Events: Nagasaki 70 years on

What if the 1945 "Fat Man" bomb was dropped on Melbourne today?

Following on from my "Trinity Day" post a few short weeks ago, a chilling reminder. It is now 70 years ago since, on August 9th, 1945, at 11:01:47am the Fat Man bomb exploded some 500m above Nagasaki, Japan, outright killing between approximately 39,000 and 80,000 people. The blast was estimated at around 20kt, and it set fires through the mostly wood and paper construction of the city that left it devastated, even before the radiation effects began to manifest.

What if a 10kt "dirty bomb" was detonated in downtown Melbourne?

Some very clever people at Stevens Institute of Technology, namely nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein developed  “NukeMap” which allows you to overlap various atomic and nuclear events over a regular GoogleMaps view. You've seen this kind of effect with the Sea-Levels which I discussed in my Rising Sea-Levels post. The NukeMap application demonstrates the estimated (and extrapolated from actual tests) effects of these weapons on built-up areas, including "Fireball radius", "20psi Air Blast radius", "5psi Air Blast radius", Radiation Radius" and "Thermal Radiation Radius", each with a descriptor of the kinds of damages you could expect to see, and survivability of those effects.

What if the currently deployed 800kt Russian "Topol SS-25" ICBM munition was dropped on Melbourne?

It also then overlays that with estimated population density in the areas covered by the various zones, and estimates immediate fatalities, and injuries. For explosions of either sufficient size, or proximity to the ground to kick up fallout (high air-busts hit harder, and wider, but don't kick up as much fallout, it's inefficient to do so, apparently), NukeMaps will also plot prevailing winds and density of fallout.

What if the currently deployed 800kt Russian "Topol SS-25" ICBM munition was detonated in downtown Melbourne?

You can pick your location, and from a variety of historically documented devices, from the North Korean tests, Pakistani and Indianweapons, the Trinity and WW2 bombs, all the way up through the Cold War era tests and production weapons, from estimated improvised terrorist weapons to the state-irradiating Tsar Bomba weapon.

Its a very sobering tool to visualize both the destructive capacity we have been capable of for the past 80 years, but also as a reminder of how fortunate we are to have only ever had these forces brought to bare in anger only twice.

Wish-Lust: Fogo Adventure Gadget: GPS+Flashlight+Walkie Talkie+Charger

[EDIT: Promo-code to get 10% discount on their store!]
[EDIT: another 10% code .... ]

I do love my Kickstarter projects, my flashlights, and alternate power sources,  so when the Fogo project came up, I jumped right onto it. Alas, its first iteration didnt make the target goal, but the Fogo team have gone bak to he drawing board, and have come back with a second version, which looks to be going strong.

I wanted to give you all my thoughts on it, because I think it has some real potential, but needs some explanation before you go right in and back it. Caveat Emptor.

The base level light has a programmable flashlight, USB charger, accelerometer, digital compass and a charging system for other devices.

I've covered a multi-functional flashlight before, in the Hexbright FLEX and charging systems like the Snow Lizard SLXtreme case but the Fogo has a few more built in features that sets it apart.
 
Constructed predominantly of Type III Hard Anodized 6061 aluminum for the body, end cap, and bezel, with an acrylic lens protector, and a polycarbonate protector for the built in 168x144 crisp, low power LCD screen (with backlight), and all together holds a IPX7 Waterproof rating.

It measures 14cm (5.56") x 4.5cm (1.78") in diameter and weighs 285g (10oz) when fully loaded up with the twin 18650 protected Li-Ion batteries (up to 3400mAh each).
The USB Charger which has a 1.8A at 5V output power (Micro USB OTG Adapter required for charging external devices) allows charging of up to 1.8A.

The really interesting features that the Fogo can have added are a  Bluetooth connection, GPS circuitry, Walkie-Talkie Smartcap and Text Messaging over radio.

The Radio cap offers a wireless network between other Fogo users allowing you to send digital voice and text messages, including GPS data such as waypoints, as well as real-time communication from 1.6 to 11.2km, depending on terrain.

The Text-Messaging-Over Radio option requires the Radio-Tail-Cap option in order to work, so be sure to bear that in mind when building your own, and you need two of them to communicate like this.

I haven't gone as far as pledging for those upgrades, because I unfortunately don't have the funds to put in for two or more complete models, but I can see the appeal of off-cell-grid communications in a rugged an easy to use unit like these.

For my money, I'm looking forwards to the Kickstarter to surpass its Stretch Goal of $80k to achieve an upgrade of the Cree LED's. The higher efficiency XP-L outputs up to 1226 lumens compared to 1058 for the XM-L2. Plus the XP-L gives the Fogo a 10% improvement in battery life.

With its Battery Voltage, Current, and State of Charge sensors, automatic light control to save battery life and protect your night vision (point to the ground for dim and far away for bright)  and off-course notification, the Fogo is a pretty advanced flashlight on its own. With the addition of the GPS and bluetooth options, and being able to track your speed, distance, elevation, rate of ascent/decent and see your stats on the Fogo or download them for later use, tracking your heart rate or cadence or even use the crash detection feature which alerts nearby Fogos (if any) of your situation. It's a pretty special system, all told.

I hope it gets picked up widely, it would be good to see it out there getting its full exposure and coverage.

[EDIT: Promo-code to get 10% discount on their store!]
[EDIT: another 10% code .... ] 

Review: compass

For many years growing up, I would respond to a call of "Get lost!" with the smart-ass reply "I've got a compass", which as you might imagine always made me friends. However, it was true, and a compass has been part of my collection of kit for as long as I can remember. I probably had a Swiss Army Knife first, but a compass was right up there. When I lived in Calgary, and did "Outdoor Ed" at Dalhousie Junior High I picked up this Silva base plate compass, which has been with me since. We did orienteering and map reading, navigation and the like. No one ever really pays attention to those things at school, but some of it stuck with me, and I soaked that class up eagerly. Being evacuated from Dubai at the lead up to Desert Storm, fairly unnecessarily, it was fairly daunting for a young teenager to face the prospect of navigating the badlands and desert of the Arabian Peninsula without an adequate means of navigation. I was taught to drive the 4wd in the desert, in order to get away in case of invading Iraqi hordes, and was probably one of the key events in my desire for preparedness.  The lensatic compass came years later, a Christmas present.

  First the base-plate compass. The hard clear plastic base features three rulers, in mm and two in common map scales, for ease of estimating distances as well as a "direction of travel" indicator arrow to take bearings off. The fluid filled needle chamber is patterned on its base with a series of guide-lines, to assist with aligning to grid-lines om a map when relating true-north to magnetic north when taking readings. The bezel is stiff enough to not slip, but moves smoothly. Neither the magnetic needle or the numbers are luminescent but they are clear and easily viewed in dim lighting.

Here is my lensatic compass, it is a knock-off of a US Army M-1950 model and for what it is, is a pretty good tool.  One of the features of this kind of compass a powerful tool is that they are powerful means of taking a bearing on a distant point. It accomplishes this by means of a sighting wire, and a sighting notch, much like the iron-sights of a gun. You align the wire in the notch on a far away point, and you get a very accurate line to that point. The lens in the sighting armature which allows the user not only to see the measurements from the internal protractor without moving the sighting arms from the bearing, but also enable a much finer markings to be read, again increasing the accuracy of the reading.  Tips on how to do this can be found on the Lensatic Compass Guide or from old army manuals such as here easily enough.

Being a fairly cheap knock off, my lensatic compass lacks the a tritium dial or markings, but the four points of the compass are luminescent. The making lines and the bezel are functional enough, and there are 120 "notches" on the bezel, giving a 3 degree "click" for each turn. A second lens over the long line allows for close inspection of the bearing.

The one problem I have found after quite a few years of owning it is that the fluid in the chamber has leaked, and a large collection of bubbles have entered the chamber, and press down on the plastic disk of the protractor. This causes the needle to be pushed off line, with a real risk of erroneous readings. I'm going to try to repair this, but I'd say that this is the risk you take using cheap knock-off pieces of measurement equipment. Good to practice with, or dangle off my gear when I am doing Stargate lasertag LRP, but not something I would stake my life on in a survival situation. 

Get quality compasses. They needn't be expensive military grade pieces, as my Silva shows, but they need to work dependably.

Review: Platatac Recce Map Pouch

Welcome back viewers, I've been having urban adventures and haven't had time till now to post something, but here we go, hot off the shelf and field tested Thursday night whilst on my Tough Mudder training run.Its been raining a lot here in Melbourne, and I wanted something to house my iPhone whilst I was trudging around the course so I could check my pace and time with the Trails App I use. Previously I've shown you the iPhone case I use which, combined with a screen guard, gives me some incidental rain protection, and has a carabiner to attach it to myself, but for running, I wanted something that would be strapped down, to avoid the flapping gear-effect. Its bad enough that I wear boots and cargo shorts, compared to my lycra and Nike wearing team-mates, without having tech swinging off me as well. So I of course, turned to my favourite Tactical gear supplier, who had a solution for me! This is the Platatac Recce Panel.

It consists of a 1000D Cordura pouch fastened with a hook-and-loop strap, that is mounted to the wrist by two wide elastic cuffs, which feed through loops in the heavy 25mm webbing sewn into the back of the pouch. The loops and pouch itself are ambidextrous, just a matter of swapping the sides and adjusting the elastic loops to fit. The elastic comes with heavy nylon buckle furniture and hook-and-loop fixtures. On my bare skinny wrists the hand-end loop was in fact too thin for the hook-and-loop to bite, so I need to loop the elastic back through the buckle, which worked just fine, all in all giving a very secure and stable platform for all my Predator Wrist Device needs. The spine of the pouch sports an elastic pen-pocket, which is a nice touch. I need to find myself a good sturdy pen to fit snugly in there, "for close encounters". The magic of this pouch however is within the cordura flap. There are two heavy clear plastic pockets, one folded on top of the other, for storing maps and documents.


 The"top" pouch is double sided, and features an unsealed(but "internally" opening close to the middle seam, which comes as the first layer when the pouch is opened up. Closer to the wrist is a single-sided pocket, also clear plastic fronted, with a hook-and-loop seam on the one side. Wearing this on my left wrist, the hook-and-loop is on my arm-side. There is sufficient room in the inner pocket to fit my iPhone4S in its case, and seal the pouch up, and still have my headphones trailing out (to listen to music and the Zombies, Run! immersive running app I also use. However, in its case, the screen is difficult to access, and the capacitance is reduced. Out of its skin, everything worked just fine. I found this to be a great addition to my running kit, and whilst I wont be taking my phone on the Tough Mudder, I will certainly consider using this for both my regular camping and adventuring, and as part of my Stargate Lasertag LRP kit. Having maps and orienteering documentation on hand, as well as GPS data from my phone will be a very desirable. I was thinking I could mount one of my solar collectors to the back of the unit, to charge-on-the-go.

This was an occasion where the tool really does fit the need, and I am very glad to have added this to my collection and to my kit.