stefan segal
02-07-2007, 07:19 PM
http://jamestmoore.us/more.php?id=45_0_1_0_M
The Day an E-Bomb Drops
There is sharp cracking sound in the distance. A moment later a low rumbling sound, like an innocent clap of thunder, shakes the ground slightly and the whole city becomes immobile, as if frozen in time. All florescent lights, neon tubes, and television sets glow with eerie brightness; even the ones that are turned off at the time. Smoldering plastic seeps from outlet covers, electric wires arc, and telephone wires melt into tangled piles of smoking jelly.
Palm Pilots, DVD players, cell phones, portable appliances, and toys all feel warm to the touch because their batteries have become overloaded and are fried. Computers are toasted, and all the data on the hard drives is burned up and lost forever.
Then, the surroundings go deathly still. The background sounds of civilization in a busy city die out without a whimper. Cars and trucks sit motionless, their internal-combustion engines now stopped, will never start again.
What about the people, on the streets and in their houses? Miraculously, they are all unharmed, at least physically. But as they look around incredulously, unable to adjust their senses to the shock of this strange, silent environment, it suddenly dawns on them that something unexplainable and terrifying has just happened: the entire city is totally without power. Without the electric circuitry to power their modern lifestyle, the civilization they took so much for granted has been thrown back 200 years, to a time when electricity had no meaning other than a lightning bolt flashing for an instant in the night sky. The city is now vulnerable and helpless.
But now, you say, let’s get real. This is a hypothetical scenario, isn’t it? This is just a trumped up tale, a make-believe story in the mind of some Sci-fi writer or wacko atomic-scientist, right? No quite. This is a realistic assessment of
The Day an E-Bomb Drops
There is sharp cracking sound in the distance. A moment later a low rumbling sound, like an innocent clap of thunder, shakes the ground slightly and the whole city becomes immobile, as if frozen in time. All florescent lights, neon tubes, and television sets glow with eerie brightness; even the ones that are turned off at the time. Smoldering plastic seeps from outlet covers, electric wires arc, and telephone wires melt into tangled piles of smoking jelly.
Palm Pilots, DVD players, cell phones, portable appliances, and toys all feel warm to the touch because their batteries have become overloaded and are fried. Computers are toasted, and all the data on the hard drives is burned up and lost forever.
Then, the surroundings go deathly still. The background sounds of civilization in a busy city die out without a whimper. Cars and trucks sit motionless, their internal-combustion engines now stopped, will never start again.
What about the people, on the streets and in their houses? Miraculously, they are all unharmed, at least physically. But as they look around incredulously, unable to adjust their senses to the shock of this strange, silent environment, it suddenly dawns on them that something unexplainable and terrifying has just happened: the entire city is totally without power. Without the electric circuitry to power their modern lifestyle, the civilization they took so much for granted has been thrown back 200 years, to a time when electricity had no meaning other than a lightning bolt flashing for an instant in the night sky. The city is now vulnerable and helpless.
But now, you say, let’s get real. This is a hypothetical scenario, isn’t it? This is just a trumped up tale, a make-believe story in the mind of some Sci-fi writer or wacko atomic-scientist, right? No quite. This is a realistic assessment of