami/2008-1065.mer.ami.html
Ah, but the Teabaggers called themselves Teabaggers at the start, I'm only using the phrase that the movement coined for itself.
If they would have referred to themselves as @*$&suckers, then they'd have to live with people calling them that.
March 18 2009 protest - Tea bag the Liberal Democrats before they tea bag you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teabagger
And here is a link from 2/27/09 that refers to the movement as teabagging "the fools".
http://www.reteaparty.com/2009/02/27/rick-santelli-is-as-mad-as-hell-chicago-tea-party/
Yes, it might go up a whole 2 degrees C.
Meanwhile in the history of Man, during the Younger Dryas the temperature was 15 degrees colder, then when it ended it warmed 10-15 degrees C in 40-50 years.
Alley, Richard B. (2000). "The Younger Dryas cold interval as viewed from central Greenland". Quaternary Science Reviews 19
Alley, Richard B.; et al. (1993). "Abrupt accumulation increase at the Younger Dryas termination in the GISP2 ice core". Nature 362: 527–529.
Choi, Charles Q. (2 December 2009). Big Freeze: Earth Could Plunge into Sudden Ice Age. Retrieved December 2, 2009.
The problem is, nature is never in a "balance". Forest fires, wild fires, volcanos, tsunamis, global cooling, ice ages, global warming, desertification, floods, forestation, those things all happened before, during and after man.
I'm from South Dakota, so I've looked alot at the geological history there. It used to be under the sea, under glaciers, partially under glaciers, burned by wild fires that crossed the entire region, forested, then less forested, it used to have volcanos, it's been covered by ash from other volcanos, it will be covered by ash when Yellowstone cooks off.
RE - Citation needed - go google for yourself.
Rural states, you know, the "fly over" or "red states" generally get more earmarks/pork than urban states. You know, things like the Bridge(s) to Nowhere that the darling of the Teabaggers, Sarah Palin, supported.
Note - I'm from a Red State (South Dakota) and fully support Senators and Congresscritters getting as much for their state or district as they can.
As for "auditing for Constitutionality", again, Jesus, its a slippery slope to a nightmare.
"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States" - No Air Force in there, no Marine Corps, so both are unconstitutional.
Therefore, the GPS isn't constitutional. Oh and 911, it's not in the constitution either.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
TSA, wiretaps, police wires, body wires, those aren't "constitutional". Nor is the EPA, lets throw it all out!
I took a couple classes, the profs were not InterPol, one was into foreign policy analysis and the other was globalization studies.
I wasn't impressed and it turned me back to what I consider the more balanced world and factual world of history.
Now, I don't think it's all bunk, Henry Kissinger wasn't full of crap, nor is Morgenthau, Rice, and the Game Theorists, to name a few.
Yea, I was indifferent to the announcement this morning until I read those links I found in my snarky reply search.
Outstanding choice Mister President!
Tea Party - well, where is their "stop expanding the Federal Government" stance? They didn't whine about it under Bush's two terms, they just suddenly appear once a black president takes power, would they have appeared under a McCain/Palin administration? Doubtful.
I'm looking at their "contract" linked off Wikipedia.
Identify constitutionality of every new law - that's for the Courts to do, and it's a Ron Paulian thing, I'm not a fan of him or his politics, anti-semites rub me the wrong way.
Reject emissions trading: I don't have a dog in that fight
Demand a balanced federal budget: Sure, its been a goal for at least 30 years
Simplify the tax system: Adopt a single-rate tax system; eliminate the internal revenue code and replace it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words. - Umm thats kind of specific, but I like the idea of a simple tax code
Audit federal government agencies for constitutionality: - umm, no, Jesus, the Constitution says nothing about a space program or GPS, would those be done away with?
Limit annual growth in federal spending: - sure, but what happens in case of war, natural disaster? Tough luck? That would have made WW2 untenable
Repeal the health care legislation passed on March 23, 2010: Too specific
Pass an 'All-of-the-Above' Energy Policy: - drill baby drill and no development of alternative energy sources, cause its not in the Constitution!
Reduce Earmarks: That'll wreck the rural states, where the conservatives are from, good work guys
Reduce Taxes: Sure
To me, a Bush and McCain voter, the teabaggers seem too white, too fringy astroturfy and too incoherent.
You don't know how to use google or bing do you?
Google - "prosecutor manufactures evidence kagan"
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/05/nation/la-na-court-framed5-2010jan05
http://reason.com/archives/2009/09/28/the-infallible-prosecutor
http://www.justice.gov/osg/briefs/2009/3mer/1ami/2008-1065.mer.ami.html
My undergrad degrees are in History, CompSci and Geology and I tested the waters of Political Science.
The problem with PoliSci isn't that they are "left liberal elitists" nor is it because they are "edumecated and stuff" or that they come from "hippy universities", the problem is that they believe the crap they are saying and it's all political with no "science".
The only field of modern Polisci that has any relevance or worth is international relations.
That said, the Tea Party is a bunch of garbage too.
Think before you type.
The YAL-1 doesn't "heat up and short out guidance systems", it and the NC-135 used a laser to burn through the missile's wall and causes a structural failure.
My fiancee is a biologist. The study of Odonata has nothing to do with the future.
All science is about predicting the future?
Humm. So a paleontologist studying the Mosasaurs of the Western Interior Seaway is studying the future?
Or theories about the evolution of dinosaurs into birds is studying the future?
These devices are networked and have storage devices attached to them. The official story is that the connectivity and storage is only active for testing and training.
Oh and the official story is that the naughty bits on screen are blocked out, well this proves that the naughty bits aren't blocked out and that the TSA folks here in the US and the UK, where there have already been problems, who will be seeing travelers naked are raging morons.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0324/warning-airport-breast-xray/
So its a rights online issue.
The United States, Mexico and Canadian road network isn't the UK road network.
Now I've lumped them all together because I've driven on them all, and all three countries share the same road design ideas, have the same sized vehicles and have the same basic geographical features.
All three countries have vast stretches of roads where there isn't a lot of people pulling into traffic and causing near collisions, nor are there a lot of close junctions. There are thousands and thousands of miles of two lane and elevated freeway/expressway/motorways in North America where you won't see another automobile for miles.
In those places its much better for the driver to drive the road and its conditions than to rely on a set limit.
Traffic bunches up, less reaction time in case of a slowing or stoppage.