US Military Tested the Effects of a Nuclear Holocaust On Beer 215
pigrabbitbear writes "Is bottled beer nuclear bombproof? The United States government conducted a couple tests in the 1950s to find out—it exploded nuclear bombs with 'packaged commercial beverages' deposited at varying distances from the blast center to see if beer and soda would be safe to drink afterwards. The finding? Yep, surviving bottled and canned drinks can be consumed in the event of a nuclear holocaust, without major health risks."
Re:Waste of money (Score:2, Interesting)
Radiation is not a threat to food... at least not once its been picked or killed. Radioactive material is, of course.
Perfect example of historian's fallacy [wikipedia.org].
Unless you know something about time travel that I don't, the reason we know it's safe now is because in the 50s they did not know, and did the tests to find out.
Re:Waste of money (Score:5, Interesting)
Radiation is not a threat to food... at least not once its been picked or killed. Radioactive material is, of course.
Perfect example of historian's fallacy.
Unless you know something about time travel that I don't, the reason we know it's safe now is because in the 50s they did not know, and did the tests to find out.
But we don't know that, in spite of the testing done in the 1950s. By 'we', I include all the paranoid crybabies that get their panties in a bunch every time the FDA considers allowing irradiation as a food preservation method.
Re:So that's how we make American beer! (Score:3, Interesting)
The Reinheitsgebot isn't necessarily a good thing to follow. Many great British, Belgian, and American craft beers do not meet the sometimes odd rules of the Reinheitsgebot.
The list of "11 Reasons why the Reinheitsgebot is bollocks" explains it pretty well: http://patto1ro.home.xs4all.nl/reinheit.htm [xs4all.nl]
Re:Premature (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Waste of money (Score:4, Interesting)
Eg, in the USA, the Fed creates the money, and it is immediately loaned and begins earning interest. That interest doesn't have currency in the system to cover it, hence money has to be borrowed from the Fed to pay the interest owed to the Fed. Vicious cycle ensues, borrowing money to pay the interest on the borrowed money.
No way out except to default, or nationalise the Fed.
Re:Waste of money (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Aha! so that's what Indiana Jones was doing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Amen!
I figured there was a reason for keeping all those Clydesdales around besides pulling wagons. ;-)
"Ahhh, Budweiser, the beer that has real Horsepower in it!"
"[...] Although the human body maintains a mean power expenditure of some 100 watts, power excursions as high as 742 watts have been observed, chiefly drawn by the endocrine system and the smooth muscles of the stomach and esophagus, as the body's immunologic and adrenal responses take over to expel the deadly Budweiser from the patient's system. The bulk of retrograde Budweiser flow occurs via the mouth; however, the added cross-sectional area afforded by the nostrils is typically utilized, expediting removal of the vile fluid by several percentage points versus solely oral expulsions; the evolutionary advantage realized by this improvement are evident to those who've been attendant to the toll this foul poison may take on the human body and psyche."
—"Acute Budweiser Poisoning: Bio-kinetic Response in Humans," NEJM, 1934