Posted 9/12/2007 05:42:00 PM by Douglas

Remember the good old days when we were scared of the world's other superpower killing all our children? Yeah, me neither, but I do love me some reruns!

Developed in secret, the unchristened bomb, a vacuum device capable of emitting shockwaves as powerful as a nuclear weapon, was unveiled with great theatre on state television's main evening broadcast.

Boasting that the weapon had "no match in the world," ORT First Channel television showed a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber dropping its payload over a testing ground, followed by a massive explosion.

Pictures of what appeared to be crumpled multi-storey apartment blocks were also broadcast.

Although there was no independent verification of the Russian military's claim, the test is likely to cause further consternation in the West after a series of bellicose statements by the president, Vladimir Putin.

Maybe it's just me, but I find little solace in the words "bellicose Russian President."

According to Russian generals, the bomb is four times more powerful than the American Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb or MOAB.

Well that's just super. the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world needed to be four times bigger than ours? What are you trying to prove? It's not like Russia has a history of building ridiculously sized weapons, even to the point where they're no longer practicably deployable. Oh wait. So good luck with that.

"Test results of the new airborne weapon have shown that its efficiency and power is commensurate with a nuclear weapon," he said.

"The main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature," ORT added.

"All that is alive merely evaporates."

Despite its destructive qualities, the bomb is environmentally friendly, Gen Rushkin said.

Two questions. Your conventional bomb is on the same order of power as a nuke? Doesn't that kinda make the Billion Rubles you spent developing nukes kinda seem, oh Ida know, wasted? Also, what part of evaporating all living things is environmentally friendly?