Post-Boom

by | Nov 22, 2022 | Nuclear, Prepper | 150 comments

This is the sequel to the previously-published article “Little Boom, BIG BOOM.”

There are many places to explode a nuke from below the surface up to space and each way has different impacts, and fallout.  Let’s start with space and extreme high altitudes.  The primary reason for a large nuke up there is to produce an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP).  EMP is a brief massive overcharge of an electrical pulse into electrical devices and energy grids.  Since most electrical stuff only has minimum shielding to protect from “normal” electrical pulses having a huge pulse fries the device and systems.  A space explosion will be a low fallout event because the only fallout comes from the remnants of the bomb.  In 1962 the US set off a nuke ~250 miles high and caused part of Oahu’s electrical grid to fail 740 miles away.  The good part was there was a nifty aurora visible for the residents to admire.  There are all sorts of estimates of how much damage would be caused by a designed EMP event.  It is probably safe to say that if one was detonated over Ukraine their power grid and electrical devices would be fried, and various NATO nations would be impacted as well.  I don’t know the Euro energy grid but I suspect that being in southern Europe will keep your computer or telephone safe.  If you are concerned keep them unplugged unless you are actively charging them.  That should keep them safe.

On the other extreme is a deep water nuclear attack.  The papers are squawking about an attack in the Black Sea would set HUGE tsunamis across the sea basin.  I think they doth protest too much.  From US open air testing we know that a larger bomb set off in relatively shallow water forms a huge water column which can lift ships into it until gravity brings them back to the surface and their destruction.  The width of the water column is narrow and the ocean fairly quickly mitigates the waves generated. But the energy required for a tsunami fantasy is much more than even what the largest nuke ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba (50 MT), produced.  The 2011 Japan earthquake produced ~500MT of energy and the 2004 Indonesian earthquake produced ~260MT of energy.   So what happens if Russia tries a smaller nuke to impact Odessa with a tsunami?  They could cause some damage, but then also hurt themselves by damaging Crimea, land they claim, and at least one NATO member.   Plus there is the political fallout which I will touch on later.

What about more “standard” nuclear attacks?  Russian military doctrine calls for the use of nukes to protect the state or “core interests” and the doctrine advocates for early and first use.  Let’s examine the basics.  The basic types are surface and air bursts.  Surface bursts are nuclear attacks where the weapon fireball touches the ground.  These attacks create lots of fallout because the heat from the fireball sucks a great deal of material up and irradiates it.  Much of this irradiation is short term with an immediate risk of 48-72 hours.  Airbursts explode high enough the fireball does not touch the ground and below 100,000 feet above sea level. The amount of fallout from an airburst is much reduced compared to a groundburst. (Opening picture is a groundburst.)

Both types of attack will destroy through blast, heat, shrapnel, and close to the epicenter of the detonation, immediate radiation.   Long-term health issues, including death, can arise from contact with fallout with the general rule being more = worse.  But even here a great deal depends on how much contact with fallout you experience and exactly what the fallout is made of.  A dust sized particle of plutonium or uranium lodged in a lung pretty well guarantees lung cancer at a minimum.   On the other hand if a few days after a blast you get some irradiated soil on your skin and quickly wash it off it will probably not cause any long term issues. There is dispute about this. But since the US has not conducted any open air tests with large number of test subjects aka Soldiers for over half a century this will probably remain in dispute for now.  Both the Hiroshima (Little Boy) and Nagasaki (Fat Man) devices have been credited with around 100,000 deaths each from impacts of the explosion and immediate radiation (~90 days post event).  Leukemia started spiking four to six year later until a decade out and around then (1955) the long term cancers started appearing.  There are studies showing strong causation of increased leukemia (46% higher than the norm) and cancer (~10% above the norm) in bombing survivors.  There are no high quality studies showing a measurable increase in cancer for children of survivors conceived after the bombing.  The obvious gap in long term nuclear risks are the studies only study two events a few days apart for mid 15Kt range weapons.  What happens with a dozen, or dozens, of “small” nuclear attacks across Ukraine?  There is no way to know, but can we look at Chernobyl for lessons?  Nope.  Since the Soviets celebrated the heroes who died from radiation trying to stop and contain the accident- they are best seen as people as below the blast in a bomb.  There is an undeniable spike in the number of thyroid cancers among the young who lived near the power plant when the accident occurred.  But since the form of exposure was different from a bomb, and Soviet scientific methods are best considered very poor, the accident is of little use to study the impacts of a nuclear war in Ukraine.  If Putin does go nuclear with weapons in Ukraine stay well north or south of the latitude of Ukraine and stay well up the prevalent winds and you’ll be fine.

I am sure than your local pharmacia would normally have iodine pills on the shelf.  I am not sure about now.  Another source of iodine should be at the outdoors sports shops.  Iodine tablets or tinctures are traditional water purification methods used by backpackers and mountaineers.  I still use them since they are lighter than filters and have no moving parts.

Will the use of nukes by Putin increase his military advantage?  That is an interesting question with no clear answer.  It depends on how the nuclear weapons are employed, where they are employed, Ukraine soldier and civilian reactions etc.   The very power of nuclear weapons can create more problems than they solve.  Imagine a very small nuclear weapon of only 200 tons being used. Even that small of a nuke is 20 times as powerful as the most massive conventional bombs used in a war. If used in a city then up to a square kilometers of that city will turn into an impassable obstacle in the near term.  You get the same result if used in a forest.  Take out a major dam?  Downstream will be scoured of bridges and suffer short term flooding.  Upstream of the dam you may open mobility corridors after the mud firms up.  Remember that Russian troops are limited in their ability to pass through radioactive areas as well.  Tanks and armored personnel carriers provide decent to good shielding, but they can raise dust clouds while passing through mud bogs.  The crews will breathe in and be covered by radioactivity if you pass them too close to the explosion areas and downwind footprints.  This will not amuse the Russian troops, even if the military provides them with “anti-radiation” pills, aka amphetamines.   None of this means that there are not any appropriate military targets for tactical nukes, it just points out nukes aren’t a panacea weapon.

It is doubtful that small scale nuclear weapons use will cause the Ukraine military or civilian morale to collapse.  The odds are just like throughout history these attacks will pull the people together for a period of years.  In order to shatter morale the attacks will need to be severe, ongoing, and ruthless with the Ukrainians getting in zero counterblows.  While Ukraine has no nuclear weapons it has proven itself to be remarkably adept at pursuing asymmetrical attacks upon Russian assets. I doubt they have lost this capability since last weekend.

Moving up to Putin using Hiroshima/Nagasaki sized weapons on an urban center.  The same issues occur, especially if Putin wants to annex the territory.  He would be responsible for either putting the city back together which is expensive.  Or he could abandon the city and let it remain a ghost town which is politically rough since he “liberating” these areas from Ukrainian oppression.  This is way to sneak into a short discussion about the largest impact of nuclear weapons- they are much more political weapons than military weapons.

So what if Vlad decides to use a tactical nuke inside Ukraine, or one of the four territories he “annexed.” For a host of reasons and history since August 1945 nuclear weapons have assumed outsized political dimensions.  These reasons are the main things keeping Putin (or other earlier national leaders) from using nukes.  The foreign policy impacts of ordering the first wartime use of a nuke since 1945 would be large.  Smaller nations otherwise not giving a shit about the current war would be forced to distance themselves from Putin to keep markets with the West open.  Large nations like India would have to distance themselves from Russia for at least a period of time for similar reasons.

Even Xi, would have to publicly distance Russia for a while.  This is even more so since Xi, who in front of his closest leaders, would support Putin’s use since it could lower the limits to his own use of nukes – would need to focus international public anger away from China for their support of Russia to date. Plus I imagine there will be a personal anger by Xi towards Putin for putting him in this position.

In the West and USA the odds are that it would cement providing military and economic aid to Ukraine for a significant period.  Whatever support Russia currently enjoys in the West would vanish in an instant.  I don’t think it will bring in direct Western military attacks on Russia, especially if the sole nuke use is a tactical attack and not busting up a city. But that use by Vladimir “now worse than Hitler” Putin would all but guarantee a long war and turning the currently frozen Russian funds in the West into seized forever funds.  Russia’s people would probably see loss of all access to the rest of the world, and it is not beyond possibility we would see the forced return of all Russian passport holders to Russia. Did these people give Putin advice? Nope.  But returning citizens to their origins is common during a war and doing so in this case is low risk and high domestic return for politicians.

Would the blowback from outside Russia lead to a loss of domestic support?  That is an interesting question and possibly of great interest to Putin if he has any grasp of reality. Most Russians outside the large cities are isolated from western media and until the “mobilization” have overwhelmingly supported the government.  The mobilization efforts have made some fractures but media reports are fairly uniform in showing support is still widespread in greater Russia.   The Russian elites have been more impacted by Western reaction to the war than the rural masses.  What will be the “elite” reactions to Russian nuke use?  It will be a critical question.  Putin probably can’t withstand for any significant time a large internal popularity collapse and external isolation.  Plus Russian history is rich with elites being thrown by other elites- and despite communist propaganda it wasn’t the proletariat that ran the November 1917 revolution.

If Russia starts internally melting there will be impacts in Western Europe. Any remaining energy coming from the country will likely cease.  There will be attempts to flee and those who make it over the borders will start the next European refugee crises.  The odds are stacked way against the next Russian leader being a western orientated reformer.  And whomever takes control in order to get domestic support will absolutely not assist with any post nuke cleanup or any meaningful post conflict assistance to Ukraine.  That burden will fall on Europe.  The US will compare the weapons delivery costs between the USA and EU and should tell the EU to get right on that cleanup.  This should lead to higher taxes in the EU.

In sum any Russian use of nukes will lead to impacts in Europe.  But unless you are in or around Ukraine, Poland or the Baltic states your chance of health issues from radioactivity are likely low.  Hits to your pocketbooks and perhaps societal issues from increased refugees are pretty certain.

About The Author

dbleagle

dbleagle

I will say nothing without my lawyer present.

150 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    Sorry, I died from that first image. I couldn’t read the rest of the article.

    • Sensei

      Am I missing something?

      Nagasaki is quite far from where the 3/11 tsunami/earthquake happened. If wiki is to be believed it was barely detectable there.

      And interesting if depressing lunch reading dbleagle. Thanks.

      • UnCivilServant

        Yes, you are missing something.

    • robodruid

      Future so bright I have to wear shades

  2. DEG

    If used in a city then up to a square kilometers of that city will turn into an impassable obstacle in the near term.

    /thinks of all the times he’s driven through big cities

    How would that be different from today?

    The alt-text on the second picture reminded me of “Christmas at Ground Zero”.

    Thanks dbleagle!

    • UnCivilServant

      How would that be different from today?

      Less Traffic?

  3. Lackadaisical

    ‘If you are concerned keep them unplugged unless you are actively charging them. That should keep them safe.’

    Why does this work? Just because there is no complete circuit?

  4. Drake

    The way the two sides are talking makes me think that the U.S. or NATO are more likely to use nukes first. The Russians also don’t seem to make the same “tactical” versus “strategic” nuke distinction that we do in the west for some of reasons in the article.

    One of Biden’s comments a month or two ago made it sound like we would retaliate with nukes if we lost a carrier to conventional hypersonic missiles. Killing our carriers in the Med and Baltic would probably be an opening move of a direct war with Russia.

    • Hyperion

      The US and Europe are committing intentional economic suicide, while Russia and China have no apparent desire to do so. I don’t think Russia needs nukes, we are nuking ourselves from within. Our future leaders will be some mix of Biden and the Fettersquatch. I’m surprised that the NYT are not already rolling out the Fetterman 2024 puff pieces. Fettersquatch and Kammie, some new SF material for sure.

      • Drake

        Or… The Dems worked so hard to rig Senate races so they pull a switcheroo and install Hillary.

        CBS admitting that Hunter’s laptop is real is probably a significant sign that they may put Joe out to pasture.

      • Lackadaisical

        ‘while Russia and China have no apparent desire to do so.’

        Chinese policy on COVID says otherwise.

    • Rat on a train

      The Russians also don’t seem to make the same “tactical” versus “strategic” nuke distinction that we do
      They also don’t make a distinction between lethal and non-lethal chemical weapons like the US.

    • Fatty Bolger

      The U.S. or NATO aren’t going to use nukes first over Ukraine, that’s ridiculous.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Joe: “C’mon man, I just wanted a diet coke!”

      • Drake

        The worry is that blunder into a conventional war, lose a carrier or a lot of ground troops and decide to “punish” Russia with nukes.

      • slumbrew

        That will never happen now that the adults are in charge and not that madman Trump.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Come on…

  5. Hyperion

    Moar Fog, Moar War!

    “But for about fourteen hours, the threat of nuclear war loomed large over the Euro-Atlantic.”

    Klaus and Bildo were in their bunks. Ewww!!!

    • Lackadaisical

      “Put simply, a whole bunch of people called for direct war between the two largest nuclear powers, all for their petty localized interests.”

      This is a bit unfortunately. Continued existence of my country is important to me whether it’s a small country or a large one. Perhaps, even more imperative if you’re a small ethnic group which has been helped by the Russians in the past.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Holy shit, that poster is awesome.

  7. Hyperion

    What the hell is that arch made of?

    Good question, we should make everything out of it, if only it is recession proof.

    • Lackadaisical

      That would make recessions far worse, no broken windows to fix or nothing.

      • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

        Nah, we just build it next to the money hole.

        You gotta feed the money hole!

  8. The Late P Brooks

    I have never understood why old fashioned points-and-condenser automotive distributors would be affected by EMP.

    • Rat on a train

      Tempest your car and it will be fine.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s really a matter of whether the charge induced in anything metallic would damage the device. Modern electronics are more sensitive and thus guaranteed to be toasted (especially if hooked to the giant copper net that forms the power grid) but the pulse can charge up and fry even simpler devices if there’s enough metal to act as accumulator.

    • Timeloose

      They would not be affected much except for possibly the ignition coil. However most cars made since the 1970’s are transistorized.

      • Bobarian LMD

        The battery can be fried by an EMP as well.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      I have never understood why old fashioned points-and-condenser automotive distributors would be affected by EMP.

      They would not be.

      I did EMP testing of military aircraft and ground systems for 7 years and it is frustrating to me to see all of the misconceptions and myths that have grown.

      We would take 50-100 EMP “shot” during a typical work day. At the end of the day we would all climb into our cars and drive home.

  9. Tundra

    Thanks, dbleagle!

    Really good stuff and I appreciate the education. Although I sure hope this is all academic.

    There is an undeniable spike in the number of thyroid cancers among the young who lived near the power plant when the accident occurred. But since the form of exposure was different from a bomb, and Soviet scientific methods are best considered very poor, the accident is of little use to study the impacts of a nuclear war in Ukraine.

    That’s very interesting. I live a few miles away from the site of the notorious Rocky Flats Plant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant) where they made plutonium triggers for nukes. It ended up a monster superfund site and is now a “wildlife refuge.” There are a couple large housing developments adjacent to the site. Supposedly it’s cleaned up and safe now (riiiight), but I’ve had several realtors tell me to stay the fuck away. One guy who grew up in the area said that thyroid cancer was off the charts in the area when he was younger.

    I think maybe we should stop fucking around and be safe with the shit, huh?

    • Lackadaisical

      Yeah, I used to live in what used to be a small airport. There really were increases instances of certain cancers, even controlling for age and demographics (based on my own research) now whether that was old oil spills and whatever else or just people abusing lawn chemicals (or something else entirely, like a common work exposure), I’ll never know.

      • Lackadaisical

        The neighborhood used to be an airport…. My house was not an old airport.

      • Tundra

        It would be cool, though!

  10. Rebel Scum

    nukes aren’t a panacea weapon.

    Not with THAT attitude.

    • Lackadaisical

      If we use enough maybe we can make Pangaea?

  11. The Late P Brooks

    I think maybe we should stop fucking around and be safe with the shit, huh?

    It seems to me nukes are essentially useless, from a rational analysis of practicality.

    Like keeping a flamethrower or sticks of dynamite for home defense.

    • kinnath

      The purpose of a nuke is to punish and demoralize an enemy.

      So long as you have no desire for conquest, then it has tactical advantages.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nukes are supposed to be a deterrent to being fucked with, a “if I’m gonna go, I’m gonna to take you with me” weapon.

      The US military tried for decades to find a practical usage for them in tactical scenarios and failed miserably. Now it seems our betters at State think the old rules don’t apply anymore.

      • kinnath

        Mutually

        Assured

        Destruction

        What’s so hard to understand.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        But we have all these bright, shiny missiles! Seems a shame not to use them.

  12. Penguin

    Sorry if anyone already sent it – but an EMP strike could be like a Carrington event.

  13. PieInTheSky

    But unless you are in or around Ukraine, Poland or the Baltic states – well

    • Lackadaisical

      Time to double up on whores and whiskey.

      • PieInTheSky

        I am in the middle of trying to halve my weekly whiskey consumption

      • Not Adahn

        Then quadruple your whore intake.

      • PieInTheSky

        prices have gone up recently 🙁 . my favorite girl went from 300 lei to 450 lei

      • Not Adahn

        $75?

        For an hour?!?!

      • PieInTheSky

        93 now

        the most often price is 50

      • Not Adahn

        Huh. I wonder how much a “guide/translator/bedwarmer” runs.

      • PieInTheSky

        no idea but it is probably very rare so expensive

      • EvilSheldon

        The girls weren’t getting lei’d enough?

      • PieInTheSky

        they were getting to much lay for the lei

  14. Rebel Scum
  15. Timeloose

    I’ve made transistors that are resistant to high energy events. They require significant process changes to remain functional in space or any similar environment with high levels of radiation.

    Any MOSFET is susceptible to damage and parametric shifting due to high energy particles or rays inducing charge traps and or complete breakdown of the insulator. An EMP can result in a induced voltage higher than the breakdown of the component. Similar to ESD or EMI this can interfere or destroy sensitive components.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      My old company (EG&G) used to make radiation-hardened components for space and military back in the 80’s. Protect the guts with a Faraday Shield and set up transorbs or spark gaps on inputs and things can survive.

      If you really want to make things tough then use tubes. A 150V BB battery isn’t going to worry too much about a 10V EMP spike coming through.

      • Timeloose

        Tubes are naturally radiation hardened. There are three ways to protect or harden a system or component from radiation.

        Shielding
        Redundancy and system shutdowns in high radiation regimes
        Using Rad hard components

        Some used all three.

    • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

      She… is an idiot.

    • PieInTheSky

      tweet unavailable

      • PieInTheSky

        now it is. weird

    • MikeS

      “I would just not like to be a human being…”

      Yeah, you and your ilk make us all ashamed to be human beings.

    • EvilSheldon

      Does it identify as Drone 23F6E200? We should talk…

    • Drake

      As long as it’s his own money, it’s okay.

    • Timeloose

      It’s done so often on the show, they need to reverse the polarity instead.

      • Rat on a train

        Perhaps a tachyon beam will solve the problem.

      • Timeloose

        Rotate the frequencies.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Imma charge the power couplings and reroute them to the main deflector beam.

      • Timeloose

        And then expand the warp field.

        If a technology explodes so often that they have to have an emergency ejection mechanism, it might be a little bit too dangerous for regular use.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The system is not going to police itself.

  16. Bobarian LMD

    Not for nothing, but the old school Soviet Union had much better NBC gear and planning than we or the rest of NATO did.

    Probably the only thing everyone agreed on that they did better.

    How much of that equipment and training/tactics are still extant is the important question.

    • Tundra

      The decorating is atrocious, but that’s a damn nice property!

      I call the treehouse!

      • Not Adahn

        KK can get the fully upholstered airstream.

      • Tundra

        That range is sick. I assume you’ll want your meals brought there?

    • PieInTheSky

      the furniture is horrible and cluttered

    • Tres Cool

      If I had won the Powerball, we’d have a Glibtopia

  17. Semi-Spartan Dad

    Great article! Lots to think about.

    Sorry to go OT, but are there any night hunters around? I’ve got a big predator coming out of my woods and taking increasingly larger animals. I thought it was a fox at first, but it killed a 40 lb pig yesterday and killed a 90 lb goat this morning. The bodies are dragged over to the field fence and left when I suppose my Great Pyrenes came to the belated rescue. Stray dogs and coyotes can’t fit through the field fence and there’s no place to go under. That leaves a fox or bobcat going though the fence, or a mountain lion hopping over. The capability of killing and dragging a 90 lb healthy buck goat across the yard just struck a fox off my list. That also places my kids in the predator’s weight range.

    I guess I need I an IR illuminator and thermal scope to see at night and take the shot? Does anyone have recommendations for a very low end system? Thermal scope prices are well higher than I expected. I don’t plan on night hunting regularly so something very-low end is fine.

      • UnCivilServant

        $800? Hell, that’s more than… most of my rifles.

      • Bobarian LMD

        You’re supposed to spend just as much on your optic as you do on your gun…

        But I’ve got a $150 scope on a $1500 gun, so I’m gonna be quiet on this.

      • UnCivilServant

        My Mosin was $79. No way in hell you’re getting a decent optic for that price. (I haven’t put the rail on yet, so it’s still on iron sights)

        My 10/22 was $199, and the red dot on it was $300

        My only rifle that comes close to that $800 mark is the Henry. It has a $300 red dot that drives the cowboy shooters into mock conniptions when they see it.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I think that’ll do the trick, thanks. I was hoping to cap at $500 or so. But it looks like IR is already included in this scope so I might be able to stretch a bit.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Thanks, I’ll check that one out too.

    • Drake

      Yikes! Good luck.

      Optics Planet is having some good sales this week.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Thanks. I thought it was odd because didn’t see any wounds that would have been lethal. Then realized the goat’s neck was broken. Definitely not a fox.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Sounds like really big bobcat or a mountain lion.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        That’s what I’m leaning towards. Maybe a black bear too based on the neck. I know we have bobcats and black bear in our woods. Mountain lions are much rarer but have been occasionally cited nearby.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A bear would be a bit of an oddity, but definitely not unheard of.

      • R.J.

        STEVE SMITH STOP. HIM HAVE GALLON OF EGGNOG FROM CAMPER HIM RAPE, THEN GET MUNCHIES. HIM SORRY.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        That was pre-scope SSD. Except add a chicken tied to a cinderblock as bait. Trying to up my night game now.

    • EvilSheldon

      For where you live, I’d think about investing in something a little bit nicer. Something like a PVS-14, in the $3-4k range, combined with the visible red laser of your choice. For one thing, I don’t think I’d do any predator hunting with something that might lose zero when it counts. For another, I can about guarantee that you’ll find other uses for a good set of night optics.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I wish I could get something like that. $500 is about my budget right now. Might be able to stretch to $800 for an all-in-one system.

      • EvilSheldon

        For $800, you might look at a Sionyx. They’re pretty well regarded, and you can clip in front of an existing scope or red dot.

        https://www.sionyx.com/pages/hunting

        It’s a digital scope, so there will be a bit of image lag.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Thanks, I’ll check that out.

      • R.J.

        I know the feeling when people start talking about blowing thousands on guns. My budget, post kids, is what I manage to keep in my wallet. Which is about $500, max before some child-related expense comes up.

    • Fourscore

      Set up a couple infrared motion detector cameras. You’ll know by tomorrow morning.

      Your friends will be happy to loan them to you and maybe set them up as well.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Sounds like bobcat. But coming back for 2nds is kind of strange.

  18. kinnath

    If it gets any warmer in here, I am going to have to open up the windows.

    • R.J.

      Already did that here.

    • UnCivilServant

      If you do that you’ll let the cool air out and we’ll all burn up.

      • Tres Cool

        Oh no you dint !

  19. UnCivilServant

    Okay, Now this is a new one.

    Sunday I got a box from Amazon. I was expecting one (ordered a cheap battery powered lantern) but when I opened the box it’s two HD cameras, not my lantern.

    Now what?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Share the wealth, of course

      • UnCivilServant

        Some more investigation has led me to this – The box I got has someone else’s address on it. It’s a nearby apartment. I suppose they got my box. I tried to find this apartment and ran into a complication – the apartments in that building do not have their numbers on the apartment doors. I don’t know which one in that building that smells like cat piss is the correct number.

        Checking tracking, the delivery company was Amazon, so the error was still in that company albeit not in the fulfillment center.

        I don’t know the neighbor by name, and I really don’t want to go knocking on doors in that place. (no woner mice kept showing up given the state of it)

    • Tres Cool

      I rarely get anything from Amazon, but Jugsy is a frequent flier with deliveries occurring here almost daily. Anecdotally, from what Ive seen, she lets them know what happened and most times they replace the screwed-up order with no mention of sending back the wrong items you got in the 1st place.

      YMMV

      • UnCivilServant

        What route does she take to inform them of the error?

      • Tres Cool

        Go to your order status and there should be a pull-down for “return/replace”

      • R.J.

        Yep. Oddly the instructions vary. You can decide what to do depending on what Amazon demands. Might return the wrong items, might not. Return could be onerous, or just run it by Kohl’s.

      • Sean

        I just returned something this morning. Could not have been easier, but I work like a 1/2 mile from a UPS store.

  20. Tres Cool

    OT- I just let my infrequently used iPad update to iOS 16.11 w/o doing any research.
    Have I made a mistake? (Its mid-update)

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m going to say yes. Just because I don’t trust tech companies and their incessant doengrades via ‘updates’

    • Dr Mossy Lawn

      IOS 16.1.1 has been stable on my devices.

    • R.J.

      I don’t think you have based on my periodic scanning of news. If you are concerned, you can downgrade to IOS 15 per Apple, I think it is a onetime offer. My iPhone SE is now running it reliably without major battery drain or excessive data thievery. Too Bad Pat isn’t around. He seems to be the guy to speak to after his technology and privacy articles.

  21. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Looks like mom and dad were a little more involved than previously thought.

    https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-bankman-frieds-ftx-parents-bought-bahamas-property-worth-121-mln-2022-11-22/

    The documents for another home with beach access in Old Fort Bay — a gated community that was once home to a British colonial fort built in the 1700s to protect against pirates — show Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, as signatories. The property, one of the documents dated June 15 said, is for use as a “vacation home.”

    When asked by Reuters why the couple decided to buy a vacation home in the Bahamas and how it was paid for — whether in cash, with a mortgage or by a third party such as FTX — a spokesman for the professors said only that Bankman and Fried had been trying to return the property to FTX.

    • Zwak, who taser's the chimp with the razor.

      Dude should go by his real name: Bagman-Fraud.

      The whole thing was a money laundering operation for the D’s.

  22. kinnath

    And someone is out shooting again today.

    But it is farther away than the last time.

    • UnCivilServant

      Are they shooting at you or someone you know?

      • kinnath

        Country bumpkins getting ready for hunting season (deer most likely).

      • UnCivilServant

        Okay. So long as no one’s in the line of fire, I don’t see an issue with midday target practice.

  23. hayeksplosives

    Good article, Sir Eagle.

    We’re pretty sure the Russkies and possibly China are already doing low yield Nuke tests in violation of the post Cold War test ban treaty. In the US, we stick with sub-critical tests.

    If Mad Vlad uses nukes, my money would be on smallish low yield ones.

    • UnCivilServant

      I don’t think Vlad is crazy. He may have miscalculated with the war, but he’s always stuck me as very pragmatic.

      Whether or not there’s an atomic glow in the region’s future… I think it depends on whether or not there’s a negotiated solution. I don’t think there’s a military route to victory on either side.

      • hayeksplosives

        I don’t think Putin is crazy either. I should have used quotation marks to indicate sarcasm.

        I do think he’s physically unhealthy so there’s an extra factor of unpredictability in there.

      • UnCivilServant

        If he is ailing, that brings up a new question. Is there a competent successor waiting in the wings? I get the impression there isn’t, so that there wouldn’t be anyone to threaten his position prior to nature taking its course.

        That means the question of how stable the next person is becomes a big ???