Nuclear bomb


Ground Zero- who shall we nuke today

This Google Maps mashup allows you to drop various sizes of nuclear device (or an asteroid) on the city of your choice. The damage at various radii are then added to the map.

These are generic, obviously. The script’s author admits that terrain, detonation height and other factors would affect damage in reality, but it gives you an idea.

via io9


We’ll be searching for the people that never never went to war

Submarines in the harbour
incognito
Submarines of your dreams
not mine
The red red sky
must take the price
For giving to the people
who never never go to war

We’re glad it’s all over
We’re glad it’s all over
We’re glad it’s all over
We’re glad it’s all over

Hidden tunnels
secret items
guarded fences
Planet earth
resting ground
right now
The blue blue moon
knows that soon
We’ll be searching for the people
that never never went to war

We’re glad it’s all over
We’re glad it’s all over

The red red sky
must take the price
The red red sky
is giving to the people
that never never go to war

We’re glad it’s all over
We’re glad it´s all over
We’re glad it’´s all over…

Captain Sensible – Glad It’s All Over

The NRDC Archive of Nuclear Data


Nuclear CSI

With the right mobile equipment, nuclear detectives could sift through the debris and the radioactive cloud of an attack in this country or elsewhere and quickly glean crucial information, the scientists argued in a 60-page report discussed Feb. 16 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

The report, Nuclear Forensics: Role, State of the Art, Program Needs, was written by a joint working group of the AAAS and the American Physical Society.

Using radiochemistry techniques and access to proposed international databases that include actual samples of uranium and plutonium from around the world, the nuclear investigators might be able to tell the president – and the world – where the bomb fuel came from, or at least rule out some suspects.

“Nuclear forensics can make a difference,” May said in an interview.

Fascinating stuff. Nuclear forensics was a key part of The Sum Of All Fears (the book, anyway, I’m trying to forget the film) but, the scientists assert, that sort of expertise has disappeared since the end of the Cold War. More here.