[HN Gopher] British Nuclear Warning System
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British Nuclear Warning System
Author : Bluestein
Score : 46 points
Date : 2024-06-09 20:11 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.ringbell.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.ringbell.co.uk)
| S_A_P wrote:
| That page is barely legible in that color scheme.
| KennyBlanken wrote:
| The entire site is a dumpster fire. The writing is horrible,
| everything is poorly organized, and the site is "navigable" via
| shitty javascript crap.
|
| It's a shame that the information is so badly presented.
| edfletcher_t137 wrote:
| Came here to say this. I was genuinely interested in reading
| this page, but the blue-on-gray promptly gave me a legitimate
| headache. I cannot understand the person who thinks this is OK.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| Reader mode (Firefox) worked for me
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| Reminds me of Threads, the movie.
|
| It's on YouTube, but I won't link it here because it's probably
| the most horrifying film ever.
| Bluestein wrote:
| In the style of "The Day After" I take it ...
| spitfire wrote:
| Nope.
|
| Threads is much worse.
| Bluestein wrote:
| Gosh.-
| secfirstmd wrote:
| Threads is the most harrowing movie by far. Remember watching
| it in college and not being able to get out of bed the next
| day because I was so fucking depressed.
| NikkiA wrote:
| I remember watching it when it originally aired when I was
| 13, and having to talk about it at school the next day - we
| were in the middle of an assignment on the threat of
| nuclear war at the time, it was tacked into our english
| language class as I recall (tbf, I can't really think of
| anything else, other than possibly Physics, where the topic
| would have been better suited, and Physics could probably
| only have carried a very dry discussion of it).
| duskwuff wrote:
| Similar, but _Threads_ is even more grim.
| gerdesj wrote:
| Follow up "Threads" with "When the wind blows".
| syx wrote:
| I recently watched Threads for the first time, and I was
| scarred. The way it portrays the effects of a nuclear attack
| was too real and made me feel incredibly depressed for days. It
| felt almost as if I were looking at a portal into the future,
| showing how the human race will eventually end.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| I had the same reaction to watching it a few years ago -
| including the lingering depression. I wouldnt willingly
| repeat the experience.
| aspenmayer wrote:
| Threads (1984)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvFu7Z5cc88
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film)
|
| Even the trailer is harrowing with audio alone:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgT4Y30DkaA
|
| The part where the audio seamlessly transitions from screams
| into screeching wind, wails, and explosions was chillingly well
| done in the most dramatic way.
|
| If you like Threads, check out Children of Men, which is also
| disturbingly realistic and also set in UK.
| amelius wrote:
| Hmm, sounds like watching this movie has 2 possible outcomes:
| either I don't like it and end up psychologically scarred, or
| I like it and I know I'm some sort of psychopath.
| aspenmayer wrote:
| There's definitely not a lot to like, but there is a lot to
| appreciate.
|
| If you want a somewhat toned down version, the first
| episode of James Burke's _Connections_ describes some of
| the same concepts and themes in the context of the NYC
| blackout of 1965, and is only somewhat less disturbing, but
| is easily the most upsetting episode of the otherwise
| charming educational program.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ
|
| https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(British_TV_serie
| s...
| gerdesj wrote:
| We do proper apocalyptic books and films in the UK! If you
| survive "Threads" and "When the wind blows", why not wash
| it down with some dystopia! 1984, Animal Farm, Children of
| men.
|
| Other apocalypses and dystopias are available. The UK is
| not the sole source of them. 451F, Brave New World ...
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| If you want to skip the prelude to the attack you can skip to
| 47:45.
|
| It is messed up to think this level of destruction happened
| in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But in their case it was even more
| horrifying because nobody knew what was going on or what to
| do.
| jaxelr wrote:
| I can also recommend the new Annie Jacobsen book, Nuclear War:
| A Scenario for a horrific experience that would scar you for a
| few days :)
| manyturtles wrote:
| The Annie Jacobsen book didn't have quite the same visceral
| impact of despair for me as watching Threads. But it was
| still disturbing for two reasons: the cascade which leads to
| war is remarkably believable with its grab bag of technical
| limitations, forced decisions with flawed data and dramatic
| consequences, and that it was written "now". It's not
| something which can be tidied away into a past era which we'd
| like to thing we emerged from never to return.
| jajag wrote:
| In a similar vein, I recently came across Peter Laurie's Beneath
| the City Streets
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_the_City_Streets) in a
| second hand bookshop. Despite belonging to a very different time,
| it's still a very interesting read.
| devjab wrote:
| When I grew up in the 80ies Denmark nuclear "defense" was sort
| of build into everyday aspects. My childhood school had some
| really wide hallways with really wide doors. Turns out it was
| because my suburb was at the right distance from the city mass
| to be turned into a hospital following a nuclear attack. It
| also turned out the school had a large underground system full
| of various medical supplies and a control center of sorts to
| coordinate the medical leadership.
|
| Cities mandated that housing needed basements which could be
| turned into nuclear bunkers/shelters. Where my parents live now
| there is basically a tiny town in the basements. Much of it is
| now things like fitness centers, tennis courts, a library and a
| few stores (not groceries or other things you eat/drink). Back
| in the 80ies it was solely meant for people storage, but after
| the wall fell it was slowly turned into more useable stuff.
|
| Similarly most of our bunkers are now either discontinued or
| used for something practical.
|
| I wonder if we're going to see an increase in "civil defense"
| again now that we're in another Cold War.
| Animats wrote:
| Europe will be needing such systems soon. Poland is upgrading
| theirs now.[1] Here's the live Ukraine air raid alert map.[2]
|
| [1] https://breakingdefense.com/2024/02/us-
| greenlights-1-2-billi...
|
| [2] https://alerts.in.ua/en
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(page generated 2024-06-09 23:00 UTC)