Post Nuclear Survival

[Bubbas_seat]

Consider the benefits of radiation:


*Bubba went blond


*Wez has a great all-over tan (even his arse)


*Lord H now gets to wear a goalie mask which looks cool


*No more pesky insects

[Redd4]

StepChild: I would agree that the threat of global nuclear catastrophe is less now than during the cold war, but I believe the threat of "local" nuclear attack is worse. When the USSR was in power, its main objective was extending its influence and promoting communism; a total nuclear exchange with the US would not be in its interest (the MAD theory). But now we are dealing with people who will gladly die if they can take some of us with them. Personally, I'd rather have one big enemy that doesn't want to die himself, than a lot of small ones who don't care if they do. Mmmmm...white Russians..


Interdictor: see my above response to Step, as an addendum to your post about the nuclear threat. I agree it is much graver now. I also liked The Day After, and another movie about nuclear war came out at the same time called Testament, with, I think, Jane Alexander. It focused on a family dealing with what would happen in the aftermath of war, no supplies, electricity, etc., and radiation sickness taking people one by one.


Bubbas: I'm afraid in the event of nuclear war, the insects will outlive us all. Cockroaches will rule the planet.


Foxtrot: Damn good thread, mate.

[Anklecranker]

Tell us more.

[Roadman]

Okay Ankle, you asked for it.


The US made Minuteman 3 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ( ICBM for the uninitiated ) carries 3 Mark 12 Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles ( MIRVs) with an average yield of 200 kilotons each. They say the Mark 12A on newer weapons has roughly twice the explosive force of the older Mark 12, or 400 kilotons. The only nuclear weapons ever used in anger were about 10 kilotons. So, each missile carries several weapons, all of which are many times deadlier than those used on Japan. And many ICBMs carry more than 3 warheads.


You know what those things can do? They'll suck all the paint off your house and give your family a permanent orange afro.

[Foxtrot X-Ray]

Arrrgh! I Should know where that quote is from!!!!!





@#&%# Now that'll be bugging me all day long.





Anyway.. Next section.





"Keep your clothing on. this includes hat and gloves. this will prevent


beta burns which will occur on exposed skin. Clothing and equipment


should be decontaminated by shaking. Washing clothing in any available


water will remove radioactive particles. Washing dust from exposed skin


will assist in preventing burns. keep as warm and dry as possible. If


beta burns develop, treat as regular burns except that the burned areas


should be washed.


Radiation sickness is most prevalent among the very young, the infirm


or the old. It disrupts the body's chemistry, but mildly contaminated


people in otherwise good health will recover. Remember that radiation


sickness is not a contagious disease. You can help a contaminated


individual at no risk to yourself.

[Foxtrot X-Ray]

By the way.. I'd like to make a quick comment on the following quote:





"If you are in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear blast, you chances of survival are virtually non-existent."





No!


Go on.. Pull the other one...











I gotta say this stuff is really very encouraging.


What we were taught during the Reagan years was In case of Nuclear attack: Die





We'd all be cooked in our fallout shelters, The Planet would explode ala' Alderaan under the Death Star's guns, Earth would be rocketted out of the Solar System and everyones Left shoe would burst into flames.





Myself, I live some fifty miles from StratCom, a Major and I mean MAJOR target. (Were I a hostile Nuclear power, I'd hit it before Washington DC) Plus My City is the second largest population center in the state, so I'd probably take a direct hit (See above).


However, seeing as the remaining Nuclear powers on the planet have much smaller arsenals than did the USSR, I'm for hoping that they feel the need to conserve their ammo & hit only millitary target cities.





A hit on StratCom, MAY be survivable from here..

[Anklecranker]

Talk about targets?


My city has one of the largest stockpiles of petroleum on the East Coast. We call it the Tank Farm. Giant super-structures full of petrol for as far as the eye can see. Know whats funny?


Its very close to the major airport!

[rockatansky4073]

hey, BUBBA - you forgot one - every car has a great paint job.

[Blackonblack]

I happen to remember that I readed somewhere that the amount of nuclear weapons nowadays is enough to "destroy three times the earth".


Mmmmm, I can't see a reason why you would like to do it two times more after the first one, but aside from that I suppose that this asumes that all countries with nuclear weapons will be at war, will fire them, and will be able to do it....


That is, asumming that noone will be killed before the other....and will be able to launch his own weapons...and again asumming that those weapons reach the objective.


I suppose that a war between -let's say- USA and China would simply cause the anihilation of China ( Central Asia ) and may be the destruction of some cities in the US. Coastal ones, probably. But I don't think that this would affect f.e. Australia or Europe or Central Africa as much as to wipe life away.


If someone here has readed the book "Red Storm rising" by Tom Clancy, he will probably agree that nuclear war is a too desperate decission, and that probably -even if being defeated on a conventional war-, you have to be very,very stupid and mad to use it....


but I reckon that the human being is a genre where those kind of subjects are not uncommon.....

[Shadow]

If I could interject here, a nuclear holocuast is highly unlikely. A far more plausible scenario is for our country to become weak and unable to crontrol it's citizens (we got purty darn close to this in the 1980's). Then we will degenerate into a lawlwess wasteland al la Somalia.


As soon as this happens, I'm going to don my Mad Max jacket, hop on my bike (meaning motorbike) and search for gasoline. And when the gas is gone i'll retool the ol YZF-R1 to run on ethanol. A bike is so much better in a post appocalytic scenario becuase it uses so much less fuel than a car.