6 ms·
Living in Astoria, NY and this happened a mile away from me. At first my TV blips, my spotify shuts down and outside you could see this very bright turquoise l
by snidane 8y ago
Living in Astoria, NY and this happened a mile away from me.
At first my TV blips, my spotify shuts down and outside you could see this very bright turquoise light all over the place. It was bright like it was a daytime just in the green blue color. At first I thought it must had been some fireworks nearby, New Year is coming, right? But there was no fireworks noise, no party noise, nothing, just this bright green lit city. I open the window and some lady in the building across me does the same and shouts 'wtf is that?!'.
I realize this was not a party and my brain starts spinning..
1. EMP attack, since the TV got affected
2. Asteroid or comet entering the atmosphere and messing up the magnetosphere
3. Strong solar outburst, causing some local aurora
I recently watched Robert Schoch's interview where he discussed huge solar outbursts at the end of last ice age and how the sightings of resulting auroras might have made it into ancient cultures.
[https://youtu.be/Vka2ZgzZTvo https://youtu.be/Vka2ZgzZTvo roughly at 21:00]
In the end I rushed to the rooftop, scared as f, and noticed this was just a transformer on fire at nearby power plant. Took a video, waited it out and went back.
- SideburnsOfDoom 8y ago> In the end I rushed to the rooftop, scared as f I'm glad that you were ok. I would probably have over-reacted by diving under the bed. The lesson that I took from the footage of the Chelyabinsk meteor (1) is this: When people see a sudden bright light in the sky, the usual reaction is for them to go to the window to see what it is. So then the blast wave arrives in time to give them a face full of flying glass shards. (2) Don't do this! Doesn't matter if you're being nuked or if it's only a meteor, get down and stay away from the windows! Nothing good will come of having a look-see. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor#Injuries_and_damage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor#Injuries_an...
- stephenr 8y ago> Nothing good will come of having a look-see. I dunno. Might increase the average IQ in the gene pool?
- sjwright 8y agoI don't see why IQ would necessarily correlate with knowledge about meteor strike safety best practices. On the other hand, if innate curiosity about environmental phenomena is at all correlated with IQ, it could result in a lowering of the average IQ instead.
- SideburnsOfDoom 8y ago> meteor strike safety best practices Which are similar (for the first minute anyway) for nuclear strike best practices. You would hope that there is still some knowledge of these. The probability of nuclear strike is low at any given time, but at the moment that you experience a unexpected extremely bright light in the sky it's higher.
- rurp 8y agoIf nukes are going off in a major US city it probably doesn't matter much where a person is standing.
- SideburnsOfDoom 8y agoI'm not in a US city of any kind, but YMMV. It might be pointless knowledge, but there it is FWIW: Duck and cover.
- Casseres 8y agoYou don't have to be very far from the epicenter to survive a nuclear blast.
- vkou 8y agoA 500 kt warhead will kill most people within 3 miles of it, and will continue killing people up to ~6 miles. These days, a single missile carries 5-10 warheads. They split and spread out over the strike area a few seconds before detonation. One missile can, thanks to this, kill most of the people in a multi-million-person metro area. Between the two of them, the United States, and Russia are currently pointing 4,000 nuclear weapons at each other, on hair-trigger alert. With another 8,000 in reserve. It is not clear to me how a scenario where a single nuclear warhead exploding in <wherever you live> is not either a part of, or an immediate trigger for all-out nuclear war. You tell me how survivable that is.
- Wiles_7 8y agoSame thing happened with the Halifax Explosion. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion-canadian-national-institute-for-the-blind-imo-mont-blanc-1.3878921 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion...
- dr_orpheus 8y agoYour comment also reminded me of the Halifax harbor explosion [1]. A ship in the harbor collided with a cargo ship carrying explosives. A fire started and everyone came to their windows to look. Then the cargo ship exploded sending the shockwave through the city. In addition to the people who died in the initial blast another 5900 had eye injuries, mostly from shattered windows. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Disaster [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Destruction_and_loss_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Destruction_...
- bayouborne 8y agoI thought your comment was going to be about UV concerns..
- ip26 8y agoKnowing what's going on kind of dictates your response. If it's a forest fire, for example, swift action is much preferable to hiding under the bed. Hence looking out the window.
- SideburnsOfDoom 8y agoHow swift? It can't be more than 15 seconds between flash of light and shockwave. Staying down for that long in case there's a shockwave seems reasonable. Also, forest fires are not typically sudden flashes of light or found in urban areas. Context matters.
- BerislavLopac 8y agoAccording to the experience in Halifax explosion, a blast wave travels at 1000 m/s; so you get 15 seconds if the blast happens 10 miles away from you.
- SideburnsOfDoom 8y agoGood to know. In the unlikely event etc, I'll give it 20 seconds or so then.
- stickfigure 8y agoWhen people see a sudden bright light in the sky, the usual reaction is for them to go to the window to see what it is. Also, the lights my blind you. Then the carnivorous plants come.
- jp555 8y agoEMP weapons are not a real thing. If you detonate a nuclear weapon above a city, no matter how far above, you will call upon you a nuclear response. There’s no difference between an EMP attempt and a nuclear strike. So why would you attempt an EMP attack when that means giving up most of the destructive force to maybe burn out powerlines, and guaranteed surface nuclear response on your territory?
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoNon-nuclear EMP devices are surely real. They can fit in somebody's basement, don't have to be delivered by missile.
- jp555 8y agoMy high school physics says that’s BS, but EMP scare tactics does make for a great info-war weapon. It’s quite the boogeyman if you don’t have much science background. Stuxnet like attacks are way way more plausible and likely.
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoWell, high school physics trumps googling around I guess. Good luck with that.
- BoiledCabbage 8y ago> if you don’t have much science background Like HS physics It comes across as somewhat condescending and naive to refer to a HS class as having a notable amount of science background. And a reason to dismiss other sources of information.
- jp555 8y agoSources that invalidate foundational theory? It’s like claims that cell radios cause molecular damage in humans; that probably requires proving Enstien’s Nobel prize winning work on the photoelectric effect is wrong.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mzs 8y agovideo "The transformer explosion in Astoria was... right outside my window. So bright I couldn’t look directly at it." https://twitter.com/nickriccardo/status/1078479911952756737 https://twitter.com/nickriccardo/status/1078479911952756737
- devy 8y ago> In the end I rushed to the rooftop, scared as f, and noticed this was just a transformer on fire at nearby power plant. Took a video, waited it out and went back. Care to share the video you took? :)
- liberte82 8y agoAdmit it, you thought of aliens too.