Thinking of buying a house... this one is on the market...

On the contrary: If there is a nuclear war, the aftermath (fallout, radiation poisoning, total economic collapse, mass starvation and street fighting over remaining food) would be so ghastly, that the best place to be is right at ground zero, and be painlessly vaporized before you knew anything had happened.

But the Russians are not likely to attack us. A more likely scenario is a single bomb smuggled in by hand and set off by terrorists in a major city for maximum terror impact. And a MUCH bigger threat to an individual is being hit by a drunk driver or some asshat talking on his cell phone.

The really big risks are the mundane ones we accept every day, not the exotic ones.

 

i worked in one and the door is 20,000 lbs between the control center and silo and there is a manually operated hydraulic hand pump override. takes about 5-7 minutes slide the locking mechanism open. those doors had the best hinge system ever since the door had no mechanical system to open, it opened manually and even the weakest of people could do it. one thing to keep in mind, when you open them, dont get them going too fast. they will "slam" back and damage the hinges which usually took at least 2-3 tries by maintenance to get them fixed right.

 

A grow-op?

 

And you have to be an unmarried male to cancel the self destruct sequence.

 

Not sure I agree. We could move key personnel to the deepest mineshafts, install nuclear reactors for power, abolish monogamy and the inhabitants would breed prodigiously. Then, in about 100 years, we could re-emerge and take over the Russians' mineshafts. We can not allow, and will not permit, a mineshaft gap! (from Dr. Strangelove)

Grow pot, and lots of it.

 

I'm pretty sure you were joking. Since after a total nuclear war it would take more like 100,000 years for people to be able to live on the surface.

And even with unlimited sex and adequate food and water, I doubt if any group of people confined to the space of a missile silo could last a year without murdering each other.

Hell, look at what a frigging mess we've made of it with the whole green Earth to wander around on and sunlight and (until recently) fresh air.

 

actually most feel that the Earth devoid of people might be inhabitable in as little as 50 years. iow, it would seem that the destruction of a nuclear war is not nearly as lasting as the impact of Man

 

I don't know, I am thinking that house is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

nope cant be. the tip melted away 2 summers ago

 

Good point, I forgot about GW.

 

The half-life of plutonium-239 is about twenty-four thousand years. Besides its radioactivity, the stuff itself is chemically extremely poisonous. Even four half-lives might not be enough time.

 

Stories like these make me want to scream, especially when the Pentagon makes BS claims that they can't defend the nation if their budget gets cut. It's just pork through and through.

 

To heavy to spread over a real wide area do only bombing at a level more than 100 times the need to destroy its is required.

But then again, knowing Mankind, I guess its possible

**edit**
i actually saw a history channel or discovery show about this very scenario. unless the bombing is in excess, radiation in areas not at ground zero would fade in a few decades to the point that Man could start to rehabitate.

Atom Bombs are "advantageous" in that they can be spread out pretty far and wide and still be very effective. the show summarized that the cities would be hit and the countryside ignored to the point that it would be conceivable that levels as little as 100 miles from ground zero would clear out quickly with airborne radiation subsiding in just a few years. now this does not account for Nuclear Winter issues which could tip us into an early Ice Age.

 

I'm not too concerned with a nuclear exchange from Russia.

On a more pleasant topic, an underground home would be green as the ground moderates the home from the more extreme changes in temperature on the surface.

 

^ pardon the pun - cool!

 

I had a contractor friend build am underground house in West Olympia on the 90.s. He used wood stove which he had to user year round. But b he still used much less wood than the normal for the area.
Because of the great insulating values that12 feet of Earth can provide, he would build a fire let it burn out and that was enough to keep him warm about 2+3 days.

On average he burned about 3 to 4 chords of wood per year.

Mt parents who lived in a 1600 sq foot house even after their upgrades were burning 6-8 chords a year

 

i take it the link to Carl Sagan is a tribute to the 15 year anniversary of his death on the 20th?

very nice