Comments on: How I Learnt To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (Kinda)

By: Aubade

Aubade — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:21:33 +0000

I made a wordle of all these crazy comments – my first wordle ever!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5512852/Nuclear_Bombs

By: Aubade

Aubade — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:20:22 +0000

I made a wordle of all these crazy comments. (my first wordle ever - don't laugh!)

By: Aubade

Aubade — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:13:55 +0000

This infographic is *awesome*. Warts and all. Just look at all the discussion it generated.

I feel like I just read 100 or so Phil K. Dick short stories. WIN.

By: Boo

Boo — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:05:14 +0000

To all the posters who believe the radioactive fallout will exterminate humanity I’d like to point out that over 2 million people are living in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki today. There is evidence for long term negative health effects but nothing on a civilization ending scale.

By: Kevin Hall

Kevin Hall — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:57:00 +0000

It’s been calculated several times over (Doomsday, War Plan UK, etc) that it would only take a fairly small percentage of existing nuclear stockpiles to cause such systemic failures that mankind would cease to be the dominant species on this planet. You really don’t need to target every human being with a weapon or devastate the entire planet’s surface. Concentrate on primary infrastructure, agriculture and energy and human society would be devastated.

By: G Scott

G Scott — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:21:02 +0000

I had a similar (but less, er, “graphic,” and merely private) epiphany a long while ago, and appreciate seeing others follow the same trail. What you’ve done here is awesome, nevermind the flames you’ve received. I get that arriving at this conclusion doesn’t mean you want to have a warhead from an SS-18 land on your country.

I’d love to see the follow-up on radiation, because I suspect it would also be illuminating. It’d be bad, but I suspect there’s a lot of overblown rhetoric about how long it would remain bad. The conventional image of the Earth being a lifeless cinder half its original weight (or of the actual whole physical planet being totally destroyed several times over, which some people take literally) has messed with a lot of heads.

Then again, maybe the hysterics are a good thing. I watch people shrug at fire drills, earthquake drills, tornado warnings. But tell them a nuke might hit, and suddenly they’re stockpiling water and digging a hole. Maybe the hyperbole is good for survival instincts.

By: Mr Reese

Mr Reese — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:18:56 +0000

Well, I’ve just come back from your future and apparently it’s a company called “skynet” who start the war.

Does anyone here know of a Sarah Connor? It’s paramount that I find her, so I’ve been told. Thanks.

By: Lex N

Lex N — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:59:38 +0000

B83 is the heaviest bomb currently employed by US. Other countries may have heavier bombs. Keep in mind though that twice the yield does not equate to twice the damage. A clusterbomb of nuclear bombs with a total of X yield would be more efficient than a single bomb of X yield. And today arsenal reflect this fact. Feel free to look it up on wiki for example.

By: Lex N

Lex N — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:54:10 +0000

Honestly this is vastly inaccurate. You fail to consider quite a few considerations. You would obtain a better estimate if you would create a computer model, with weather patterns spreading fallout, contaminating water, and thus form the basis for your hypothesis. A fair assumption is that the major cities get struck first. And thus fallout would spread in the surrounding area depending on weather. Any excess nuclear devices could then strike at blind spots not covered by lethal fallout and thus wipe out food and water supply. The humans that would survive the initial blast would die from radiation poisoning, or from hunger and thirst. Maybe someone would survive, possibly, but the human race at large would be devastated. And this is even disregarding the hypothetical nuclear winter – that would vastly worsening the conditions for any hypothetically surviving humans.

By: Savannah

Savannah — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:45:16 +0000

Ah, nice to see an optimist trying to reassure people instead of send them into a panic for once. Thank you for that