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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Release so much energy in an instant that it literally ignites the atmosphere, initiating a global firestorm that scours all life from the surface. The science behind this is dubious.
I've always wondered about this. Igniting the atmosphere is such a ludicrously over-the-top idea that I'm curious if it's actually possible. What kind of temperature would you need to accomplish such an extreme feat?
Long story short, the primary defense we have against nuclear war with Russia is the same defense we had against nuclear war with the Soviet Union: the simple fact that nobody wins a nuclear war and everybody except Donald Trump knows that.
Putin is evil, not stupid.
The Nuclear Holocaust is something that's honestly not worth worrying about. It's about as likely to happen as getting hit by a planet-killing meteor, and you have about as much ability to stop it as the meteor too. If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen and there ain't nothing your worrying can do to change that. But it's probably not gonna happen anyway. So why worry?
Tomorrow, a volcano could erupt under Yellowstone and bury us all in magma and ash. But I bet you it won't. If I'm wrong and we all die tomorrow, then I owe you a Coke.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 1st 2019 at 8:31:27 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.So, Brooker is running now? I remember thinking that he was going to run, and then he seemed to go relatively silent when candidates started jumping it.
Well, if anything, these next few days may prove insightful as to which issues he'll focus on and where his general strengths and weaknesses are.
The awful things he says and does are burned into our cultural consciousness like a CRT display left on the same picture too long. -FighteerOk, so Im old enough to remember the days when the US and the USSR had short and medium range nuclear missiles pointing at each other across the East/West German border. The reason this had everyone worried was that in the event of a Soviet invasion, there was a high risk that the theater NATO commander would use those nukes to protect his troops and stop the invasion. It was thought that there was a good likelihood that WWIII would escalate from there to include the entire globe. So both sides signed the INF treaty in order to descalate tensions and make it less likely that a confrontation across the border would go nuclear.
These days the situation has changed. Russia isnt poised to invade Europe anymore, so the need for us to deploy short to medium range missiles over there has mostly disappeared. Russia uses them to intimidate its other neighbors, like China or Pakistan. By withdrawing from the treaty, we are mostly just acknowledging reality. The real danger comes from the US side, because now we have an excuse to play brinksmanship and deploy our own missiles, which would ratchet up tensions again without serving any real military purpose. Poland, for example, might be happy to host a battery of American nukes.
Edited by DeMarquis on Feb 1st 2019 at 10:44:42 AM
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.That was a concern since the Manhatan Project IIRC. The chances were less than 3 in a million of that happening with the first atomic bombs, anything higher and the project would not go forward.
At this point, I think developing bigger stockpiles of stronger nukes in nations that already have them is just dick-measuring. We're already across the apocalypse threshold. What else matters?
"My bombs can wipe out human civilization."
"Yeah? Well, mine can wipe it out harder!"
"Mine can wipe it out three times over!"
"MINE can wipe it out SEVEN times over! Yeah, anyone who survives the first six nuclear holocausts, they're totally gonna get it in the seventh!"
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Sort of an aside, but one of the suggested resolutions to the Fermi Paradox
is that there is a Great Filter ahead of us that weeds out nearly all civilizations before they can achieve interstellar travel or reach Type II status in their own solar system. One of these filters is self-destruction: all intelligent species discover technology that is able to wipe them out before they reach the wisdom to use it maturely.
Put another way: at some point everyone figures out nukes, or antimatter, or black holes, or Grey Goo, or something similarly destructive, and then some madman pushes the button that deploys it on themselves, and poof, another failed species. We may be just another statistic. Depressing, but at least it presents the possibility that we might be the one species that figures out how not to commit suicide.
Edited by Fighteer on Feb 1st 2019 at 12:00:32 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I really don't like Booker, he's a supporter of Charter schools has previously spoken at events hosted by DeVos)
Charter schools are a travesty that are only good for affluent households and advocating for them is nothing more than advancing the interests of the aforementioned group at the expense of everyone else. I don't know or especially care if Booker is well-intentioned or not, it's a bad position and not one that makes me especially inclined towards the idea of his candidacy.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangThat's veering off topic. My point is that the existence of people like Trump and those who support him makes me increasingly doubtful that we are capable of reaching the necessary level of species maturity not to dance under dangling swords that we put there ourselves.
I'd rather not have nukes at all than give control over them to that idiot, and we've now proven that we will gleefully do exactly that. We'll charge into the abyss with an enthusiastic cheer when some charismatic moron says he'll stick it to the hated [liberals/Mexicans/Jews/whatever].
Edited by Fighteer on Feb 1st 2019 at 12:05:52 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"The saving grace is that there are sensible people in charge of the actual firing decisions, who would hopefully not accept a first-strike order from President Cheeto, but I really wish we didn't have to place our trust in such flimsy barriers.
To be clear, I don't believe we're going to get into a nuclear war with Russia. If we were to get into a major conflict, though, I have zero confidence that it would be handled competently by the current administration.
Edited by Fighteer on Feb 1st 2019 at 12:09:03 PM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"> Ironically nuclear weapons being so dangerous is their saving grace as well. If they weren’t so dangerous we would have used them already.
Well technically they've been multiple times,twice in war and countless nuclear tests
But yeah,they're too dangerus to use which makes them the best deterrent on hand against a full scale war
have a listen and have a link to my discord serverWhat was that old movie with the guy in the cowboy hat who cheers and rides a nuclear bomb down to his own destruction?
Because that's humanity.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

Honestly, one of the great failurs of the Democratic party was Al trying to be a gentleman for what he thought was a fair loss.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 1st 2019 at 6:00:53 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.