Day After Disaster on the History Channel

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I was watching the History Channel and some commercial came on that at first I thought was a Fallout 3 commercial. :lol: Apparently tonight at 8:00 PM they are running a show called Day After Disaster, which depicts the hypothetical situation of what if Washington D.C. was nuked? Here's a synopsis:

Against a morning sky, a mushroom cloud spirals heavenward. A nuclear bomb has detonated in the heart of Washington D.C., incinerating 15,000 residents in just 15 seconds. More than 50% of the population living within a 1/2 mile radius of the explosion is either dead or severely injured. The next 24 hours will determine whether the rest of the city lives or dies. To survive this horrific ordeal they will need a plan. And lucky for us--there is one. But will it work? For the first time on television, the Department of Homeland Security reveals the most detailed and comprehensive plan to save America should terrorists go nuclear. This chilling two-hour special delves into the complex and highly secretive world of disaster planning.

Sounds interesting. But I always wonder about shows like this, if they are going to reveal Homeland Security's disaster plans on TV, couldn't the terrorists just watch the show and work that into their plans? :?
 
Rufus Luccarelli said:
Sounds interesting. But I always wonder about shows like this, if they are going to reveal Homeland Security's disaster plans on TV, couldn't the terrorists just watch the show and work that into their plans? :?
Yes, that could help them maximize casualties/psychological effect, but the DHS probably keeps some of their disaster plan details from the public. Also, unless you are talking about a large scale strike from Russia or China (in which case we're screwed no matter what) any terrorist strike will be lucky if it has more than two successful attack groups. Security is really tight there now and would likely grab one of the groups before the strike. And once one strike happened the police/National Guard are going to have carte blanche to detain whatever suspicious persons they see for the next few days.

So I think a successful bombing in a place of interest followed by a second successful attack in an evacuation route is (while possible) very unlikely, unless they are disgruntled white Americans (so as not to stand out) that are also genius in their operations planning (only happens in Hollywood).
 
It's good to know that Brian Fargo's staff is giving the entertainment industry material to <s>rip off</s> use 12 years later.


The economy is bad and terrorists. = Psychotic republicans = Marketing theory of post-apoc demographic = Bethesda's Fallout 3 = New wave of post-apoc trends.
 
Rufus Luccarelli said:
Sounds interesting. But I always wonder about shows like this, if they are going to reveal Homeland Security's disaster plans on TV, couldn't the terrorists just watch the show and work that into their plans? :?

Only if some idiot violates operational security. Most of these shows are based on "expert opinion" and if we do have procedures they're probably available from freedom of information act. Now our security and retaliation that would be highly OpSec. The release they'd get would likely have lots of black marker(My job :D! )

Really now, when I get my security clearance I get to see all that fun stuff... but I can't tell anyone. Great right? great? fffff.....
 
I actually watched parts of this. Just a repeat of repeats of the same footage and "information".
It really wasn't that interesting to watch as most history channel programming these days. I just got bored and didn't feel as though I was told anything new. Nor did I know anymore than I did a year after 9/11.

It's more of the doomsday "this could be absolutely horrible if it happend if it wasn't so unlikely" kind of stuff. Same with all the 2012 theories and such. I grow tired of it all really. Swine flu. Terrible solar activity. Nuking of D.C. blah blah blah.

EDIT: It was boring as hell.
 
I_eat_supermutants said:
I actually watched parts of this. Just a repeat of repeats of the same footage and "information".
It really wasn't that interesting to watch as most history channel programming these days. I just got bored and didn't feel as though I was told anything new. Nor did I know anymore than I did a year after 9/11.

It's more of the doomsday "this could be absolutely horrible if it happend if it wasn't so unlikely" kind of stuff. Same with all the 2012 theories and such. I grow tired of it all really. Swine flu. Terrible solar activity. Nuking of D.C. blah blah blah.

EDIT: It was boring as hell.

Yup, I struggled through it. Boooring. Could have easily been just an hour, hour and a half tops show.

Dopemine Cleric said:
The economy is bad and terrorists. = Psychotic republicans = Marketing theory of post-apoc demographic = Bethesda's Fallout 3 = New wave of post-apoc trends.

Don't give Bethesda so much credit. :wink: It always seems to be that every generation has a peak interest in the apocalypse/post-apoc stuff. Sure Fallout 3 just added to the interest for some people, but I have a hunch that its because we are approaching the dreaded year 2012, ooo scary. What, they expect the Mayans to be writing the calendar forever? That's like asking someone to write down every single number; at some point they're just going to stop. Also books and movies like The Road and stuff are coming out, people feel down about whats going on in the world etc.
 
Rufus Luccarelli said:
What, they expect the Mayans to be writing the calendar forever?

Well, actually they should had stopped their calendar long ago, since their civilization is already over, but they couldn't even predict that. Nah, their predictions even led them to believe that a man from a different civilization, that wasn't necessarily tremendously superior to their own as many would think, was a god. In my opinion they deserved their fall for being so naive.

And as for all the end of the world theories, the world has been near it's end since the beginning of human civilization, because of that, when it finally happens, whoever predicted the end will have no credit for the prediction, because he just happened to predict it be mere chance in the one moment it was actually truth after thousands of years of people saying the end was "near".
 
Lt. Col. Gonzalez said:
Rufus Luccarelli said:
What, they expect the Mayans to be writing the calendar forever?

Well, actually they should had stopped their calendar long ago, since their civilization is already over, but they couldn't even predict that. Nah, their predictions even led them to believe that a man from a different civilization, that wasn't necessarily tremendously superior to their own as many would think, was a god. In my opinion they deserved their fall for being so naive.

And as for all the end of the world theories, the world has been near it's end since the beginning of human civilization, because of that, when it finally happens, whoever predicted the end will have no credit for the prediction, because he just happened to predict it be mere chance in the one moment it was actually truth after thousands of years of people saying the end was "near".

Actually some say they did predict it.... that said me thinks it's a bunch of shit
 
Dragula said:
I have also heard they predicted their own demise.

Actually, the story goes that they had a "prophecy" that said that one time, a "white god" (wich they confused with the white skin coloured spanish Cortez) would come to claim its kingdom from them. So in any case their prophecy made the mayans believe the spanish were gods rather than mere men and thus contributed to their own demise. So much for a prophecy.
 
Being able to see into the future would've been quite a technological leap for a culture that hadn't discovered proper metalworking.
 
They had a 'zero' in their numerical system, though. That's pretty awesome.
 
Most of primary school children have a `zero` in their numerical system too :D .
 
Lt. Col. Gonzalez said:
Well, actually they should had stopped their calendar long ago, since their civilization is already over, but they couldn't even predict that. Nah, their predictions even led them to believe that a man from a different civilization, that wasn't necessarily tremendously superior to their own as many would think, was a god. In my opinion they deserved their fall for being so naive.
The Aztecs were the dominant civilization when Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519 CE. Cortés still needed to pit rival tribes against the Aztecs, benefit from the native americans weaker resistance to common Eurasian diseases, and use warfare tactics (guns and horses) to stamp out most Aztec opposition by 1521 CE. That some Aztecs thought Cortés was the god, Quetzalcoatl or a messenger from him stems from a letter that Cortés sent to the king. Whether or not that the misrepresentation to the Aztecs really happened is disputed by some modern historians (the early Spanish settlers were notorious for stretching the truth in letters back to Spain).

Regardless, it's the Maya calendar that seems to run out of dates in 2012 (the whole end of the world thing is an interpretive stretch). The Maya civilization had mostly collapsed by 900 CE and only traces of the formerly dominant culture remained when the Spanish arrived. The Maya and the Aztec empires were different countries from time periods.
 
Epic quote:


"If you're at the epicenter of this blast, unfortunately you will not make it. You will most likely be vaporized".
 
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