Here’s the playlist:
[quote]
The U.S. conducted 210 atmospheric nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962, with multiple cameras capturing each event at around 2,400 frames per second. These are the declassified films of tests conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.[/quote]
This one is nuts.
Yowsa. That’s…impressive, in a decidedly scary way.
It’s weird. I love watching nuclear bomb films but I absolutely hate the idea of nuclear bombs.
Erm, no, what would be weird is if you did love the idea of nuclear bombs. Everyone likes big explosions…aesthetically.
The irony of the intro video is that the material the film is made of (Nitrate Film) has killed more people than any of those tests, and it’s military cousin (Gun Cotton or smokeless powder) has killed more people than all nuclear weapons combined.
I know a LOT about this stuff. And that is still fucking terrifying to actually SEE it. Just imagine a city there instead of empty desert. And then think about the man who has his finger on that button.
The old book/movie Fail Safe touched on this. Disturbing stuff.
There’s a coffee table book that I own: 100 Suns.
Google it. Basically the same thing, except in coffee table book form. It’s eerily beautiful.
I’d also like to point out that that’s a 43 kiloton blast. The Russian ICBM currently in service is the R-36. It can carry TEN warheads, 750kt each. That’s more than 100x the total destructive power of what you see in that video. And each warhead can be targeted independently to a different location. They can hit anywhere on the planet with them. And they have hundreds of them. And we have similar stockpiles/capabilities. Why do we need so many?
Have you SEEN the shit that lives in AUS?
If any of those critters ever hops on a boat and makes landfall, we need to be prepared to strike decisively and definitively, anywhere in the world, dammit!
I haven’t watched these yet but one of the coolest ones on YT have actual audio of the shockwave and subsequent roar of the explosion. Most of the stuff out there have had stock sound effects added to them but this one has raw audio from the test site.
detonation around 2:11
But really, the absolute best part of X-Men: Apocalypse is when Apocalypse takes over Xavier’s mind and uses Cerebro to mind control every single nuclear base/sub operator into launching the entire planet’s nuclear arsenal into space all at once.. Can we get that shit IRL pls?
We’ll save Australia
Don’t want to hurt no kangaroo
We’ll build an all American amusement park there
They’ve got surfing, too
Let’s Drop the Big One Now - Randy Newman
Dan Carlin’s latest Hardcore History podcast was very timely. He covered the United States’ atomic program between the Manhattan Project and the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s easy–and horrifying–to imagine a World War III, though it may have looked very different depending if it started in '46, '51, '56, or '61. (Here’s a link, and it’s only six hours long!) I think he shortchanged the importance of radioactive fallout to the threat of fission and fusion weapons, but he made a good point that just because we haven’t suffered nuclear war yet is no guarantee that we will not and cannot in the future.
Fun video about Cannikin, from a film that was a spin-off of the original Trinity and Beyond movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtH0EDLcbwA
— Alan
Holy shit thank you for the link to that podcast! :D