British Chicken-Warmed Nuke 195
darrellberry writes "During the Cold War, British researchers developed a nuclear landmine, kept operational during cold conditions by packing it full of live chickens. This story has appeared in a few UK media channels this morning. Probably an April Fools', but who knows? The bomb is supposedly on display at the National Archives in Kew, so if you live in London you can go and see for yourselves..." Also a BBC story and an older New Scientist blurb.
Not a prank (Score:5, Informative)
The BBC are running a separate [bbc.co.uk] 'this is true, honest' story, detailing other unlikely stories alongside... I like the fact that one of our railways cost more than a trip to the moon.
Only in the UK...
Simon
Re:Not a prank (Score:2, Insightful)
Frankly, I like the joke; even more because there are people (like you, ha ha) that actually fall for it.
Re:Not a prank (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not a prank (Score:2)
Re:Not a prank (Score:4, Informative)
Swiss, and it was a bumper crop, not a "bad harvest"
it ranks #1 on the Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time [museumofhoaxes.com]
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." Check out the actual broadcast archived on the BBC's website (You need the RealVideo player installed to see it, and it usually loads very slowly).
Re:Not a prank (Score:5, Funny)
And takes just as long too
Re:Not a prank (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm inclined to believe this one, if only because it seems to bizarre to be fabricated.
Remember, this is the nation that gave us Supermarionation...
Re:Not a prank (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not a prank (Score:2)
Re:Not a prank (Score:5, Interesting)
I just love this quote at the end of that story:
Tom O'Leary, head of education and interpretation at the National Archives, told the paper: "It does seem like an April Fool but it most certainly is not. The Civil Service does not do jokes."
Excellent point - I think this pretty much settles the 'April Fool or not' debate for this one.
Or does it ??
Re:Not a prank (Score:2)
"No, Ma'am. The FBI does not have a sense of humor that we are aware of."
Best Men In Black quote, you just reminded me of it.
Re:Not a prank (Score:4, Insightful)
The Times... (Score:3, Informative)
Uh huh. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Uh huh. (Score:2)
from the chickens-is-there-anything-they're-not... (Score:5, Funny)
Uhm, yes. They don't make very good boomerangs.
Or coffee filters. Or baseball gloves. (Although that one would be fun)
Re:from the chickens-is-there-anything-they're-not (Score:1)
Yeah... (Score:2)
Re:from the chickens-is-there-anything-they're-not (Score:3, Funny)
It depends on where you plan putting your hand...
Then again, you might have a different idea of fun than me.
Not an April Fool! (Score:5, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our nuclear chicken overlords...
Re:Not an April Fool! (Score:2, Funny)
I can see the ChicFilet commercial now... (Score:2, Funny)
Not an April Fool (Score:2)
Times [timesonline.co.uk]
Re:Not an April Fool (Score:2, Informative)
Reason WHY its an april fool (Score:2, Informative)
April 367, 2003 (Score:2)
And how would we know?
As I pointed out a couple of days ago - read the headlines for the past year. It reads like the Onion on crystal meth.
SCO claims complete ownership over Linux, charges $699/license.
Martha Stewart goes to prison!
Darl McBride calls GPL unconstitutional, petitions Congress for redress.
California town takes steps to ban styrofoam cups due to environmental concerns about DHMO used in manufacturing process.
A
Seed but no air and water? (Score:2)
Re:Seed but no air and water? (Score:2)
No. They're talking about chickens - not ducks. Doesn't anyone ever read the linked articles anymore?
Yay!!! (Score:4, Funny)
On April fools day, everyone knows slashdot will be full of useless information. Every other day, the editors aren't aware fo this fact.
Not unusual (Score:5, Interesting)
My father worked (among the other 10,000) engineers in Oakridge, TN, during WWII and they frequently packed delicate nulcear instruments in popcorn (dry popped, no salt or butter) simply because it worked well and was easy to dispose of.
Re:Not unusual (Score:2)
Re:Not unusual (Score:3, Funny)
I took a grad-level physics-based electromagnetism class last year, and picked up some supplementary E&M books from the library. One of them was from an engineering slant, and actually described the following problem and it's solution.
Farmers wanted a way to keep pigs warm in the winter. So they estimated the thickness of a layer of fat under the pig's skin, dete
Well, there you go... (Score:2)
Just feed the popcorn to the chickens. Done and done!
Why today? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why didn't they release the story yesterday, or couldn't they have waited until tomorrow?
Re:Why today? (Score:5, Informative)
Why didn't they release the story yesterday, or couldn't they have waited until tomorrow?
It was on BBC news yesterday.
Re:Why today? (Score:2)
Can't take it! (Score:5, Funny)
Stop
Reading
Slashdot
.
Until
.
.
To
Re:Can't take it! (Score:1)
Re:Can't take it! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Can't take it! (Score:2)
April fool or foolish? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:April fool or foolish? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:April fool or foolish? (Score:2)
Re:April fool or foolish? (Score:2)
If your nuclear material is getting hot, run away. Fast.
Re:April fool or foolish? (Score:2)
As I recall, the nuclear material can get quite hot and the nuclear reaction can take place under normal conditions (no explosion) so long as the material is keep below the critical density. That's how power plants work. For every particle emitted from a radioactive decay, fewer than one additional decays are induced. But there's still a lot of spontaneous decays followed by a few induced decays. These s
Re:April fool or foolish? (Score:2)
Chickens (Score:3, Funny)
"What if we celebrated Valentine's Day with chickens instead of hearts? Then we'd say, 'I love you, with all my chicken.'"
- Sesame Street
Re:Chickens (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Chickens (Score:2, Funny)
Why did the chicken cross the road ? (Score:1, Funny)
Landmine? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Landmine? (Score:3, Informative)
Currently, Israel deploys nuclear landmines [google.com] and I'd guess they're not alone. Shrub's apparent penchant for tactical nukes would suggest that there's going to be more random nuclear weapons in the future too.
Personally, I want to see a nuclear Dambuster's bomb, in time for the next world stone
Re:Landmine? (Score:3, Informative)
The seven-ton weapon, codenamed Blue Peacock, was a state-of-the art munition to be buried on the plains of northern Germany during a British retreat and detonated by remote control or timer to destroy advancing Russian forces in the event of the Third World War.
Re:Landmine? (Score:2)
(OT -- I think) Does anyone else see... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:(OT -- I think) Does anyone else see... (Score:2, Funny)
too bad that we can't get moderator points for the slashdot editors. They would pick their stories a little better. I can see it now:
Wal-Mart Sells PCs Preloaded With Sun's Linux (Score: +3, informative)
Book Reviews: The Power of Persuasion (Score: +2, Interesting)
British Chicken-Warmed Nuke (Score:-1, Bad April fools day joke)
Your Rights Online: IBM Files For Declaratory Judgement In SCO Case (Score: +5, Excellent!)
Gates: Hardwa
Keeping It Warm (Score:1)
"
A bunch of chicks keeping a male Peacock warm. Try to get That out of your mind now...
Nuclear chickens (Score:1, Funny)
Cluckzilla (Score:5, Funny)
Uh, Oh! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Uh, Oh! (Score:1)
Re:Uh, Oh! (Score:1)
People for the Irradiation of Tasty Animals
*ducks*
Re:Uh, Oh! (Score:2)
I was going to do the 'chicken kiev' joke but someone got there first
Seymour Cray (Score:5, Funny)
Seymour Cray would've used oxen to warm his nuclear landmine.
Are you suggesting nuclear bombs migrate? (Score:2, Funny)
"Not at all. They could be carried...."
Lovely! (Score:5, Funny)
If this were true, I can already imagine Soviet army personel encountering this weapon:
Soviet private: In the name of Lenin, what's that awful noise?Soviet sergeant: It sounds like... Oh no...
Soviet private: Chickens? A whole bunch of chickens?
Soviet sergeant: PULL BACK!!! Tell Dmitri to launch all ICBMs! Get me in contact with the Kremlin!
Soviet private: What? They're going to peck us to death?
Soviet sergeant: Silence, cappitalist pig! Those anglobastards witll suffer for their foul crime!
Re:Lovely! (Score:5, Funny)
Soviet sergeant: Silence, cappitalist pig! Those anglobastards witll suffer for their fowl crime!
Simon
Ob humor (Score:2)
(Unless of course the radiation would make the chickens sterile.)
Not just for warming anymore. (Score:5, Funny)
Like styrofoam in the H-bomb, this seemingly innocuous packing material (chickens) might be converted to plasma by radiation pressure, thereby dramatically increasing the explosive yield of the device.
Just wait. I give it 20 years, and we'll see these docs declassified. Of course, then we'll have to worry about rogue states building C-bombs.
Re:Not just for warming anymore. (Score:2)
Re:Not just for warming anymore. (Score:2)
Powered by the sexual energy (Score:2)
Re:Powered by the sexual energy (Score:2)
Re:Powered by the sexual energy (Score:2)
Heard of this before. (Score:5, Interesting)
It goes along with thinking at the time: they were also training troops go hide as the battlefromt passed over them, the re-emerge to harrass the enemy rear and lines of communication.
The chickens, however, are probably someone's April Fool addition.
Trigger Chicken? (Score:2)
Re:Trigger Chicken? (Score:2)
US Landmines (Score:5, Interesting)
The page also shows a SADM - the nuclear demolition charge intended for use by parachute dropped saboteurs. The SADM's W54 warhead was the smallest and lightest developed by the US and was also used in theDavey Crockett [brook.edu] 'nuclear bazooka' and the AIM 26-A nuclear air-to-air missile.
Re:US Landmines (Score:2)
Dirty bomb? (Score:3, Funny)
Obvious flaws in this... (Score:3, Interesting)
2) A solid steel container, buried underground for a week. How do you train a chicken to hold it's breath, and how long can it do so for?
3) According to the NewScientist article, "If disturbed or damaged, they were primed to explode within 10 seconds". Surely chickens *inside* the thing would disturb it, and set it off?
However, a quick office poll still reveals 50-50 support for the idea. Whatever happens, half the office will get laughed at tomorrow...:)
Re:Obvious flaws in this... (Score:2)
Atomic Demolition Munitions (Score:2)
Spare the chickens...use a chickent hat! (Score:2)
Why couldn't they just order a really big chicken hat [april-fools.us] to fit around the landmine and spare all those innocent chickens?! It looks much warmer than a real chicken anyway!
And remember: "A fowl is a terrible thing to waste"
This isn't a prank either (Score:2, Funny)
Weapon is real, but no chickens (Score:2)
Well, Google, for one. The weapon didn't use chickens, but was kept warm by glass fibre, apparently, according to the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment. [awe.co.uk] (PDF).
See you again... (Score:3, Informative)
Now even non-subscribers can read the upcoming stories early [slashdot.org]
This saves a lot of money (Score:2, Funny)
FWIW (Score:2)
I've nuked a chicken (Score:3, Funny)
Partly a Hoax, partly true! (Score:5, Informative)
It was a `landmine' designed to be set on a timer to ambush the Soviets as they advanced across Europe. It was based on the Blue Danube [awe.co.uk] device that was the UK's first air-delivered nuclear weapon (essentially, they removed the fins).
The device had up to an 8-day timer, but could also be set off locally --- either by booby trap, incase it was discovered, or a trigger. Amusingly there was a 10 second delay when you operated the trigger, just time to duck and cover :o)
The chickens, though? That's clearly a hoax. Apart from anything else, the device was air and water tight.
The Display (Score:2)
Don't ask how I know.
Of course they claim last example is in Russia: (Score:2, Funny)
Gives a whole new meaning to (Score:2)
Gives new meaning to ... (Score:2)
Fiberglass Pillows - not chickens...lol (Score:2)
In the end, the risk from radioactive fallout would have been "unacceptable", says Hawkings, and hiding nuclear weapons in an allied country was deemed "politically flawed". As a result, the Ministry of Defence cancelled Blue Peacock in February
So if we'd ever gone to war... (Score:2)
)no offense intended to russian comrades(
Re:So if we'd ever gone to war... (Score:2)
I think its an April Fools Joke (Score:2)
Re:Nukes are warm (Score:2, Insightful)