As it turns out these radiation alerts turned out to be nothing significant.  These things were triggered back in the parts of the plant where the outer space deep science nuclear fuel research took place, and dweebs like myself didn't have a high enough clearance to get anywhere near these areas.  Parts of the facility were much more spooky than others.  Having said that, these alerts went out to all parts of the facility.

Regarding your training, your drill sergeant omitted one little detail:  if you actually saw the burst flash, it likely was the last thing you would ever see even if you survived the experience.  I kid thee not when I say I hate those goddamned things.

I have another tale regarding a guy I met who was a civilian working in Japan when the Japanese decided they wanted to mess up Pearl Harbor.  I found his stories of life in Japan after that event and after Hiroshima and Nagasaki interesting.  Again, I may have already told the tale.  I can tell it again if anybody cares to hear it.

One can only hope.  Getting back to my earlier screed, while war with modern conventional weapons is horrible enough they do not represent an existential threat to nearly all higher forms of life on this planet and certainly the obliteration of civilization as we know it.  While I worked in the Ohio-class SSBN program I would pray at night the things would never be called upon to perform their ultimate function... that being the launching of nuclear-tipped ICBMs.  Anyone morbidly interested in the firepower the boats carry can simply Wiki the subject.  The stuff I had access to was declassified quite some time ago.

I believe I have told the tale of my exit interview with the Head Dude of Security when I left my then-employer.  If I have not and anyone is curious I will tell a story I find amusing.

Good question.  Putin's occasional saber-rattling regarding the use of nukes in Ukraine leaves me uneasy, if for no other reason than I have personal loathing of the damned things.  For a spell I worked on a delivery system for ICBMs, that being the Ohio-class SSBN.  We had nothing to do with the weapons themselves; we built the things that took them to places where they could do their thing... that being launch.

One might argue that the use of "tactical" nuclear weapons is simply using something with a bigger bang.  There are conventional weapons that produce bangs not much less than artillery-fired nukes. Having said that, once "tactical" nukes are used of one scale it is easier to use intermediate-yield nukes with increasingly greater yields until one reaches the level of city-killers.  If anyone believes that global thermonuclear war is survivable and everything would be hunky-dory after the radioactive dust settles and somebody is declared the winner, know this:  There would be no winner...  Just scatterings of miserable, starving, poisoned short-term survivors.

I suggest the viewing of the movies "On The Beach" and "The Day After".

I understand that the use of nuclear weapons in WWII shortened the war and likely saved the lives not only of hordes of Allied soldiers but of Japanese civilians as well.  I also understand that had Hitler's minions developed the weapon first he likely would have killed London and won the war.  Further, I understand the the Soviets had expressed interest in nuclear weapons research and even without our proving such things were feasible would ultimately have developed the accursed things themselves.

My point is that nuclear weapons are a genie that should NEVER have been let out of the bottle... by anyone.  No other weapon has the potential to utterly destroy civilization as we know it and poison Earth for thousands of years.

Without the advent of nuclear weapons the United States would ultimately have prevailed over Japan at enormous cost.  Without the advent of nuclear weapons the United States would ultimately have gone to war with the Soviet Union in Europe, but with conventional weapons.  Without the advent of nuclear weapons Kim Jung Un would not represent the threat he does in his neck of the global woods.  Without the advent of nuclear weapons China just might be better behaved and more focused on dealing with its internal issues and less on threatening Taiwan.  Without the advent of nuclear weapons the Middle East would still be volatile, but without the threat of some of the really bad actors getting nukes and vaporizing Israel (which has its own nukes).

I hate the goddamned things.

Regarding Biden's action, I understand it but fear it at the same time.  The singer Sting has a song "I Hope The Russians Love Their Children Too".  It would seem the ball is now in Putin's court.  The man is intelligent, but he is driven by the urge to reestablish the Soviet Union.  Should Ukraine yield to him what he has currently occupied, in time the remainder of Ukraine will as well.  Then will come Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania...  he wants to be Peter The Great, the first emperor of all Russia.

I hope he loves his people's children too.

Apologies for the long retort.

It be true that the Republicans sought to bury the electorate in misinformation.  Their cult leader, of course, is a master when it comes to continually spouting lies.  Having said that, most of the misinformation was so patently flawed that only a fool would believe it.  No rational mind could have believed even a small fraction of the balderdash being shat out by Trump's minions.  These people failed to apply the old Common Sense test and simply swallowed the garbage being presented to them.

I have little sympathy for those who will suffer as a result of Trump's perfidy should they be among those taken in by his carnival barker BS and voted for him.  They will get what they chose.  It's the old, "Be careful what you ask for" song.

Regarding the nightmare in Gaza and Israel's insistence on, "God said all this belongs to us and we should therefore take it even though some of these people were here before we were..." Netenyahu's recent stance toward the West Bank is hardly defensible.  I suspect Trump will support Bibi in any damn thing he wants.

I need to chill.

I think this path will keep you more sane over time.

I do not mean to overburden you here with my feelings regarding Donald Trump.  I will say, however, that should he win the election here in November he will represent a threat not only to we here in the Colonies but to the economic and political stability of the world.  He is an unfortunately and undeservedly powerful monster.

Below I present books I think worthy of reading to those trying to grasp some feeling for the nature of this creature.  I confess I have to date read only one, that being the first on the list, but my wife just purchased the third.  We have firm plans to read the second because of the critical reviews we have read about the piece.

Mary Trump
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man

Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig
Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success

Mary Trump
Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir Hardcover

Again, I recognize you Brits have your own issues.  Having said that, I firmly believed that the actions of a future President Trump will affect you, my brothers, as well... and not in a good way.

Peace to you all, and to quote Tiny Tim, "God bless us every one!"

If any of you lads and lasses watched the "Debate" between Kamala Harris and Der Trumpster, you saw that we have a complete babbling moron fighting to abuse my country once again with his odious, poisonous presence as President. Pray for us.

To all:

Since this thread began on a political note, I feel compelled to put in my two cents' worth.

First, I totally, utterly, completely, and without any reservation loathe, detest, and despise Donald J. Trump.  I consider him to be by far the worst cancer ever to infect politics here in the Colonies.  I think my country... indeed the world, would be far better off were he to not be here and his poisonous influence vanish from memory.  That does not mean I want him dead.

I wholly regret the attempt made on his life.  There is no place for that kind of activity here, and the act of that deranged kid escapes all logical explanation and serves only to further stir the pot of discord over here.  Nothing good can come of it.  If anything it may give something of a demented push to Trump in his attempt to regain the Presidency.  His first four years horrified me enough; I cannot imagine suffering four more years of that piggish bastard.

Four more years of Trump would not only harm things here:  The relationships we have long held  dear with you, our brothers across the pond and your European neighbors will suffer.  Economic, political, and mutual defense bonds will be denigrated.  That witless fool lacks the mental firepower to understand the complexities of the treaties and agreements that have bound us all together to our mutual benefit since the end of WWII.  On a good day he is an idiot, and always clearly a sociopath.

His vice-presidential running mate?  Read about him, and grow more afraid.  If anything he is more evil than Trump, and that is saying a great deal.  He is also stronger mentally, which is frightening in itself.

I realize you have your own issues with little things like the aftermath of Brexit and significant changes in political leadership, so I apologize for wailing and moaning about How Awful things are over here.  It seems for some time we Colonials have behaved like we are the only place of significance on Earth, and this is simply pure hubris.  As much as you need us we need you.

If there is indeed a merciful God, let us pray that He will grant us all relief from the harm that Trump and his sycophants may do to us all if so allowed.

Peace.

I attribute it to use of mind-bending chemicals in the 60s and their "afterglow".  Lines from Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" come to mind.

Peace.  Eat the rich.  Up the revolution.

On a meteorological note, the temperature in my home town in West Texas was 114 F yesterday.  As we denizens of hotter climes have been known to say on occasion, it was hotter than the hinges of hell.

If you had ever mowed your lawn in Texas summer heat, which starts getting ugly about four and a half minutes after the sun comes up, you would understand.  The headlight primarily serves to aid in avoiding the Texas nocturnal lawn gnomes.

The padlock symbol is ordinarily a good thing.  Simplistically stated it indicates a secured connection.