US strategy was precisely putting a small bomb where you wanted it to be.
USSR strategy was to make a bomb big enough that you just had to get it sort of near your target...
US strategy was precisely putting a small bomb where you wanted it to be.
USSR strategy was to make a bomb big enough that you just had to get it sort of near your target...
some where out there is a really cool slow motion video of a nukyouler 'splosion from up close. i think i saw it on a Discovery Channel show not too long ago, so it's gotta be out on teh internets..
according to that show, one neat offshoot of the nuclear arms race was the development of cameras that could record the nuclear explosions at thousands of frames per second.. so every cool slow motion effect you've ever seen in a movie was made possible by the nuclear arms race of the cold war, which of course made it all worthwhile.
Knurled wrote: US strategy was precisely putting a small bomb where you wanted it to be. USSR strategy was to make a bomb big enough that you just had to get it sort of near your target...
sometimes the sledgehammer method works well
novaderrik wrote: some where out there is a really cool slow motion video of a nukyouler 'splosion from up close. i think i saw it on a Discovery Channel show not too long ago, so it's gotta be out on teh internets.. according to that show, one neat offshoot of the nuclear arms race was the development of cameras that could record the nuclear explosions at thousands of frames per second.. so every cool slow motion effect you've ever seen in a movie was made possible by the nuclear arms race of the cold war, which of course made it all worthwhile.
There was a thread on here a while ago about photographing lightning- He bought the nuke camera for scrap value and updated it to digital from 35mm. Very cool article a couple of months ago in National Geographic. The camera originally had a bunch of film cameras all firing sequentially. Analog engineering at its finest.
I don't really have anything to add, but if you are ever in Las Vegas, a few blocks off the strip there is the Atomic Testing Museum. Interesting place to spend a few hours.
http://www.atomictestingmuseum.org/hours.php
novaderrik wrote: according to that show, one neat offshoot of the nuclear arms race was the development of cameras that could record the nuclear explosions at thousands of frames per second.. so every cool slow motion effect you've ever seen in a movie was made possible by the nuclear arms race of the cold war, which of course made it all worthwhile.
Integrated circuits were invented to meet a government call for a solution to connection problems in ICBMs.
Knurled wrote: US strategy was precisely putting a small bomb where you wanted it to be. USSR strategy was to make a bomb big enough that you just had to get it sort of near your target...
US Nuke strategy was to build a nuke for every target, we ran out of targets so we stopped building more nukes.
USSR Nuke strategy was to build more nukes...
Hence:
imirk wrote: USSR Nuke strategy was to build more nukes...
Step 1: Irradiate entire country
Step 2: Winnar
The0retical wrote: I always thought Starfish Prime was an interesting example of weird during the 60's. Knocking out satellites and creating man made radiation belts.Toured Pima Air Museum this weekend (impressive and well worth it if anyone is ever nearby.) The B-36 that's fully restored was cool and another perfect example of how strange that era had to be to live through.
Yeah, it was. One of the crazy things was how differently adults & kids viewed it. I really think the Cold War was the reason behind the big social changes worldwide during the 60s-70s.
I was a kid, but a pretty precocious one. Oddly enough, a lot of us who were into science & technology were pretty stoked by the pace of technological advance (moon landings, anyone?), but damn scared of a nuclear war. I seriously think a lot of the original Punk Rock movement was folks my age saying "Shove it all, we're all berkeleyed anyway..". I still recall me & my ol' Punk buddies talking about the fall of the Soviet Union. Most of the conversation was, "Holy E36 M3! We were wrong, we're gonna survive after all!! Now we have to worry about all that housing & retirement crap like our parents did!" 
Yeah, it sounds ridiculous now, but that's how we felt. I can't recall who mentioned it (MrJoshua, perhaps?), but there really was a lot of discussion about how far away from the blasts & the injuries, and what would be left after "the war". As teenagers, we talked about driving to a city center or military base when politics got tense so that we'd be instantly incinerated instead of having to put up with what would be left over afterwards.
Apologies for the old guy barf-fest. IMO, the best books about life during the Cold War have yet to be written.
This is always fun, determining how far the blast radius would be if a nuke dropped on your house.
http://www.carloslabs.com/node/20
fastbmw wrote: This is always fun, determining how far the blast radius would be if a nuke dropped on your house. http://www.carloslabs.com/node/20
More Cold War fun:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/09/18/161338723/u-s-explodes-atomic-bombs-near-beers-to-see-if-they-are-safe-to-drink?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20120903
In reply to friedgreencorrado:
Outstanding! I'm already under doctor's orders to drink beer (history of kidney stones), now I have a reason to really stock up.
Since we actually started the Civil War, War Between the States or whatever you wanna call it, the US government thought it prudent to give us Sandlappers a little reminder of who won that war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Bluff,_South_Carolina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gu9ZjAdaFQ
Curmudgeon wrote: Since we actually started the Civil War, War Between the States or whatever you wanna call it, the US government thought it prudent to give us Sandlappers a little reminder of who won that war.
I though y'all referred to it as The War of Northern Aggression ...
Duke wrote:Curmudgeon wrote: Since we actually started the Civil War, War Between the States or whatever you wanna call it, the US government thought it prudent to give us Sandlappers a little reminder of who won that war.I though y'all referred to it as *The War of Northern Aggression* ...
We did, and the the bastards dropped that thing and the one off Tybee as warnings... 
Duke wrote:Curmudgeon wrote: Since we actually started the Civil War, War Between the States or whatever you wanna call it, the US government thought it prudent to give us Sandlappers a little reminder of who won that war.I though y'all referred to it as *The War of Northern Aggression* ...
Wait, its over? Based on my past experiences, someone needs to stop in and inform the good citizens of South Carolina.
In reply to Curmudgeon (re:Mars Bluff):
So the lenses went off when it hit the ground? No wonder they always flew with the cores removed. Wild stuff.
In reply to kazoospec:
Shhhh. No tellin' what the hell they'll drop next time!
FGC, yeah that's the only reason the damn thing didn't turn half of SC into a radioactive swamp. It's already a swamp, it just would have glowed in the dark. The TNT trigger made a helluva bang, though.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/mk6.htm
Come to think of it, that's not the only warning drop:
http://newspaperarchive.com/aiken-standard/1988-07-03/page-52
The traffic circle in Saluda, SC was mistaken for a bombing target in 1944. My mom's family is from that area and my grandmother still remembered that clearly right up to her death.
The Columbia airport started as an Army Air Force training base and was later converted to civilian use. Doolittle's Raiders trained there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid
http://www.doolittleraider.com/
friedgreencorrado wrote: In reply to Curmudgeon (re:Mars Bluff): So the lenses went off when it hit the ground? No wonder they always flew with the cores removed. Wild stuff.
No. Not always. Many, many flew hot.
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