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During the cold war American kids were trained to hide beneath their desktops in caseof a nuclear attack. Much good that would have done. ... I don't pretend to know the real reason but keeping control is usually better even if you can't change the outcome.

The goal was some protection from flying glass and debris from a blast. The idea was if you saw the flash you'd drop under your desk. Sure, other places would provide more protection but the assumption was if you saw that nuclear flash you didn't have time to do much more than just drop under the desk and put your head between your knees and your hands over your head (and kiss your a.. goodbye as we'd say) in the hope that you'd protect your head and face and eyes etc from flying bits and perhaps the initial heat flash. You were also probably blinded by the flash so slipping under your desk was about all you could expect from 30 little kids now suddenly blinded to manage in a few seconds. Obviously if you were so close to the blast that you didnt even have time to drop under the desk that's ok, it wouldn't help. But a blast wave travels at roughly the speed of sound so that's around 4 seconds per mile so if you were at least a half mile you had time for the teacher to shout "DUCK AND COVER!" and drop under your desk. If a bomb siren sounded that meant you had more time, probably minutes, so you'd quickly line up and all move to the school hallway presumably away from windows etc. I lived through that era and well remember those drills (NYC public schools.) -- -Barry Shein The World | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Login: Nationwide Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*