NOVEMBER 2007

A MESSAGE FROM RUSSELL "ACE" HOFFMAN:

I have been a computer programmer for more than 25 years, and my
software is used in a couple of thousand universities in probably
over 100 countries, and many thousands of other places, such as pump
manufacturers, law offices, hospitals, several military forces around
the world, and countless homes and schools. I have three products on
the market One is part of the Math
Advantage 2007 package of software products, and is available in
places like Best Buy, Staples, CompUSA, etc.. Most of the
presentation, however, will be about the Internet

THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

By Russell "Ace" Hoffman

Copyright (c) 1999

(Pictures are from U.S. Government sources.)

A year ago this month (May, 1999), India surprised the CIA -- and nearly everyone else except, perhaps, Pakistan, who seems to have been nearly ready -- by setting off several underground nuclear explosions. Then Pakistan, claiming self-defense, followed suit. But what would actually happen if India and Pakistan had a nuclear exchange?

Most people in India and in Pakistan (and in the U.S.) probably do not know that as many as 9 out of 10 people -- or more -- who die from a nuclear blast, do not die in the explosion itself. Most people probably think that if they die from a nuclear blast, they will simply see a flash and get quickly cooked.

Those within approximately a six square mile area (for a 1 megaton blast) will indeed be close enough to "ground zero" to be killed by the gamma rays emitting from the blast itself. Ghostly shadows of these people will be formed on any concrete or stone that lies behind them, and they will be no more. They literally won't know what hit them, since they will be vaporized before the electrical signals from their sense organs can reach their brains.

Of the many victims of a nuclear war, these are the luckiest ones, of course.

Outside the circle where people will be instantly vaporized from the initial gamma radiation blast, the light from the explosion (which is many times hotter than the sun) is so bright that it will immediately and permanently blind every living thing, including farm animals (including cows, sacred or otherwise), pets, birds while in flight and not to mention peasants, Maharajah's, and Government officials -- and soldiers, of course. Whether their eyes are opened or closed. This will happen for perhaps 10 miles around in every direction (for a 1 megaton bomb) -- further for those who happen to be looking towards the blast at the moment of detonation. Even from fifty miles away, a 1 megaton blast will be many times brighter than the noonday sun. Those looking directly at the blast will have a large spot permanently burned into their retinas, where the light receptor cells will have been destroyed. The huge bright cloud being nearly instantly formed in front of them (made in part from those closer to the blast, who have already "become death"), will be the last clear image these people will see.

Most people who will die from the nuclear explosion will not die in the initial gamma ray burst, nor in the multi-spectral heat blast (mostly X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths) which will come about a tenth of a second after the gamma burst. Nor will the pressure wave which follows over the next few seconds do most of them in, though it will cause bleeding from every orifice. Nor even will most people be killed by the momentary high winds which accompany the pressure wave. These winds will reach velocities of hundreds of miles an hour near the epicenter of the blast, and will reach velocities of 70 miles per hour as far as 6 miles from the blast (for a 1 megaton bomb). The high winds and flying debris will cause shrapnel-type wounds and blunt-trauma injuries.

Together, the pressure wave and the accompanying winds will do in quite a few, and damage most of the rest of the people (and animals, and structures) in a huge circle -- perhaps hundreds of square miles in area.

Later, these people will begin to suffer from vomiting, skin rashes, and an intense unquenchable thirst as their hair falls out in clumps. Their skin will begin to peel off. This is because the internal molecular structure of the living cells within their bodies is breaking down, a result of the disruptive effects of the high radiation dose they received. All the animals will be similarly suffering. Since they have already received the dose, these effects will show up even if the people are immediately evacuated from the area -- hardly likely, since everything around will be destroyed and the country would be at war.

But this will not concern them at this time: Their immediate threat after the gamma blast, heat blast, pressure wave and sudden fierce wind (first going in the direction of the pressure wave -- outwardly from the blast -- then a moment later, a somewhat weaker wind in the opposite direction), will be the firestorm which will quickly follow, with its intense heat and hurricane-force winds, all driving towards the center where the radioactive mushroom-shaped cloud will be rising, feeding it, enlarging it, and pushing it miles up into the sky.

The cloud from a 1 megaton blast will reach nearly 10 miles across and equally high. Soon after forming, it will turn white because of water condensation around it and within it. In an hour or so, it will have largely dissipated, which means that its cargo of death can no longer be tracked visually. People will need to be evacuated from under the fallout, but they will have a hard time knowing where to go. Only for the first day or so will visible pieces of fallout appear on the ground, such as marble-sized chunks of radioactive debris and flea-sized dots of blackened particles. After that the descending debris from the radioactive cloud will become invisible and harder to track; the fallout will only be detectable with Geiger counters carried by people in "moon suits". But all the moon suits will already be in use in the known affected area. Probably, no one will be tracking the cloud. One U.S. test in the South Pacific resulted in a cigar-shaped contamination area 340 miles long and up to 60 miles wide. It spread 20 miles *upwind* from the test site, and 320 miles downwind. Where exactly it goes all depends on the winds and the rains at the time. It is difficult to predict where the cloud will travel before it happens, and it is likewise difficult to track the cloud as it moves and dissipates around the globe. While underground testing is bad enough for the environment, a single large above-ground explosion is likely to result in measurable global increases of a whole spectrum of health effects. India or Pakistan will deny culpability for these deaths, of course. The responsible nations, including my own, always do.

But the people who were affected by the blast itself will not be worrying about the fallout just yet.

A 1 megaton nuclear bomb creates a firestorm that can cover 100 square miles. A 20 megaton blast's firestorm can cover nearly 2500 square miles. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were small cities, and by today's standards the bombs dropped on them were small bombs.

The Allied firebombing of nearly 150 cities during World War Two in Germany and Japan seldom destroyed more than 25 square miles at a time, and each of those raids required upwards of 400 planes, and thousands of crewmembers going into harm's way. It was not done lightly. And, they did not leave a lingering legacy of lethal radioactive contamination.

In the span of a lunch hour, one multi-warhead nuclear missile can destroy more cities than all the incendiary raids in history, and the only thing the combatant needs to do to carry off such a horror is to sit in air-conditioned comfort hundreds or even thousands of miles away, and push a button. He would barely have to interrupt his lunch. With automation, he wouldn't even have to do that! The perpetrator of this crime against humanity may never have seen his adversary. He only needs to be good at following the simplest of orders. A robot could do it. One would think, that ONLY a robot WOULD do it.

Nuclear war is never anything less than genocide.

The developing firestorm is what the survivors of the initial blast will be worrying about -- if they can think straight at all. Many will have become instantly "shell-shocked" -- incapacitated and unable to proceed. Many will simply go mad. Perhaps they are among the "lucky" ones, as well.

The firestorm produces hurricane-force winds in a matter of minutes. The fire burns so hot that the asphalt in the streets begins to melt and then burn, even as people are trying to run across it, literally melting into the pavement themselves as they run. Victims, on fire, jump into rivers, only to catch fire again when they surface for air. Yet it is hard to see even these pitiable souls as the least lucky ones in a nuclear attack.

For the survivors of the initial blast who do not then die in the firestorm that follows, many will die painfully over the next few weeks, often after a brief, hopeful period where they appear to be getting better. It might begin as a tingling sensation on the skin, or an itching, which starts shortly after the blast. These symptoms are signs that the body is starting to break down internally, at the molecular level. The insides of those who get a severe dose of gamma radiation, but manage to survive the other traumas, whose organs had once been well defined as lungs, liver, heart, intestines, etc., begin to resemble an undefined mass of bloody pulp. Within days, or perhaps weeks, the victim, usually bleeding painfully from every hole and pore in their body, at last dies and receives their final mercy.

But this too will probably not be how most victims of a nuclear attack will die.

A significant percentage, probably most, of the people who die from a nuclear attack will die much later, from the widespread release of radioactive material into the environment. These deaths will occur all over the world, for centuries to come. Scattered deaths, and pockets of higher mortality rates, will continue from cancer, leukemia, and other health effects, especially genetic damage to succeeding generations.

Nuclear weapons do not recognize the end of a war, or signed peace treaties, or even the deaths of all the combatants. They simply keep on killing a percentage of whoever happens to inhale or ingest their deadly byproducts.

Some deaths will occur hundreds and even thousands of miles away, because low levels of ionizing radiation are capable of causing the full spectrum of health effects, albeit at a lower rate within the population. Not to mention the radioactive runoff from the rivers and streams that flow through the blast area and the area under the radioactive mushroom cloud's drift. It may carry its deadly cargo for thousands of miles, raining a fallout of death only on some cities, and not on others. It will land upon nations which had not been involved in any way in India's dispute with Pakistan. These nations will be mighty hurt and mighty upset.

Nuclear weapons do not recognize international borders.

Finally, an atmospheric blast of a nuclear "device" creates an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) which can be as large as Pakistan or even India -- perhaps even larger than India and Pakistan together. The higher the altitude of the blast, the bigger the circle of damage will be from the EMP. This is a very serious concern for those of us in the high-tech industries, such as myself.

The Electro-Magnetic Pulse will electrify all sorts of metallic structures that are not normally electrified except by the occasional short circuit or lightening strike. This will be a lot like the whole country getting struck by lightening all at the same time.

As computer chips make better and better use of "real estate", using more and more delicate electronic circuits, the more tightly-packed transistors, capacitors, diodes and resistors become more and more vulnerable to the EMP which will be carried into the chips via the connecting wires. The Electro-Magnetic Pulse is one of the reasons above-ground testing was stopped. (The other reason was that it became impossible to deny that the radiation dispersed by the tests was killing people.)

Pacemakers, for example, may stop working because of the "hit" from the EMP. It will be quite something to see people in a thousand mile radius of the epicenter of the blast (or further) who are using pacemakers, suddenly drop dead, and all the computers permanently go down and all the lights go out, all at the same time. And commercial and private aircraft will drop out of the sky, since their sensitive electronics and fly-by-wire systems are not very well shielded from the EMP. These planes will then not be available for evacuation purposes, nor will they be available to air-drop food, water, morphine and cyanide, all of which will be in great demand throughout the area.

A year ago people were dancing in the streets over this in both India and Pakistan. Why?

Home plumbing systems and most other plumbing systems are good examples of large metallic structures that will suddenly become electrified, destroying the motors, gauges, electronics, etc. which are attached to the plumbing systems. More and more pumping equipment is computer controlled nowadays for efficiency. Imbedded controllers are becoming prevalent but as they do, the potential damage from the Electro-Magnetic Pulse increases dramatically.

Train tracks will also carry the charge, as well as telephone wiring. All these things will have a nearly simultaneous surge of energy sent through them, igniting gas containers such as fuel storage tanks, propane tanks, and so on. Whatever doesn't blow up will at least stop working.

My country has lived under the Russian and Chinese threat of nuclear war for many decades now, and it is not a pleasant thought. This is nothing to dance about. There is no benefit to having, or using, nuclear weapons.

I think the world would be a better place if we all stopped and said, "I will not be a part of this. I do not need these weapons, for I would never commit this sin against my own children, nor against my neighbor's children, nor against my enemy's children, nor even against my enemy. I choose not to be a part of this madness."

There is a greater battle mankind must fight than against each other. Humanity's fight right now, is for humanity's general survival despite depleted and poorly used resources, environmental degradation (there is none greater than that from a nuclear explosion), dwindling effectiveness of antibiotics and other wonder drugs, an uneven distribution of available food, knowledge and wealth, and against weapons of mass destruction.

America had three excuses for her previous use of nuclear weapons in war, which we plead every time it is mentioned. First, we claim that we did not understand back then (over 50 years ago) all the ways nuclear weapons damage the Earth and her living inhabitants. Second, we claim that there was a war going on, and that had we not used these weapons, perhaps a million soldiers would have died invading Japan instead. But this second excuse is weakened by the knowledge that Japan was at that time very near collapse anyway. She was without an air defense, a sea defense, she did not have advanced radar, she had lost all her good pilots, millions of soldiers were either dead, wounded, captured, or uselessly stuck on nameless islands in the middle of the Pacific, and towns in her homeland were being firebombed on almost a nightly basis.

Our third excuse was that both Japan (and definitely Germany) were building their own nuclear weapons, and DEFINITELY would have used them against us had they succeeded in developing "the bomb" before the war ended. The war could not go on forever. We were, indeed, running out of time.

Perhaps these excuses are insufficient, but India and Pakistan haven't even got them. India can, and therefore should, along with Pakistan, renounce nuclear weapons and the nuclear option. Perhaps her populace does not understand the full nature of the threat of nuclear weapons, and thus they are dancing in the streets, but I hope that her leaders do. However, I strongly suspect most of them are unaware of the things I have written about in this newsletter. Perhaps you, dear reader, will help me to educate them in this matter.

Sincerely,

Russell "Ace" Hoffman

Carlsbad, California

The author is grateful for the assistance of Pamela Blockey-O'Brien and others in the research and preparation of this statement.

Sources for more information about the effects of nuclear weapons:

For more information on the Electromagnetic Pulse (which can also be created with non-nuclear weapons) you might start with a visit to this URL (which is, actually, specifically about non-nuclear EMP devices):

----- FROM: http://www.infowar.com/mil_c4i/mil_c4i8.html-ssi -----

Computers used in data processing systems, communications systems, displays, industrial control applications, including road and rail signalling, and those embedded in military equipment, such as signal processors, electronic flight controls and digital engine control systems, are all potentially vulnerable to the EMP effect.

Other electronic devices and electrical equipment may also be destroyed by the EMP effect. Telecommunications equipment can be highly vulnerable, due to the presence of lengthy copper cables between devices. Receivers of all varieties are particularly sensitive to EMP, as the highly sensitive miniature high frequency transistors and diodes in such equipment are easily destroyed by exposure to high voltage electrical transients. Therefore radar and electronic warfare equipment, satellite, microwave, UHF, VHF, HF and low band communications equipment and television equipment are all potentially vulnerable to the EMP effect.

It is significant that modern military platforms are densely packed with electronic equipment, and unless these platforms are well hardened, an EMP device can substantially reduce their function or render them unusable.

----- END OF CLIP -----

Information on INFOWAR web site is available from:

Infowar.Com & Interpact, Inc.
WebWarrior@Infowar.Com

Excerpts from some of his letters:
August 30th, 2007

Dear Readers,

I've posted a new animation called Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer.  It
is an analog spin-dial "computer" from the 1960s.  Also included is
an image of an MK-17 nuclear bomb, the Ionizing Radiation poster, and
a list of the 300 largest cities in the world.

The animation is FREE to peace activists.  However, if any military
organizations wish to use it for targeting purposes, the cost is
$10,000,000.00 per user.

The purpose of the original Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer was to
allow soldiers to calculate the effects of a single bomb blast on a
city. 

Here is the URL for the new animation:
http://animatedsoftware.com/environment/nbec/nbec.swf


September 2nd, 2007

Dear readers,


"The waste problem may be solved" Gore reiterates hopefully. Senator
Larry Craig (R-ID) admits "Yeah, we still have problems ... waste
management..." He did not identify any other problems. Chairperson
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told Al Gore: "I'll give you 60 seconds
to respond to that speech about nuclear energy [by Senator Larry Craig]."

Gore used his minute to reiterate that he DIDN'T say nuclear power
"wasn't a factor" in his proposed solution to the problem of global warming.
--------------------------------------------------------

A few months earlier, in December 2006, Senator Craig, who was on the
Senate's Energy Committee, had this to say about Senator Harry Reid's
distaste for having the entire country's nuclear waste deposited at
Yucca Mountain in his home state of Nevada:

"Harry in his wildest dreams wishes it would go away, but it is not
going to go away,""The biggest problem is what to do with the waste and in this country
it's a political problem," Craig said. "It's not a scientific
problem.  It's not an engineering problem.  It's purely political --
'Not In My Back Yard.' "

In 2000, Craig was at it again, pushing for weaker suitability
standards for Yucca Mountain.  His cohort, Frank Murkowski, bluntly
stated: "What we want is to make sure that the measuring is under a
regulation that allows waste to go to Yucca."  These two wanted
expedience, not science, to be used to set the limits on pollution
from the site!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But high-level nuclear waste is hardly the only problem created by
nuclear power.  A typical reactor produces about 3,000 55-gallon
drums of so-called "low-level" radioactive waste EACH YEAR.  This
waste, too, has no safe place to go.

INL and the Argonne National Laboratory West (near Idaho Falls) are
the country's designated design centers for next-generation nuclear
power plants.  The only problem is, the INTRACTABLE issues with
nuclear power CANNOT be solved by redesigning the plants
themselves.  No design, for example, can survive a nuclear bomb
attack, or a major earthquake, or human stupidity, or poor
construction, and there is no solution to the problem of nuclear
waste because science can't do the impossible -- and storing nuclear
waste safely IS impossible.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News Item:  Last Sunday (September 9th, 2007) California State
Assembly Republicans voted unanimously to support allowing the
building of new nuclear power plants in California, intending to
overturn a 31-year-old law (Chapters 194 and 196, California Statutes
of 1976) which prohibits such construction until a solution is found
for the problem of what to do with the nuclear waste.

When a meltdown or any serious nuclear accident actually occurs,
which one of these California Republicans is going to stand up in
front of a microphone and recommend to pregnant women in California
that they may want to choose to have an abortion, in order to prevent
the birth of a horribly deformed baby who otherwise will only suffer
terribly and then soon die?  Especially those woman who are in their
first trimester -- those fetuses are especially likely to be
harmed.  While surely neither God nor any caring human being prefers
abortions, just as surely, no one wants the unnecessary, man-made
suffering of the innocent.

At least the Russians had the courage (gumption?) to "suggest" that
woman around Chernobyl should consider abortions.  Now, more than 20
years after Chernobyl, over 1000 square miles of prime agricultural
real estate around the plant is still uninhabitable, with no change
expected any time soon -- if ever.  And in Kiev, there is now a
museum of deformities caused by Chernobyl.  Spontaneous abortions of
babies without limbs or with arms coming out of their
foreheads.  What California Republican has visited that museum?

What California Republican is willing to tell 30 million people in
the greater Los Angeles area that they have to leave their homes and
can never come back, if a plant near them melts down (such as San
Onofre or the new one in Irvine which the bill's sponsor, Chuck
Devore, surely wants built in HIS backyard)?

And what OTHER power plants are they planning to build for all the
offsite energy supplies that EVERY nuclear power plant MUST have
(it's a safety requirement)?  Will THOSE be coal plants?

And what California Republican would DARE to take ANY test to PROVE
they actually understand how nuclear power works and what its dangers
are?  Do they even know what a fuel assembly looks like?

And what California Republican believes Yucca Mountain, the nation's
proposed nuclear waste dump, will actually be built?  The team that
studied Yucca Mountain was allowed to come up with a better plan if
they could think of it.  They couldn't.  Nevada will NEVER allow
Yucca Mountain, so Californians -- all of us, not just the
Republicans -- will be stuck with the waste.  If there's another
solution to the waste problem, what California Republican can
describe it?  Our four obsolete (but still operating) reactors
produce a NEW ton of high-level nuclear waste EVERY TWO
DAYS.  Extremely dangerous stuff, with nowhere to put it.

What California Republican believes we have the billions of gallons
of water to spare to cool these new reactors?  In reality, water is a
precious commodity here in the West, and nuclear reactors -- even
when operating properly -- poison the water with tritium (radioactive
hydrogen), radioactive krypton, radioactive cesium, radioactive
strontium, and a deadly rainbow of other radioactive elements.

What California Republican wants to give up the additional BILLIONS
of gallons of water to cool a stricken reactor?  A reactor that will
have to be cooled for thousands of years.

What California Republican can assure the public that a Davis-Besse
or a Three Mile Island won't happen here?  What California Republican
even knows what happened to the Davis-Besse plant in 2002, and how
close it came to a meltdown -- far closer even than Three Mile Island came?

What California Republican has read even one word by the late Dr.
John W. Gofman, whose impeccable research PROVED that so-called
low-level radiation is extremely dangerous -- far more dangerous than
is officially admitted (at least TWENTY TIMES more dangerous than the
pro-nukers falsely believe).  Gofman was fired from the Atomic Energy
Commission (the forerunner of the DOE and the NRC), where he was
chief medical researcher, for his findings. Not because they were
wrong, but because they were offensive to the nuclear industry. What
California Republican knows any of this?  Dr. Gofman ascribed 50% of
ALL cancers to ionizing radiation.  FIFTY PERCENT!  Three-quarters of
all breast cancers.  "This is not a small problem" as Gofman
described it (Dr. Gofman passed away August 15th, 2007 at age 88).

What California Republican realizes that even the National Academy of
Sciences, in their BEIR VII report (Biological Effects of Ionizing
Radiation VII), concluded that there is NO MINIMUM THRESHOLD for
radiation damage?  Even one nuclear breakdown can cause cancer, heart
disease, birth defects, or any of thousands of other ailments.  What
California Republican knows this?

What California Republican knows that nuclear power is NEVER
democratic -- it's just the opposite:  Secretive, closed-door, exclusive.

What California Republican cares about California?  Cares that we are
the Golden State because we have so much sunshine, we could power all
our needs from it?  Cares about REAL solutions to Global Warming, not
Al Gore's pro-nuke lies?

What California Republican has a mind of their own, rather than
walking lock-step with State Assemblyman Chuck Devore (R-Irvine)
who's knowledge about nuclear power is minimal, as shown by his own
comments at a public hearing in San Clemente last spring (2007)?

What California Republican can testify that no plane will ever be
hijacked again?  The spent fuel pools, the control rooms, the backup
diesel generators, the intake coolant pipes, the discharge pipes, and
many more VITAL portions of every nuke are located OUTSIDE THE
CONTAINMENT DOMES.  And what California Republican realizes that
aircraft engine turbine shafts can smash THROUGH the containment
domes anyway?  And what California Republican realizes how many OTHER
ways there are to destroy a nuclear power plant?  What California
Republican realizes that tomorrow's generation of nuclear power
plants are being designed WITHOUT containment domes, making them even
MORE vulnerable to terrorist attacks?

What California Republican remembers that we live in an
earthquake-prone area, and realizes how close Japan came to
"Genpatsu-Shinsai" (a nuclear meltdown spurred on by an earthquake)
just a few months ago?

What California Republican cares about his or her reputation?  After
a meltdown or any serious accident (and an accident is INEVITABLE
over time) their reputations will be ruined, but that will hardly matter then.

What California Republican cares about the future of California?  Nary a one.

Sincerely,

Ace

** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
** Russell "Ace" Hoffman, Owner & Chief Programmer
** P.O. Box 1936, Carlsbad CA 92018-1936
** (800) 551-2726 (U.S. & Canada)
** (760) 720-7261 (elsewhere)
** www.animatedsoftware.com