Good 1 !!!

Ayyyyyyyy

This comment was a blast to read.

*Groans* 😆

Stuff like Terminator got me into nuclear war and what would happen after as a kid, so you weren't the only odd one. Lol

I don't think you were a weird kid for reading about this kind of scenario. It is all too real. War is conducted in stages as you have laid out. The primary targets are capital cities, military bases and installations, and airports. This greatly hinders a military response. After that, it makes sense to go after major cities and other areas of heavy industrialization. That's what we did in Nagasaki. We chose that site partly because the original target site was overcast and our bombers couldn't see the ground but it was also chosen because it was a major industrial powerhouse for Japan in the mid-40's. I don't remember off hand but I think the original target was Osaka. We did the same in Germany although with conventional weapons. The idea is to cripple any response the enemy could make to one's offensive(s). Like you, I was a "weird kid" who read about this kind of stuff among a variety of other topics.

Same here. I read every book in our library about nuclear war. I knew all the facts and the big fact that if it did happen, it would be over in literally half an hour or so. I lived in Joplin, MO which is just to the south of the Minutemen missile field depicted in The Day After. There was a News Documentary in the 1970's on NBC and the dulcet tones of John Chancelor told us that each of the 150 missiles would receive two 20 megaton warheads. That's 300 x 20 megaton warheads going off almost simultaneously over the whole of western Missouri from south of Kansas City to just north of Nevada in the western part to as far east as Columbia in the central part of the state. Needless to say, the whole of Western Missouri would be a plain of radioactive glass, heavily contaminated and unable to be traversed for thousands of years. I read all about SAC and the plans for executing the war, from the Looking Glass aircraft, the E-4 Airborne command Post, and Mount Weather in West Virgina where it was supposed that the government would move to. It was later revealed that there was a secret bunker built under the Greenbriar Hotel in Virgina Where Congress was supposed to go. No provision was made for the families of the Congressional representatives or the staffs. Who knows how many would survive. or even were able to get to the bunker if an alert happened. Incidentally, I was watching this on TV and the next day, my college class took a trip to Kansas City. Really creepy but I lived. Ironically, the character Steven Guttenberg played was named Stephen and was from Joplin and that REALLY creeped me out.

I've got Khan's book!

I don’t find you weird at all man. Thanks for the knowledge. Been on a nuclear binge lately. It’s horrible that we have these weapons.

That depends really, a Russian sub just off the east coast of the US could annihilate some of America's largest cities within minutes. NYC, Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, etc

@@krashd that is a common thought. However, it is a known threat and dealt with by the Navy. If you go by the Tom Clancy thought process, which was on display in “Hunt for Red October”, boomers are tracked as soon as they set sail from their port. The whole point of that movie was they would not know where that sub was before it could be within a close launch distance. Quite the opposite is true.

I have watched part of it before and honestly couldn’t complete the films; it totally freaked me out especially when they added the creepy music

I watched it

@Hlostoops Well, next time, don't get your "Doctor Who" theme writer to create the music...

And “If your Grandmother should die” RIP poor Grandmother “wrap her in polythene and place her outside the shelter, with a tag for later identification.” The protect and survive booklets were a joke, we had the famous, 4 minute warning. About enough time to bend over and kiss your own arse good bye. Not enough time to build a shelter from doors cannibalised from the interior of your house (only a few older houses in the U.K. have basements) and ensure one has enough clean water and food for the recommended 2 weeks under shelter.

I heard that the "Protect and Survive" videos and pamphlets were kept classified for much of the first cold war only to be released during the 10th or 11th hour before ☢️🍄💥💣.

Yeah that one hits home (no pun intended)

Much despair, such woe. Any part of the ending in particular that you liked? I thought it was a weird ending on the whole.

@@TheAtomicAgeCM Nothing to like, but that was the whole idea of the film, showing the unrelenting horror of full nuclear war, when they push all the buttons. On a side note it was rather cool seeing that missile flying through its own smoke ring in The Day After 23:25

​@@TheAtomicAgeCM I started watching it because I heard it was a good horror movie about nukes, as a fan of horror and interested in nukes I was hooked. The ending was speculative but I liked it quite a bit because it went beyond just the immediate effects of nukes, how a failure of civilization as a whole would impact language, health care, economics (back to agricultural vs service or manufacturing), and even fertility. We know nukes would have lasting impact on humanity and earth and I think threads demonstrated that well. I suspected it probably took some liberties with the science but it didn't ruin it for me.

@@TheAtomicAgeCM The ending of 'Threads' is weird and highly speculative, but that is a major part of what makes it a great film on the topic. We have fair and roughly scalable data regarding the deterministic effects of nuclear detonations on their victims, from which we have extrapolated their stochastic effects. We have some idea of the effects of the social breakdown caused by the destruction of individual societies... and that is where 'The Day After' ends. 'Threads' starts with realistic depictions of what the data from Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and testing indicates; progresses through the ways in which the lessons of analysing an actual wartime experience of civil defence might apply yet still prove worthless; and, finally, speculates on what a post-nuclear-apocalypse life might look like in a world for which we have no data or precedent.

The ending is the one thing I remembered most after watching it 10 or so years ago

lol, yes! spit take! I had to address it. Of all the things to show burning, they choose E. frickin T. You got to see The Day After, I got to see the opening of Saving Private Ryan in high school. I definitely believe the youngins should be exposed to this stuff

It was E.T because when Mick Jackson heard America was doing their own movie:The Day after, he was going to pull the plug. But after watching the movie he wasn’t impress so the burning of the E.T was a signal to Hollywood.

@@danBooth.guitar The script for _Threads_ is a direct re-write of _The Day After._

@@RideAcrossTheRiver That's not the case at all. If anything, it's a rewrite of _The War Game_ .

@@jackal59 It is, though. Author Barry Hines makes numerous references to Edward Hume's plot and details.

I bet, that's crazy!

@@TheAtomicAgeCM yep pretty cool history. You’ll just be driving along down the road and off your shoulder will be a square fenced in area, with nothing else to see but you know it’s a big concrete pad with a flat blast door that would open upwards. Like I said all of them around here are decommissioned now, got filled in with concrete and rock. Even the command bunkers got all filled in, but the original buildings at the command sites still stand and were basically gifted back to the surrounding landowner, same thing for the silos themselves. Most guys use the silo pads for stacking hay bales on or parking equipment since it’s good solid concrete and fenced in with razor wire!

Same here. I was a bit older, 13-14, and hadn't seen it since then until a few months ago when I decided to rewatch it. It was every bit as uncomfortable as I remembered being the first time I saw it. Truly an important lesson to learn, and learn very well.

wow yeah that's very young to see it. But I was around 10 or 11 when I witnessed 9/11 so everyone has to start "growing up" at some point.

I noticed how sneaky the US Air Force was to put Minuteman silos right on the KU campus near the residence halls.

I'm scared enough, but I also don't think it's the same situation as it was back in 1984. Nuclear war is no longer seen as winnable for one.

Definitely helped to make it feel that much more real, and did end up watching it a few months ago here on YT.

Some cars post 74 did start using computers for carb control due to emissions, but not all did at the same time. I do think much more basic ignition systems like points instead of electronic ignition should work unless something would short out still. I wonder if you disconnected the battery if it would prevent a short out of vehicle systems since it can't all fully flow through the system. But it's all theoretical, would be interesting to know what effect there where to vehicles and electronics after starfish prime incident.

Movie trivia: the technique and equipment used to create the mushroom clouds in "The Day After" had previously been used to create the Mutara Nebula in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" . Both were directed by Nicholas Myers.

ohhh, excellent. gotta love a good special effect. I read later that the EMP tends to need a pretty long cable to generate damaging effects, like power lines, not really car or other smaller circuitry.

They did use some similar effect with an opening Stargate for the movie Stargate.

I read somewhere, (I think it was Warday by Whitley Streiber) that most cars made after 1978 with solid state circuitry would cease to function after an EMP blast.

(2:28)

The hymn song played at the end is, "How Firm A Foundation".

You're welcome! Happy Holidays

80 megatons is insane amount of firepower to used, let alone on one singular country like the UK, imagine how the US and Soviet Union faired in this scenario.

​@@alexcarter2461We would've been hit with _far_ more than that.

Thanks for the suggestion! I've had about all the depressing nuclear apocalypse I can stomach so it may be a while before I get to other ones lol.

I've seen all three. I still like "The day after" best. But the main reason for that is probably that English isn't my first language and it's difficult to follow the emotion of such films when you have to figure out what they're saying all the time. So testament and threads have never drawn me in as much as "The Day After." "The day after" was dubbed in my language, the others weren't.

Testament is the most emotionally devastating of the nuclear war films. The way all of the most vulnerable just die off-the children, the elderly, the very sick, etc. The finale is simply heart-wrenching

I remember that movie.

Great flick

The most recent systems means most after 1970.

You need large antenna receptors to accept EMP. Small self contained electronics will not be harmed by EMP.

You're welcome! Yes, Europe would have indeed been a wasteland, especially Germany. That is prudent to keep a stock of some supplies, these movies want me to keep a stock of water around.

lol good ol' youtube. Thank you! glad you enjoyed

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nplgdLWJtdKwXZ8.html

Good, thank you! Great to publish again

thank you! good to post again

When did he show his back?

yikes, I hope you gave them some strong egg nog, as well haha. Yeah, these movies definitely make me want to stock pile some stuff.

@@TheAtomicAgeCM I told them to watch it after they opened presents and got bored. And I relabeled them "Santa Has Fun in Sheffield"

Yes, I've seen it! Read the book, too. Scary stuff.

It was two seasons, and a short-lived graphic novel continuation. I liked _Jericho;_ kinda sad it got cancelled. And now that you mention it, yeah, _Jericho’s_ pilot episode is a bit reminiscent of the beginning of _The Day After._ Could be the show-runners took inspiration from it.

Not quite. Ground burst and low altitute air burst will affect electronics, but not via an EMP. It is caused by the huge burst of radiation, and the range of that is probably not bigger than the area where you would get 3rd degree burns. In my understanding, a high range EMP is created when a nuke is detonated at a very high altitude (up in the stratosphere or mesosphere I think), where the burst of gamma rays/neutrons/whatever can interfere with Earth's magnetic field, in a very similar way how a big solar flare would do it. This will cause a big swing in the terrestrial magnetic field, which can induce huge overvoltage spikes in power lines, knocking out the grid and wired telecommunications. These are the main effects, the longer the wires the bigger the damage, I'm not even sure if it would necessarily kill cell phones connected to nothing, because they are so small, the pulse might be unable to induce enough voltage in the PCB traces to cause damage. I would imagine it would destroy the front-end of AM radios, because the AM ferrite rod antenna is an open-core inductor with many turns, it can probably pick up enough of the magnetic pulse to destroy the radio, but there are no such big open-core inductors in cell phones. Of course there would be no internet connection and working cellular network, but at least you could still use your phone to shoot photos and videos of the following doomsday. Not much point, because if the EMP doesn't kill the phone, the high level of radiation from the following nukes will certainly wipe all the flash memory in short order. So make sure you make a backup copy on VHS for the posterity!

@@mrnmrn1 The range is governed by the same laws of attenuation of any electromagnetic field. I’m afraid you’re wrong about the way it is generated. It has nothing to do with the earth’s magnetic field, which is very weak, but to do with the interaction between the intense gamma rays, produced by the explosion, and air molecules.

@@langdalepaul I might be wrong, I'll do a little research on it when I will have a bit more spare time. But I'm quite sure about the necessity of high altitude detonation for EMP bombs. I discussed it with a retired silo engineer (IIRC) about a year ago here on YT, and he said I was right that an EMP bomb needs to be detonated at a very high altitude to produce any significant magnetic pulse. I'm not sure about its physics, but I doubt it has much to do with air molecules, because the air is extremely 'thin' up there. I found a part of that comment thread saved on my PC, unfortunately without a link to the video. The ol' guy's name is John Sikes, the video mentioned ICBM interceptor nukes, which detonate at a high altitude to kill the incoming nukes. I said the interceptors might produce huge EMP pulses because of the high altitude, he said I was right. This was in last June. Oh, my... I just Googled his name, and found John Vernon Sikes, passed away last October at the age of 91 in Garfield, GA. According to the obituary, he served 22 years in the Air Force. If I remember right, he said exactly that in our long discussion (just his last answer is two whole pages long). So I won't be able to ask him more questions... R.I.P. Mr. Sikes. He also was the mayor of his small hometown. Look up on YT: "The Day After (Attack Segment)". The very first nuke goes off, so high up in the sky that it causes no damage to the city, and that's the one that knocks the power out.

@@mrnmrn1 It doesn’t require a high altitude; even a ground burst will generate a localised EMP. The higher the altitude of the detonation, however, the larger the EMP’s radius. So a high-altitude air burst would be required if you wanted to disable the entire continental US’s power grid in one fell swoop, as in _The Day After,_ but not if you only care to disable that of a single city.

Yeah, it would be pretty terrible to be involved in the aftermath, just so bleak. Thank you!

Good to hear from you again, videowilliams! I find MAD very interesting, partly because inspection of the Cold War shows neither side really ever wanted to use the nukes - it always seemed like the perception of their use was based on paranoia or rather just uncertainty of not knowing what the other side was about to do. Nukes and their effects on humans a la MAD are weird. Terrorists or fanatics with nukes are a whole other issue, though.

@@TheAtomicAgeCM True enough, sir. Those "rogue nukes" are another matter- and a part of the perceived chaos of our time.

Never say never it can happen at anytime without warning.

Pretty sure it’s from the Universal sound effects library. Used in tons of TV shows from the late 70’s on!

@@haysgoodman8068 I kinda figured. It's just the first thing that came to mind.

It's just some weird design that uses pads instead of a traditional band. If the pads weren't there, the headphones would just fall off. They're audio-technica ATH-AD700, long out of production.

Your commentary is spot on, the effects of a nuclear exchange are dialed back.

Thank you! Yes, laser enrichment is indeed possible. GE has been working on it for years if not a few decades now. And, yeah, it's supposed to be more effective than centrifuge enrichment (centrifuges require a lot of technical prowess to make), which is itself about 20 times more efficient than Manhattan Project-era uranium enrichment.

Thank you! Anything particular you had in mind? Sorry if I'm blanking on obvious topics, but I'm very tired at the moment :)

@@TheAtomicAgeCM in general hints , tips Charlie you're the expert ! jumping to the spent fuel pool to retrieve a mars bar good idea or bad ? and why ? 😉 hope you feel better !

oh wow, cool trivia if true

No it is not. The point is, how do you find out where exactly Ground Zero is? It's the same question that made you want to find the best place to get away from it. If you plan on dying at ground zero when the bomb falls, the risks are high that you won't get close enough and survive the bombing. Only to suffer very badly from radiation sickness for the next few weeks until death finally occurs. My conclusion is: If we know it is happening, getting into a nuclear bunker as soon as possible is the best option available in time. Provided, of course, that a suitable bunker is available.

Getting rid of nuclear fuel by producing energy in a nuclear reactor is the best thing you can do. Without nuclear fuel, you can't produce nuclear bombs.

Ah and as a follow-up video. When The Day After was aired ABC did a Ted Koppel interview with Henry Kissinger, Carl Sagan, Robert McNamara and others to discuss Nuclear Winter and the ideas portrayed in the film. This is a goldmine in topics regarding Nuclear War and arms escalation.

@@Darth_Meow here it is kzfaq.info/get/bejne/arh8ibWX3M6zaHk.html

You're welcome! Yeah, I found it "easier" to go Threads then The Day After. Threads is so desolate, The Day After has a little bit of that Americana optimism. Dr. Strangelove is definitely one I should do soon. But my plan for the next video is to cover the video game Fallout 3, which will be a great time.

Remember, Guttenberg was not a star yet. This was pre-Police Academy. Really, only Robarts and (maybe) John Cullum were anything close to recognizable to 1980s audiences.

Wow, Go For It !!!

I do enjoy my day job, yes. A long term goal is to become a content creator, but part of me is worried my topic is a bit too narrow. But thankfully that's not something I have to contend with at the moment. If you're interested and have the mathematical acumen, I say definitely try and go nuclear! A nuclear physicist will be about doing research and science. A nuclear engineer is about building and designing nuclear-related things and managing cost, schedule, deliverables, etc.

Can't comment on the emp part, but in north america, norad forces would get the alert the minute they saw the missiles so about 30 min warning, the public would get about 15min. Only reason they got 30 or so is because they got to see the missiles take off before the eas warning. Uk gets 3 min no matter what because of how close the are to the u.s.s.r/Russia

I got that one on the list, thanks for bringing it up.

And those with guns determine who get to eat.

well if a plant gets hit directly, bye bye plant. who knows what would happen then. i could speculate but i won't at the moment for the sake of brevity. if nuclear plants aren't directly targeted (not sure why they wouldn't be in order to destroy a country's electrical generating capacity), they would have to deal with loss of offsite power (LOOP) accidents. nuclear plants cooling is powered by offsite power, i.e. from other power plants - the grid

i think every generation has their buggaboos. when i was a kid, it was 9/11, the anthrax letters, and the DC sniper, while near peer war/nuclear exchange threats were basically non-existent. today's kids are back in a time of near-peer war threats and nuclear exchange. in the cold war it was much more in the forefront and... predictable, shall we say, but definitely seems less predictable today, and by that i mean less bi-polar and more of a multi-polar nuclear threat. i think we may be surprised at what level of graphic imagery today's youth have seen, i definitely saw shit i shouldnt have thanks to the internet