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The bones were splashed with molten metal. Imagine holding a silver cup. You raise it to give a toast. All of a sudden, the wine in your cup begins to boil, yo

by kijin 5y ago

The bones were splashed with molten metal. Imagine holding a silver cup. You raise it to give a toast. All of a sudden, the wine in your cup begins to boil, your flesh turns to ash and flies away as if someone with an infinity gauntlet had willed you away, the cup melts and splatters silver over your charred bones. The only other place where I think I was impressed by scenery of this sort was the opening to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It seems that reality is even scarier than what our writers and cinematographers can imagine.

Arun2009 5y ago
I'd argue that this is one of the most humane ways to die. You're gone in a flash. Compare this to diseases like several cancers that kill you slowly over a period of time, while you suffer all the way through.
int_19h 5y ago
In Russian schools, there's a class named "fundamentals of life safety". For the most part, it covers basic disaster preparedness and survival, but also civil defense. So there's a lesson on nuclear warfare, complete with charts showing how much gets destroyed where, tables specifying proper amounts of radioactivity-blocking materials to use for shelters etc. Now, that has a lot of duck-and-cover type stuff that should be familiar to older American readers. But if your teacher is prone to irony and dark humor, you can get some extras. In our case, it was a military joke that went thus: "What should you do if you're a soldier, and a nuclear weapon goes off in the immediate vicinity?" "Stand still and hold your AK in front of you, arms fully stretched out." "Why?" "So that the molten metal doesn't drip on and burn through your government-issued boots. Another recruit could still use them."
- elihu 5y ago
  There was an 80's book called Nuclear War Survival Skills covered here a week or two ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28481782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28481782
LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
Yah, that planted an impressive meme into our minds, didn't it? But TBH, would it even matter? I mean, to be that near for it to happen, there is so much radiation under way that it makes you unconscious before you even know it, I'd guess. Maybe you'd see a flash, and then you would be gone. In the timescale of such things loooong before anythings starts to heat, char, be blown apart, away, to ashes and steam.

by kijin 5y ago

Arun2009 5y ago

I'd argue that this is one of the most humane ways to die. You're gone in a flash. Compare this to diseases like several cancers that kill you slowly over a period of time, while you suffer all the way through.

int_19h 5y ago

In Russian schools, there's a class named "fundamentals of life safety". For the most part, it covers basic disaster preparedness and survival, but also civil defense. So there's a lesson on nuclear warfare, complete with charts showing how much gets destroyed where, tables specifying proper amounts of radioactivity-blocking materials to use for shelters etc. Now, that has a lot of duck-and-cover type stuff that should be familiar to older American readers. But if your teacher is prone to irony and dark humor, you can get some extras. In our case, it was a military joke that went thus: "What should you do if you're a soldier, and a nuclear weapon goes off in the immediate vicinity?" "Stand still and hold your AK in front of you, arms fully stretched out." "Why?" "So that the molten metal doesn't drip on and burn through your government-issued boots. Another recruit could still use them."

elihu 5y ago
There was an 80's book called Nuclear War Survival Skills covered here a week or two ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28481782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28481782

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago

Yah, that planted an impressive meme into our minds, didn't it? But TBH, would it even matter? I mean, to be that near for it to happen, there is so much radiation under way that it makes you unconscious before you even know it, I'd guess. Maybe you'd see a flash, and then you would be gone. In the timescale of such things loooong before anythings starts to heat, char, be blown apart, away, to ashes and steam.