Potassium iodide distributors have a friend on Twitter:
A Twitter battle over the size of each "nuclear button" possessed by President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un has spiked sales of a drug that protects against radiation poisoning.
Troy Jones, who runs the website www.nukepills.com, said demand for potassium iodide soared last week, after Trump tweeted that he had a "much bigger & more powerful" button than Kim — a statement that raised new fears about an escalating threat of nuclear war. "On Jan. 2, I basically got in a month's supply of potassium iodide and I sold out in 48 hours," said Jones, 53, who is a top distributor of the drug in the United States. His Mooresville, N.C., firm sells all three types of the product approved by the Food and Drug Administration. No prescription is required.
In that two-day period, Jones said, he shipped about 140,000 doses of potassium iodide, also known as KI, which blocks the thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine and protects against the risk of cancer. Without the tweet, he typically would have sent out about 8,400 doses to private individuals, he said. Jones also sells to government agencies, hospitals and universities, which aren't included in that count.
Alan Morris, president of the Williamsburg, Va.-based pharmaceutical firm Anbex Inc., which distributes potassium iodide, said he's seen a bump in demand, too. "We are a wonderful barometer of the level of anxiety in the country," said Morris.
Note: A comment on the article claims that Nukepills is massively overcharging for the substance.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday January 13 2018, @10:44PM (5 children)
Once had a discussion with some engineers about how to fuck over a city with hard mode: minimal loss of life and with no "magical" weapons like satellite EMP.
Garden-variety truck bombs + all freeway overpasses + coordinated detonation at 2 or 3 a.m. == taking out the knees of the city's economy for a relatively extended period of time.
Overpass bridges are pretty slowly rebuilt as compared to, say, having to divert power as a result of a blown substation or something.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 13 2018, @11:03PM (1 child)
Easy to do, good ROI, but not really long term crippling. Hurricanes do far more damage, and the Northridge quake in 1994 took out lots of overpasses, big pain in the ass for people living there, but they got past it relatively unscathed.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @09:43AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 14 2018, @08:13PM (2 children)
Hmmm. I wonder how true that needs to be in a pinch.
Want amazing stuff built in a really short time?
Call these guys. [google.com] Decrypted [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 14 2018, @09:55PM (1 child)
RED HORSE kicks the SeaBees' asses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 15 2018, @12:33AM
Hmmm.
Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer
Daddy was career Air force and I never heard the term used.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]