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#1
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Big 'shrooms in Vegas
US to test 700-tonne explosive
Mar 30 11:26 AM US/Eastern The US military plans to detonate a 700 tonne explosive charge in a test called "Divine Strake" that will send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, a senior defense official said. "I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," said James Tegnelia, head of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Tegnelia said the test was part of a US effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. "We have several very large penetrators we're developing," he told defense reporters. "We also have -- are you ready for this - a 700-tonne explosively formed charge that we're going to be putting in a tunnel in Nevada," he said. "And that represents to us the largest single explosive that we could imagine doing conventionally to solve that problem," he said. The aim is to measure the effect of the blast on hard granite structures, he said. "If you want to model these weapons, you want to know from a modeling point of view what is the ideal best condition you could ever set up in a conventional weapon -- what's the best you can do. "And this gets at the best point you could get on a curve. So it allows us to predict how effective these kinds of weapons ... would be," he said. He said the Russians have been notified of the test, which is scheduled for the first week of June at the Nevada test range. "We're also making sure that Las Vegas understands," Tegnelia said. |
#2
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My first thought was "nah, it's too dry in Vegas for shrooms", then I read your post.
__________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." |
#3
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Yet another example of rampant Pentagon waste; the smoking gun manifests itself as a mushroom cloud over a major American city.
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#4
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Left-eyed, tin-horned, purple prose writer.
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#5
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Pxland 2001 Honda Accord 1995 Jeep Cherokee 1973 MB 280SEL 4.5 |
#6
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In any case, I can see the practicality of such a weapon. As always, one hopes that it never needs to be used.
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1992 300D 2.5T 1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold) 1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy" 1974 Triumph TR6 1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's) |
#7
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Quote:
__________________
I'm sick of .sig files |
#8
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Busted again. You guys are pretty sharp around here.
Actually, my argument is almost entirely borrowed from the libertarian Right. I believe there is no example of government fraud, waste and taxpayer abuse more emblematic than that of the Pentagon. I want that bloated dinosaur to be figurately and literally blown up, slashed by 75%, and re-oriented toward the DEFENSE of our nation's borders, territorial waters and airspace. I believe a great many libertarian righties like former Pres. candidate Badnarik would largely agree with that assessment. Last edited by Zeitgeist; 03-31-2006 at 01:47 PM. |
#9
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Off topic, but hey... what the heck. My take, as an enlisted Guardsman, is that the bulk of costs in MY unit, anyway, are thanks to over-regulating every task that the military is assigned. I suppose they're covering their asses for liability's sake, but when I show up for two days of drill, I'd like to spend 2 days doing OJT, actually fixing jets. Instead, we head in and fulfill our training obligations, which include things like chemical warfare readiness, ComSec crap, online quizzes regarding use of our government travel (credit) cards, recycling, hazmat disposal, maintaining access to portal accounts for pay and whatnot, etc... essentially a colossal waste of time that results in a LESSER prepared force on the whole. THEN maybe we'll get to run come cables or rig some flight controls, swap out a landing gear, or something like that. I get to do more "hands-on" on TDY trips than I do at homestation! This nonsense results in a lot of pencil-whipping of training records, which is not good either. It seems my primary commitment ought to be to maintaining my proficiency as an airplane maintainer, not memorizing which agency supervises the HazMat disposal program at the unit level, for example. I think that costs the military a LOT of time and money. OK... end of rant. Sorry!
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1992 300D 2.5T 1980 Euro 300D (sadly, sold) 1998 Jetta TDI, 132K "Rudy" 1974 Triumph TR6 1999 Saab 9-5 wagon (wife's) |
#10
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Izat a bbc link or something, Bot (tonne)?
As far as agreeing/diasagreeing with practice testing bombs, one way to look at it would be that it may determine its safety as regards those deploying said device, ie: our soldiers/pilots. Once again, Zeit hates Murka and US Soldiers |
#11
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If you lived out here in a one room tar paper shack out in the boonies, you'd feel the same way, frat boy...he he he [rubs hands together]
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#12
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Stop with all this talk of penetrating bunker busters, cause that and the thought of that kind of glorious military might in service of freedom and democracy is liable to give me wood.
Divine Strake indeed.
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1986 300SDL, 362K 1984 300D, 138K |
#13
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i really think they should test this on pennsilvania ave. first. we'd know if it works for sure.
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#14
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Taking you literally at your word, you should know that your interests were advanced by Al Queda, which actually tried to git'er done. In 2001. September 11. |
#15
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Yes, "figuratively and literally blown up" means exactly what I stated, but your cheap shot is exactly that; cheap.
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