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What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

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Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#41

Post by michaelcampbell »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #20
andirk wrote: post #16

My dad said they would do air raid drills in elementary school (50's, 60's) due to the fear of a nuclear attack. They were taught to get under their desks.

Apparently getting under their desks was on the off-chance their school is far enough away to avoid being incinerated but still close enough for a pressure wave to blow out all the glass in the windows and turn it into projectiles.

I went to school in the 70's and _we_ had no such drills, but being in tornado alley, plenty of those.

That said, I suspect these drills were more for theatre, like most of the TSA is now - put up a big visible show that you're doing _something_.

Reasonable people can disagree.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#42

Post by stareatgoats »

ravi-delia wrote: post #31
stareatgoats wrote: post #18

The site is down so I can only speculate what it recommends. Whatever it is, I suspect it is not a list of suggestions for how to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. Because that is simply not in vogue. It seems we must all accept as something inevitable to have the specter of millions dead, if not billions, if not life as we know it, hanging over our heads for time eternal. Because we as humans are seemingly only en…

It takes literally 0 imagination to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. A handful of people in the entire world need not to do something extremely stupid. They can leave their special keys at home, overwrite the codes with baseball scores in their mind, and no nuclear apocalypse will happen. The fact that this has not happened is not due to a failure of imagination. That doesn't mean the reason is good, obviously, bu…

> you haven't presented a solution any single person can work with either- perhaps it is a difficult problem.

Exactly; it's a tough problem. Much as I admire my own intellect [/s], I hardly think I can come up with a solution by myself, no. If we were an "army of millions" who were thinking hard about the problem then we would have sporting chance I think - but we are not that many (which, again, is frankly baffling).

Other than that, for the record I don't believe this is a problem of morons vs intelligent people. Political leaders, leaders of the military, and the others that we might want to point fingers at in this context are probably highly intelligent. It's just that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The initiative likely needs to come from people that are not already mired in the system.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#43

Post by CamperBob2 »

function_seven wrote: post #13
recursivedoubts wrote: post #4

Controversial take, but I'm going to be pretty upset if there is a global thermonuclear war and we all die, I am not going to sugar coat it.

My entire financial planning model is founded on a lack of global thermonuclear war. Now I need to figure out what to short so I can take advantage of this black swan event? Eh, this is good for crypto.

My entire financial planning model is founded on a lack of global thermonuclear war

That's funny, my financial planning model is founded on the opposite premise.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#44

Post by mistermann »

ravi-delia wrote: post #31
stareatgoats wrote: post #18

The site is down so I can only speculate what it recommends. Whatever it is, I suspect it is not a list of suggestions for how to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. Because that is simply not in vogue. It seems we must all accept as something inevitable to have the specter of millions dead, if not billions, if not life as we know it, hanging over our heads for time eternal. Because we as humans are seemingly only en…

It takes literally 0 imagination to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. A handful of people in the entire world need not to do something extremely stupid. They can leave their special keys at home, overwrite the codes with baseball scores in their mind, and no nuclear apocalypse will happen. The fact that this has not happened is not due to a failure of imagination. That doesn't mean the reason is good, obviously, bu…

> It takes literally 0 imagination to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. A handful of people in the entire world need not to do something extremely stupid. They can leave their special keys at home, overwrite the codes with baseball scores in their mind, and no nuclear apocalypse will happen. The fact that this has not happened is not due to a failure of imagination. That doesn't mean the reason is good, obviously, but doesn't the idea that we should be blaming a pdf seem a little silly to you?

Have you a gameplan to cause this possible series of actions to manifest in physical reality with zero chance of failure?

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#46

Post by CamperBob2 »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #20
andirk wrote: post #16

My dad said they would do air raid drills in elementary school (50's, 60's) due to the fear of a nuclear attack. They were taught to get under their desks.

Apparently getting under their desks was on the off-chance their school is far enough away to avoid being incinerated but still close enough for a pressure wave to blow out all the glass in the windows and turn it into projectiles.

Do the math. There's a damned good chance that you are, in fact, in the zone where duck-and-cover survival measures are effective.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#47

Post by mistermann »

HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #39
stareatgoats wrote: post #18

The site is down so I can only speculate what it recommends. Whatever it is, I suspect it is not a list of suggestions for how to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. Because that is simply not in vogue. It seems we must all accept as something inevitable to have the specter of millions dead, if not billions, if not life as we know it, hanging over our heads for time eternal. Because we as humans are seemingly only en…

What’s your alternative? Everyone agreeing to sit round the campfire, hold hands and sing kumbaya? You can’t possibly be this naive. There’s something uniquely frustrating about seeing somebody like you, who has a completely naive and childlike worldview, assuming that YOU are just a genius and everyone else is an idiot.

> There’s something uniquely frustrating about seeing somebody like you, who has a completely naive and childlike worldview, assuming that YOU are just a genius and everyone else is an idiot.

Also frustrating:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_realism_(psychology...

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#48

Post by Sakos »

zwieback wrote: post #37
scarecrowbob wrote: post #3

This reminded me of the better documentary films I have seen, The Atomic Cafe (1982). It is a well-crafted film, with a neat-o formal technique of only using found footage/ audio to describe the history of US atomic-age propaganda. More interestingly to me, it offers a useful commentary about the contradictions between the use of media to present nuclear wars a survivable and possibly necessary event but simultaneous…

I remember Atomic Cafe, when it came out it was pretty popular in Germany, where I grew up. At the time we were assuming we'd be the first to go, being right between the two big atomic powers. Everyone I knew back then assumed there's really nothing you could do, though.

Back then, it was considered acceptable to use tactical nukes to slow or prevent Russian military advancing on Europe. Crazy times.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#49

Post by ge96 »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #4

Controversial take, but I'm going to be pretty upset if there is a global thermonuclear war and we all die, I am not going to sugar coat it.

Yeah I just got a good job too

Just sucks thinking about starting over, try to make RISC V out of sticks.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#50

Post by baybal2 »

themeiguoren wrote: post #33

I find it almost satirical that a guide on an imminent nuclear disaster is a 13-page pdf of dense text. If the producers of this guide are serious about their mission, this needs to be condensed into a flowchart with short statements and plenty of pictures that can be absorbed quickly. More detailed info can be tacked on the end, but some bolded statements in the middle of a wall of words is not how you communicate i…

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