In this map, which takes into account all the documented nuclear tests since 1945, two things really stand out. The few days in 1945 that saw the only use of nuclear weapons on humans register, when measured on the unfeeling scale of kilotons, as two small blips, aberrant in their location but unremarkable in their size. Then you see the key: The scale is not linear. If it was, the larger explosions would cover most of the map. That's the thing with nuclear weapons: It's easy to lose your sense of scale when it comes to how powerful they are, or what havoc they can wreak.

It paints (or visualizes) an unflattering portrait of the fifties and sixties not as golden years of postwar recovery and American prosperity, but as the years that the US and the Soviet Union, in blind competition with one another, spent all their time and untold amounts of their money blowing their own countries up. History! [DataVis]

UPDATE: Swapped image for original infographic, from Radial Cartography—Thanks, Adam!

A few years after the United States unleashed the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union tested their first nuclear warhead ever. They appropriately called it "First Lightning," the opening of a series 456 atomic tests that brought Hell to Earth sixty years ago. For all of us, that summons terrifying, but beautiful images into our brains:

Sadly, to more than one million innocent people living near the Semipalatinsk Polygon—the Soviet nuclear testing site in the northeast of Kazakhstan—it means this:

For three generations, and more to come, those tests mean deformed babies. They mean premature aging, and countless diseases caused by radiation poisoning. The bombs' ghosts still live in the dead steppe, their invisible fangs ready to suck seven years off the life of every person living around that place. That's the difference in life expectancy with the rest of Kazakhstan.

Of course, it's not the only horror inflicted by weapons in the Soviet Union—or in the rest of the world. I recently read all about them in a fascinating book by Ryszard Kapuściński, one of the best journalist and writers of our time. The book, called Imperium, talks about the Soviet Union through a series of adventures and trips that reach all the corners of the Red Empire. The mosaic is a frightening view of the deadliest, most insensitive killing machine that has ever existed, all through the eyes of the people who suffered it. Not even Hitler matched the horrors of Stalin and his cohorts.

Imperium's raw stories moved me to tears many times, and these images by Ed Ou are a perfect summary of the atrocities inflicted upon hundreds of millions that Kapuściński describes in his book.

However, as I watch through glassy eyes how Mayra Zhumageldina massages her daughter Zhannoor, or how 29-yo Berik Syzdykov sings and plays piano despite being deformed and blind since birth—he was exposed to a nuclear blast while he was inside his mom's womb—I try to smile. I try to smile and be a bit optimistic because, no matter how monstrous some men and women can be, the human spirit always seems to find a way to survive. [Adventures With Light and Getty Images via Big Picture]

The $250 kit description says:

Detects radiation and significantly removes radioactive material from human skin and other surfaces after a dirty bomb attack or other radiological events.

It includes:

• Our proprietary and patent-pending Quick Decon Mass Effect™ solutions for Radiation Decontamination. These water-based liquids come in convenient-to-use color-coded 32 oz. bottles with accompanying trigger sprayers (2). Our solutions are made from cosmetic-grade, FDA-approved materials and are not radioactive before use.
• One quart (32 fl oz.) for Transition metals such as Cobalt, Cesium, Strontium and Thallium. See chart for all radioactive elements.
• One quart (32 fl oz.) for Actinides such as Uranium, Plutonium, Technetium and Radium. See chart for all radioactive elements.
• 2 RADTriage™ Personal Radiation Detectors
# Decontamination Rad-wipes (45 per package)
• Vinyl gloves for use during decontamination process (4 pairs)
• Rad-Waste Bags (2)
• Radioactive Material Caution Labels (2) for use with Rad-Waste Bags
• Radiacwash Towelettes (6)
• N95 Particulate Face Masks (4)
• Instructions for Use
• Instructions in PDF format
• Downloadable Material Safety Data Sheets
• MSDS for Transition Metals Solution
• MSDS for Actinide Solution
• Chart of Problematic Radioactive Elements showing Actinides and Transition Metals
• A convenient and sturdy yellow hard-plastic carrying case easily identifiable as the Dirty Bomb Emergency Kit™ by its yellow and purple label

After reading all that, somehow I have the feeling that I won't need one of these in the case any dirty bomb explodes near me. I would just run around like a headless chicken, waiting for the people in the rad suits to arrive and get me into a bag. [Nukepills via Defense Tech]

That includes every single nuclear weapon, every one of the Russian Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles in ground silos, nuclear submarines, and heavy bombers around the world. Scary stuff indeed.

But fear not, fellow humans, because the Dead Hand system is not completely automatic. The actual red button is apparently activated by a soldier hidden in some underground bunker.

Yes, I feel so much safer now. [gradremstroy—in Russian via DRB]

The point of the system, he explains, was to guarantee an automatic Soviet response to an American nuclear strike. Even if the US crippled the USSR with a surprise attack, the Soviets could still hit back. It wouldn't matter if the US blew up the Kremlin, took out the defense ministry, severed the communications network, and killed everyone with stars on their shoulders. Ground-based sensors would detect that a devastating blow had been struck and a counterattack would be launched.

The technical name was Perimeter, but some called it Mertvaya Ruka, or Dead Hand. It was built 25 years ago and remained a closely guarded secret.

The scary thing is that Perimeter still works today. At least according to Valery Yarynich, a former Soviet colonel now 72 years old. Yarynich should know, though: He worked 30 years at the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and Soviet General Staff helping to build it.

US Officials won't even like to mention it, but with the Cold War over and Russia being more or less a friend, why risk having such a system in place? I really don't like the idea of something going wrong in a rusty 25-year-old piece of Soviet-era technology.

Not when it can automatically launch a nuclear attack capable of taking out Humanity out of the map. [Wired]

The first part of the graphic—created by David McCandless—shows how much space is actually used by the entire population. According to the Guardian Datablog and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, only 12.5% of the planet's surface is actually occupied by humans. A total of 18,617,500 square kilometers.

Click next above to continue or here to see the gallery in normal post form

Now, the most powerful active nuclear warhead in the world is the B83, which has a destructive power of two hundred Little Boys, the bomb that destroyed part of Hiroshima. That's a 14.9-square-kilometer total destruction area. Complete instant tanning, and obliteration of anything in sight. To give you an idea of what this space means, Manhattan is 58.8 square kilometers. Central London is 26 square kilometers.

Click next above to continue or here to see the gallery in normal post form

Now divide the total number of square kilometers by the destruction radius of the B83 to get the total number of nukes required for instant annihilation. As you can see, we need 123.36 times the amount of nukes available today: 10,227 nukes vs 1,241,166 nukes needed to completely disintegrate every single one of us in a millisecond.

Conclusion: WE NEED MORE NUKES, NOT FEWER. Better die instantly than having to survive nuclear winter and yet another horrible movie with Mel Gibson playing Mad Max. One that would last for a few hundred years at that. [David McCandless—Thanks David Keyes]

The Carlos Labs Google Maps Mash up, which we've featured before, has been now updated with a simulation for 6 kiloton Korean weapons. Let's hope we never have to fact check its accuracy, or we'll have to kick Kim Jong Il's Ass. [Carloslabs]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The red is a thermal radius.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The purple is the pressure wave.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
The green is the fallout, as affected by the wind.

It's quite interesting, with well-thought-out logic that points to NK obtaining parts and knowledge from Russia. In short, they probably don't have quite as good a capability for delivering the payload as previously thought. [The Bulletin]

That's exactly what happened to Tsutomu Yamaguchi back in 1945. He was on a business trip in Hiroshima, where he suffered serious burns to his upper body after the US dropped a nuke on the city. He spent the night in the city then returned home to Nagasaki, just in time for the second bomb to drop. [AP]

Using data gleaned from the book The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, these circular "computers" could calculate weapons effects like yield and range when the big one dropped. The instrument pictured here is circa 1960, and is one of several pictured in a gallery on the Oak Ridge Associated Universities website. [ORAU via Dinosaurs and Robots via Boing Boing]

With a geek's typical hubris, Oppenheimer assumed that since the laws of physics were universal, very little could stop anyone in getting a nuclear weapon, given the time and resources. Alas, the time and resources needed are indeed scarce, so to this day, only nine countries are nuclear-equipped—the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. Here we see these links visualized, starting with the Manhattan project and fanning out over the last six decades (click here for the full-size popup).

Instead, three proliferation experts demonstrate how nuclear capabilities were passed as political bargaining chips, stolen via espionage, and limited with diplomacy. Both books seem like fascinating reads. Check out much more at the Times: [NYTimes]

The fear is that a king-sized EMP generated from a nuclear blast detonated in the sky could send this country back to the stone age. Even if the possibility of such a scenario occurring is remote, the Navy doesn't want to take chances. If all goes well, the generator is expected to be completed sometime in 2010. [Defense Industry Daily via Danger Room]

First of all, understand that Schweickart loves NASA. The agency put him in orbit around Earth, after all, but he believes its cash-strapped later years might have led the agency—under immense pressure from Washington—to endorse a program with an ulterior motive: put nuclear weapons in space.

To remedy that situation, Schweickart's group, the B612 Foundation, intends to "use gentler tactics" to observe and eventually deflect asteroids. It's totally make love, not intergalactic war, man.

These new methods include using more powerful telescopes as they come online throughout this century to ID targets ASAP, as well as unmanned spacecraft and probes. Most asteroids could be redirected easily by rear-ending or towing them with these craft, Schweickart said.

In his lecture Schweickart compared Earth's citizens to a blindfolded hitter in a batting cage. We know the pain is coming, but we have no way of knowing when. One day we will, and people like Schweickart hope we'll be ready to react with the most effective means possible. According to him, that means no nukes. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum will simply have to find another way to kill the aliens. [Wired]

In fact, security broke down on a number of levels—including areas where nuclear weapons are stored. To put this baffling stupidity in perspective, consider this: after Col. Joel Westa took command of the 5th Bomb Wing post-nuke debacle, he was quoted as saying that this inspection was going to be the "most scrutinized inspection in the history of time." And the most terrifying part is that the wing will keep its certification to handle nuclear weapons for the foreseeable future. I feel safe...how about you? [Air Force Times via Wired]

So wait a second, how is this crazy thing suppose to work, anyways?

The film has thickness 0.05 - 0.3 mm. One is located at high altitude (5 - 20 km). The film is supported at this altitude by a small additional air pressure produced by ground ventilators. That is connected to Earth's ground by managed cables 3. The film may have a controlled transparency option. The system can have the second lower film 6 with controlled reflectivity, a further option.The small additional pressure creats a signufically (sic) lift force.

Sadly, I don't think we'll be living in a domed city anytime soon. But hey, an insane Russian scientist can dream, can't he? [Danger Room]

Ironic that the Russian designers at Lebedev would create a A-bomb full of money, since nuclear weapons are what bankrupted the USSR back in the 80s. – Charlie White

Money Saving Nuke [Chip Chick]

What evidence of our existence would be left behind? Hint: after about a thousand years, not much. For a reminder of just how temporary we could be, take a look at the full chart, after the jump. – Charlie White

We'll Meet Again, Don't Know Where, Don't Know When [treehugger]

via PopSci

One more key stat, comparing Kim Jong Il's fizzle with some manly nuclear warheads, after the jump. – Charlie White

Here are examples of nuclear weapons yields throughout history. Those two largest bombs were part of a pissing contest between the US and the USSR a few decades ago:

Nuclear Weapons Yields [Wikipedia]
Weapons of the World's Nuclear Powers [Washington Post]