EMP

There is a guy that i work with that keeps talking about how another countrys government is going to explode an EMP and send our world back 200 years. im not sure if hes brainwashed or if its for read. he has bought a 72 f-100 pickup that has no electronics on it so when it happens he can still get around. i typically just sit and let him go on and on and sometimes it makes logical since, but we can argue why my phone case is black all day. but its not going to go anywhere.

question is, who believes this and why

my opnion is that with all the technology that we have, if it was going to happen then wouldnt we be able to stop it and see it coming??

 

Well, your friend isn't 100% wrong here. The US government is going to start requiring all power generation facilities to install EMP resistors at their facilities to protect their generators. Basically, an EMP would travel back up the power lines into the generator and fry it. So the government is already taking steps to prevent a big part of the damage.

An EMP is a result of exploding an atmospheric nuclear weapon, and it's a well-documented symptom. It does have a fairly limited radius, though. If I remember right - and it's very possible that I don't since I haven't looked at this stuff in years - the radius for a 100kt weapon is about 500 miles. So one exploded over Pittsburgh would affect Chicago, Toronto and New York but not Atlanta.

Now the more troublesome issue isn't nuclear weapons - since those are relatively easy to control (you have to get them up high enough for the effect to matter) - it's solar flares. If one of those hits the Earth, the ionosphere would catch most of it, but a big enough one could do the exact same thing as a nuclear weapon, only over a larger scale. It would be more of a global problem than a US-only one.

Oh, and it would realistically be only about 150 years, not 200. The Amish would take over.

 

how long would it take to install something like that? or does it just depend on the size of the facility?

 

It shouldn't take that long, provided the generator is off-line. Probably a week or two. My understanding is that it's a large piece of equipment but not unmanagebly large. More than one fits on a rail car.

 

With the exception of North Korea and the US I don't see any country with nuclear weapons capability being inclined to cause this sort of damage

North Korea may or may not be capable of detonating a nuclear weapon in space. Likewise for Iran and Syria.

Interestingly enough, the US is considered the biggest threat when it comes to a likelihood of EMP being used as a weapon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

 

very useful information

 

There are ways to protect your stuff, the biggest is to unplug it and put it in a grounded metal box.

http://cryptome.org/emp.htm

http://cryptome.org/emp08.htm

And here is a book for you and the other guy to read up on how to survive when or if this happens.
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/fiction/lightsout1-10.pdf
http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/fiction/lightsout11-20.pdf

 

You can't live in fear of this. You could drive yourself crazier than the whackos that bought into the Y2K crap. In fact...

Guy I worked with got so paranoid about Y2K that he filled his garage with survival gear. He had canned food and water, a dozen 5 gallon cans of gasoline, weapons, generators... an insane horde. He paid for it by skimming from the store to the tune of over $30,000 USD. He must have figured that when society crashed, all evidence of his thievery would be wiped out. He got caught and his family was ruined when restitution was demanded.

/end of digression.

Getting off the grid and shielding your gear would protect your stuff, but, where would you plug in? How long before the electricity and internet are up and running after an EMP attack... and what kind of mayhem would we endure in the meanwhile?

 

I'm with grumpy mainly because I like old dudes but also because he speaks the truth.

Living in fear of what might happen takes all the joy out of living today.

And why is this guy focused on EMP's? Why not a nuclear terrorist attack or pole shifting, or that island out in the Atlantic that may one day cause a horrific tsumani that will wipe out the East Coast? Why not an alien attack? Why not the Rapture? What's an EMP strike got over these other paranoid based what ifs? Maybe he's just one of these survivalist types who's convinced something catastrophic is going to happen someday and he thinks he's going to be able to fully prepare himself for any eventuality. Good luck with that, I say.

The guy'll most likely die of a stress induced heart attack long before he has to really worry about such things.

In the event of a EMP strike against the US by an enemy nation, I cannot foresee an aftermath that will give you access any time soon. The US will respond with all it's might. The government will be engaging in activities where only the highest priority services will be brought on line. They'll care less if you or I can check our facebook updates or plug in our electric toothbrushes.

These are not events anyone should be overly preparing for as an eventually.

As a precaution, FEMA has put up on their website some basic guidelines for survival in the event of a disaster for those who don't feel secure unless they have something planned in advance.
http://www.ready.gov/are-you-ready-guide

 

im not sure where he came up with it, one day a month or so ago he started talking about his wifes aunt and this stuff and calling her a weirdo. next thing you know hes on board. hes started reading books about it and all that other stuff.

i agree, if you put your (whatever) in the microwave after its over what the hell are you going to do with it? maybe a generator but thats about all.

i agree, i would e more worried about a tsunami killing me than i would an emp.

question, just say for instance Japan fired one, would we know it and be able to stop it???

 

Let's say North Korea since that's more likely.

Yes, we'd see it coming, mainly because it would HAVE to be airborn to have the effect - at least the meaningful effect. A low-altitude detonation would limit the effect to maybe a couple of hundred miles - maybe. It sucks locally, but it's not national infrastructure-crashing. So you have to get the thing high enough off the ground before you blow it up. That means a missle (or an airplane, but that's much less likely). So we'd see it coming. Maybe we could do something about it, maybe not. It depends on how much hidden technology we actually have and are willing to reveal.

 

lol not yet.
--- merged: Dec 15, 2011 4:34 PM ---

ok, so realistically, if it were to happen then it would PROABLLY only affect a small area, ok, then the rest of the us would be ok. so why is he so paranoid is the real question. im starting to think i ahve a better chance of seeing a unicorn than this happening
--- merged: Dec 15, 2011 4:35 PM ---

Hes allready had one, 2 years ago, but it was before this happend

 

No we wouldn't see it coming. We would know it is coming. However, at an altitude of 300-500 km up, whatever country could say it is a scientific satellite and nothing could really be done about it.

http://cryptome.org/e083.jpg


If you were a country like North Korea, Pakistan, or Iran and wanted to do the most damage with one shot, this is what you would want to do. The initial blast wouldn't kill many, but the food riots and lack of transportation and heat would.

 

I am far more worried about this, having been passed with bipartisan support and unanimously in the Senate.



So much for closing Gitmo and the rights of WE THE PEOPLE. Hopefully, Obama truly lives up to his veto threat.

 

did that idiot really say, "pretty please may we have our drone back"?

 

He should have said. "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse"

He needs to go a little old-school Chicago gangster/The Godfather on them. He sent in the team to assassinate Bin Laden, he helps the rebels in Libya, and he sent more troops into Iraq.

 

ok, with all the technology we have, why not??

 

Space starts 100 miles up, and that's the lower limit of low earth orbit. There's no good way to distinguish between a satellite with peaceful purposes and a nuke once it's up there. 9 countries have managed to launch anything into orbit, and an EMP attack from orbit is a nuclear first strike anyway you look at it.

Basically, your friend is a highly specialized variety of survivalist nutcase.

 

you are correct, i dont know what got into him. all of the sudden when work has slowed way down here, it was like he needed something to believe in, or a cause, he watched a 2 hour thing on you tube about how the presidents are picked at birth and made to be politicians and how they are just a whiopping boy for some underground society. ill try to find the link