4 ms·

That's where my mind went in the initial seconds, yes. It's sad to think that there's a latent worry about that sort of thing living in this city.

stcredzero 8y ago
It's sad to think that there's a latent worry about that sort of thing living in this city. Everyone, including grade school children old enough to be aware of it, used to worry about that sort of thing. That latent fear lay across everything and everyone in the US, until around the time the Berlin Wall fell. It was an incredible feeling of the lifting of a mental burden.
- TomMckenny 8y ago
  When I was a kid in L.A., I saw an MX missile deploy its warheads high over L.A. (apparently a test from Edwards or somehing) I invited my little friends up to the roof to await the end. The cold war was such fun /s.
- chrisdhoover 8y ago
  Grew up in the ‘60’s in DC. Our school had an air raid siren and monthly drill where we stood in the hall along the wall ordered alphabetically by last name. We never ducked and covered, we just stood there. At least we were practicing to die standing on our feet and not cowering in a fetal position
  - zipwitch 8y ago
    Duck and cover gets a lot of mockery, but my understanding from reading morbidly fascinating Cold War history and source material is that is was an easily-taught response that was pretty effective at minimizing the damage from a shockwave and associated debris, or from direct exposure to the thermal pulse. Of course, that is only a narrow range of all possible causes of injury from a nearby nuclear detonation. Rational Wiki has a good summaryhttps://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Duck_and_Cover https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Duck_and_Cover
    - malyk 8y ago
      99 Percent Invisible had a nice episode on duck and cover (amongst other things). https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atomic-tattoos/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atomic-tattoos/
    - stcredzero 8y ago
      was an easily-taught response that was pretty effective at minimizing the damage from a shockwave and associated debris My freshman physics professor had a story about working for a cold war defense research lab, and not being told what the graph he was working on was about until he absolutely had to know. Eventually, it was revealed that the graph was for % fatalities from flying glass by height of airburst, megatonnage of weapon, and distance from ground zero. It was at that moment, he decided to find a job elsewhere.
    - zikzak 8y ago
      Beats rushing to the nearest plate glass window.
- interfixus 8y ago
  Be assured, you were (and are) not alone. North-western Europe in the eighties, any unusual sound or sight from above, I'd be on alert, yellow verging on red. Damn, I was on a remote island off the North Queensland coast in '85 or '86 when the world went suddenly radio silent, and I instantly assumed EMP and nuclear cataclysm on the mainland, whereas it was of course just a major regional power outage. Like everyone else, I let my defenses drop after '91 or thereabouts. They are back up these days, I can assure you. Unexpected lowflying aircraft, loud bangs, F16 fighters screaming pairwise out over the Baltic, believe me, I pay attention.
- rexpop 8y ago
  I imagine it was something like Philip K. Dick's "Foster, You're Dead!" https://cochranesfsophomores.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/foster-youre-dead.pdf https://cochranesfsophomores.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/fos...
- glhaynes 8y ago
  It's not clear to me that we shouldn't still have the same fear, perhaps slightly diminished.
- vkou 8y ago
  The US and Russia have been closer to being in a shooting war over the past 5 years, then they have in the last decade of the cold war. They still have thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at eachother, on hairtrigger alert. There is zero rational reason for that fear disappearing.
  - samus 8y ago
    Personally, I doubt whether many Cold War-era missiles would still work. I mean, most materials degrade over time, especially highly reactive rocket fuels and the explosives in the nukes. This is no reason to feel safe though - the newer stuff and the gadgets of the Chinese are in prime condition. And it takes only one of them to open up a whole new chapter of history...
    - vkou 7y ago
      China, unlike the United States, and Russia, has a nuclear arsenal numbering in the hundreds, instead of the thousands. It also has a no-first-use policy For those reason, I trust it to use then in a purely defensive manner.
  - johnchristopher 8y ago
    > There is zero rational reason for that fear disappearing. Yes, there is. Political bravado coupled with distrust of politics in general and mainstream information being what it is today it's very hard for citizens to notice geo-political turmoils. Personnaly I'd blame the fascination for useless plastic gadgets masquerading as star-trek level tech but I can't be certain.

stcredzero 8y ago

It's sad to think that there's a latent worry about that sort of thing living in this city. Everyone, including grade school children old enough to be aware of it, used to worry about that sort of thing. That latent fear lay across everything and everyone in the US, until around the time the Berlin Wall fell. It was an incredible feeling of the lifting of a mental burden.

TomMckenny 8y ago
When I was a kid in L.A., I saw an MX missile deploy its warheads high over L.A. (apparently a test from Edwards or somehing) I invited my little friends up to the roof to await the end. The cold war was such fun /s.
chrisdhoover 8y ago
Grew up in the ‘60’s in DC. Our school had an air raid siren and monthly drill where we stood in the hall along the wall ordered alphabetically by last name. We never ducked and covered, we just stood there. At least we were practicing to die standing on our feet and not cowering in a fetal position
- zipwitch 8y ago
  Duck and cover gets a lot of mockery, but my understanding from reading morbidly fascinating Cold War history and source material is that is was an easily-taught response that was pretty effective at minimizing the damage from a shockwave and associated debris, or from direct exposure to the thermal pulse. Of course, that is only a narrow range of all possible causes of injury from a nearby nuclear detonation. Rational Wiki has a good summaryhttps://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Duck_and_Cover https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Duck_and_Cover
  - malyk 8y ago
    99 Percent Invisible had a nice episode on duck and cover (amongst other things). https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atomic-tattoos/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atomic-tattoos/
  - stcredzero 8y ago
    was an easily-taught response that was pretty effective at minimizing the damage from a shockwave and associated debris My freshman physics professor had a story about working for a cold war defense research lab, and not being told what the graph he was working on was about until he absolutely had to know. Eventually, it was revealed that the graph was for % fatalities from flying glass by height of airburst, megatonnage of weapon, and distance from ground zero. It was at that moment, he decided to find a job elsewhere.
  - zikzak 8y ago
    Beats rushing to the nearest plate glass window.
interfixus 8y ago
Be assured, you were (and are) not alone. North-western Europe in the eighties, any unusual sound or sight from above, I'd be on alert, yellow verging on red. Damn, I was on a remote island off the North Queensland coast in '85 or '86 when the world went suddenly radio silent, and I instantly assumed EMP and nuclear cataclysm on the mainland, whereas it was of course just a major regional power outage. Like everyone else, I let my defenses drop after '91 or thereabouts. They are back up these days, I can assure you. Unexpected lowflying aircraft, loud bangs, F16 fighters screaming pairwise out over the Baltic, believe me, I pay attention.
rexpop 8y ago
I imagine it was something like Philip K. Dick's "Foster, You're Dead!" https://cochranesfsophomores.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/foster-youre-dead.pdf https://cochranesfsophomores.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/fos...
glhaynes 8y ago
It's not clear to me that we shouldn't still have the same fear, perhaps slightly diminished.
vkou 8y ago
The US and Russia have been closer to being in a shooting war over the past 5 years, then they have in the last decade of the cold war. They still have thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at eachother, on hairtrigger alert. There is zero rational reason for that fear disappearing.
- samus 8y ago
  Personally, I doubt whether many Cold War-era missiles would still work. I mean, most materials degrade over time, especially highly reactive rocket fuels and the explosives in the nukes. This is no reason to feel safe though - the newer stuff and the gadgets of the Chinese are in prime condition. And it takes only one of them to open up a whole new chapter of history...
  - vkou 7y ago
    China, unlike the United States, and Russia, has a nuclear arsenal numbering in the hundreds, instead of the thousands. It also has a no-first-use policy For those reason, I trust it to use then in a purely defensive manner.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  > There is zero rational reason for that fear disappearing. Yes, there is. Political bravado coupled with distrust of politics in general and mainstream information being what it is today it's very hard for citizens to notice geo-political turmoils. Personnaly I'd blame the fascination for useless plastic gadgets masquerading as star-trek level tech but I can't be certain.