So. I was discussing the sad state of the world with someone, and he said he thought the sad state of the world would elevate to just below a catastrophic level, we would save ourselves, repeat. UNLESS... People start bombing each other. The first thing you wonder is if your area is relatively safe from being bombed. Colorado is sort of ok, but we do have military bases here. Madison would get radiation if Chicago is bombed. I say, to the North Woods!
ANYWAY. So I wondered how far away you have to be and found this website. There is a lot of very useful, but also scary information here. Just to summarize, I think you won't die of heat or burns if you are 10 mi out of a 1 MT bomb. HOWEVER, you will get significant radiation exposure. There is a chart of symptoms varying on the level of radiation you receive. The most IMPORTANT thing learned here is that the radiation travels downwind. If you are 50 mi out of ground zero, you can leave immediately, traveling perpendicular to the wind, to sustain the smallest amount of radiation. If you're 200 mi out, the radiation reaches you at about 14 hr. This is all with a 15 mph wind. I assume that if there is no wind, the people around ground zero are even more screwed and the rest of us will be better off. Also, if its raining on you, you are basically screwed and should hide. For a bigger bomb, you would have to run away quicker. Apparently when they dropped a 15 MT bomb, it traveled 320 mi but was only 40 mi wide because of the wind. A knowledge of the wind patterns in the US is useful. ANYWAY. A pleasant thought: Most of the US is contaminated already because of the tests from back in the day. Sigh.
He also says that if a bomb drops in the Middle East, we can expect our food and plants to all be contaminated over here. All I have to say is I am definitely bringing home a dust mask tonight. Also, it occurs to me that having a relatively full tank of gas at all times may be a good idea. Shit. Another thing that occurs to me is that my grandpa was a paranoid schizophrenic and maybe I should be concerned about going down the same road. Personally, I think these are just dangerous times in a sad state of the world and we need to be prepared! I'll probably be over it tomorrow, but for today, I am FREAKED OUT.
2 comments:
I heard there were a few crackpot scientists concerned that the new Large Hadron Collider, at the Franco-Swiss border, would cause the destruction of the world. Brian Williams had the story last night.
Yes, your grandpa was concerned about the destruction of the world, but I don't think his mental illness was the sole cause. A lot of his ideas about the world ending started during the Cold War era when people were afraid of communism, the bomb, Cuba and Russia. It was a really big deal for Americans back then. Kids in school had drills to practice for being bombed. People talked about building bomb shelters. It scared a lot of people. Hippies and the peace movement were in part a reaction to these things.
None of the scientists are concerned, only people in non-science. Non-scientists are retarded. No offense, mom. You're off the hook anyway since youre surrounded by scientists.
WELL, I would say that people were only scared in the Cold War because their government told them what was going on. In OUR case, our government ain't telling us SHIT. (BTW, apparently ain't is a word now, according it Google Chrome's in browser spellcheck)
I think we have every reason to be scared, our government just wouldn't tell us because it's SCARED of us, because there are too many of us who are pissed off already and Shit Could Go Down.
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