Superblast

The Soviet chief’s East Berlin address Sunday had the sound of the classic superpower superblast that uses thousands of words to say practically nothing new.

The solid evidence he had acquired impressed the Soviet Academy of Sciences and quashed the skepticism and indifference with which many scientists had previously greeted stories of the strange superblast.

But consider the appalling effects of a mid-air nuclear superblast taking place a few miles above a major city (say at around 20 000 feet).