IF THERE WAS A NUCLEAR ATTACK....

If there was a nuclear bomb alert, would you know what to do?

Two passionate, uninhibitedly vociferous members of the advisory board of the Carnegie Foundation's REINSTATING CIVIL DEFENSE project, Alex Wallerstein and Kristyn Karl are demanding that the 1952 "Duck and Cover" film be immediately sent to all schools, and kids throughout America start practicing.

RCD's advisory board includes everyone -- nuclear health physicists, specialists, highest level experts, former Secretary of Defense William Perry, celebrities, even screen writers -- they've been updating and re-vamping CIVIL DEFENSE. Since the Cold War it's been a federal government program.

After World War 2, Harry Truman created Civil Defense.1962's Cuban Missile Crisis got JFK demanding a $700 million national shelter plan. President Carter got FEMA handling nuclear preparedness along with floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes. Reagan's $4.2. billion,130 page Planning Guide says on page 66, "Take shelter in the nearest and most protective building or structure and listen for instructions from authorities" After 9/11, former Secretary of Defense Perry and many other powerful officials convened in DC, insisting America do what Switzerland has done -- equipped towns and cities with shelters, first aid, food and a system for measuring radiation. This has not been done in our county yet.

Most Americans (especially younger ones) have no practical idea of how to respond to the warning of an actual nuclear emergency. What happened in Hawaii in January -- false alert at 8:10 a.m -- lit up cell phones saying, BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL -- widespread dangerous, costly panic.

Fact: Ten years after 9/11, Americans have no sense of what to do. The latest media headlines, despite the President's "successful" meeting with Kim Jong, tell us North Korea is currently expanding production of nuclear fuel at various secret sites. There could be a nuclear threat tomorrow.

Scenario 1 an exchange between the U.S. and Russia or China involving hundreds of thermonuclear weapons; there might be a 20 to 30-minute warning, before lights start going out, throughout the world.
Scenario 2 -- a nuclear terrorist scenario, detonation of a smaller, 10-kiloton device in a major American city -- little or no warning -- tens of thousands killed during the initial blast, thousands would have a short time to protect themselves from the subsequent fallout.
Scenario 3 -- North Korea threat, involving 100 or 150-kiloton device over a city like Los Angeles, with a 30 minute warning -- an estimated 195,000 to 241,000 deaths and 510,000 to 629,000 injuries from both the blast and the radioactive fallout.

While RCD  experts are arguing about adding "stay tuned" to films, the passionately concerned professors, Wallerstein and Karl are shouting 'There won't an Internet, cell phones, and radios!'

Take a look: "DUCK AND COVER" shows you simple things you can do, and do fast, that might preserve your life.

(VIDEO) SMALL REGRETS...

What would you like to be able to DO again?  Do better and handle differently? 

Remembering specific things, both John and Emily reveal the small regrets that haunt them are not small--are important precious moments they want to hold onto, and never forget.

iQALUIT CITY

It's the capitol of Nunavut, a Canadian territory. When I was earning a living as a dancer, I did a lot of performing, master classes, and lectures in Canada, in small towns like Iqaluit.



What intrigued me, reading about this town in The Week Magazine, was its New York City prices. It's a town of about 7,500 people. An efficiency apartment is about $2000 a month; two bedroom house about $3,500.

There are stores, and malls like the one in the photo, but a place to live is hard to find. The government is the major employer through-out that area of Canada. Iqaluit's status as the capitol brought a surge of public sector workers, who have housing subsidized by the government, but with global warming, temperatures are higher and melting the "permafrost." Because the ground is melting, roads buckle, and building foundations crack.

The local government advises removing the snow as soon as possible, so it doesn't seep into the ground. Since houses built on the ground can help thaw the soil with their escaped heat, many homes have been built on wood or metal pilings. The latest new technique --"thermosyphons" -- tubes in the ground that ventilate the ground relatively inexpensively, can also monitor ground temperature. It's what the government is promoting. Actually, throughout Nunavut, there are more than 100 bore holes that have been measuring ground temp since 2000.

The pretty lady in the picture is Colleen Healey, part of the local government. She has been working with the Canadian Space Agency, finding other ways to detect changes in the permafrost and shifts in the ground.

At a recent meeting, Healey declared, "We can now see ground movement within 3 millimeters. We are making maps to help builders. If homes need to be retro-fitted, which homeowner and government pays for, there are possible solutions." Holding up a map, Healey pointed out a spot. "The blue areas are high risk -- it's where the city was planning to build a housing development. That brown area -- that is where to build -- it's solid rock."

Here's a map that shows you the United States, Canada, Nunavut, and Iqaluit. If you were looking for a new kind of life, would you head there?

If we visited, we'd take a tour of the city, visit a museum, and probably watch some guys working on securing a house before it sinks. Though I no longer do classes or lectures, we checked out Iqaluit's Website to see what's happening here and there. My husband, actor John Cullum and I were impressed -- it's a good place for a would-be performer. You could find space in a gym or a large meeting room and do a play reading -- like John said, you might even get a community theater going in Iqaluit.

WHY DO I LOVE THESE GUYS?

 I bumped into them a few months ago on a night I was restless, looking for a film or a rerun of Friends or Seinfeld.

Wow! What I saw and heard got me laughing. These guys seemed so real, quirky, flawed, smart --  what seemed to be important to each of them interested me. I watched it the next night, and then the  next night. For the past few months, just about every evening, after browsing around for news that I haven't heard, I tune in this show.

That there's no TV punch lines, no intonation to setup up a laugh, that scenes start and end unexpectedly, out of sequence, that plot things are never explained -- they just make sense -- and what these people are involved with -- even science stuff that I know very little about -- is intriguing.

 Amy often amazes me  (her acting's exceptionally inventive). I get annoyed with Penny, (gorgeous, constantly sipping liquor), wishing she showed more affection for the passionately honest, somewhat boring Leonard, (affection she has for the marvelously irritating, brilliant Sheldon) -- Sheldon's sort of the star of the show. And tiny, tinny-sounding Bernadette, sharp, smart, down-to earth and divertingly voluptuous, whose her lover/husband Howard (another remarkably inventive actor) struggles with a domineering (unseen) Jewish Mom, and flirts with Raj, who's from India, in and out of love constantly, surprising us with his realistic views.

Guys, this is NOT a critque -- it's a love letter to the show's creators, Chuck Lorre  and Bill Prady, wise, intuitive, skilled grownups, who know instinctively, factually, dramatically what was and is affecting everything that's going on in our country.

Will I be watching six months from now?  Will how these characters mature -- their conflicts, goals, personal and professional happenstance, still intrigue me?

 Maybe. There's nothing else like this show on television. Even if I get somewhat bored, there's the opening theme -- this fantastic vision of the evolution of the world that astounds and delights me every time I see it, that's worth seeing again, and again, and yes -- again.