Tuesday, November 16, 2004
FAITH-BASED FALLOUT SHELTERS:
Joe Gandelsman at The Moderate Voice found this one.
Joe Gandelsman at The Moderate Voice found this one.
Fundamentalist Hindu organizations ... which have been accused in Indian courts of inciting riots, murder and destruction of mosques and churches, are probing deep into their beloved cow to claim that it is a very special animal. Bhanwarlal Kothari, a senior member of the RSS, said, "Our tests have shown that distemper made out of cow dung and spread over walls and roofs can block nuclear radiation." ...Ramana must be part of that pessimistic "reality-based community". By his own admission, manure WILL block radiation if you pile up ENOUGH of it. He forgets that there are 200 million cows in India. That's enough to protect a LOT of houses. This is a good thing, because the fundi Pakis may soon take over and put India's early warning system to the test. Not only the Islamabombs themselves will help solve New Delhi's population problem, but the clouds carried east by the retaliatory Hindibombs will dump still more glowing waste on their heads. Never mind diamonds; strontium isotopes really ARE forever.
"It's ridiculous and laughable," said M.V. Ramana, a Bangalore-based nuclear scientist, about the RSS claim. "There are different kinds of nuclear radiation. Alpha and beta radiation can be blocked by very thick walls. It would take considerable thickness for a concrete wall to block gamma radiation. I cannot imagine how a coating of cow dung in whatever form can block nuclear radiation."
