SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
In what could potentially be one of the most, or least, significant actions of his term in office, President Trump Tuesday signed an Executive Order requiring federal agencies to strengthen critical infrastructure against ElectroMagnetic Pulse (EMP) attacks.
EMPs occur for a variety of natural and man-made reasons including, most notably, Nuclear Explosions and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), either of which could potentially take out entire sections of the country's electrical grid and other infrastructure and capabilities, requiring require years or decades to recover from.
Members and supporters of the decommissioned US Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse have long warned of the possibility of an EMP attack, with some individuals, such as Peter Pry, who previously led the congressional EMP commission, asserting that an EMP attack on America could kill off 90% of the US population.
This is because a man-made EMP has the advantage of being highly asymmetrical. A small country able to pull one off would cause potentially massive disruption to a large tech dependent country such as the United States.
Past EMP related coverage here, here and here
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday March 29 2019, @06:19PM
> You're not allowed to? Who says?
The same people who say you're not allowed to put anchovies in ice cream, I'm sure.
Fire and explosion can also result, which can rapidly become a much bigger problem if you're not in the room at the time. I once saw someone unthinkingly heat food on a plate with gilded trim. The gilding was vaporized and shattered the plate. I'd be surprised if nothing more toxic than ozone was produced in the process, and the microwave was never quite the same.
Of course, you can also use a normal microwave oven to melt blocks of aluminum for casting, but you want to modify it to survive the temperatures and currents generated first, and operate it in a well-ventilated and fire-resistant area, just in case.
As for normal heating - my understanding is that the primary mechanism of heating is the absorption of microwave photons by (primarily) water and oil molecules, rather than their mechanical agitation by a changing electrostatic field.