I was just reading about how the U.S. wanted to possibly replace old, aging nukes with newer ones. This was in Scientific American in April of 2007.

Some guys said that the bombs would still work after 100 years.

I was only about 2/3 through the first page when the thought occurred to me, "Could an old nuclear bomb from the 70's spontaneously blow up?"

I remember an episode of MacGyver from the first season in which he and a friend dealt with old cases of dynamite that were leaking nitroglycerin. The nitroglycerin looked like clear hair gel. When a single drop was thrown to the ground, that small amount caused a potentially harmful explosion. Pretty serious stuff.

I was wondering about medical trials for new drugs. You test some people for a few months or years, and then say, "Well, I guess this drug is ok." Then 80 years later it turns out it causes cancer. Like cigarettes! Everyone was smoking back in the 50's, and no one was really aware of the long term harm it could cause.

So it all makes me wonder if there are long term dangers that can build up over time, with respect to aging nuclear weapons, and if there is no way we could possibly prepare for them. Like what if there's an as yet undiscovered state that the radioactive material could reach which would result in a random atomic detonation?

If this were possible, every aging bomb in existence would be at risk, and we've got thousands, right?

I just got finished watching "WarGames" (1983), starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy as a couple of high school students who get caught up in a potential WWIII. How did it all happen?

Broderick hacked into NORAD thinking it was a gaming company. He wanted to find the soon-to-be-released games and play them at home, ahead of time, for free. What he ended up finding in NORAD (which he didn't know about until it was too late) was a learning computer that also happened to play games. So he selected Global Thermonuclear War, and the computer began the simulation.

"Joshua" is the name of that computer, and it had recently been given control of the final launch sequence at NORAD (and perhaps elsewhere) for the nuclear missiles.

Joshua combined the simulation with reality, and it looked like it would eventually launch real missiles at Russia as part of the ongoing game. That would provoke a Russian counterstrike, and wipe out all our major cities.

Ok, you probably knew some or all of that already. But I realized a couple things watching the film that I hadn't thought of before. These don't relate to the movie, but to life in general in our Nuclear Age.

First, if we could conceivably scare ourselves into launching on the Russians because of a computer error…

…and the Russians themselves seem to have had a history of faulty, malfunctioning equipment…

…then it isn't inconceivable that they could launch on us because of a computer error.

The second thought I had was with regard to the President. I realized that…

…if all the high-up military officials are acutely aware…

…of the fact that the U.S., Russia, and other countries…

…each have nuclear missiles pointed at high-yield targets all over the planet…

…and those missiles are a little more than a button's press away from launching and wiping out millions of people…

…then the President must live by a different set of rules than most citizens. On top of the whole "He's the President, he can do whatever he wants," deal.

I hadn't really been worried about a nuclear war. I didn't really dwell on it, whether I'm outside, inside, whatever. Nothing to worry about.

But I thought for the President, there must be one of two possibilities. Either he knows the risk of an unprovoked nuclear strike at any given time, and is constantly aware of the possibility that in the next few minutes he'll have to seek shelter in a bunker somewhere…

Or he lets his assistants worry about that.

But I figure when you deal with issues this big on a daily basis, you might equate a nuclear strike with rain, and your hardened bunker with a house. Stay inside the house when its raining. Take an "umbrella" with you when it looks like rain. Always keep an eye out for other places to seek shelter from the storm.

But I guess with missile defense systems, and the apparent "calm" between the U.S. and the long-range Nuclear Powers, there's not much to worry about.

…Or is there?

I watched "Jericho" off and on before. Then it went away. Writers Strike. Then the strike ended, and that seemed to coincide with "Jericho's" return.

From what I've heard, the series was totally canceled. Then a bunch of people sent nuts in as a reference to a line from the show. They sent them to the producer, or the studio head? Anyway, their point was made, and the abrupt ending of the show was undone. The show continued until a conclusive wrap-up could occur. And boy did it! Fantastic.

For those who didn't know, "Jericho" was a show about what happens to one town in the aftermath of a nuclear strike perpetrated on U.S. soil. A bunch of cities were destroyed, the government turned upside down, towns were at war over limited resources… The show kept evolving until Ravenwood (i.e., Blackwater) and the government took over the town of Jericho.

Man, I wasn't super impressed by all of the episodes, but the finale seems to justify the whole series. I think I want it on DVD!

I don't think this will really happen. It was just the first impression I got.

Reading on Yahoo today, I learned that "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an ultimatum Wednesday demanding that the militias surrender their weapons within 72 hours."

Further down the page: "Maliki stipulated in his ultimatum that the militants would be spared if they surrendered their weapons within 72 hours."

Of course, if you run a country (or try to), and a bunch of people go around shooting the place up, it doesn't make much sense to nuke them. You'd be nuking yourself.

But I just figured than any kind of ultimatum in a part of the world that is so problematic might end badly. Like maybe he says, "I'm going to count to three. One…"

The conflict doesn't stop.

"Two…"

Some of the fighting groups' bigger brothers (i.e. neighboring countries) say, "Hey, fight's on!"

"Three!" The enforcer tries to cut down the disobeying parties. Meanwhile, the big brothers say, "That's enough," and somehow escalate the conflict. Then they fight with each other. And it spreads and spreads, nation to nation, getting bigger and bigger, until someone says, "All right! I can finally use the nuke I got! Good thing I saved all the money I made on my paper route…"

FOOM!

Pure fiction? Or crazy like a fox? Stay tuned this weekend…

I remember just a few years ago I started wondering why we no longer seemed afraid of nuclear war. I had seen videos depicting the fear shared by members of my parent generation a few decades ago. I figured, "Well, the threat isn't that big a deal anymore." But then I wondered, if we still have the technology, there's still a threat. Sure, foreign countries aren't really in the news all that much (this was a few years ago, mind you) as being threatening in a nuclear sense, but that could change. Every time I heard another country became a nuclear power, I felt like one of the geeky kids cheated his way into the popular clique. "India has The Bomb? What in the world happened?"

The media wasn't really mentioning nuclear war as a major issue. Movies depicted end times scenarios, but that was about it. We focused on "lesser" battles, non-nuclear confrontations. And slowly, steadily, various nations began acquiring nuclear technology without any mainstream naysayer. Now, it seems, we may have reached a crystallization point. Enough countries have gone nuclear that there is an even greater threat to the world in general than when everybody lived in fear.

World War III is sometimes thought of as a dragged-out nuclear conflict. On the contrary. Nuclear weapons will greatly speed things up. If we ever do reach the point of a full-scale nuclear war with our neighbors, it will probably last less than 48 hours.

Here's a fun way to spice up your game of monopoly. If you've ever gotten frustrated by a player who seemed to own the entire board, you'll love this. Before you start, make a rule that all players agree to, which stipulates that at any time, any player can "nuke" another player out of the game. That's all there is to it. Start the game and let the chaos ensue!

The way Nuclear Monopoly works is that it will prevent any one player from making an enemy out of another by becoming a "have" in the midst of "have-nots." One way to avoid being nuked in Nuclear Monopoly is to make sure you're never the #1 richest player. If you stay #2 or #3, you can wait and watch as #1 grows more and more powerful, until finally someone nukes him or her out of the game.

Nuclear Monopoly creates a balance between players, because when all the standouts get nuked, everybody will try not to stand out. It's kind of like a reality show, like "Biggest Loser," where you can vote off the contestant you think will be the greatest threat to your victory. When a shoo-in arises, a contestant who is performing at a much higher level than everyone else, he or she will be quickly voted off, even by his or her own teammates. So the trick is not to do too well, and pretend that you're worse off than you really are. Put on your Poker Face, or risk getting Nuked!