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Sunday, June 21, 2015

Fun Fact About Fallout and Nuclear Explosions






Fallout 3 other Vault Boy images - The Fallout wiki - Fallout: New ...

If you ever played videogames you’re probably familiar with the charismatic Vault Dweller, the mascot of the Fallout series videogames. But why is it that the little guy is bringing his thumb up? Turns out it’s not just the much needed positive attitude. He’s actually measuring the distance of a nuclear explosion. It seem that an old nuclear war survival tip said that if with your arm extended you could cover the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion with your thumb then you were far enough to survive. I think that wind direction will play a big role as well but still, fun to know and I hope I NEVER have to try it out for real!
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

4 comments:

Don Williams said...

1) Ah, Ferfal sees Obama urinating into Putin's coffee cup and wonders where
that provocation is heading.

2) Well, in the USA FEMA has long advised that one take a portable radio into the
fallout shelter in the event of a nuclear exchange and wait for the FEMA
broadcasts to tell one when the radiation levels have declined enough to make it is safe to come out.
(Since the 1950s the US has had certain powerful AM radio stations hardened with
fallout shelters, electrical generators , food and fuel to last for 30 days. The
Emergency Broadcast System, now known as the Emergency Alert System--see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System )

3) All of which serves a very important FEMA purpose. To reconstitute the economy
after a nuclear exchange, FEMA will need to set up massive labor battalions in the
cities --where the wealth, industrial equipment and resources are. Backbreaking labor in places with high radiation levels guaranteed to cause cancer in a decade or so. So how to get the people to obey and sign up?

4) Simple -- in the first two weeks use the threat of high radiation levels to keep the sheeple in shelters until the military can seize all the food supplies/warehouses. Control the food --you control the population. You don't do what you are told, you don't eat. Nor does your family.

5) FEMA will seize other resources as well. Grab the fuel so you control travel on the highways and all transportation. Set up travel controls at key Interstate intersections. If the Army gets shorthanded, you can use the food supply to draft a bunch of cannon fodder into the FEMA militia. Which means you also grabbed the National Guard armories early on while all the survivalists were sitting in their fallout shelter and dreaming of becoming warlords in the coming Mad Max world. Whereas nothing will really change -- they were tired serfs before, they will be even tireder serfs in the New World Order.

I imagine the EU governments have similar plans.

Don Williams said...

1) If the nuclear explosion was an air burst (often likely because the range of surface destruction is greater) then you don't have to worry about fallout. Look to see if the stem touches the ground.

2) IF it was a surface burst and assuming that no wind is blowing --then the cloud is a circle. Cloud stablizes in about 10 minutes. If you are on the edge of the circle then the width of the cloud will be 90 degrees. If your arm is 18 inches long then 90 degrees will be the distance defined by sticking your arms out in front and holding your hands 25.5 inches apart ( square root of 2 or 1.414 times 18 inches.) If the mushroom cloud width is less than that then you are outside the cloud. If it is more then you are under the cloud. If you are outside the cloud then you need to be concerned only if the wind is blowing the cloud toward you. If wind speed is low, you may be able to run to one side. If you are under the cloud then you need to take shelter or possibly run to get outside the cloud if you are near the edge. Problem is, the street will probably be filled with debris from the blast so don't count on driving.

Anonymous said...

Heck with that theory! If I could even see a mushroom cloud I would say I was to close!!!

Anonymous said...


why do these cartoon characters have 1 less finger? It annoys me :)