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Permalink Reply by The Shiznit on October 16, 2012 at 1:53am

Scary shit, man.  Left me speechless. 

{and pondering the effects of all the accumulating radiation}

{and deciding that I would not want to live in the southwestern part of the U.S.  heh}

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel Mortazavi on October 17, 2012 at 2:31pm

Yeah did the same to me. I did think about the radiation. Might be a link between total detonations and cancer rates? Haha I'm with you on that.

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Permalink Reply by Bart on October 16, 2012 at 6:12am

it was cooling off at the end there, and how many of these warheads have been deployed for actual warfare?

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Permalink Reply by The Shiznit on October 16, 2012 at 6:58am

"Deployed" is a tricky word... but you might find this article somewhat informative: 

List of States with Nuclear Weapons

According to that, the U.S. alone has over two thousand "active" warheads out of about 8-thousand total; and I suppose active would be the same as deployed,

for all intents & purposes.

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel Mortazavi on October 17, 2012 at 2:35pm

If you mean how many have been used in actual conflict, only two. The second and third ones shown that were dropped on Japan towards the end of the second world war; Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945, Nagasaki on the 8th of August 1945.

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel Mortazavi on October 17, 2012 at 2:47pm

The reason it's considered more of a political fear mechanism is because the devastation that would result from a nuclear war would be astronomical. Whatever country got hit would be effectively destroyed thanks to today's nuclear weapon technology. I've learned that a single intercontinental nuclear missile could house several nuclear warheads, with each warhead being able to target separate areas of a country after becoming separated from the missiles fuselage. If a country were to actually fire a nuclear weapon at a country that had nuclear weapons, both countries could be destroyed were the victim to return fire before the aggressors missile hit. If you bring alliances into it, things could get very very messy, to the point that there wouldn't really be a world left. Finance isn't much of an issue as far as a nuclear war goes for most of the main powers. It only takes one missile to devastate a huge area.
Personally, I can't see peace being achieved any time soon. There are people who are completely convinced their belief is right, willing to kill others to impose their belief, and the only way to convince them otherwise is to kill them. Doesn't paint a pretty picture. 
As for the colonisation of Mars, I don't know whether I'd be more worried or intrigued. Probably both.

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Permalink Reply by Lore on October 18, 2012 at 8:01pm

"There are people who are completely convinced their belief is right, willing to kill others to impose their belief, and the only way to convince them otherwise is to kill them."

Excellent point you bring up there. I think as long as there are people like this who can't be reasoned with, we won't be able to achieve a lot in terms of progressing towards a better world.

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel Mortazavi on October 19, 2012 at 7:26pm

Thanks. And like I said, there doesn't seem to be a pleasant way of dealing with these kinds of people. That I can think of any way.

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Permalink Reply by Nathaniel Mortazavi on October 17, 2012 at 2:47pm

I'm happy to :)

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