France Nukes the USA

[mrnoodle]

I'd be surprised if anyone here nurtured an actual hatred of the French, Pi. It's more like a soccer rivalry, only for hygiene.

[cowhead]

me? I like the French.. after all I make my living doing their cooking.. good stuff.. and all I have to say, is that someone needs to nuke us.. well maybe not us here, but this country need a wake up call *ring ring uh fat bastard time to put down the mc. rib and walk a bit* (although I do have a guilty pleasure in the mc.rib) but our country has become a nation of fat lazy bastrds/beeyothes... let them flames begin I'll stand by this statement and take all comers.

do any of you play civ 1 or 2?

[itzBoo]

Well, the answer to your question is actually simple. Let's go back to when the Japanese dropped bombs upon Pearl Harbor, what exactly did our president do when they did that? We nuked Japan right away, therefore, if the French ever nukes us by "accident"(a word that i dont believe in), Mr. President Bush will probably take on with a-bombs too.

[itzBoo]

wait...but how can we do anything if the rest of us will be dead by then I BELIEVE haha

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by itzBoo

Well, the answer to your question is actually simple. Let's go back to when the Japanese dropped bombs upon Pearl Harbor, what exactly did our president do when they did that? We nuked Japan right away, therefore, if the French ever nukes us by "accident"(a word that i dont believe in), Mr. President Bush will probably take on with a-bombs too.

We didn't actually nuke them right away.. there was this little thing called "The War in the Pacific" that happened inbetween.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by itzBoo

We nuked Japan right away,

Four years of R&D is not quite "right away."

We had to build them first.

And it's really a fascinating story.

If I may recommend, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

[itzBoo]

and No one is racist in this forum! we love everyone

[Kagen4o4]

gotta love the legions. their training is the roughest in the world. even your american troops go over to train with them, only thing is, they leave, the legions continue. american troops hold weapons but the legions are trained weapons WITH weapons.

australian SAS troops are my favourite though. not just cause they protect my country, but they can accomplish any task you give them and do it well.

[Happy Monkey]

And any of Feynman's memoirs.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

And any of Feynman's memoirs.

I love Feynman's writing style. The bonus of reading his memoirs is all the additional cool anecdotes, e.g. the lock hacking stories.

[Kagen4o4]

the one screwed up thing about the american government at the time on the atomic bomb was that the scientists told them there was a slight (very very small) chance that detonating one of those things could ignite the oxygen in the air causing a chain reaction that could incinerate the earth. to which the american government replied "do it"
as small as the odds were. thats still a big risk. imagined the scientists biting their fists waiting to see if it would happen

[lookout123]

eh. people once cautioned us that driving in an automobile at speeds faster than 38 mph would cause one's eyeballs to implode. the scientists were wrong then, they're probably wrong now...

Originally Posted by Kagen4o4

the one screwed up thing about the american government at the time on the atomic bomb was that the scientists told them there was a slight (very very small) chance that detonating one of those things could ignite the oxygen in the air causing a chain reaction that could incinerate the earth. to which the american government replied "do it"
as small as the odds were. thats still a big risk. imagined the scientists biting their fists waiting to see if it would happen

Actually, that thought has always fascinated me. I usually remember that bit of trivia if I happen to be down Los Alamos, New Mexico way. I imagine the physicists kissing their wives good-bye on the morning of the first test then going to stand on a mountainside somewhere and wondering...

The scientific detachment, looking at the blue sky, fluffy white clouds overhead, perhaps hearing the call of a meadowlark...

Waiting under the New Mexico sky...

For the end of the world...

Do you suppose they placed bets among themselves?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Do you suppose they placed bets among themselves?

There were bets placed on the yield of the Trinity gadget.

Fermi won.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Kagen4o4

... that the scientists told them there was a slight (very very small) chance that detonating one of those things could ignite the oxygen in the air causing a chain reaction that could incinerate the earth. to which the american government replied "do it"

Not quite.

The "atmosphere catching fire" was a speculation raised fairly early on in the development of the bomb by Edward Teller, I believe. They stopped work for a bit, put a team of theoretical physicist to work on the math, and decided that wouldn't happen.

By the time they were ready to go on the Trinity Test (July 16, 1945) that was no longer even a consideration. Even so, Manhattan Project lore states that a press release was prepared announcing the death of several dozen prominent physicists in an industrial accident of some kind.

Seriously, read the book I posted a link to earlier.