| A giant yawn is generally the reaction of most folks when you talk about survival in light of a coming nuclear conflict. Either they explain that they’d rather not live in a post apocalyptic world, or they have just burned out on the fear porn generated after 911 about suitcase nukes. This 1984 video from Iron Maiden shows you that not only has the world been in fear of a stolen nuke in the hands of terrorists since Ronald Reagan times, there are also tons of Illuminati symbols and inferences in this video that would ravel Miley Cyrus and the Kardashians. Does anyone think Iron Maiden is part of the cabal planning our destruction? Sometimes you have to laugh, but at the same time, according to current evidence, a good radiation meter is probably prudent. |
Buy NUKalert-ER:
Direct From Shane Connor $750 (scroll down)
$749 on Amazon with free Prime shipping.
Resources:
Good News About Nuclear Destruction
What to Do if a Nuclear Disaster is Imminent.
Free PDF Books:
Nuclear War Surival Skills (30 megabytes)
Key Response Factors in the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism (11 megabytes)
I find it shocking that the least popular articles in this series are always about the threat of nuclear war. Because from a purely survival standpoint, nuclear war is the only scenario that will most likely result in the actual post apocalyptic society for which we are all preparing, a society in which survival will truly be of the fittest, and of the most prepared. Nuclear war is also the most likely scenario of where our current international disaster is headed, and I’m not saying this to be alarmist. If you look around the world right now, clashes are ramping out of control in nearly ever corner of the globe. World currencies are competing for who can devalue themselves the quickest, because of un-repayable debt, and America is being shut out of world trade deals, because everyone but Americans now understand that our reign is over. If you were an American power broker, wouldn’t you say it’s about time to pop a nuke or two and get the world back in line with American values?
It kind of makes you feel stupid to think that in 1984 the same fear porn was playing that we have experienced since 911.
Nonetheless, most people don’t think any of that is going to happen. It is hard to even get people to spend a lousy $6.99 on a pack of potassium iodide tablets on Amazon. So for this article, which is actually a review of a $750 radiation meter, I decided that we should talk a little bit about the famous “Doomsday Clock” first, to frame the argument of whether a $750 purchase in the interest of nuclear war survival is prudent, or silly. Three minutes to midnight is the time of the “official” Doomsday Clock going into 2015. But two new developments I would argue, have brought the clock to at least 2 minutes to midnight. The clock itself is actually a joke since its University of Chicago maintainers, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, added the farce known as “global warming” or “climate change” to their calculations in 2007, but for our purposes, the clock is a great place to start. If you look into the the Wikipedia on the Doomsday Clock, the last real event that moved the clock was North Korea’s test of an atomic bomb in October of 2006. That followed a 2002 bump in the clock for a sudden post 911 fear porn revelation that there were a whole bunch of nukes that had been lost over the years, and that could be in the hands of those dreaded terrorists. The clock and the thinking behind it completely ignores the fact that the US is the only country that has ever fired an atomic bomb in anger, and I think we are the most likely to do it again, first.
| This US missile launch came from nowhere, and barely registered in the mainstream media, but it was a very clear warning to the rest of the world that the US still has nukes that work, and that we can hit anyplace in the world. |
That was demonstrated for all to see just a few weeks ago, and it was one event I think has driven us closer to seeing those nukes fly. On March 23rd the US launched a Minuteman III missile, for no apparent reason, thousands of miles away from it’s launch base in California. The missile of course wasn’t tipped with a nuclear warhead, but it sent a very clear message, and the powers that be were not shy about sharing its purpose. This was the statement:
“A lot of work and preparation goes in to an operational test launch from the teams on both bases,” said Lt. Col. Tytonia Moore, the task force commander for the 90th MW. “With these launches, we not only verify our processes and the ICBM weapon system, we provide a visual to the world that the Minuteman III is capable of striking pretty much anywhere with extreme precision.”
As we explained in our last article on radiation meters, not all meters are created alike. Your standard geiger counter that is made to monitor your travel through Chernobyl, or to track radiation from Fukushima. In dangerous radiation levels those meters lock up, and we proved it with the meter from the first article in this series. The NUKalert-ER combines a low level meter, a high level meter, a dosimeter and a rate/dose alarm in one gadget. It also has a sleep function that allows you to stretch battery life for months with brief “on” period to monitor current radiation. The directions are excellent.
Excuse me? Was that an overt threat that if you piss us off enough we are going to toast your ass to kingdom come? This comes on the heels of not only the conflict in Ukraine, but also amid the complete abandonment by our allies flocking a new banking system started by the Chinese and the Russians (Google Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). Scary stuff.
Add to that a second somewhat huge event. Saudi Arabia (the country currently toasting some asses in Yemen), reacted to our somewhat flaky and scattered quasi-deal with Iran with their own threats. It made it very clear that the Kingdom would be seeking it’s own weapons of mass destruction if the US allowed the sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program to be dropped”
“If a deal is seen as giving Iran something that is not expected, it will become the new international standard and clearly other countries, including Saudi Arabia, will seek the same. It’s why we’re so concerned,” said a diplomat in Riyadh.
The BBC reported in 2013 that the Saudis had plenty of hooks into Pakistan’s nuclear program and could get nukes whenever they wanted, so most likely they already have them.
We can always count on those Arabs to be level headed though, so nothing to worry about right?
Radiation deteriorates very quickly after an explosion, but the fallout can be carried thousands of miles, creating hot spots for about a week after the blast. This image is from Nuclear War Survival Skills, that you can download and it is 30 megabytes.
So why are people so lackadaisical about the threat of nuclear war? I think there are two reasons. One is that we have been taught that nuclear war is unsurvivable. Back in the 1980s there was a movie called “The Day After” that taught an entire generation that post nuke world would not be worth living in. How many times have you heard your parents say “well I wouldn’t want to live in a world like that anyway. I’d rather die”? We were brainwashed by Carl Sagan and the mainstream media to believe that nuclear war was unsurvivable, and it was a bunch of hogwash. We have linked before to Shane Connor’s article “The Good News About Nuclear Destruction,” and it is a good read, but even beyond the facts there, I would argue that no matter what, in the moment, when there is a flash in the distance, you will want to survive. What more is there to ask?
The NUKalert-ER has a lot of completely unique features, including extremely robust software to monitor radiation on your computer.
The other reason that our eyes glaze over when anyone mentions nuclear war is that it just hasn’t happened yet, despite decades of fear porn. I myself have come to question everything that the government tells us or has told us since Pearl Harbor, so for all I know we don’t even have the nukes that would be capable of destroying the world, but like all of you, I have to go on the assumption that we do. But we have been hearing about our imminent destruction now since the Doomsday Clock first started up in 1947. I have embedded the Iron Maiden video “2 Minutes to Midnight” here in this article, and unless you have an aversion to hard rock, I strongly suggest you watch it. Check out the “Illuminati” symbolism in it, the ram’s head, the eye, the hieroglyphics. And of course the premise of the song is that there is a plan to lay waste to us all. Missiles appear in the video several times, and there is a headline about missing missiles. Sound familiar?
You can also upload your data to the NUKalert website as a public service for long term radiation monitoring. This is a screencap of the current map, and as you can see a handful of people are already logged in.
So let’s get on to the product at hand here, the $750 NukeAlert ER. Here is where I have to ask you to slow down a little and maybe read or at least scan both my first article on a DIY radiation meter, and my more recent and important article on buying and calibrating a CDV radiation meter. Everything in that second article still holds true in light of this $750 gadget. There are two types of radiation meters. One is very sensitive and can be used to monitor background radiation, and to test things for radiation contamination. This is the type of meter from the first DIY article, and all of those meters, from $25 to $500, blank out when the radiation level gets to even a fraction of really dangerous, at around 100 mR/hr. We actually sent our DIY to Shane to see if it actually blanked out, and it did. For low level radiation those meters are great, especially for testing food and water for contamination. But the dangerous thing is that they will blank out and either die or show a low level when the radiation suddenly spikes after a nuclear explosion or power station meltdown.
This is the upload data screen in the free software.
The other type of meters, primarily the CDV meters from the second article, known as a “survey meter,” are less sensitive and can’t be used to measure lower levels, but they hold up when the radiation gets to dangerous levels. The yellow CDV-715/717 meters without the silver Geiger tube wand are meant for high levels of radiation, and as explained in that last article, you can buy one on Ebay and ship it to Shane Connor for calibration for well under $200.
Neither of those can be used as a radiation alarm, so several years ago Shane Connor at KI4U.com developed a keychain sized high level radiation detector called the NUKalert. It doesn’t have a screen and it doesn’t show you the actual rate, but it does have a dose rate on the back that corresponds to the number of chirps that the unit is chirping. Basically the original keychain NUKalert is simply an alarm that you are being exposed to dangerous level radiation, and a rough estimation of how much. That product is still available today, and I even found it on Amazon for $145 with great reviews. I decided I’m going to get one.
The Inspector Alert on the right here says it is a “surface contamination monitor,” acknowledging that it can’t handle radiation rates more than you would find on a contaminated surface. It goes for $500-$600 currently on Ebay. The $750 NUKalert-ER measures from 1uR/hr to 700R/hr, for $750, in a smaller package, and with an internal timer to turn the unit on and off for long term battery life.
This newer NUKalert-ER (Extended Range) meter probably should have been called something else in my opinion, because it is not even in the same ballpark as the original NUKalert. To match the function of the NUKalert-ER you would need to buy a regular Geiger counter, a high level calibrated CDV survey meter like those in the previous article, and a calibrated dosimeter and charger as well. From a cost perspective, remember that I found a cheapo DIY Geiger counter that actually works for the first article and it only costs $45. You can also get a CDV meter on Ebay for maybe $50 with shipping if you wait and find the right one in good condition, but you are of course taking a gamble that it actually works and can be calibrated. Then you can send it to Shane for calibrating for another hundred bucks or so with shipping added.
So for a total just north of $200, you will have what you need and I would argue that these choices are second to none in actual use. None of those are made for constant detection of a nuclear event. So if you want that functionality, you would have to add a $145 NUKalert keychain. That will get you to approximately what the $750 NUKalert-ER covers at roughly half the price. The NUKalert-ER detects 1uR/hr(1 millionth of a Roetngen per hour) to 600R/hr. So it is equally a Geiger counter and high level survey meter. It is also a dosimeter and event alarm all in one small package that fits in a belt case. The FAQ for the device explains how the technology works, and $750 is considered low cost, believe it or not. This is a professional mission critical device that is meant to stand the test of time and survival. Every NUKalert-ER is calibrated in R/hr at a licensed lab verified by testing at Oak Ridge National Labs. The readings are accurate within 20% from 1µR/hr through 700R/hr, oftentimes less than 10%, though they only guarantee 20%.
This CDV-717 is currently for sale on Ebay for $49 with free shipping. If you can’t swing the $750 for a NUKalert-ER, pick up a CDV-715 or 717 and have it calibrated at KI4U.com.
You can order the NUKalert-ER directly from Shane Connor on his products page (scroll down), or it is the same price on Amazon with free Prime shipping.
The other difference between the $750 NUKalert and the more inexpensive approach of piecing things together is that the NUKalert-ER contains modern circuitry, so it can be set for not only a rate alarm but also a dose alarm. So say you are you know you have to go into or through a “hot zone,” but you have no idea where that hot zone starts or ends, or if it gets hotter or cooler in the direction you must move. The NUKalert-ER can be set to alarm you when you reach a certain dose, which of course would mean proceed at peril. It also has a sleep function that you set for it to turn itself on and off at a given interval, thus allowing you to save your batteries, yet keep the device on you and working throughout your life. A soft belt case comes with the device.
The NUKalert keychain is a second choice and I have found it for sale for $142-$150 around the web, always with great reviews. It doesn’t tell you the level with a screen, but it has a beep system and chart on the back to tell you the approximate level of radiation. It’ll get you to more your but into shelter mode when it matters most.
The only peeve I had in testing the device was that it was confusing at first and I had to email Shane to explain what was going on. I turned on the NUKalert-ER, then let it sit for several hours to average out a reading, figuring I’d come back to it later. When I did, and checked the accumulated dose, none of the math added up, so I figured it was broken. Shane’s email explained that the accumulated dose information was reflecting the calibration dosage that they had exposed the unit to in the Cesium-137 machine, and it was like 7 full Roentgens, which is a lot. Shane instructed me to reset the dosage in the settings, and that did the trick. There is a quirk in the software if you switch the measurements to Sieverts instead of Roentgens. It doesn’t kick down to uSv instead of S on the rate screen, but it doesn’t really matter because most people measure and calculate in the older Roentgens term anyway, so most people will leave to device in R mode. Other than that the menus are very intuitive, and the instructions are fantastic. Shane also includes a current version of his Good News About Nuclear Destruction and What to Do if a Nuclear Disaster is Imminent.
There is also free software to monitor the device on your computer, and I tested it extensively. The open source program seems to be very robust, and I needed no driver installations or anything to get it to run native on my Lenovo Windows 8 laptop. You can also upload your data to Shane’s monitoring website. He hopes to get his own network of civilian monitoring, and a couple dozen stations are already involved. I’ll include the data screen here in the pictures so you can see what it looks like. If you compare this to the other amateur radiation monitoring website, Radmon.org, there is a world of difference between various devices all over the world that will blank out at 100 mR/hr and a network of NUKalert-ERs that have been calibrated in a national laboratory and that will accurately range to 700R/hr.
This chart is from the NUKalert website. It explains where most low level meters blank out and the significance of being able to measure higher levels with a true survey meter.
I decided that I’m going to buy my test unit from Shane, and it wasn’t an easy decision since I have several regular Geiger counters as well as calibrated CDV meters and dosimeters. In testing this device and writing the article I realized that the NUKalert-ER isn’t expensive at all. The perspective of this article should have been that we are incredibly fortunate that Shane took interest in buying the Cesium-137 testing unit from the government all those years ago for testing CDV meters, and that he continued with it even after the Civil Defense Program was defunded by Clinton, taking it all the way to creating the NUKalert and NUKalert-ER. He has a very clear vision that a nuclear war is not only unavoidable, but that it is also survivable. As it says at the end of the NUKalert-ER FAQ:
“The safest action to take after a nuclear detonation is to find the closest best shelter and stay there for a few days, or till told to evacuate. Most uninjured people who follow these simple precautions will survive.”
It is hard to take this stuff seriously after decades of nuclear fear porn and dozens of other types of disasters and false flag black swan terrorist events that could happen tomorrow. But we have nukes pointed at our roofs right now. Our government just overtly threatened to unleash a can of nuclear whoopass, and the entire globe is glowing with conflict. Remember that the apocalypse will not be on Youtube or Drudge. If a nuke pops 100 miles from you, there will be no way to know that. In an hour the fallout could be over you, with no smell, no noise, no clue. If you don’t know that a bomb went off. If you don’t know where the fallout hotspots are. If you don’t know that your shelter idea is actually working. If you don’t know… The reality is that without a NUKalert-ER or the equivalent assembled from several other devices, you don’t know.
It’s two minutes to midnight!
Kill for gain, shoot to maim
We don’t need a reason
The Golden Goose is on the loose
Never out of season
Blackened pride burns inside
Shell of bloody treason
Here’s my gun for a barrel of fun
For the love of living death
The killer’s breed or the demon’s seed
The glamor, the fortune, the pain
Go to war again, blood is freedom’s stain
Don’t you pray for my soul anymore
2 minutes to midnight
The hands that threaten doom
2 minutes to midnight
To kill the unborn in the womb
There are strong indications that the cooling of the Younger Dryas period between 13 and 12 thousand years ago was due to an asteroid fragment collision in New England and southern Canada. There were associated increases in platinum, like with the Chicxulub asteroid 66 million years ago there was increased iridium in the stratum of the time. In other words, Chicxulub created a large catastrophic nuclear winter, and likely that is how the Younger Dryas cooling happened as well but not as severely since the impactor(s) was/were less massive.
The launch from FE Warren did not “come from nowhere.” It’s called a SELM (simulated electronic launch minuteman) and they happen on 18 month cycles like clockwork, rotating between the three US bases that have ICBMs. Malmstrom AFB just conducted one about a month ago. You should really check your facts before you go spreading fear and ignorance, whilst waving the banner of not spreading fear and ignorance.
Now one knows when or if a nuclear attack could occur. However, it is reasonable for everyone to map out where strategic targets are located, what your distance is to such targets, and take your risks from there. As an eleven year old, I lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis while living near Sacramento CA, and very near and not topographically protected in any way, from where numerous Strategic Air Command Air Force Bases were located. I was scared spitless. We prepared ourselves the best we could, but survival was not a sure thing. Just put positive energy in prayer, contemplation, meditation, or whatever means you may want, to hope that such a thing never occurs. If you’re near a strategic target (concentrated population centers, missile silos, large manufacturing centers etc.) then think about moving to an area where you may survive the initial attack, and then concentrate upon protecting yourself from the aftermath.
Jim, I was just about 60 miles East of you in the Sierra foothills about that time. Remember air burst before ground burst. When SAC would scramble we’d have B-52’s perhaps 400-500 feet above our forests headed in every direction at every altitude they could reach. Along with their escorts. Mom would simply get us some hot chocolate, or lemonade and we’d go out on the back porch and ‘watch the airplanes’ — the idea was that we were SO close (<15 miles as the bird flies) from Beale it'd be better to be cooked in less than a second than live in the blast damage and forest fires that would take out the several thousand miles sq. around us. Of course she never said that, but it didn't take a genius to figure that out.
There are a LOT of readable articles about the current aftermath of Chernobyl, but don't mistake current findings with those immediately afterwards.
Nuclear Winter is not a fable, nor is it a myth – A single large volcano in Indonesia (Tambora, South Pacific) exploded in 1815, and plunged the Northern Hemisphere into 'the year without summer' 1816 – crops failed, Europe entered a famine (as did the US), and much of Asia and the Southern Hemisphere. That was ONE volcanic eruption. Larger than Krakatoa of which news was spread by the newly developed Telegraph. Now think of 100, 000 volcanic eruptions, think of the dirt thrown into the upper atmosphere where it would linger for years, blocking sunlight – and tell me that surviving the first phase EMP attack, Neuron bombs for large ground forces or population centers, followed by the destruction of major portions of infrastructure and populations is something worth planning for.
My mom was right – go out on the back porch and before I could swallow that mouth full of hot chocolate or lemonade I'd be gray ash blowing in the wind. I had the same plans when I went to school near a nuclear missile base — lounge chair, beer, and a smoke, and just wait – I was only about 10 miles away from ground zero. Nuclear Winter is not a myth, it's a certainty. Anyone who runs the Drake Equation (even in their head) understands the probability of survival as a viable species.
REF: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150331102453.htm — a short easy to read article about supervolcano eruptions.
A theater wide Nuclear War cannot be won simply because it is unlikely to be survivable. In this case it's the one with the most toys who loses the most. And even a collection of 'simple' medical devices can be used to make a 'dirty bomb' – just a nuisance bomb that will deny access to people for several years. But if that nuisance bomb is set off in a major city (junction would be best) you disrupt commerce, thus the economy, thus the culture and social structure.
Me? I'm more for the Bio-Wep attack – eve one dirty bomb would likely call for a 'proportional' retaliation, and God only knows how the person in the White House would define that. It cold lead to full scale nuclear war. A Bio-Wep has many pluses if you are determined on world domination — as are many coalitions of nations today.
Hey Doc.
I lived in a community called Pollock Pines which was on a ridge top of the low Sierras, but higher than Placerville CA. We were in a line to line obstruction free view of every Air Force base south of Sacramento about 45 miles away. I used to enjoy hearing the rumble and roar of the rocket engine testing platforms at Aerojet General Corp.’s testing facility, which was a primary supplier of rocket engines for early ICBM’s. They used to light up the night, and vibrate your lungs with the rumble of raw rocket power. The B 52’s used to swoop over our ridge often as well, flying very low on an avoidance course low over Desolation Valley near Lake Tahoe. They used an early mapping “program” formulated by what was then called the “Defense Mapping Agency” reference to the topographical realities of the northern hemisphere formulated by sensitive radar mapping on a grid, of every inch of ground our defense forces may operate within. Fighter jets used to bust the sound barrier almost daily, rattling the windows of virtually everyone’s homes. Yes, a full scale nuclear war is a situation no one wants to even contemplate. Alteration of modern society would be in place for at least 100 years.
What I fear most is the possibility of a few nations who may decide to preemptively strike a supposed foe. That could be Israel striking targets in Iran; India or Pakistan deciding to nuke each other over the Kashmir region or North Korea’s drunken Supreme Leader deciding to nuke whomever he pleases at the time he pushes the button. I also think that the group of the most powerful people in the world, who (in my opinion) are the ones who directly formulate the fate of world policy, will project or repress force in a way that preserves control, power, and wealth to those with the resources to protect their position of power.
As the main character (Willian Bendix) in an old TV show called “The Life of Riley” used to say as a parting message at the end of each show was : “What a revoltin’ development this is!”. That, to me, is a decent summation of the reality of a nuclear war in any scope, intensity, or intended reason on Planet Earth. We really ought to know better. After all, we’ve already proved that nuclear weapons can fry a city and all of its inhabitants in an instance. But, as the old quote goes: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Everyone commenting here is a pawn in the larger scheme amid us all. Perhaps the next level of existence will provide a reasonable alternative to today’s blind and egotistic ambitions of those in power.
Should the World ever find ourselves in a situation that was so all encompassing in a threat, beyond our small planetary home, perhaps we could shrink our individualism and egocentric ways, and concentrate as a species based society where every individual concentrates on the needs of the whole of society. When security is assured, then work towards the filling of everyone’s needs of worldly existence could be ensured, and apply ourselves towards individual improvement and societal betterment.. 2 Cents worth.
Jim,
I lived on the west face of Wolf Mountain just outside Grass Valley (near Old CDF lookout) Grandpa and his brother had a small cattle/sheep ranch back then with a small cabin we could stay in since both lived in one of the two nearby towns. We could see from south of Stockton to past Chico in the North, perhaps the lights on the horizon beyond Chico were Red Bluff? — before smog filled in the valley, when Davis, Sacramento, Carmichael, Rio Linda, and Roseville were all separate spots of light distanced by lots of darkness – I 80 was two lane past Auburn, single lane through Soda Springs to where it merged at Emigrant Gap from Hwy 49-20 into50 (the Old Lincoln Highway) . No shadow (blast, radio, light, or otherwise) of anything but Manzanita and scrub oaks most of the year (small meadows don’t through a lot of good shadow for those things). We lived in the same place, with different names (and you couldn’t see Dead Bluff but could probably see the astonishing lights of the test engines instead). And YOU got the apples from there. Take a protractor and we’d fall along the exact same arc.
I cannot find one thing you said that I disagree with. That is a first. (As any editor or reader here will tell you). Not that we are right, only that we agree as close to 100% as possible.
We already have enough food, water, clothes, medicine, education, and power to take care of the worlds population at a VERY adequate level. Bringing down the population in a controlled fashion would help us all ease a LOT of our worries, and paranoia about ‘others’, and figure out that they are our neighbors and aren’t going away. Any kind of catastrophic population decline (eg bio-weps) would of course be disastrous from a psycho-socical / cultural point of view and could trigger a pulling apart rather than a drawing together of the worlds population. But even a couple of percent drop in one swoop would not be a bad thing – pandemics have ruled the world LONG before weps of mass destruction (into which might fall Browning s Machine gun).
“. . . perhaps we could shrink our individualism and egocentric ways, and concentrate as a species based society where every individual concentrates on the needs of the whole of society. When security is assured, then work towards the filling of everyone’s needs of worldly existence could be ensured, and apply ourselves towards individual improvement and societal betterment.” James, you short change yourself – that thought alone is worth FAR more than 2 cents that’s worth a steak dinner. Right now the problems of famine and energy (commodity) based ‘wars’ are political, not real.
A nice try to REALLY enforce the UN Declaration of Human Rights might be a good place to start to try.
Maybe I’ve broken the near 100% agreement now, but I suspect that looking out at the world as we did those few days in November, and watching the ‘Scrambles’ from our viewpoints for years upon years as kids kind of shaped a ‘World View’ that is not that much different from each others. We are some of the old-timers on this board and so have a bit of a different view of what evil ‘power’ can bring – be it from a poor teacher, to a stupid L-T, to our own form of Democracy and it’s leaders — right, left, and center. Good to meet you. Now I’m up North East of Susanville and a bit North West of Gerlach. Just a TAD less populated than Polack Pines or the Grass Valley area when we were kids; but we still feel the push of ‘population’ taking over, but good country once you get used to Juniper in the place of Pine, and mountains without foothills.
I do believe that this is a first: 100% common sense well structured response that I can’t argue against. (except perhaps for fun). I think I owe you a Steak Dinner and drinks sometime and a few thousand square miles of plinkers heaven – from 22LR to what ever your equivalent of a .700 Nitro Express is — there’s always a rock or a twig that needs to at least be tried to be moved. Peace will come with or without people. I suspect it’s more fun with people.
“Nuclear Winter is not a myth, it’s a certainty.”
Science does not support Nuclear Winter anywhere near enough to make such a proclamation, as evidenced by even a cursory reading of the ‘Criticism and Debate’ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter
We probably are not going to change each others minds here, but IMO, it’s been largely discredited with real world historical computations of volcanic eruptions that had unleashed much, much more tonnage into the stratosphere than even all of the 4,400 US/Russian nukes ever could, even with firestorms. And, there’s a good chance many will have to deal with nuke effects from a more limited exchange. I’d be justifiably more concerned with a ‘volcanic winter’ creating the dire effects you’d described than any ‘nuclear winter’.
Nuclear Winter is another disarmament activists darling that discourages families from prepping for nukes, even for just one, cause they are being sold that it’s futile to ever bother trying. Might as well just go for the “lounge chair, beer, and a smoke, and just wait.” Ironically and tragically, the disarmament activists legacy, regardless their noble intent, has rendered millions of Americans even more vulnerable to perishing from nukes in the future.
Shane, I did more than a cursory read of the Wiki article, and found multiple limitations, though the paragraph that reads:
A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2006 found that even a small-scale, regional nuclear war could disrupt the global climate for a decade or more. In a regional nuclear conflict scenario where two opposing nations in the subtropics would each use 50 Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons (about 15 kiloton each) on major populated centers, the researchers estimated as much as five million tons of soot would be released, which would produce a cooling of several degrees over large areas of North America and Eurasia, including most of the grain-growing regions. The cooling would last for years, and according to the research could be “catastrophic”.[37][38]”
Says the most. That involves only 100 very, VERY, small weapons. in a very limited area. Hiroshima-Nagasaki sized devices are used to set off thermonuclear weapons. The section you refer to uses documentation and atmospheric data that is pushing 20 years old — a LOT of science has been learned in the last 20 years. Thus I suggested the read of a CURRENT Chernobyl (study about) activity over immediately post breach activity.
Gravity is a theory. But it’s one that I tend to leave alone, relegating it to a reality over a quaint concept. Nuclear Winter is not a quaint concept. Though I would love to hear an HONEST unbiased, symposium on the topic. And I’d listen with an open mind if the science was current, rigorous, and presented by specialists in their field (eg. no MD’s postulating about ash or dust in the upper atmosphere unless they have a post-doc study in it, or Ph.D. Deep Space Chemist speculating about affects and effects on the water cycle – I’d prefer to hear two Ph.D. Hydrologists go at that one.). Would you join me in such a symposium?
I understand you may be a specialist, however when I took some path boards I always recalled Basho – “Small things seen close up are large, large things seen far away are small.” – so I first pulled the slide out from under the scope and held it up to the light so I could get the ‘big picture’ then I’d put it back under the scope and have a FAR better idea of what I was looking at and what I might be looking for. Some were no brainers, others got tricky unless you saw the size, shape, texture and stain(s) used on the tissue sample. Reductionist or expansionist can come to the same conclusion — or at least agree to disagree as gentlemen of Honor.
Doc, Stealing a line from Michael Crichton, my problem with Nuclear Winter is the same as my problems with Global Warming proponents…
“This is not the way science is done, it is the way products are sold.”
That line is from his “Aliens Cause Global Warming: A Caltech Lecture” seen here…
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/crichton_3.pdf
Many reading it will find it both entertaining and enlightening regarding Nuclear Winter and Global Warming. Beware, though, as a healthy skepticism of both may take root.
– Shane
Great article Paul and keep up the good work about prepping for nuclear events. You and Shane are being “attacked” in some of these posts by those who have fell for the same Russian communist BS that effectively shut down the U.S. civil defense program back in the 1970s. Actually this shows how effective communist (and now closet communist) propaganda was and is as we now have conservative, patriotic, prepper, Americans believing their lies – and we thought that only liberal idiots fell for all of this peacenik/Carl Sagan “you can’t survive a nuclear war” and Joe Sixpack’s favorite; “it will never happen here” crap! All the while the Russians are investing billions in civil defense bomb shelters (city size), modernizing their nuclear arsenal, surrounding the U.S. with military bases, Bear Bomber runs near California and Alaska (soon to be Gulf of Mexico), and training with the Red Chinese who are doing the same while both of these totalitarian regimes are war gaming against us. But I guess some of these “preppers” will only choose to prepare against their favorite disasters like; super volcanos, economic collapse, tsunamis, etc. as nuclear war is too much for them to handle. Well, they should take your advice or they can just go back to watching RT (Regurgitating Trotsky) “News” so they can feel better about nuclear war possibility by hearing what a great guy Putin is. Here is some news that you won’t hear on RT:
“War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in 30 to 40 years. To win, we shall need the element of surprise. The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down, we will smash them with our clenched fist.” – Dimitri Manuilski (speech to the Lenin School for Political Warfare – 1933)
“Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep. We want to accomplish three things: One, we want the Americans to withdraw conventional forces from Europe. Two, we want them to withdraw nuclear forces from Europe. Three, we want the Americans to stop proceeding with Strategic Defense Initiative.” – Mikhail Gorbachev (speech to the Soviet Politburo -Nov. 1987)
“We have Nicaragua; soon we will have El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Mexico. One day, tomorrow or five years or fifteen years from now, we’re going to take 5 to 10 million Mexicans and they are going into Dallas, into El Paso, into Houston, into New Mexico, into San Diego, and each one will have embedded in his mind the idea of killing ten Americans.” – Thomas Borge (communist), Nicaragua Interior Minister (quoted in the Washington Times, March 27, 1985). FAST FORWARD 2015 – Can you guess where the Chinese and Russian bases are and will be built along with all of the military assistance and political influence? Don’t forget the Russian bases being developed in Venezuela (along with weapons sales) and that 1980s communist Daniel Ortega is back in charge in Nicaragua – pen pals with Putin of course.
>>> the US is the only country that has ever fired an atomic bomb in anger…
FIRST: The US has never “fired” an atomic bomb. The use of the verb fired implies a delivery mechanism. We dropped two bombs.
SECOND: We didn’t drop the two atomic bombs “in anger.” To make such an assertion demonstrates considerable ignorance of the process that Truman used to make his decision.
Were there “high fives” all around after dropping the bombs? No, “high fives” hadn’t been invented yet.
Truman was a usually deliberative man. He was relieved and perhaps over-joyed by the realization that using the bomb had saved thousands of American lives. But from what I’ve read, he took no joy in the death and destruction wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
All of that said, I agree that a nuclear attack is the most likely cause of an TEOTWAWKI event.
This attitude that prepping for nukes is likely futile cause they’d be so overwhelming unsurvivable, or life not worth living if you did, is dead wrong and could get your family killed needlessly. Any that assume that it can only be that bad are like a father that does not make his kids wear their seat belts in the car because he’s convinced himself that the only accident they could ever get in would be going over a cliff, bursting into flames at the bottom, where it would not have done any good. Nobody knows how many, how big or where nukes could get unleashed in the future to assume it can only be massive and everywhere and all at once.
What we do know is that for any nuke detonation, 90% of the casualties, amongst the affected population, are 100% avoidable when they know what to do and have made even the most modest of preparations beforehand. Sound preposterous? Read ‘The Good News About Nuclear Destruction!’ at http://www.GoodNewsNuke.com and see for yourself.
Or just click at the top of the article 🙂 These kinds of comments that clearly show the person didnt even read the article are either the hopeless prozac infused masses or government shills trying to reinforce the party line.
Just had to jump in. We all have our opinions in this space, and none are really any more informed or better than anyone else, since we cannot predict the future. We can, however, learn from the past, study our enemies, and take good guesses.
Yes, there will be likely be another nuke detonated in anger and with malice. It will be a nuke traced back to Iran, and it will likely be Tel Aviv that is hit. Why you would think the US would do it just to gain respect again, is beyond me.
Anyway, that said, what is more likely to take us back to the middle ages, and create a “real” post-apocalyptic vision from sci-fi is an EMP. Electro-magnetic pulse device. A terrorist could build a handful of bombs for thousands of dollars, they do not have a “tel-tell” signature, like radiation, that could be easily tracked, and they could destroy our communications infrastructure in a day. Think about a society that has become completely dependent on their computers and hand held devices for everything. From their entertainment, learning, socializing, news, work, in our cars, houses, airplanes, ceiling fans, TVs, door locks, purchasing, water treatment, waste disposal, etc. Just MHO.
I have to agree with many of the posts here. If there is a nuclear event, life will not be worth living, and all of your prep planning will be for naught. The real battle we face is quite simple, good verses evil. If the forces of good lose on this plain perhaps the reward will be in another. In any event, the fight is here and now, and not in some post apocalypse fairy tale.
Of far greater concern should be an attack on our electrical infrastructure . A 2014 study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Comm. indicated that a terrorist attack that would knock out 6 specific power stations, most in the west, or 9 anywhere would knock out all power in the US for between 9 and 18 months. Think what that would do to a public dependent on water and food requiring electrical energy to produce or sustain life as we know it
Nuclear war while always technically possible is extremely improbable. No one benefits from such a war – thus creating the improbability. Single or small numbers of nuclear war head detonations by terrorist are far more probable, but have about the same effect as another Fukushima and are self limiting due to the small numbers of such nukes available. Additionally, the “lost” nuclear weapons that terrorist might most probably gain access to, are rapidly becoming degraded (detonator control devices) and reducing their threat as time goes on.
The next nationalistic inspired wars (territorial/resource wars like WWII) are much more likely to be initiated over resource shortages related to critical materials for energy and food production and or their ultimately related economics. The probability for initiation of such a war is directly related to population/resource ratios – making countries like China and India the most likely candidates as instigators. However, since this war won’t be fought with traditional or nuclear weapons due to untenable retaliation probabilities, they never the less will be more strategically fought.
The most probable strategy is a high mortality (80+%) rapid acting bio-weapon of an untraceable origin – that leaves infrastructure in place for the most part. Since the initiators own excess population will also be affected/targeted – (acting as camouflage) there will be little way of telling who initiated and or who benefited from such a weapon – at least until it is too late for the victims to have the population resources to respond – or maintain their own national infrastructures (most of the west). In other words countries like China and India can lose 80% of their population and still have a viable national work force and or invasion force whereas few western nations can lose 80% of their population and even keep their grid up.
Consequently, any nuclear weapon detonations are going to be locally devastating like Fukushima or Chernobyl, but globally of little consequence. The coming bio-weapon war(s) will be far more globally impacting and paradigm shifting and probably will be over in less than a month.
This is hoaky nonsense
OK, so this meter is meant for post-nuke detonation measurements. The article says that it has “modern circuitry”. Is that EMP protected? If not, then wouldn’t it be susceptible to being fried as soon as a nuke does detonate?
The NukAlert passed EMP testing at the Naval Air Warfare Center before we could sell it to the military. The NukAlert-ER has not yet gone through that gauntlet, only certification confirmation from Oak Ridge National Labs for its stated accuracy and range. We’ve been told that most small modern devices that have neither an antenna, nor any lengthy wires externally, like being connected to power grid or hardwired to internet, should survive. For instance, most cell phones are expected to be unaffected, however they wont be useful for comms because the cell tower network will be down. Regardless, I would keep any sensitive prep electronics in metal ammo box until needed and then put them back in between use.
I find the content of the article to be interesting and of a good educational value……besides that why would anyone want to live through a nuclear apocalypse, especially over the long haul? I know I would not. The damaging effects of radiation exposure will only complicate the survival mode everyone would be living in with no real reduction in exposure for some time to come.
When you look at the residual effects of Fukushima in Japan and the devastation that one facility is having on the entire Pacific ocean, it makes me wonder how many more nuclear incidents are we really prepared to handle.
A nuclear strike from either Power will not be limited, and I think you are deluding yourself into thinking that we as a people can survive such an event.
The USAF has been conducting test launches of Minuteman ICBMs since the system went operational in the 1960’s. There isn’t much more in this breathless screed of tinfoilhattery worth a further comment.
I wonder if there is a s.smartphone attachment that can be fitted onto an iPhone or droid ????
Great article. It is good to see you guys cover this stuff rather than the dating habits of our celeb of the day. It is freeing to be awake and aware of the elite who control our governments will wipe us all out if it gains them another buck. If jade helm is a pretext for asset positioning for something big and this leads to a larger configuration (maybe nuclear) then the readers who read this CANNOT say they were not warned.
Keep up the fight
And keep bringing articles like this.
Great job