# Those crazy Taliban nuclear scientists! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 20, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429 "2001-11-20T17:18:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429/1 "2001-11-20T17:18:45Z")
It’s been said for years that anyone with enough initiative could figure out how to build a nuclear device just by surfing the Internet. The Taliban has apparantly heard this idea as well, and attempted to put it into practice. However, they seem to be lacking the most important rule for information found on the Internet - some websites aren’t to be taken seriously. Especially websites with articles from a publication called “Journal of Irreproducible Results”. Especially when the article in question contains the lines: “In next month’s column, we will learn how to clone your neighbor’s wife in six easy steps.” and … “Please remember that Plutonium, especially pure, refined Plutonium, is somewhat dangerous. Wash your hands with soap and warm water after handling the material, and don’t allow your children or pets to play in it or eat it.” > **[A NATION CHALLENGED: SKEPTICISM; Was Paper On Bomb A Parody? (Published 2001)](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/17/world/a-nation-challenged-skepticism-was-paper-on-bomb-a-parody.html)** > > Jason Scott of rotten.com, 'shock Web site,' suggests that document found in Al Qaeda safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan, that formed basis of Times of London report on organization's efforts to create atomic device was based on spoof published in 1979... [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48523,00.html](http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48523,00.html) And a link to the full joke article: [http://nipigon.lakeheadu.ca/~bgates/10steps.html](http://nipigon.lakeheadu.ca/~bgates/10steps.html) ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2001, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429/2 "2001-11-20T17:32:47Z")
That’s a nuclear-grade hoot! ---
**Author:** ![Wump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed655f/32.png) [@Wump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wump)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2001, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429/3 "2001-11-20T20:38:50Z")
are you trying to tell me that i just spent all this time and money for nothing??? ---
**Author:** ![heresiarch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/278dde/32.png) [@heresiarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heresiarch)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429/4 "2001-11-21T00:05:50Z")
That’s hilarious! But I’m confused about something: > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Anthony Loyd in the London Times_ > \*\*“The vernacular quickly spun out of my comprehension,” he wrote. But some of it even Loyd could comprehend: "There were phrases through the mass of chemical symbols and physics jargon that anyone could understand, \ > \*\* Is the “mass of chemical symbols and physics jargon” in reference to [the joke article](http://nipigon.lakeheadu.ca/~bgates/10steps.html)? Because it seems to be in simple laymen’s terms to me. Maybe Loyd knows less about science than an Afghani terrorist. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429/5 "2001-11-21T02:00:03Z")
I wondered that myself, briefly, then decided it was one of those things that mankind was simply not meant to know, like whether God exists and what hotdogs are made of. Actually, I just figured the original publication of the article probably had a heap of legit but irrelevant equations and such just thrown in. Then again, I could be completely wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2001, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-crazy-taliban-nuclear-scientists/94429/6 "2001-11-21T03:26:21Z")
I dedicated a [pit rant](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=100005) to the yellow journalist who willingly misrepresented this jokey article as an indication of research-in-progress. The schmuck.