Indeed. The reg has a good peice on exactly that topic.
Submitted by byrn on Mon, 2009-02-16 13:48
After a quick skim of the Reg - they state the obvious, which is ok because the rest of the press have seemed to miss it. I like the comments from others in the BBC article:
'The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament described the collision as "a nuclear nightmare of the highest order".'
Eh? If that's what causes them nightmares, then what about an extremist suicidal wandering into the centre of Paris with a dirty 1 MT device in a suitcase?
Submitted by brainwipe on Mon, 2009-02-16 13:55
Indeed.
Its worth pointing out that Nuclear War the game has thoroughly skewed my (and more than a few others) estimation of the size of nukes.
The largest nuke made was, I believe, about 5MT, being half the smallest in the game ;)
Submitted by byrn on Mon, 2009-02-16 13:59
It's the sort of hyperbole that makes me want to garotte the 'peace organisations'. They really need a realistic view of things, rather than resorting to this sort of madness.
Submitted by brainwipe on Mon, 2009-02-16 14:02
The largest nuke ever made (according to wiki :D ) is the Tsar Bomba device which delivered 50MT and 210,000TJ it weighed 24000kg and was deliberately limited in it's power to reduce fallout in it's full form it was designed to able to produce a 100MT blast. Even at 50MT that's equivalent to ten times the amount of all the explosives used in World War II combined, including the Little Boy and Fat Man, the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Of course it's not a very practical weapon and much of it's terrible energy went up but bombs of the time were big and heavy and still deployed by bomber so bigger is better was the order of the day.
Supposedly the biggest american bomb in active service is 1.2 megatonnes
Submitted by Evilmatt on Mon, 2009-02-16 14:27
Did you look that up or was that off the top of your head, EMW? I would not put it past you being off the top of your head!
Submitted by brainwipe on Mon, 2009-02-16 14:35
Strangely I was watching the video of the Tsar Bomba on YouTube last week. Didn't know it's overall size, but did know it was the biggest one ever set off. I think I was watching films of firework factories on fire initially, and it sort of just escalated...
Methinks these submarine captains have been playing too much BF1942!
Submitted by babychaos on Mon, 2009-02-16 14:37
I went through a period where I was arguing with someone about antimatter and how powerful even a small amount was I kept the wiki "Nuclear Weapon Yields" page on speed dial for that purpose
Submitted by Evilmatt on Mon, 2009-02-16 14:41
Someone monitoring my search keywords will be fairly confused a mix of using google as a spell checker and things like "Nuclear Weapon Yields" "Relativistic Kill Vehicle" "Kinetic Harpoons" "Flechette weapons" "SCMITR" "Magnetorheological fluid" "Electron drift speed" "Equations for rocket propulsion" "Smart Materials" "Pulse Jet operation" "A* Algorithm" and that's just in the last week.
Submitted by Evilmatt on Mon, 2009-02-16 14:51
It's going to come as no surprise if Evilmatt disappears for 28 days
Submitted by fish on Mon, 2009-02-16 15:00
And then Paris disappears.
Submitted by brainwipe on Mon, 2009-02-16 15:21
Not this weekend please. Wait till I'm back in blighty if you'd be so good.
Comments
Indeed. The reg has a good peice on exactly that topic.
After a quick skim of the Reg - they state the obvious, which is ok because the rest of the press have seemed to miss it. I like the comments from others in the BBC article:
'The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament described the collision as "a nuclear nightmare of the highest order".'
Eh? If that's what causes them nightmares, then what about an extremist suicidal wandering into the centre of Paris with a dirty 1 MT device in a suitcase?
Indeed.
Its worth pointing out that Nuclear War the game has thoroughly skewed my (and more than a few others) estimation of the size of nukes.
The largest nuke made was, I believe, about 5MT, being half the smallest in the game ;)
It's the sort of hyperbole that makes me want to garotte the 'peace organisations'. They really need a realistic view of things, rather than resorting to this sort of madness.
The largest nuke ever made (according to wiki :D ) is the Tsar Bomba device which delivered 50MT and 210,000TJ it weighed 24000kg and was deliberately limited in it's power to reduce fallout in it's full form it was designed to able to produce a 100MT blast. Even at 50MT that's equivalent to ten times the amount of all the explosives used in World War II combined, including the Little Boy and Fat Man, the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Of course it's not a very practical weapon and much of it's terrible energy went up but bombs of the time were big and heavy and still deployed by bomber so bigger is better was the order of the day.
Supposedly the biggest american bomb in active service is 1.2 megatonnes
Did you look that up or was that off the top of your head, EMW? I would not put it past you being off the top of your head!
Strangely I was watching the video of the Tsar Bomba on YouTube last week. Didn't know it's overall size, but did know it was the biggest one ever set off. I think I was watching films of firework factories on fire initially, and it sort of just escalated...
Methinks these submarine captains have been playing too much BF1942!
I went through a period where I was arguing with someone about antimatter and how powerful even a small amount was I kept the wiki "Nuclear Weapon Yields" page on speed dial for that purpose
Someone monitoring my search keywords will be fairly confused a mix of using google as a spell checker and things like "Nuclear Weapon Yields" "Relativistic Kill Vehicle" "Kinetic Harpoons" "Flechette weapons" "SCMITR" "Magnetorheological fluid" "Electron drift speed" "Equations for rocket propulsion" "Smart Materials" "Pulse Jet operation" "A* Algorithm" and that's just in the last week.
It's going to come as no surprise if Evilmatt disappears for 28 days
And then Paris disappears.
Not this weekend please. Wait till I'm back in blighty if you'd be so good.