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Just got through reading "The Dead Hand", which is the story of the end of the Cold War. Highly recommended for those interested in how it all played out. http

Just got through reading "The Dead Hand", which is the story of the end of the Cold War. Highly recommended for those interested in how it all played out. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PXFYPQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PXFYPQ/ref=dp-kindle-re... It's frankly amazing that this hasn't happened much sooner. The amount of biological, chemical, and nuclear material lying around the former Soviet Union, basically guarded by people with starvation-level salaries and no future, was beyond alarming. In fact, as bad as this is, the chemical and biological material was much worse. Some of that stuff could take out a city, then proceed to decimate an entire nation. Extremely scary stuff.

mattkevan 11y ago
Some friends spent time volunteering at a charity in Russia in the early/mid 90s. When they went out, the charity had just been given an entire army base. Everything was left except the weapons – equipment, uniforms, personnel files, the lot. If that's what a charity managed to acquire through official means, it's quite scary to think what others might have got their hands on. And my friends got some very warm hats.
- DanielBMarkham 11y ago
  It was -- and is -- an insane period of time to live through. What concerns me is that during the last days of the old Soviet Union, they knew the jig was up. They knew it was all falling apart. So they started hiding stuff. Everywhere. Papers were destroyed. Chemical and biological weapons were taken out and buried. So there's one problem with "dangerous stuff we know about and we're worried that it's not being protected well", then there's an entirely different (and more dangerous) problem of "dangerous stuff we never acknowledged existed and nobody has records for where it is any more."
  - throwaway2048 11y ago
    luckily almost all biological and chemical weapons are not stable, and quickly degrade without sophisticated storage. This is especially true of the most nasty stuff (nerve gas, viral agents, etc), which can break down within days of lacking precisely controlled refridgeration.
    - DanielBMarkham 11y ago
      Thank you for reminding us of this. This was also in the book, and I forgot to mention it. It's a little ray of hope. Of course, between CRISPR and the fact that much of the knowledge about these bio agents have been in people's heads for decades, there is still a considerable amount of risk in this area.

mattkevan 11y ago

Some friends spent time volunteering at a charity in Russia in the early/mid 90s. When they went out, the charity had just been given an entire army base. Everything was left except the weapons – equipment, uniforms, personnel files, the lot. If that's what a charity managed to acquire through official means, it's quite scary to think what others might have got their hands on. And my friends got some very warm hats.

DanielBMarkham 11y ago
It was -- and is -- an insane period of time to live through. What concerns me is that during the last days of the old Soviet Union, they knew the jig was up. They knew it was all falling apart. So they started hiding stuff. Everywhere. Papers were destroyed. Chemical and biological weapons were taken out and buried. So there's one problem with "dangerous stuff we know about and we're worried that it's not being protected well", then there's an entirely different (and more dangerous) problem of "dangerous stuff we never acknowledged existed and nobody has records for where it is any more."
- throwaway2048 11y ago
  luckily almost all biological and chemical weapons are not stable, and quickly degrade without sophisticated storage. This is especially true of the most nasty stuff (nerve gas, viral agents, etc), which can break down within days of lacking precisely controlled refridgeration.
  - DanielBMarkham 11y ago
    Thank you for reminding us of this. This was also in the book, and I forgot to mention it. It's a little ray of hope. Of course, between CRISPR and the fact that much of the knowledge about these bio agents have been in people's heads for decades, there is still a considerable amount of risk in this area.