Very helpful advice
My interest in the general news has waned somewhat.
I usually check the BBC site to see if Putin has gone nuclear yet, but today they seem to be more interested in New Zealand politics. Strangely enough RTE also seem to be fixated on New Zealand. The Journal is a bit more down to earth with the announcement that Argos are shutting down all their Irish shops.
But there is always The Daily Mail!
This has become a bit of a morbid fascination for me as I glance through its headlines. Not for it the problems in New Zealand or even the war in Ukraine. The current headline is about some couple torturing their kids. Needless to say there is a batch of links each of which seems to involve bodies or swimwear or some “celebrity” I have never heard of. Nevertheless, it does occasionally come up with an interesting article.
One such article was “How to survive a nuclear explosion“.
This intrigued me as being a child of the mid [last] century I have survived the Cuban Missile Crisis and all that and the message at the time was to remove a door from its hinges, to lean that door against a wall and hide underneath it. So what, I wondered, is the current advice?
For a start, I am going to be vapourised which is fine. I have nothing against instantaneous death – it avoids a slow one. But then I’m told that the next danger is the shock wave. This will spread out at supersonic speeds to flatten everything in its path. Apparently I have to avoid doors and windows to survive this. I pondered this little nugget [produced by Scientists, no less, with accompanying graphic videos]. I’m sorry but I have some problems with their research.
Suppose a bomb hits Dublin? This is extremely unlikely as it’s hardly a strategic target, but anyway the intervening hills should provide some lessening of the shock wave. The only target that might cause concern would be the nuking of Skobieville. I can imagine that would be welcomed by many but I would indeed be in the direct path of the wave from there.
However…
The bomb goes off. There is a brilliant flash. What is my first reaction? Would it be “holy shit, it’s a nuclear blast”? I would imagine it would far more be “what the fuck was that“? And while I am wondering what could have caused such a flash my train of thought may indeed arrive at a nuclear explosion. But then of course I would go into denial. “Nah! It couldn’t be”. Maybe then I would remember the article in the Daily Mail and wonder where would be the best place to hide.
But of course you will have spotted the flaw?
By the time I am fractionally into the above train of thought, the blast wave will have silently arrived and cut me to shreds with flying glass and block work.
It’s nice to know what happened?
Net curtains hanging a foot of so below window sill with little lead weights stitched all along the bottom edge.
All the pollies have them. And not just hide their hanky panky.
I doubt that net curtains would stand much chance against a nuclear shock wave. Maybe if they were made of half inch steel bars knitted together?
Assuming you’re still alive you wouldn’t need to worry about your servers & websites – the EMP will have fried them! I remember reading a long time ago that one of the few creatures almost certain to survive nuclear Armageddon were Cockroaches…
I doubt I would be worried about servers or the Interwebs. I’d have other things on my mind.
I read somewhere that if just two nuclear devices were detonated at high altitude over the States that the EMP would be enough to fry all electronics and electrical systems, literally rendering the States powerless..
“I’d have other things on my mind.”
Agreed; first and foremost, where are my pilers? How the hell am I going to prop a door up to take cover behind if I can’t get the damned hinge pins out?