I think that the Americans would still have incidents like that be classified, so it's hard to know what happened on the American side of the nuclear deterrent beyond "well, clearly no one actually launched their sub's missiles."
I will observe that major city centers can and do bounce back from nuclear attack in time (Hiroshima and Nagasaki are healthy, thriving cities these days and have been for many decades)... But in the short term the capital would have to be relocated due to lack of intact infrastructure, and a move like that often carries its own inertia.
The Chinese nuclear arsenal, somewhat luckily, has always been relatively low yield instead of chasing the biggest possible booms like the Americans and Soviets.
The Chinese nuclear arsenal, somewhat luckily, has always been relatively low yield instead of chasing the biggest possible booms like the Americans and Soviets.
I think by the time the Chinese were series-producing nuclear weapons, it was clear that the prevalent means of delivery would be ICBMs with steadily tighter and tighter circular error probable, meaning that there just wasn't much point in making bombs of over a few hundred kilotons.
The Americans and the Soviets went for those gigantic multi-megaton H-bombs in the '50s and early '60s because they were expecting to deliver their bombs with (1) jet bombers and (2) very inaccurate missiles. An inaccurate missile means you need a bigger warhead to be assured of catching whatever you actually aimed at within the blast radius. And since a jet bomber can be shot down and likely will be, you have an incentive to maximize the damage caused by any single bomb it drops, taking out any other things in the general vicinity of its #1 target to maximize harm done to the enemy.
Pretty much everyone standardized on lighter warheads in the 1970s or so, apart from legacy warheads still in service that it wasn't worth getting rid of. It's just that this is when China really started getting into the build nuclear arsenal" exercise in a serious was, as I understand it, so they skipped the early jumbo-warhead weirdness.
A zoological edutainment book for ages 12 and up about Guangchou fauna.
A book writen by Chiao Meong.
Ilustrated by Juanas Mari.
The Fortress Turtles
Description:
With an average length of 2.5 meters for males and 2.8 m for females, a height of 1.75 m for males, 1.95 for females and with exceptions of both sexes reaching up to 3 meters in length and 2 meters high the fortress turtle it the largest in the world.
Its enormous mass of 1000 to 2300 kg is supported by four elephantine feet, themselves accompanied by a tail (larger in males) and a head at the top of a muscular neck accompanied by a powerful beak,all these appendages are capable of retracting into an extremely thick and solid shell that can be up to 4 cm thick. Life cycle:
Mating occurs at any time of the year, although it does have seasonal peaks between February and June in the humid uplands during the rainy season. When mature males meet in the mating season, they face each other in a ritualised dominance display, rise up on their legs, and stretch up their necks with their mouths gaping open. Occasionally, head-biting occurs, but usually the shorter tortoise backs off, conceding mating rights to the victor,it is strongly advised to stay away before during and after the mating process.
The prelude to mating can be very aggressive, as the male forcefully rams the female's shell with his own and nips her legs.Mounting is an awkward process and the male must stretch and tense to maintain equilibrium in a slanting position. The concave underside of the male's shell helps him to balance when straddled over the female's shell, and brings his cloacal vent (which houses the penis) closer to the female's dilated cloaca. During mating, the male vocalises with hoarse bellows and grunts, described as "rhythmic groans". This is one of the few vocalisations the tortoise makes; other noises are made during aggressive encounters, when struggling to right themselves, and hissing as they withdraw into their shells due to the forceful expulsion of air.
Females journey up to nesting areas of dry, sandy coast. Nest digging is a tiring and elaborate task which may take the female several hours a day over many days to complete. It is carried out blindly using only the hind legs to dig a 80 cm deep cylindrical hole, in which the tortoise then lays up to 16 spherical, hard-shelled eggs ranging from 1 to 1.8 kg in mass,and the size of a voleyball.The female makes a muddy plug for the nest hole out of soil mixed with urine, seals the nest by pressing down firmly with her plastron, and leaves them to be incubated by the sun. Females may lay one to four clutches per season. Temperature plays a role in the sex of the hatchlings, with lower-temperature nests producing more males and higher-temperature nests producing more females. This is related closely to incubation time, since clutches laid early incubate during the cool season and have longer incubation periods (producing more males), while eggs laid later incubate for a shorter period in the hot season (producing more females).
Young animals emerge from the nest after four to eight months and may weigh only 400 g and measure 10 cm.When the young tortoises emerge from their shells, they must dig their way to the surface, which can take several weeks, though their yolk sac can sustain them up to seven months.In particularly dry conditions, the hatchlings may die underground if they are encased by hardened soil, while flooding of the nest area can drown them. The young stay in warmer lowland areas for their first 10–15 years,encountering hazards such as falling into cracks, being crushed by falling rocks,being eaten or excessive heat stress.
Sexual maturity is reached at around 40 years. Life expectancy in the wild is thought to be over 300 years,making it one of the longest-lived subspecies in the animal kingdom. Senses:
They make use of vision to find food and mates, avoid predators, and orient themselves. The retina's light-sensitive cells include both rods for vision in low light, and cones with three different photopigments for bright light, where they have full-color vision. There is possibly a fourth type of cone that detects ultraviolets, as hatchling sea turtles respond experimentally to ultraviolet light, but it is unknown if they can distinguish this from longer wavelengths.
Turtles have no ear openings; the eardrum is covered with scales and encircled by a bony otic capsule, which is absent in other reptiles. Their hearing thresholds are high in comparison to other reptiles, reaching up to 500 Hz in air, but underwater they are more attuned to lower frequencies.
They have olfactory (smell) and vomeronasal receptors along the nasal cavity, the latter of which are used to detect chemical signals. Experiments showed they could learn to respond to a selection of different odorant chemicals such as triethylamine and cinnamaldehyde, which were detected by olfaction in the nose. Such signals could be used in navigation Habitats/routine:
The tortoises are ectothermic (cold-blooded), so they bask for 1–2 hours after dawn to absorb the sun's heat through their dark shells before actively foraging for 8–9 hours a day.They travel mostly in the early morning or late afternoon between resting and grazing areas.
On the larger and more humid islands, the tortoises seasonally migrate between low elevations, which become grassy plains in the wet season, and meadowed areas of higher elevation 650 m in the dry season. The same routes have been used for many generations, creating well-defined paths through the undergrowth known as "tortoise highways". On these wetter islands, the domed tortoises are gregarious and often found in large herds,disturbing said herds is not recommended.
Tortoises sometimes rest in mud wallows or rain-formed pools, which may be both a thermoregulatory response during cool nights, and a protection from parasites such as mosquitoes and ticks. Parasites are countered by taking dust baths in loose soil. Some tortoises have been noted to shelter at night under overhanging rocks. Others have been observed sleeping in a snug depression in the earth or brush called a "pallet". Local tortoises using the same pallet sites, such as on Volcán Alcedo, results in the formation of small, sandy pits.
Predators:
Apart from man, the only real predators of theadult fortress tortoise are parasites, some marine animals quick enough to surprise and decapitate a turtle before it can return to its shell and possible large predators and packs of hunters in despair,the largest cause of mortality in adults beyond normal healt problems are accidents mostly falling down precipices.
For the young a variety of animals too large to be named (mostly birds) consider them as preys. Food:
They are herbivores feeding on cacti, grasses, leaves,coconuts, lichens, algae, berries, melons, oranges and milkweed. They have been documented feeding on a surprising variety of poisonous and poisonous plants. Juveniles eat an average of 16.7% of their own weight in dry matter per day, with digestive efficiency roughly equal to that of hindgut-fermenting herbivorous mammals such as horses and rhinoceroses,however, they will not say no to a carcass if they find one.
They get most of their humidity from dew and sap from vegetation, so they can survive more than 6 months without water. They can survive for up to a year when deprived of all food and water, surviving by breaking down their body fat to produce water as a byproduct. They also have a very slow metabolism. When thirsty, they can drink large quantities of water very quickly, storing it in their bladder and the "root of the neck" (the pericardium). In arid times, turtles lick the morning dew off the rocks, and the repeated action over several generations has formed half-spherical depressions in the rock. Interesting anecdotes:
They share a mutualistic relationship with some subspecies of birds. The birds benefit from the food source and the tortoises get rid of irritating ectoparasites.
Small groups initiate the process by hopping on the ground in an exaggerated fashion facing the tortoise. The tortoise signals it is ready by rising up and extending its neck and legs, enabling the birds to reach otherwise inaccessible spots on the tortoise's body such as the neck, rear legs, cloacal opening, and skin between plastron and carapace.
They love coconuts, it's their favorite treat gnawing the outer flesh before cracking the nut in their beak to devour the sweet flesh inside.
The bite of the fortress turtle is one of the most powerful in existence, whether per square centimeter or in total.
They owe their affectionate name "nutcraker of heroes" because of their appearances in the legend of Hwa Guo The Virile, it is said that after winning the annual aquatic quadriathlon competition of his tribe for the twelfth time Hwa decided to rested naked in the breeze of a beach in the shade of a pandanus tree, while he slept an old fortress turtle washed up on the beach and came in search of food, Hwa's tanned skin melted well with the shell added to the poor eyesight of the elderly turtle made it price its genitals for a pair of coconuts (the name of "The virile" did not come from nowhere), it is said that the howl of Hwa was heard across the entire Chinese sea and beyond, since that day Hwa distrusted the turtles, began to headbutt those who called him "half manly" and protected his remaining nut with a langot in all time.
Geologists believe that a particularly violent volcanic tremor took place at this time in the life of the historic Hwa, which would explain the exaggeration of the cries.
It descends from Megalochelys ("great turtle") a giant turtle specie which lived in western India and Pakistan (possibly even as far west as southern and eastern Europe) to as far east as Sulawesi and Timor in Indonesia, during the Miocene to Pleistocene is suspected to have migrated to Guangzhou from Indonesia during the end of the Pleitocene.
Every year it is a tradition in the villages located near turtles to apate fortresses, some with coconuts before covering them with wreaths of flowers and painting them with various symbols representing stories, the local villages, the people who painted it, their ancestors, etc.
Although nothing other than non-harmful dyes made from flowers and soils has been used for milainaires a recent amendment to the law against cruelty to animals has been put in place prohibiting the use of anything other than said natural dye put an end to the beginning of certain unhealthy drifts with industrial paint sprays.
There have been some attempts throughout history to mount the Fortress Turtles but they have been abandoned for anything beyond stupid and often drunken bets due to the dangerousness of the thing, the slowness of the animal and the obvious discomfort and distress caused to the turtles much loved by the residents of Guangchou.
During the period of the British embassy a certain number of English people thought of hunting the animals for trophies, exhibition animals and other nonsense, the thing was very quickly banned given the extreme hostility caused among the local inhabitants and the high mortality among the "hunters" in fact those who were very often mortally surprised to learn that the threatened fortress turtle can charge over a short period of time and that it can extend its neck to bite in less than a second,the most interesting skulls have been preserved at the Guangchou Museum of Natural History and serve as a warning to potential adventurous turtle riders and hunters by showing how many of a skull a fortress turtle can cut in one bite.
Also known by its Latin name "Saxum movens" which translates to "moving rock", so named because of the naturalist scientist Edmond Woodward who accompanied the first British expedition to Guangchou, Edmond while resting on the beach was very surprised when the rock on which he was leaning decided to get up and walk towards the sea. One done three to go before the next set,as i said more work than i thought but i think it's at least not too bad.
I would be happy to hear any constructive critisism or modification suggestion if i missed something or got it wrong.
Hope you like it.
Not a puppet government, but it gives us a very convenient set of scapegoats for the failures of communism in China, which *will* make it easier to influence the resulting government towards structures we find more palatable.
In other news, designing the transit system here has given me a serious case of transit yearning IRL.
Not a puppet government, but it gives us a very convenient set of scapegoats for the failures of communism in China, which *will* make it easier to influence the resulting government towards structures we find more palatable.
In other news, designing the transit system here has given me a serious case of transit yearning IRL.
There's a degree of dependency and control by 'puppet government' that I don't think we're either interested in or able to pull off.
Regime change is perhaps more accurate.
It's... probably closer than you think, given the relative economic disparity. China was a lot poorer back then, and the war hasn't done it any favors.
But it would still be borrowing trouble to try.
Having Guangchou's research complex backed up by the economic juggernaut of the Chinese manufacturing sector once it recovers on the other hand is a very tasty prospect, and given out actions so far it seems we're going to have a very good relationship with China.
"Ugh, finally I have some time to read the Omake Carcer posted. This week is far too hectic for me."
*Reads the Omake*
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, this makes me look bad!"
Love it!
[+4 to any Nature Reserve or Protection Action.]
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<.<
>.>
○.○ Omake Bounty: Six-Legged Floppa Fur, Feather, Fin Episode
Reward: Ascended Canon and instant completion of 1 [One] Nature Action of your choosing.
I can try but it will be very hard to make it even a litle plausible,i will have to basicely invent a new lineage of mammals that evolved to have six legs,i will try to do it in the background while I make the other three animals approved, any details you could provide me would be useful.
Not a puppet government, but it gives us a very convenient set of scapegoats for the failures of communism in China, which *will* make it easier to influence the resulting government towards structures we find more palatable.
In other news, designing the transit system here has given me a serious case of transit yearning IRL.
Puppet government? What do we look like, some imperialist Westerner? No, this is just the establishment of a friendly government devoted to the correct Communist ideals of brotherhood and togetherness! Not the same thing at all.
I can try but it will be very hard to make it even a litle plausible,i will have to basicely invent a new lineage of mammals that evolved to have six legs,i will try to do it in the background while I make the other three animals approved, any details you could provide me would be useful.
Well, its pretty much meant as an incentive to, basically, shitpost for the fun of it.
So you can just say that a duo of mischievious caracals annoyed a goddess so much she slapped the two together and made sure that would breed through in their offspring, but failed to account that this would result in their mischiev to be squared and not merely doubled. Hence why nobody goes to that island to avoid getting their pants stolen and shoelaces tied up.
Puppet government? What do we look like, some imperialist Westerner? No, this is just the establishment of a friendly government devoted to the correct Communist ideals of brotherhood and togetherness! Not the same thing at all.
Well, its pretty much meant as an incentive to, basically, shitpost for the fun of it.
So you can just say that a duo of mischievious caracals annoyed a goddess so much she slapped the two together and made sure that would breed through in their offspring, but failed to account that this would result in their mischiev to be squared and not merely doubled. Hence why nobody goes to that island to avoid getting their pants stolen and shoelaces tied up.
Well yeah. The trick is that a lot of the thread contributers seem to have a lingering fondness for being able to feel like everything is scientifically plausible and detailed and all that stuff, even while greatly enjoying the wacky shit other people create.
Do you think the cover is cool enough that I should add it to future other animal posts?
Or just considered that this omake was the cover and the first page and that the following omakes will be the next pages and therefore no covers?
Do you think the cover is cool enough that I should add it to future other animal posts?
Or just considered that this omake was the cover and the first page and that the following omakes will be the next pages and therefore no covers?
Realized i forget to add a latin name so added this:
"Also known by its Latin name "Saxum movens" which translates to "moving rock", so named because of the naturalist scientist Edmond Woodward who accompanied the first British expedition to Guangchou, Edmond while resting on the beach was very surprised when the rock on which he was leaning decided to get up and walk towards the sea."
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