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.
Why chickens? (Score:0, Funny)
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)
Not an April Fool! (Score:5, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our nuclear chicken overlords...
I can see the ChicFilet commercial now... (Score:2, Funny)
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.
Can't take it! (Score:5, Funny)
Stop
Reading
Slashdot
.
Until
.
.
To
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
Why did the chicken cross the road ? (Score:1, Funny)
(OT -- I think) Does anyone else see... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not a prank (Score:5, Funny)
And takes just as long too
Nuclear chickens (Score:1, Funny)
Cluckzilla (Score:5, Funny)
Uh, Oh! (Score:2, Funny)
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...."
Re:Not an April Fool! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Chickens (Score:5, Funny)
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
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.
Dirty bomb? (Score:3, Funny)
This isn't a prank either (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Not a prank (Score:1, Funny)
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, determined permittivities and permeabilities of the fat and the muscle-layers underneath the fat, and solved the boundary conditions of Maxwell's equations in the presence of RF radiation.
The result was that they effectively made a low-cost 'microwave oven' tuned to the pig's fat layer, which would keep them warm and still be relatively cheap (ie, put the heater in the pen without worrying about walls, etc).
Kind of cool, but disturbing in a way too.
What about the clucking? (Score:1, Funny)
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.
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: Hardware, Not Software, Will Be Free (Score: +4, Funny)
Your Rights Online: PanIP Drops E-commerce Patent Lawsuits (Score: -1, Boring)
This saves a lot of money (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Chickens (Score:2, Funny)
I've nuked a chicken (Score:3, Funny)
Of course they claim last example is in Russia: (Score:2, Funny)