Foreign Correspondence

[CoalTrain]

You were right about the Soviets being ahead of us in technology.

I don't believe I used those exact words. The Russians have a tradition of science that is much older than our country. When I finally started meeting Russian scientists I was amazed how independent of any school system their education was. In many families it is some thing that was just handed down from one generation to the next. One of the things was very different about American science and Soviet Science was the practicality of Soviet Science.

If I recall correctly the Soviets were first in Space with Sputnik. We beat them to the Moon which seems impressive on the surface but after many decades now what practical purpose has landing on the Moon made? While America was gloating about supremacy in Space the Russians were the first to harness Electro Magnetic Pulse. If I remember correctly for almost a decade The Soviets could have exploded a Nuke in OuterSpace just outside of our Atmosphere sending an electromagnetic pulse that would have wipedout all magnetic media and rendered most of the transister technology useless and we would not have known what happened. -- The F-15's and other aircraft would have been useless under such circumstances.Our ICBM's as well. If the article I read was correct the Pentagon was unaware of many of the implications of EMP at the time. The Migs however used older tube technology and are not so sensitive to an EMP blast.
Much talk was made of making things EMP resistant but other than making the ICBM's resistant. I never really bought any of the arguments I heard at the time. I think the bottom line was that we invested in the wrong technology and had a hard time admitting it. IT has been many years since I really researched the subject. Perhaps we have filed the gaps. Don't take my word for it. The first article I read on the subject was in the Journal Science in the seventies. It should be easy to find next time you go to the library.

If you run across any info on the health effects of EMP please post it or PM it to me. I think large populations will be exposed to lots of it before 2020. I hope it is not as bad as radiation. My fear is that it synergizes with nuclear fallout.