Well we have nukes.................. 'cept they're really the America's nukes and we can't fire them without their say so.
But we still pay for them.

On August 2, 1939, just before the beginning of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein and several other scientists told Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify uranium-235, which could be used to build an atomic bomb. It was shortly thereafter that the United States Government began the serious undertaking known then only as "The Manhattan Project."

Over the course of six years, from 1939 to 1945, more than $2 billion was spent during the history of the Manhattan Project. The formulas for refining uranium and putting together a working atomic bomb were created and seen to their logical ends by some of the greatest minds of our time. Chief among the people who unleashed the power of the atom was Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the project from conception to completion.

At 5:29:45 (Mountain War Time) on July 16, 1945, in a white blaze that stretched from the basin of the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico to the still-dark skies, "The Gadget" ushered in the Atomic Age. The light of the explosion then turned orange as the atomic fireball began shooting upwards at 360 feet per second, reddening and pulsing as it cooled. The characteristic mushroom cloud of radioactive vapor materialized at 30,000 feet. Beneath the cloud, all that remained of the soil at the blast site were fragments of jade green radioactive glass created by the heat of the reaction.

The brilliant light from the detonation pierced the early morning skies with such intensity that residents from a faraway neighboring community would swear that the sun came up twice that day. Even more astonishing is that a blind girl saw the flash 120 miles away.

Upon witnessing the explosion, its creators had mixed reactions. Isidor Rabi felt that the equilibrium in nature had been upset as if humankind had become a threat to the world it inhabited. Robert Oppenheimer, though ecstatic about the success of the project, quoted a remembered fragment from the Bhagavad Gita. "I am become Death," he said, "the destroyer of worlds." Ken Bainbridge, the test director, told Oppenheimer, "Now we're all sons of bitches."

inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/atomic_bomb.htm

The most likely way to kill people en masse without damaging the planet for the rulers themselves is for them to simply pull the plug on the economy while they hunker in bunkers for a while.

People will turn on each other and do the job for them. No nukes necessary.

andyh wrote:
Instead of turning on each other we should work together and seal those bunkers.

(while they are in there and so they can't get out) It can be done.

In my honest opinion there will never be a nuclear war

Gilly wrote: AFAIK, Threads was broadcast once and never repeated, and it wasn't available to buy on DVD for ages. The DVD used to sell for £50-60 on Ebay.

When the Wind Blows is better known, it was even mentioned in the British parliament, but anything animated often gets overlooked. It's never mentioned in lists of the greatest films, I know when Channel 4 did the 100 Greatest War Films it wasn't in the top 50. A lot of adults just won't watch cartoons so it doesn't have the profile that it should, but it's one of the best films you will ever see.

I've decided not to spend my last few days of existence viewing horror after all.

What if there's a revelation on the 21st that changes everything?
Benevolent aliens overflowing with love. Coming to pick us up out of the playpen and teach us to walk?



It would be nice if something, err, nice, happened