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[Mark H]

And for just a touch more history..........

Little Boy (uranium gun-type device) was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare, and was dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. It's force was equal to 13,000 tons of TNT.

Fat Man (plutonium implosion weapon) was the second nuclear weapon used in warfare, and was dropped on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. It's force was equal to 20,000 tons of TNT.

And those pale in comparison to the current nuclear weapons of the world.

Mark H; All out nuclear war has no winners, just a world full of losers.

[trav]

Good history lession i have going here :D :D :D

I've always though, ask anyone at Poasters about anything and theyre sure to answer :D :D :D

[44mayg]

To add to what Mark has said, below the pic is a little more info on something quite large.

By the way, since we are now talking nukes, this is the desktop picture I use on both computers and laptop. I'm not one who changes the desktop a lot, so this one has been my favorite pic for several years. Notice how it's blown what few icons I keep on the desktop to the far left :-)


***********
The largest nuclear weapon ever produced was the Soviet thermonuclear Tsar Bomba ("King of Bombs"), which had an estimated yield of 100 megatons. The explosive force of this bomb would have been approximately 6,500 times the 15-16 kiloton bomb detonated at Hiroshima. A scaled-down 50Mt version of Tsar Bomba was tested in September 1961, in the largest man-made explosion to date.

(*My note - A Megaton is equal to 1,000,000 tons of TNT*)

The largest bomb ever produced by the United States was the Mk/B 53, also a thermonuclear weapon, which had a yield of 9Mt. Though the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to make larger and larger bombs early on, the "big bomb" race was later abandoned: in the 1960s and 1970s, the superpowers replaced almost all of these very cumbersome weapons with the smaller yet still formidable multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) warheads that tip today's intercontinental ballistic missiles.

HEY DUDE! We use Google! :-)

[pat]

As acronyms go I don?t believe I?ve ever heard one more fitting than MAD.

I?ll save dude the trouble of looking this one up. It stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. The excuse for the excessive build of nuclear arms, and the sorry legacy of past political leaders (on all sides).

[44mayg]

How very true Pat. MAD stands for itself quite well.

The United States is the only country to have ever used a nuclear device on another country during wartime. Although the US and the USSR were rivals in creating as many nukes as possible, and except for the use during WWII, both countries have been responsible about keeping them out of conflicts because of MAD. The Cuban crisis was quite close to those boundaries being broken.

Now, there are rogue countries which possess these weapons. But even rogue countries pretty well know better than unleash a nuclear weapon on another country, especially if it's an ally of Russia or the United States. Even they have some kind of standards to keep themselves from being turned into sand in retaliation.

France is a jerk country. It's the only one that never exploded a nuclear device on it's own soil. It chose to tramp around the world and the pacific dirtying up other territories with it's tests.

Terrorists like Bin Laden don't have any standards. If he had nuke, he'd do his best to use it on the United States or one of it's allies at first chance. Even a small one can destroy a good sized city.

[Mark H]

Yep, Google is great for finding out facts - hint, hint.... Of course, not everything on the internet is true, so you have to have some knowledge to start.

Nice lesson we have going here.

To add to it, a surrender was issued just before the second nuclear bomb was dropped, however, word didn't get to the right place in time to prevent it.

Mark H

[44mayg]

Hmmmmm..... suspicious.

Suspicious, kinda like word didn't get to Pearl Harbor in time that hundreds of Japanese planes were headed their way.

Gee, too bad the two way radio hadn't been invented yet.

Oh, wait. Yeah it had.

I've watched more than one documentary over that whole fiasco. They try to explain everything away, but a person still has to wonder. Were the powers in charge at the time looking for a good excuse to get in the war?

Bet they really wanted to drop that second one no matter what.

Guess we'll never really know.

Kinda like Kennedy. Hoffa. Ace.

[Ace]

Well, paybacks are heck.  It was that or invade Japan, and that would've made RTCW look like a cakewalk.  And there's still enough snow out that we don't need cake to trudge through, too.

I saw "Pearl Harbor" last night.  Boy, that took awhile to get going.  I'd heard it was about Pearl Harbor, with a love story mixed in and it ended with the A-Bomb drops.  Instead, it was a love story with Pearl Harbor mixed in and Doolittle's raid.  The love story was fine, although it eats up about the first 40 minutes and the end.  Doolittle's raid takes about 10 minutes; they come up to the coast and bomb one industrial section (Tokyo isn't on the coast, it's on a bay, so I can't figure out it's just over this ridge, but whatever).  Then the China "landings" (crashings) and the like.  From my reading, one plane had its crew captured by Japanese, and some headed to Russia and most were taken in by Chinese.  This made it looked like everyone crashed and Japanese surrounded them all, and they had to shoot their way out to get to the Chinese.  I wish they'd taken a bit more time and expense on that part of it.  

It's a good thing that military intelligence has advanced to the state it's in today, where we're sure of stockpiles of WsMD and the whereabouts of terrorist cells and leaders and pinpoint strategic weapons can allow us to get in and out in

Oh, probably a couple years or so.  Next: On To Mars!

Ace; the God of War..

[pat]

All I know is they need some intelligence over there on Grape. Man-o-man that was insane yesterday, quite MAD.

Anyway, I?ll go out on a limb here and recommend a book, if you can find it. I think it?s now out of print. I did do a search at half.com and there are some copies available.
Nuclear War, What?s in it for you? By Ground Zero Staff.
As I recall, excellent reading, contains more than all you ever really need to know about nuclear weapons and war.

Also Carl Sagan?s writings on nuclear winter are good reading.

If you can find a copy of  Alas Babylon by Pat Frank you might want to give that a read. It was written back in 1959 when nuclear war was thought to be winnable or at least survivable. It tells the tale of a family that makes it through a nuclear war and some of the challenges they face.

[Mark H]

I saw "Pearl Harbor" last night.  Boy, that took awhile to get going.  I'd heard it was about Pearl Harbor, with a love story mixed in and it ended with the A-Bomb drops.  Instead, it was a love story with Pearl Harbor mixed in and Doolittle's raid.  The love story was fine, although it eats up about the first 40 minutes and the end.

I think the movie Titantic had the same problem. It was a love story with a ship hitting an iceberg and sinking mixed in with it.

Mark H

[44mayg]

Ace, I hope you have a good surround system for watching home movies. They did a good job with that too!

Titanic was a good movie too. I especially liked the part toward the end when Jack finally sunk, and his face was disappearing down into the deep, dark water :-)

[Ace]

Why, as a matter of fact, yes I do and yes it was.  I have a Bose center channel and split surrounds, and use the Cambridge Sound system for movies and videos (it's got the two mid/tweeter boxes and two subs split).  I leave off the Infinity 3 ways for movies, but run them with the others for CDs.  It's a lot of sound.  It flows up the stairs so you can hear fidelity all through the house, to the back porch.  

I started down 23 but the light was out at 23 and Douglas, so we looped over to Grape.  I wish there had been an iceberg to take out 1000 or so of those idiots.  What a mess.  It was nightmarish.  

He shoulda been a Jumping Jack, into a boat.

Ace; maybe the Japanese took out the Titanic.  That'd be some movie.

[Mark H]

Titantic is truly awesome on a good surround system as is Pearl Harbor.

Mark H

[44mayg]

Ace, in all this time, you've finally impressed me as someone who might actually have taste. No, not that you taste good. I doubt that. From Gremlins and Pintos, you said you have Bose and Infinity speakers. Nice touch! If it's really true. Knowing you, you've just probably seen the ads. Thats why you can spell the names :-)

Man, we've talked about cakes, cars, nuclear bombs and a bunch of other stuff. I think we should talk music now. Music systems. Amps. Speakers. Surround.

Whatever you got for the house, share it with the rest of us. Eveyone has to have some kind of music box. Doesn't matter if it's big or small. (Ignore what women say :-)

My home music-surround-window shaking system:

Amp - Pioneer VSX-504S
150W x 4
100W x 6 (surround mode)

Speakers
Infinity SM155 4 way with 15" woofers (Main)
Infinity SM85 (Front)
Infinity SM65 (Rear)
JBL PSW 1000 100W 10" Self Powered Sub
Center Channel - Quickly Deleted!

I had a center channel speaker for surround use, but only for a couple days after I put this system together. It was an excellent center speaker, but took too much power from the front speakers and sounded weird. Kinda boxy. Especially didn't like the way voices sounded.

When watching a movie or playing a video game, I only run the sub, front and rear speakers. Even with the main speakers off, the ones I run are still good enough to feel all the bomb blasts and explosions up through your throat.

For music, I run the mains, (light them 15's up) sub and front speakers. It's like being there. These will shake, rattle and roll pictures and stuff off the walls. Empty your pockets. Break things. Straighten your hair. Untie your tennis shoes. Flatten your car tires. Defibrillate your heart.

Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Nickelback, ACDC, ELO, any good hard hitting rock............. ROCKS!!

But not for long periods of time. My ears would break and I have to turn it down every time the space station or planes go overhead.

No country.
No punk.
No rap.
No hip hop.

[Ace]

I went with the Bose low profile center channel speaker; I also did without that for a long time (added the Bose side surrounds first).  We have a narrow shelf that's up behind the TV, so space was limited.  I've got it on the Surround Sound and Theatre settings (have a Sony receiver) but not on the Hall, Live or Acoustic (music only) settings.  It has a natural clarity, even with a concert video that's center-dominant.  I can adjust any of the speakers for relative volume, so each sound field has a different take... that helps to adjust to different mixes for videos.  The Bose runs from $179-199 (got it at the 179, naturally).  I'm not a fan of Bose for music, alone, but for bouncing sound around and for this speaker they were great.

I concur with the music to eliminate, so as not to bother people.  My recommendations from this (last) year's purchases:

Songs for the Deaf; Queens of the Stone Age - Heavy, catchy, 70's style rock.  Foo Fighters - heavy, catchy, 90's rock.  Audioslave - heavy, catchy,
2000's rock.  

Porcupine Tree; progressive, catchy, early Genesis meets heavy, catchy modern rock.

Best eclectic polished performance and songwriting; everything from Mark Knopfler.  Ragpicker's Dream being the latest.  

Ace; I never listened to the gremlins or Pintos that much.

[Mark H]

Now that we are talking hi-fidelity, here is the system I put together last year.

Bose double cubed 6.1 surround speakers (small in size, large in performance).
Yamaha 6.1 receiver.
Sony wide screen television.

I must say that it absolutely rocks! It is actually like being at the theater without the talking, ringing cell phones, and sticky floors.

I guess I am a stereo buff, photography buff, and a computer buff. If must be that I like electronic gadgets. ::)

Mark H

[Neon]

I guess I am a stereo buff, photography buff, and a computer buff. If must be that I like electronic gadgets. ::)

Mark H

...or perhaps you just like doing things in the buff ;D

You should hear some of the radio ads here for the Nude Furniture store. Everyone is shopping - in the nude!, and on and on.

[44mayg]

I don't have any, but Bose and Yamaha are good stuff. I have yet to hear the Wave Radio. It probably sounds great for it's size, but the cost seems high no matter what it sounds like.

I'm an electronic gadgets freak too. Just love that stuff.

The GPS market has been really growing the last couple years. Handhelds are selling better than ever. And getting better too. I stepped into owning my first handheld GPS almost 10 years ago. The technology is awesome with the accuracy and info displayed getting better and better. I was ecstatic when they shut off SA (Selective Availability).

The government used to be afraid non friendly forces would use GPS for bad things, so they introduced a slight error into the system the civilian population could use. (Gee, like they couldn't use the foreign GPS system also up there) This caused GPS receivers to not be as accurate as they really could be. With SA shut off, accuracy is now down to a few feet. Speed and elevations are also quite accurate and don't bounce around like they used to.

Lasers are awesome. When I was around 10 years old, I saw a picture of a beam of light (laser) burning a hole in a razor blade. WOW! A beam of light burning through stainless steel, with a shower of sparks on the backside. I was in love :-)

I did buy a handheld green laser ($$ back then) a couple years ago. The visibility of the beam is great. I can stand on a hill behind our house at night and see it on the sides of truck trailers on the freeway a mile+ away. Been through a bunch of the cheapie red ones over the years. It's green all the way for this boy now!

For a cool toy, I built a Tamiya King Tiger RC 1/16 scale tank last year, model 56018. This is one cool tank!

The Lightwave 4000 10 LED flashlight is great, but newer ones give off better light now. I still haven't seen any that will stay lit on a set of batteries the number of days the Lightwave will.

An actual piece of Titanic Coal. (I had Jack bring it up from his trip way down under :-)

Been looking at the large plasma TV's, but gonna wait a while longer till production is up and prices are down.

I need a piece of Trinitite. Found this stuff while looking for info for the nuclear poasts. (Fused sand from the Trinity nuclear test site)

Guess I better stop. There are too many cool high tech toys to mention.

Funny thing, I still haven't been suckered into a cell (cel) phone or PDA :-)

[Mark H]

....I have yet to hear the Wave Radio. It probably sounds great for it's size, but the cost seems high no matter what it sounds like.

The wave radio sounds great. I had a coupon to get it free direct from Bose with the purchase of the speakers that I bought. I paid the extra little bit to get the CD version though. A Bose Wave Radio CD for almost free was too good to pass up. ;D

Mark H

[44mayg]

I've imagined the Wave Radio has real good sound. No window shaking bass, but good quality bass and tone. You did get a good deal, but I know with the price of Bose equipment, you ended up paying for it somewhere.

If I remember correctly, Bose, JVC and Infinity are all one company now. Or at least owned by the same company.

Kenwood used to make very high quality amps and stuff in the 70's and early 80's. That was the reason Kenwood was my first quality stereo purchase way back then. But they were bought out by some company that made crap for quality, but stuck with the Kenwood brand name. In other words, Kenwood wasn't really Kenwood any more.

Too many companies have done that. I only wonder how many. I guess a good search on the net would provide some solid info. Maybe some day I'll dig into that one, but probably not till it's time for a new system :-)

[pat]

I just have a mid-range Sony surround sound receiver with Infinity speakers. It gets the job done. Since the Luxman got stolen, I just can?t spend that kind of dough on stereo equipment anymore. They did leave me my Bang and Olafson turntable though, that would be hard to replace.

So what about concerts? You know live music, what have you all seen live?
I?ve seen a couple of shows, so I?ll go first.

In no particular order and as best as I can remember.

Genesis
With Gabriel: I saw the first American tour. It was outside of Chicago at some university hall that sat about 400 people, it was great. Then 4 times after that, they always closed with Supper's Ready. I saw the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway twice, heck I?d go see it again if I could.
Without Gabriel: Twice, It just wasn?t the same and I rapidly lost interest.

Peter Gabriel Alone: 3 times, what can you say, it was the Gab, always good entertainment.

King Crimson: I saw them twice they were awesome.

Gentle Giant: 3 Times, a great if not very well know band, one of my favorites.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer: I saw them once in Chicago, good show.

Pink Floyd: Twice, both times in Chicago, fun, fun, fun.

Jethro Tull: Once in Chicago and once in Florida, another great band. Too bad I missed them last summer.

Moody Blues: Once in Chicago, very nice.

Yes: Three times, the first time was when Rick Wakeman, had his keyboards set apart from the rest of the band and dressed in the magicians costume. Anyway good music, they are doing a 35th anniversary tour this year, I?d like to see them.

Tangerine Dream: Pretty spacey.

The Tubes: Bizarre, I mean, really.

Alice Cooper: What a nightmare, but fun.

Frank Zappa: What an entertainer that guy was.

Hawkwind: I don?t know how well known this band ever became, but they did a stage show that was awesome.

ZZ Top: Loud

Nectar: Another little known German band, great tunes and we got to know them and got backstage passes. 3 times.

Fleetwood Mac: Another good band.

Eric Clapton: was a good show.

That?s all I can remember right now. I?m sure there were others, but it was a while ago.

[scuzzy]

Pink Floyd: Twice, both times in Chicago, fun, fun, fun.

By the way, which one's Pink?

[pat]

That was the big pink pig blimp, they flew around during the outdoor show.

[44mayg]

HEH! It's nice hanging out with those who remember Pink Floyd when they were new :-)

I like your idea Pat, although I can't put down much of a list of concerts, so I think I'll add a little something extra so my list isn't so lame.

When our daughter was growing up, she was a Def Leppard lover of Joe. This was before Steve died, but the drummer had lost his arm. I'll have to admit (confess?) that they did do a couple good albums, maybe three.

Living in a small town, we don't have many large name bands even come close to here, let alone anyone else famous. But here's my list of concerts we've been to anyway. Dang, I could write it on a stamp!

Two Def Leppard concerts. LOUD!!
Two Candlebox concerts.
Paul Revere and the Raiders

Now for some extras, stage shows:

Howie Mandel, and got his autograph on each of our tickets.

Gallagher, the watermelon smasher. He does like red Jello too. I tasted it :-) Got his autograph on a $20 bill, which I still have. When he went to sign it, he said he's signed many denominations, but never a $20.

George Carlin

Famous people I've met:

Sky King (Can't remember his real name)
Robert Conrad (Wild Wild West)
Gallagher
Joey Cora (Mariners)
Mel Stottlemeyer

John Force (Got an autographed rod from his funny car...... made a trade with him for something I made, an engraved .44 magnum cartridge)

Been to Bill Gates house, but couldn't get in to meet him. I wanted him to autograph my Win95 CD. Dang security!! We were at what I call "Bill's Gate". Well, we WERE at his gate. Got pics. Fancy place. DUH!

I don't know if this counts, but I've visited congressmen and senators about not needing some proposed and useless firearms laws. I also jumped down the throat of an anti-gun governer we used to have. Got that one on video, thanks to PBS, and it was fun :-)

[scuzzy]

Scuzzy's Setup:

Yamaha DSP-A1000 7-Channel Receiver (a true beast of burden)
Sony CDP-C79ES 5-CD Changer
Sony S707ES Tuner
TEAC V970X 3-head Cassette Deck
JBL XPL-160 Main Speakers
Infiniti Kappa Video Center Speaker System
Infiniti Micro II Rear Surround Speakers
Yamaha Front Effect Speakers (I forget what model)

My XPL-160 speakers are my favorite part of the setup. They peak at 600 watts (8-ohms) each, and can be driven by dual amplifiers. The sound they reproduce is nothing short of stunning. I bought them in 1992, and 12 years later they still command well over $1000 a pair. Well worth it, as nothing comes close to touching them.

My favorite band? Too hard to say, but I never tire of listening to Bad Finger.

Scuzzy; It's called riding the gravy train.

[trav]

AV Setup:

Sony 54" TV (VEEERY NICE! :D )
Koss Theatre-In-A-Box (DVD player and 5.1 sound, speakers are small, but good, subwoofer is big, but little bass)
RCA VCR

Equipiment that we used to have set up:
Sony 54" TV
Sony STR-DE345 A/V Reciver
Poineer front speakers x2
Sharp surround sound speakers x2 (actually, these were real speakers, not meant for surround sound, that I had on my ((now wrecked or lost)) Sharp stereo)
Sony CD Player (5-Disc)
Sony DVD Player (this sucked and thats why we got the Koss set-up)

Equipment in my room:
JVC minisystem hooked up to computer

Fav bands:
Rush
Led Zep
Yes
AC/DC (Otto: "Spell ACDC!"
            Lisa: "ACDC"
            Otto: "you forgot the lightning bolt)
Creed
Billy Talent

Concerts I've been to or have on DVD/VHS:

Been to:
Alice Cooper/scorpions/ (some other band wich i forgot the name of)
Tragically Hip
U2

Have on DVD/VHS:
"Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same (wreckecd :( ) " < DVD
"Led Zeppelin - DVD (lost somewhere in a CD holder that I cant find :'( ) "
"Woodstock - A festival of music " Origonal (1969??) < VHS
"Woodstock - The Lost Performances " < VHS

[Ace]

First date my wife and I went on was a Yes concert at Notre Dame in 72; have seen them 3 times since including in the round, with Trevor Rabin, and last year with the original reunited group (without Bruford). Also caught Jethro Tull last year; they're a lot of fun.  Have seen Van Halen 3 times, Def Leppard in the round (appear as they do in the DVD, except with change in guitarist), Genesis with Phil leading (I wish I had caught Gabriel, as that was my favorite).  The newest Gabriel concert DVD is stunning; easily the hit of the year.

The actual best concert I attended was Stone Temple Pilots in Fort Wayne.  In was nearly tribal in the mood, and they perform such an exceptional range of music (an acoustic set interspersed into it, as did Def Leppard) that it was incredible.  Cheap Trick was the warmup, and I do like them, but their sound just didn't cut it; distorted loud instead of clear loud.  Have also seen Yngwie Malmsteen twice; I love the guy, but he is one heavy weight on his latest DVD.  You'd think someone who sweats that much would lose weight.  Also saw Bachman Turner Overdrive (warm up for Van Halen) who are the Heaviest Band.  They have the scale to prove it.

Porcupine Tree opened here for Yes last year, and we were stunned.  That's where I had to seek out their CD.

My brother was a (THE) Association fan, in high school, so he'd drag me to go see them several times...  I didn't exactly Cherish the memories, but they were a good group, especially vocally.  I saw Dave Brubeck while at Purdue, as well as a range of ballets and assorted classical concerts.  Had seen Virgil Fox and the Heavy Organ twice; that was a kick, for any Bach fans, especially with the light show.  Saw the Beach Boys a long time ago, and they were getting old then.  Saw Don MacLean during the American Pie heyday, and Isaac Hayes before the Chef.  My wife saw Paul Revere and the Raiders too... that's when bands were fun and quirky.  

I just bought a Peavey 100 watt head that was way marked down, to go with a 2x12 speaker cabinet, to enhance the little Marshall and little Fender.  I apparently would like to go deafer, quicker.  It's that Yngwie influence.  But I'm not going for the tight stretch pants, too.  My wife draws some lines, here.

Ace; which one is Jethro?

[pat]

My favorite band? Too hard to say, but I never tire of listening to Bad Finger.

Hmm, I wonder if Scuzzy ever shares his Bad Finger with Ace?

[Ace]

They're all bad.  And, surprisingly normal sized.  

Usually it's his trigger finger.  We would play Badfinger on the juke box at the pizza place down in the service ctr. at Purdue while we were dating.  No, not Scuzzy and me, my Wife and me.  Geez louise.

Ace; he probably wouldn't let me drive if we went out together.

[scuzzy]

Yes, that's the Badfinger I was typing about.

Scuzzy; I do the driving, Ace does the walking