so, NATO’s surrender then… as a condition of a cease-fire with Ukraine… which isn’t a NATO member… which Putin invaded ostensibly to prevent it from joining NATO. right…
sure, I think we can do that. no Western troops, no problem! we’ll just give them each a few dozen hydrogen bombs, and call it even.
A few dozen hydrogen bombs each? Sir, this is Europe! We won’t have such uncivilised weapons that could be used for discriminatory purposes in our beautiful continent.
No, the only solution is for every country in the EU, NATO, or bordering Russia to be equipped with a Project Sundial device. It’s the only way to preserve European unity.
If built and detonated, Sundial would have created a fireball up to 50 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter, instantly igniting everything within 400 kilometers (250 miles) and causing a magnitude 9 earthquake. It was thought that the explosion would lead to an apocalyptic nuclear winter, drastically lowering global temperatures and contaminating water sources, resulting in mass fatalities.
If detonated at an altitude of 28 miles (45 km) the Sundial device could ignite fires across an area the size of France.
also probably didn’t help that it’s likely that Teller had autism and just wanted to make bigger bomb until he was removed from nuclear weapons design teams
50s were also sorta time of finding out what practical limits were, but when Teller showed them 1000Mt device USAF decided that it’s a bit too much, couple Mt is plenty. when USAF tells you it’s too much boom you might have gone insane
other than that, Teller was a fucking asshole, he stole credit for other’s people’s work, he clinged to his own failed ideas against evidence (that makes him a shitty scientist), despised Carl Sagan, he was responsible for getting Oppenheimer out of Los Alamos, also a schemer and a rabid mccarthyist the entire time. so maybe you’re onto something
if he was worse at physics he’d be probably setting acetylene bottles on fire in some field or something like this
I read a biography on Oppenheimer back when I was still a youngun in school, and among the few bits of trivia I remember were Teller being vile, and lozenges were a thing.
I mean, there are people who want to pursue theoretical weapons, that would completely sterilize earth, if the theoretically possible concept could be proven to actually work. Only reason we really aren’t is the impracticality of the research. So, if it were more practical an idea to research, we’d be on it.
the problem becomes size and amount of expensive materials, technically it’s not even particularly interesting, all parts are there and some designs were tested when thermonuclear weapons were first developed
Yes with this, I was talking about weapons that theoretically could exist, but we don’t know if what we think could work will, because just researching it isn’t practical. However, if that weren’t the case, we absolutely would be researching things like neutronium bombs, and such.
There’s the short story “A Colder War” by Charles Stross. Among other things, there’s a reference to a real-life nuclear weapon concept called Project Pluto. In the story, it turns out it was built to try and kill Cthulhu.
So… maybe that’s the goal of Sundial? Cthulhu would be a valid target for a weapon that ludicrous.
Otherwise, I agree. “The fuck is wrong with us” is the only valid conclusion.
so, NATO’s surrender then… as a condition of a cease-fire with Ukraine… which isn’t a NATO member… which Putin invaded ostensibly to prevent it from joining NATO. right…
sure, I think we can do that. no Western troops, no problem! we’ll just give them each a few dozen hydrogen bombs, and call it even.
A few dozen hydrogen bombs each? Sir, this is Europe! We won’t have such uncivilised weapons that could be used for discriminatory purposes in our beautiful continent.
No, the only solution is for every country in the EU, NATO, or bordering Russia to be equipped with a Project Sundial device. It’s the only way to preserve European unity.
The fuck is wrong with us?
I know, right?
that’s 50s nuclear weapons development for ya
also probably didn’t help that it’s likely that Teller had autism and just wanted to make bigger bomb until he was removed from nuclear weapons design teams
so autism caused Musk to seig heil, and autism caused Teller to build doomsday devices. so basically Dr. Strangelove is autism’s final form. (/s)
50s were also sorta time of finding out what practical limits were, but when Teller showed them 1000Mt device USAF decided that it’s a bit too much, couple Mt is plenty. when USAF tells you it’s too much boom you might have gone insane
other than that, Teller was a fucking asshole, he stole credit for other’s people’s work, he clinged to his own failed ideas against evidence (that makes him a shitty scientist), despised Carl Sagan, he was responsible for getting Oppenheimer out of Los Alamos, also a schemer and a rabid mccarthyist the entire time. so maybe you’re onto something
if he was worse at physics he’d be probably setting acetylene bottles on fire in some field or something like this
I read a biography on Oppenheimer back when I was still a youngun in school, and among the few bits of trivia I remember were Teller being vile, and lozenges were a thing.
The human desire to keep feeding the fire because big fire equals more awesome. But on a truly enormous scale.
I mean, there are people who want to pursue theoretical weapons, that would completely sterilize earth, if the theoretically possible concept could be proven to actually work. Only reason we really aren’t is the impracticality of the research. So, if it were more practical an idea to research, we’d be on it.
the problem becomes size and amount of expensive materials, technically it’s not even particularly interesting, all parts are there and some designs were tested when thermonuclear weapons were first developed
Yes with this, I was talking about weapons that theoretically could exist, but we don’t know if what we think could work will, because just researching it isn’t practical. However, if that weren’t the case, we absolutely would be researching things like neutronium bombs, and such.
There’s the short story “A Colder War” by Charles Stross. Among other things, there’s a reference to a real-life nuclear weapon concept called Project Pluto. In the story, it turns out it was built to try and kill Cthulhu.
So… maybe that’s the goal of Sundial? Cthulhu would be a valid target for a weapon that ludicrous.
Otherwise, I agree. “The fuck is wrong with us” is the only valid conclusion.