The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Main > Nothingland

Nothingland Something about nothing - game threads, diversions, time-wasters

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-02-2020, 11:42 PM   #1
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
What's Next

Fire, plague, famine, pestilence, war?
Or maybe something different like a supervolcano or giant asteroid.

Maybe it's time to start the wheels in motion to protect you and yours.
Attached Images
   
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
xoxoxoBruce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2020, 08:27 AM   #2
Griff
still says videotape
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 26,813
Cozy!
__________________
If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.
- Louis D. Brandeis
Griff is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2020, 09:02 AM   #3
Clodfobble
UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,012
The corrugated steel culvert is what they used in "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
Clodfobble is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2020, 12:25 PM   #4
fargon
Person who doesn't update the user title
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: La Crosse, WI
Posts: 8,924
Some time back in the '60s we received a book in the mail from Civil Defense, about how to build a backyard fallout shelter. The next thing you know there are bomb shelters in every vacant lot in the neighborhood. My Dad thru our book in the trash.
__________________
Annoy the ones that ignore you!!!
I live a blessed life
I Love my Country, I Fear the Government!!!
Heavily medicated for the good of mankind.
fargon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-03-2020, 04:47 PM   #5
Griff
still says videotape
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 26,813
There's a scene I read in The Road where the guy is walking across a yard and it doesn't sound right. He ends up digging up a well stocked bomb shelter and he and the kid eat themselves sick.
__________________
If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.
- Louis D. Brandeis
Griff is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-04-2020, 04:36 AM   #6
Carruthers
Junior Master Dwellar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Buckinghamshire UK
Posts: 4,059
Those were the days; the days when life was so much simpler and all we had to worry about was the possibility of nuclear armageddon within fifteen minutes of the button being pushed.

The UK government produced 'Protect and Survive', a booklet which was sent to every household. It didn't inspire confidence.

At the time I was a volunteer member of an organisation which would have been part of the warning chain in the event of a nuclear attack and, had any of us been left to do it, report on the size and location of a nuclear burst and the subsequent arrival of fallout.

We had a total of 873 reinforced concrete underground posts scattered around the country reporting to twenty-five regional control centres.

Firstly, each post was a warning point. A voice 'Attack Warning Red' message would come from a receiver in the post and also in several thousand other locations around the country which would be the trigger to sound sirens.

Assuming there were any of us left twenty minutes later we'd move on to the reporting function.

Each post was equipped with a number of instruments to assist in the plotting of a nuclear burst:

1. The Bomb Power Indicator.

This was effectively a barometer which measured the over pressure from a blast.

2. Ground Zero Indicator.

This was a simple pin hole camera which had four cassettes of photographic paper, one for each cardinal point.

Images burned on the paper were measured in terms of degrees.

3. Fixed Survey Meter.

Recorded and measured ionising radiation.


The posts were grouped into clusters of three, or sometimes four, and when information collected from the above instruments was fed to Group Control detonations could be plotted and their size determined.

Wind speed and direction would be applied and the likely extent of radiation could be predicted.

This information was fed back to the posts and the imminent arrival of fallout would be signalled to the locality by the firing of maroons.

It's rather a long time ago since I was in but I'm confident that the above is an accurate precis. BTW, it's all in the public domain now.

It was an interesting few years!

Protect and Survive.
__________________
Carruthers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-04-2020, 11:41 AM   #7
sexobon
I love it when a plan comes together.
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 9,793
Hey bud... I was your counterpart in the US military. There are extensively trained specialists who do that (and more) full time; however, they're assigned to Division level and higher to keep them gainfully employed. In smaller units (brigade, battalion, company), it becomes an additional duty to one's primary military occupation. That duty falls first to volunteers and then to appointees as necessary. I volunteered as a "unit" specialist.

Unit specialists go through an abbreviated version of the full-time occupational course. It's conducted on a local military installation rather than at the proponent school. Still, a lot of stuff is covered;

Equipment & supply inventory, storage, inspection and first echelon maintenance (e.g. disassembly-reassembly of gas masks and decontamination apparatus to replace worn/expired parts).

Set-up and monitoring of early warning detectors.

Attack yield estimates.

Flash report and follow-up report formats.

Contaminated casualty evacuation procedures.

Nuclear, biological, and chemical dissemination (fallout/contagion/drift) predictions.

Monitoring continuing exposure in contaminated areas using chemical & biological tests, dosimeters and radiac meters.

Set-up and supervision of a unit decontamination line.

NATO marking of contaminated areas.

Monitoring for residual effects of exposure, outside of contaminated areas.
.
.
One tends to not forget these performance measures, having been drilled into our psyches as being of the utmost importance.
sexobon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-05-2020, 03:49 AM   #8
Carruthers
Junior Master Dwellar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Buckinghamshire UK
Posts: 4,059
Quote:
Originally Posted by sexobon View Post
Hey bud... I was your counterpart in the US military. There are extensively trained specialists who do that (and more) full time; however, they're assigned to Division level and higher to keep them gainfully employed. In smaller units (brigade, battalion, company), it becomes an additional duty to one's primary military occupation. That duty falls first to volunteers and then to appointees as necessary. I volunteered as a "unit" specialist.
Ah! A kindred spirit! You seem to have operated at a capability level far above that which I and my colleagues inhabited. I'm sure the pay was several grades better as well.

No doubt the expertise, equipment and procedures you outline are similar in the Army, RAF and RN, but our efforts were modest in comparison.

I'm sure the warning function would have worked well but I suspect that the subsequent reporting task would have been a different matter.

Our equipment was rugged and simple to operate but that didn't stop the manual being a mighty tome. In extremis we could always have eaten it.

That reminds me, I've got a couple of books on Able Archer 83 waiting to be read. They'll take my mind off the current biological brouhaha.

UKWMO
__________________
Carruthers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-05-2020, 04:46 AM   #9
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Unlike our CD sirens I picture the UKWMO using classy French Horns.
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
xoxoxoBruce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-05-2020, 05:10 AM   #10
Carruthers
Junior Master Dwellar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Buckinghamshire UK
Posts: 4,059
Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce View Post
Unlike our CD sirens I picture the UKWMO using classy French Horns.
Nothing so grand unfortunately!

Name:  Secomak.jpg
Views: 316
Size:  36.3 KB

I've seen one of these turn up on the Antiques Road Trip, Flog It!, or something similar.

I don't know if they were sold off or whether the 'owner' acquired it by other means.

Powered sirens were in use at many locations and there was one on the top of the local authority building in the town centre nearby.

I happened to be walking past when they gave it a brief test some years ago.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end but nobody else took any notice.

Link
__________________
Carruthers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2020, 01:57 AM   #11
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Syren? You Brits sure murder the English language.
__________________
The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.
xoxoxoBruce is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-04-2020, 11:47 AM   #12
BigV
Goon Squad Leader
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Seattle
Posts: 27,063
What's next?

How about an earthquake proof bed?

__________________
Be Just and Fear Not.
BigV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2020, 01:27 PM   #13
BigV
Goon Squad Leader
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Seattle
Posts: 27,063
When we go!
__________________
Be Just and Fear Not.
BigV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2020, 10:39 AM   #14
Carruthers
Junior Master Dwellar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Buckinghamshire UK
Posts: 4,059
I seem to have monopolised this thread but perhaps you'll indulge me a little more.

Some years ago I visited the SD Air & Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

For a small fee it was possible to take a guided tour of the base proper although, in truth, it's such a big establishment that everything was so far away it was barely visible to the naked eye.

However, one exhibit does stick in my mind and that was the Minuteman silo with dummy round in situ.

What astonished me was how small the housing was which contained the warhead. A few feet tall and fewer feet wide. I couldn't believe it.

Interestingly, there was a cylindrical hole in the ceiling which was aligned with the Pole Star as part of the targeting system.

I can't remember the detail of how that worked but I do recall the cogged wheel lining the circumference of the silo which presumably rotated the missile for alignment purposes.

Instant mega death is so much more advanced these days.
__________________
Carruthers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2020, 12:21 PM   #15
BigV
Goon Squad Leader
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Seattle
Posts: 27,063
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carruthers View Post
snip--
Instant mega death is so much more advanced these days.
Totally.

You can just stream it!

__________________
Be Just and Fear Not.
BigV is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
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 -5. The time now is 01:48 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.