RPG Forums

Go Back   RPG Forums > Role Playing Game Section > Twilight 2000 Forum

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 12-13-2010, 08:15 AM
StainlessSteelCynic's Avatar
StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
Registered Registrant
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 2,375
Default Nuclear Detonation Timeline “1945-1998″

So how many nuclear devices do you think have been detonated on US soil?
Do you know what nation has detonated nuclear devices in at least two other nations?
How many nuclear devices do you think have actually been detonated around the world?

Frankly I don't if I should be amazed or appalled by this but it's a 'must see' in my opinion.
Nuclear Detonations
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 12-13-2010, 09:20 AM
helbent4's Avatar
helbent4 helbent4 is offline
Volunteer Timeline Errata Coord.
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Vancouver BC
Posts: 532
Default

SSC,

This is an amazing video! Thanks for the post.

I liked the old school "Wargames/Damnation Alley" graphics, really evocative of the time period. Interesting, Russia doesn't seem to have conducted any tests since the end of the Soviet Union.

Tony
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 12-13-2010, 09:59 AM
Targan's Avatar
Targan Targan is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Posts: 3,749
Default

That video stunned me. I admit I'd never looked up how many nuclear detonations there had been over the years. The question that surfaced most often in my mind while watching the video was "why?". Why so many detonations? Did the nuclear powers really need to set off hundreds of nukes each to get the data they needed? I suspect many if not most of the detonations were less about usable data and science, more about displaying who had the bigger nuclear penis. Absolutely ridiculous. For shame humankind, for shame!
__________________
"It is better to be feared than loved" - Nicolo Machiavelli
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 12-13-2010, 11:01 AM
Morthrai's Avatar
Morthrai Morthrai is offline
Minion Hunter
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 14
Send a message via MSN to Morthrai
Default

(New member here so hello all!)

That's pretty scary Kevin! I suppose seeing it like that, all wrapped into one little video parcel o'doom, really makes a guy stop and think.
__________________
Lee Williams.

http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.info
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 12-13-2010, 04:30 PM
Panther Al's Avatar
Panther Al Panther Al is offline
Sabre Ready!
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: DC Area
Posts: 849
Send a message via AIM to Panther Al
Default

Holy nuclear batsh!t batman! I would have guessed about a thou, but man. Biggest surprise was how trigger happy france got.
__________________
Member of the Bofors fan club! The M1911 of automatic cannon.

Proud fan(atic) of the CV90 Series.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 12-13-2010, 05:05 PM
LBraden's Avatar
LBraden LBraden is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: England
Posts: 150
Default

I question a few things

1) Why are the last 10 or so UK tests in US soil are these the "British scientist create new trigger and US test them out" or proper British scientific tests.

2) Note how he has left out a few minor nuclear accidents, notably Chernobyl.
__________________
Newbie DM/PM/GM
Semi-experienced player

Mostly a sci-fi nut, who plays a few PC games.
I do some technical and vehicle drawings in my native M20 scale. - http://braden1986.deviantart.com/
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 12-13-2010, 05:57 PM
StainlessSteelCynic's Avatar
StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
Registered Registrant
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 2,375
Default

The list does not include nuclear accidents, only deliberate detonations of nuclear devices. It also does not discriminate between actual bombs and low yield devices detonated for safety tests.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 12-13-2010, 06:14 PM
natehale1971's Avatar
natehale1971 natehale1971 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Monroe, NC, USA
Posts: 1,199
Send a message via AIM to natehale1971 Send a message via MSN to natehale1971 Send a message via Yahoo to natehale1971
Default

Actually the number of tests might not have been a 'who's is bigger' exercise. Especially in the early days. My training for CBR Warfare, I got to read over the reports from them. Each of the different tests were to test a different aspect of just what the bomb could do.

Remember, only a very few knew that there would be any long-term effects. Something we can lay at the feet of Oppenheimer himself. Brig. Gen. Groves didn't even know that there would be something nasty as an after-effect. he had been told that atomic bombs would be clean. but instead Oppenheimer wanted to punish the Germans (his expressed statement when he asked if there was a way to make the effects last for years afterwards).

Thus the high number of tests in the early years, that actually had American soldiers, politicians and civilians standing around watching them! They had areas were battalions were actually moved around during the tests of the bombs going off. And had spectator stands for civies and politicians to watch the damn things go off!

it's terrifying if you look at it... we didn't know what we had at that time. it was the same thing as allowing infants play with bottles of deadly poisons.

reading all those reports made you realize that while we didn't know a quarter of the things we know today... and we only learned it through hit-and-miss tests that where done.

I'm not making an excuse here... but explaining the mindset of why so many bomb tests where done. And knowing that nearly 2000 bombs have already gone off should also tell us something... Something that the government already knew.

That surviving the bombs wasn't just possible. it was confrimed with all those tests. That the biggest killing aspect of the bombs, was the aftereffects. The aftermath of the bombs were what would kill more people. It's one of the reasons we in the States did the ignorant thing, and abandoned Civil Defense and went to FEMA (yes i'm still upset over something that happened when i was a child, because my father and grandfather had been part of CDC and at one time i had all of the stuff they had from that period).
__________________
Fuck being a hero. Do you know what you get for being a hero? Nothing! You get shot at. You get a little pat on the back, blah blah blah, attaboy! You get divorced... Your wife can't remember your last name, your kids don't want to talk to you... You get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me kid, nobody wants to be that guy. I do this because there is nobody else to do it right now. Believe me if there was somebody else to do it, I would let them do it. There's not, so I'm doing it.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 12-14-2010, 06:08 AM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee, USA
Posts: 2,894
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic View Post
Frankly I don't if I should be amazed or appalled by this but it's a 'must see' in my opinion.

I think my vote has to go for appalled!!!
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 12-14-2010, 07:15 AM
StainlessSteelCynic's Avatar
StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
Registered Registrant
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Western Australia
Posts: 2,375
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly View Post
I think my vote has to go for appalled!!!
Yeah I have to agree. Actually when I first watched it I sat there in stunned disbelief as more detonations took place and the audio tones for each nation's detonations started to resemble a tune. You almost feel like screaming at the film, "What were you idiots trying to do to my planet?!"

Considering the sheer number of detonations in the 1970s AND the 1980s, I don't believe that the USA or the USSR were conducting nothing but "scientific tests" with most of them. Not when you see one, two or three detonations in a single month and something like 20 to 30 for an entire year and that continuing on for nearly half the decade.
Seems like in the 30 years from 1945 to 1975 they should have had plenty of data on yield, radioactivity, fallout and so on. So why the need to continue exploding nuclear devices for the next two decades?
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 12-14-2010, 12:08 PM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee, USA
Posts: 2,894
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic View Post
Yeah I have to agree. Actually when I first watched it I sat there in stunned disbelief as more detonations took place and the audio tones for each nation's detonations started to resemble a tune. You almost feel like screaming at the film, "What were you idiots trying to do to my planet?!"

Considering the sheer number of detonations in the 1970s AND the 1980s, I don't believe that the USA or the USSR were conducting nothing but "scientific tests" with most of them. Not when you see one, two or three detonations in a single month and something like 20 to 30 for an entire year and that continuing on for nearly half the decade.
Seems like in the 30 years from 1945 to 1975 they should have had plenty of data on yield, radioactivity, fallout and so on. So why the need to continue exploding nuclear devices for the next two decades?

I think a lot of it has to go with the constant game of one upmanship that the super powers engaged in. After all both sides were busy using every means possible to find out about the nuke arsenal that the other had. Still doesn't explain why popping 2000+ nukes would be considered a good idea, does it?
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 12-14-2010, 04:23 PM
Legbreaker's Avatar
Legbreaker Legbreaker is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Posts: 5,070
Wink

They went bang.

What's not to like about things that go bang?

__________________
If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.

Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"

Mors ante pudorem
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 12-14-2010, 08:06 PM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee, USA
Posts: 2,894
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker View Post
They went bang.

What's not to like about things that go bang?

Nothing wrong with a bang, I think the world goes smoother with the occasional bang

Its the becoming your own personal night light, hair-falling, puke your're guts outs aftermath that bothers me!
__________________
The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 12-15-2010, 05:00 AM
Mohoender's Avatar
Mohoender Mohoender is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Near Cannes, South of France
Posts: 1,653
Default

Interesting even if it's hard to draw a conclusion from it. The only thing I would conclude is that we are indeed the most stupid species to have ever lived on this planet.

A french comic scenarist had stated that solar erruptions should, in fact, be the sun puking at us when it is looking over the human race. That might be true.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 12-15-2010, 09:20 PM
Grimace Grimace is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Montana
Posts: 288
Send a message via ICQ to Grimace Send a message via AIM to Grimace Send a message via Yahoo to Grimace
Default

Yeah, that video really makes you want to live in the southwestern U.S., doesn't it?

Sad and unfortunate.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:21 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.6
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.