Cobalt Bombs: The Bombs to End the World

Definitely. Maybe. Hopefully not.
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[@ffarmchicken]

I always liked the scenario description of two people up to their necks in gasoline arguing over who was more powerful by the amount of matches they have.

[@chaosdweller]

Lol!

[@kdchannel9355]

except in the gasoline are 7 billion other people without matches and not wanting anything to do with the argumentation

[@shaunhumphreys6714]

yes, that sums up russia's nuclear weapons bluff over NATO, stopping NATO forces from physically deploying in Ukraine itself. Though it's very silly and overly cautious a decision. even Putin has said nuclear weapons would only be used if there was an existential threat to the continued existence of the Russian federation. Also adding that if Russia were to not continue existing, the putin would make sure the rest of the world was wiped out. no russia, no point in a world, to paraphrase Putin. surprisingly this is a conservative stance compared to ex president and prime minister or russia, medvedev, who stated that if ukraine tried to retake crimea, then the kremlin would respond with all its weapons (including nuclear)| the real threat is localised small nuclear weapons that would cause horrific casualties to civilians, but the radioactive fallout would not leave ukraine. even china of all states, has warned putin not to go nuclear. but it's the nuclear weapons of mass destruction that NATO is afraid of. and for no reason. because sending ground troops into ukraine , say 20,000 special forces soldiers, does not threaten russia' federation's continued existence as a nation, since the special forces would be confined to supporting ukrainian troops with expert soldiers, whilst training up the section of inexperienced civilian ukrainian soldiers , with no military action breaching russian itself. (the pre annexed ukranian territory russian land). which is why i've argued that this is a serbian-kosova war situation-where NATO carpet bombed serbia into surrender. but in this case, there isn't even need to bomb russia, only specialist troop deployment into ukraine, which would quickly end the invasion by means of a peace treaty of heavy russian concessions.

[@GlorifiedGremlin]

As somebody who had gasoline accidentally spilled all over his lap (and crotch) that would be INCREDIBLY painful lmao any sensitive skin literally starts chemical burning away. And I'm sure you can imagine what "sensitive skin" means in relation to my lap lmao

[@Cbd_7ohm]

Likened*

[@HedgieEirulf]

Simon realized he has an hour free on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and every other Sunday. Stressed with all this free time, he created another channel.

[@Rock-Bottem1982]

Honestly, how many more channels will he start, talk about money hungry

[@jonnypope1537]

@@Rock-Bottem1982 lol why do you say money hungry? He puts out a lot of content, so any money obtained is deserved lol

[@Rock-Bottem1982]

@@jonnypope1537 did I say he doesn't deserve it? No I didn't, so don't accuse me of things I didn't say

[@paxconsciente3352]

@@Rock-Bottem1982 you're implying it and just being stupid in general. that's like saying people who work hard shouldn't be payed. it's ok, once you move out of your moms basement and start living life youll understand.

[@fungi5923]

Perfect if you hit a hurricane

[@Sanelora1]

I’m 99% sure that “salting the earth” wasn’t about “cursing” the city so much as it was about preventing food being grown there in the future thus preventing any larger settlements forming from the displaced survivors

[@null2470]

Correct. Carthage was also never literally salted, as it was brought into the Roman empire.

[@isbestlizard]

Salt was VERY expensive and valuable and is water soluble so to literally prevent crops growing over the tens of thousands of acres needed to sustain a large city would be ludicrously impractical given the quantities involved. We're talking millions of tonnes of salt. It was a symbolic thing.

[@ben-jam-in6941]

@@isbestlizard Thank you for saying it. “ it was a symbolic thing” a saying sort of. We beat them and salted the earth so they can never rise against us again!! No one was gonna waste that much valuable salt.

[@abram730]

A small area where plants wouldn't grow would frighten people. They used a lot of salt in this small area, and it would spread when watered. A cursed city with a growing blight. But really you'd do it around the government building, city center, or statues of their Gods. Then the Gods had forsaken the city, a sign to leave. It was more of a saying though as salt was expensive, even for that.

[@gandalf8216]

It was often sufficient to simply collapse narrow mountain passes crucial for reliable trade, destruction of irrigation systems, the enslavement of anyone fertile or about to be fertile, the slaughter of the children boys, burning down ports, plundering of treasuries and anything else which would make economic and population growth back to what was impossible within enough number of generations.

[@Thesnakerox]

Here's a terrifying fact about Cobalt-60: If you ever see a rod of the stuff, it will likely have a warning printed on it. That warning will literally tell you to drop the rod, run away, and notify authorities.

[@theangledsaxon6765]

I mean tbf if you have no idea what it is it will kill you. Same as any other poison

[@nicklasveva]

Probably the same for uranium-235, right?

[@theeelectronneutrino]

@@nicklasveva Probably not as U-235 is nowhere near as dangerous. It has a half life of 700 million years, meaning its radioactive activity is minimal compared to Co-60 with a half life of 5.3ish years. On google you can even see images of people holding plates of U-235

[@nicklasveva]

@@theeelectronneutrino so you shouldn't drop the rod of U-235 and contact authorities if you happen to stumble upon one?

[@theeelectronneutrino]

@@nicklasveva You should of course - I was referencing the feature of a warning being printed on it as I thought you were. Besides I doubt anyone would find a lump of shiny metal and immediately assume it's radioactive - and it is extremely unlikely that it'd ever get out of the right people's hands anyways.

[@PrincipledUncertainty]

Eventually Simon will create a channel that covers his other channels.

[@PoGoTips]

Good one!

[@migga86]

"The Linkhikers Guide to Simons Galaxy", has a nice ring to it.

[@jessaphillips2846]

“The history of the Biographics channel”

[@sandhilltucker]

Accomplished Whistler: "Was he bored or was some form of evolution inevitable?"

[@migga86]

@@sandhilltucker There is a known clinical term for his lifes story: Downward spiral

[@MiroslavHundak]

Way back in 1994 I was writing my high-school graduation dissertation on the topic of "Nuclear Energy". It was divided in 2 parts, one about nuclear plants and another about nuclear weapons. The final weapon I covered was the so-called "K-bomb". According to source material, this would ideally be a combination of a high-yield fusion device mostly consisting of Deuterium and Tritium used in "neutron bombs" and a large envelope of stable Cobalt (approx. 1 ton). According to the source material, detonating 10 to 100 such devices would be enough to produce and distribute enough Cobalt-60 to kill all life on land within its half-life. It wouldn't make any difference where on Earth you set it off, as long as it was detonated at high enough altitude where it would be carried around the globe by atmospheric winds. Thanks for a trip down memory lane.

[@speakerz74]

your high school graduation required a dissertation?

[@Thunderstyle7]

@@speakerz74 Seems like a good high school to me.

[@Skelath]

America's nukes are becoming obsolete, they're 60+ years old, and with several countries working on hypersonic missiles that can intercept a nuke in space, adventually it will come to a point where a nuke can be taken out before it leaves its country of origin.

[@Loadlng]

@@Skelath for all we know the us has updated its nuclear arsenal to include such weapons but have been better at keeping it under wraps seeing as it wouldnt give any good PR, like it does in russia (even there it isnt super popular)

[@davvader]

K-Hole > K-Bomb

[@kilohertz9456]

Cobalt 60 is the radioactive deadly form of Cobalt. It is formed when Cobalt 59 (non radioactive form, the salt) absorbs a neutron from a fission of fusion . It has the following decays: Beta .317 MeV decay, Gamma 1.1732 MeV decay, Gamma 1.3325 MeV. These gammas are extremely high energy. I worked at Crystal River Nuclear Plant for 25 years. Our FSAR did not allow the use of alloys containing Cobalt 59 or Nickel 60 in the reactor building. It was explained to me by our health physics department that cobalt 60 is the 1,000,000 volt power line of gammas.

[@normangiven6436]

Yup; Colbalt and nickel were used in valve seats. As they wore out that stuff would up in the resin beds. You did not want to be near those filters, unless you were over 50.

[@bryanergau6682]

Did you say a fission of fusion?

[@user-bw6jg4ej2m]

Minor correction at 3:50: you wouldn't use Gold-198, Tantalum-182, Zinc-65 or Cobalt-60 in the bomb, but rather it's what you're aiming to create in the explosion. You would use Gold-197, Tantalum-181, Zinc-64 or Cobalt-59 in the bomb. Though, you do self-correct later in the video in the case of cobalt.

[@Lohanujuan]

I mean he’s just reading a script, but it’s a good correction for whomever writes them

[@Tyler-nh6oy]

@@Lohanujuanand yet it is his channel and the script is written by his employee, if your mcdonalds order was wrong and you told the manager, would he just say “well tell my employee.” Or would they address and or correct the issue?

[@Ptsxlouuivestouetjourd]

Couldn't you use any ionic change then not just cobalt...

[@nathanmcbow158]

That is correct, the lower are the stable variants whereas the latter are the unstable ones that take radiation to a whole new level.

[@matthewday7565]

Gold would only have a half life of 2.7 days, so would decay pretty quick ... with a double whammy of decaying into Mercury

[@kenhelmers2603]

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity" An author I've sadly forgotten....

[@christopherlloyd8117]

IT was, I'm pretty sure, Robert A Heinlein.

[@markkringle9144]

George Carlin?

[@Code_Machine]

Didn't Einstein say that?

[@brandonhoffman4712]

"I know not with what weapons World War 3 will be fought but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones" - Albert Einstein Also, we can produce anti-matter. All we need is better containment to trump any nuclear bomb ever created. We could literally "delete" things from existence forever in an annihilation.

[@piscesmikey]

The problem with trying to make things idiot proof is that the universe keeps producing better idiots.

[@yacker7226]

Always a pleasure to hear about the possibilities of our doom.

[@WhuDhat]

Random question, would you rather survive through a nuclear wasteland, a zombie apocalypse, or an earth affected by major temperature shifts (all deserts, flooded areas, or frozen lands)

[@yacker7226]

@@WhuDhat nuclear wasteland would only let me live a short time because of radiation poisoning, zombie-bois don't do a real, so I suppose climate change is the most likely to be able to survive the longest.

[@DoremiFasolatido1979]

@@yacker7226 Zombies are possible...they just wouldn't be much of a threat. It'll never be a virus (because viruses don't operate that way, at all), or a bacteria (unless it were somehow a communal lifeform and lived in "hives"). Most likely it would be a parasitic fungus like a relative or mutation of cordyceps. It's spores would invade the body and begin growing tendrils through your own nerves, consuming and replacing them as it does, killing your body and animating the remains once it reaches your brain. . As a fungus, it would continue to feed on your decaying corpse (likely decaying somewhat faster as a result) as it shambled around blindly and randomly in search of more victims. It's not that it wouldn't be able to perceive what your senses could relay to the fungal "nerves", it's that as your body decayed, those senses would just cease to operate. Your eyes would cloud over and go blind, your ear drums would fall apart and you'd go deaf, the cilia in your nose would be gone almost immediately, making you unable to smell (probably a good thing, as a rotting corpse). The only thing you'd kind of have would be touch. . Odds are, the spores would be transmitted by inflicting any kind of open would with any part of its infected flesh. Splintered bone from a compound fracture, a bite, a scratch from exposed finger bones or broken fingernails. Or any of their gunk landing on an open wound or getting in your eyes or mouth or other opening. The real horror would be if the spores became airborne. . But, even then, infection would take a damned long time, and would probably be relatively easy to treat, unless it was somehow drug-resistant for really no reason. And still then, the zombies themselves would be so trivially simple to dispatch relatively safely, and they couldn't coordinate or even actually hunt anyone at all, that some decent protective gear would really be sufficient to survive. Zombies would be unable to hunt anyone down, would only be marginally mobile for a week or two at most, and within a matter of weeks would be completely decomposed. . The real problem then would be dormant spores constantly causing new outbreaks of zombies. There'd never be a way to get rid of them on a global scale. Either a cure would have to be found, or everyone would have to mask-up...forever. Especially if it got airborne. Then it could actually turn into a zombie apocalypse. It would never result in the end of humanity of civilization, but it would be an endless Hell of minor zombie infestations.

[@yacker7226]

@@DoremiFasolatido1979 so, like I said, they don't do a real.

[@julianshepherd2038]

Nobody boil an egg and we will be fine

[@kevinbuja4373]

I used to weld Tantalum. There’s no forgiveness like in other non-ferrous metals (titanium, zirconium, inconel, etc.). You mess up the bead, you throw the piece out. This was often used in heat exchangers that would be in an extremely corrosive environment. If the environment was too corrosive, we would apply platinum dots as a sacrificial; meaning the product would attack the platinum first, before eventually attacking the Tantalum.

[@AldoSchmedack]

I have worked with Tantalum capacitors and those things are amazing but darn expensive. Tant is quite the metal. I love it.

[@Flight_of_Icarus]

Ah, so this is how the Fallout Video Game scenario starts to make sense with 200 years passing since the bomb.

[@hooligan8595]

"This has never come even remotely close to happening" 2022: "Sounds like you're being a lil' cheeky..."

[@jonny5714]

Putin was caught watching this vid with a notebook and pencil.

[@layton3503]

@@jonny5714 making Musk and mars looking better

[@REALdavidmiscarriage]

lol there wont be a nuclear war calm the f down and stop spreading fear...

[@djcsdy2]

@@layton3503 I'd gladly die in nuclear fire if the alternative is to go to Mars and be a slave for King Elon I.

[@layton3503]

@@djcsdy2 Good, they are looking brighter people to colonize mars anyway.

[@garyhalsey7693]

This is a paraphrased quote from the Sci-Fi novel “Neverness” by David Zindell: “We walk the brink of racial destruction because we are smart enough to build Nuclear weapons and stupid enough to use them”. A very good book if anyone fancies reading it!!

[@jameswalker3973]

Was once told that God gives us the ability to destroy the world and Satan gives us the inclination.

[@johng3418]

"Say to them: Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize them, he must either change them or perish.” from: The Orchestra by William Carlos Williams (used in the Desert Music by Steve Reich).

[@RoboticGorillaSuit]

"...and it would probably only ever be used as a last resort" Comforting.

[@IRosamelia]

Comrade's Putin's interior monologue: either I win or everybody loses 😈

[@scottoakes4575]

I was a advanced reader for my age when I read on the beach for the first time when I was nine. I'm a cold war child and still remember duck and cover drills. I just couldn't fathom mutual assured destruction and nobody wants t discuss a topic like this with a child. Even now I could go home and I remember where every fallout shelter is.

[@fancyultrafresh3264]

God I made the mistake of blinking and Simon has a new channel.

[@sa.8208]

i just block em at this point.. its way too much

[@MelniaShadow]

@@sa.8208 Yet here you are

[@blink182bfsftw]

Gotta make that money reading Wikipedia pages

[@guilty_mulburry5903]

@@blink182bfsftw wait that's all he does?

[@WineScrounger]

I think it was Oppenheimer who listed size and type of weapons with their delivery systems. For a very large salted bomb he just put “backyard”… he realised that it didn’t matter where on the planet it was detonated. The end result would be the same.

[@Poodleballin]

Thank you. I was wondering if this was what the Backyard Bomb referred to. I knew it was named as such since it didn't matter the location but didn't know if it was tied to a specific type of bomb

[@lyrimetacurl0]

​@@Poodleballin Interesting

[@DeAlpineBro]

"On The Beach" was such a good book that when I joined the U.S. Navy I sited it as one of the things that influenced me to volunteer to become a NUC submariner.

[@stevehartman1730]

In early 1960s a friend who i loved like a Dad before passing from cancer told of the cobslt bomb. That it could destroy the world. It was beyond my comprehension RIP MR BROWNING.

[@curtislindsey1736]

ANOTHER Channel?!? Simon's takeover of KZbin continues and I'm totally here for it.

[@stephjovi]

You just noticed? It's already the 3rd video. It's been announced over a month or two ago. Another one will come later this year

[@stephjovi]

@L S gotta search than. He read audiobooks before he became a KZbinr. Even wrote one himself. 8 don't remember what about I just found out about it when I searched Simon Whistler and found a really old interview from the before TIFO times. You know the dark ages when Simon had hair

[@stephjovi]

@L S sorry to hear that. Simon is very lucky. His wife is probably one of the few women who was excited when Simon got rid of his hair.

[@ZentaBon]

@L S it's okay, if it helps, I never paid attention to appearances when seeking a mate. Personality is where it's at, since that's generally a mainstay of the relationship while appearance is not.

[@moetarded7757]

We need more please. Feed us!

[@singularity___]

The time Simon dedicates to the content across all of these channels is near unfathomable. It seems as if he must always be filming. I have absolutely 0 idea how he has that sort of energy (particularly social energy), it's incredibly impressive. Thanks to everyone behind this content, I've learned so many (horrible) things.

[@russellfitzpatrick503]

You forget the cocaine ...........

[@David-lr2vi]

@@russellfitzpatrick503 Allegedly.

[@IntotheShadows]

Thanks :)

[@sandybarnes887]

He gets the energy from peanut butter flavor Magic Spoon cereal and cocaine. Allegedly

[@lucius1976]

He is propably CGI only now. He does not exist :-)

[@laura-ann.0726]

I read "On the Beach" and "Fail Safe" when I was in high school in the early '70's, and had nightmares about WWIII for many years after. A Co-60 bomb was also a plot element in one of the "Planet of the Apes" movies, as I recall. I wonder, how many people have died prematurely of cancer because of atmospheric testing of nukes before such tests were banned? Got to be tens of thousands by now. And at least that many more will be the eventual cost of the (totally preventable) Chernobyl accident.

[@76rjackson]

I remember reading On the Beach and other books like it in the 70s where scenarios were discussed using salted bombs. It scared the crap out of me tbh and the details and possible permutations were spelled out most gruesomely. And it seemed inevitable. Dare to hope. Dare to act.

[@davemccage7918]

So Salty Nukes are like the bomb equivalent of nunchucks? You’re just as likely to injure yourself as your opponent!

[@thomasboys7216]

If you're feeling overly cheerful and need more existential horror in your life, I recommend "The Day After" and "Threads".

[@MrLeedebt]

With human nature, It's inevitable.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:15 - Chapter 1 - Nuclear weapons 2:25 - Chapter 2 - Salted bombs 4:45 - Chapter 3 - Cobalt bombs 6:25 - Chapter 4 - Tests 7:35 - Chapter 5 - The fallout 10:25 - Chapter 6 - Status 6 11:45 - Chapter 7 - The doomsday device 13:05 - Chapter 8 - The dirtiest of dirty bombs

[@TheWretchedOwl]

“Fortunately, neither side wants to end the world” I don’t share your optimism.

[@Kiev-en-3-jours]

I wouldn't be surprise the CCP choose to end the world rather than loosing face.

[@julianshepherd2038]

@@Kiev-en-3-jours I would. They have never had a large stockpile and they are doing fine.

[@kennethmcdonald9736]

what about the eugenesist side?

[@thegreatestpepe]

Yeah, you're right. It's probably not Russia that wants to reduce the worlds population, though...

[@Kiev-en-3-jours]

@@julianshepherd2038 I don't understand.

[@ianfree5987]

Great content. Your programs are jolly interesting and well done and presented. Please keep going. Cheers

[@scottrogers6009]

My Dad was in the USAF in the 1960s. He once told me that they had a cobalt bomb, but were afraid to test it because "they are afraid it will blow up the world".

[@GeoffTV2]

Great video as usual, thanks. I feel I want to just add this little detail. At 2:06 Simon states: "Although hydrogen bombs, which fall into the fusion category, typically include multi stages, which can include a fission stage..." Actually H-bombs are not typically multi stage weapons, they are always multi stage weapons (two stages usually). Also, it's not that they "can include a fission stage", it's that they must include a fission stage (as the primary). It is only mechanism powerful enough to start the fusion reaction (in the secondary stage) en-masse.

[@GeoffTV2]

@jon medle Ah OK, thanks for the update.

[@RelianceIndustriesLtd]

I might be wrong but theoretically you can put a particle accelerator like a fusor inside the bomb to set off the hydrogen core.

[@mattjones2303]

"The white seasoning that we're all so fond of"....as a business blaze viewer this hit different

[@michaelcox5946]

OGBB Legend Matt

[@ryshow9118]

As a comedian in my prime in the 80's, I feel as though we're very much on the same mirror... Page, I meant page.

[@Kremithefrog1]

I'm well seasoned

[@Vandil_the_Rogue]

@@Kremithefrog1 Daddy chill jk, stay seasoned you legend

[@jacobclaypool8678]

Ry show !!!!!! You knocked it out the field with that come back !!!. Lol I'm no joke going to see what this ry show is all about right now. Ill give you shot !! Lol ! But seriously this is sum scary stuff (LoL) to think about and could honestly happen 1 day in are life time !!! One thing I have learned is nothing last forever; and Man builds many tall beautiful objects, buildings,statuses,brigades, society,law and order!!! But man is also destroyers. Nothing that man has ever built from beginning of human time has lasted longer than a couple of years. This is because of human nature. Man is still a animal . No matter how much you dress up a pig ! A pig is still a pig. A human is a human. The way we live are life's and the way we interact with each other is unnatural. The are life's are scheduled and organized is unnatural. We are not ment to be in buildings (which are nothing but large cages) working and living. We are ment to live in packs and tight nit villages, and live in a way we everyone actions effects everyone and everyone action and jobs are just as important as anyone's else. Were everyone's work is praised. This is why I believe there is so much mental health and illness !!!! I believe are diets and just daily routine are not in line with are mind and body. And we live in a unnatural ways which cause stresses that are bodys are not ment to deal with. That is why we need to get back to the way we were living. Like even just a 100 years ago. Small towns and even big towns. Everyone knew everyone and everyone respected everyone. People would talk to each other. Neighbors talked to each other and ate together ( even if they didn't like each other) there were Neighborhoods watches (which in most cases they didn't even need, but for small things like dogs who ate chickens) and family functions. Poeple wanted to be together and live together. But know a days. Its every man for there self. Poeple don't make real friends these days. They just talk to you because they can use you or want something and once they get it they are gone forever. Kids don't know how to make lasting friendships and this is from media and the way of life. Which is a shame because they are going to miss out on life. And see there real joy in life is the small things and simple times where you watch a little kid lean to catch his first football or watch a wild animal just graze through the grass.we are doing a poor job raising are chilling and preparing them for life. We are doing a poorer job showing the world how to live in peace and how to raise your family and how to live a modern-day life. We are not being good leaders. Things must change for the better or things will just keep getting worst. War is really a option and nothing is forever

[@ignacioalmiron7187]

Ah yes, nothing like a dirty bomb video to end my paranoia induced nightmare episodes I had after watching Oppenheimer 🤣

[@ojizarco-nu5fj]

Nuclear attacks on nuclear power plants that have stored decades worth of spent fuel on site could turn into the mother of all dirty bombs. The US and EU seem blissfully unaware of this vulnerability. 40,000 tons of spent fuel and fuel in the US spread over 90 nuclear power plants is about 450 tons per site. Chernobyl and Fukushima together released about 4.5 tons, nuking just one power plant would be 100 times that. France has less, sixty plants and 15,000 tons but they are a much smaller country one thirtieth of Russia. Western Europe will have a bad millennia. That's what Putin was referring to when he said densely populated European countries. This waste should be stored under mountains prior to WW3.

[@kohashiguchi1454]

Honestly, thanks for bringing back memories from my adolescence around 1970, when I first heard about Cobalt Bombs---and haven't heard mention of since. On a far cheerier note (that you briefly covered) cobalt is used in (at least) three different blue pigments: 1. Cobalt Aluminate (standard cobalt blue), 2. Cobalt Phosphate (what Windsor/Newton uses in cobalt blue dark, and 3. Cobalt Stannate (cerulean blue). All of them are lovely.

[@skylergarza8371]

One of my favorite parts of all of Simon's channels is that even though he films all the videos in the same office space, he does them all at a camera angle and posture thats specific to each channel so you know which channel you're on even between the channels he uses his professional announcer voice on like this one

[@phantomechelon3628]

Glad I'm not the only one to have noticed! 😄

[@deusexaethera]

Well, I can sleep better tonight, knowing there is absolutely no way I could possibly do anything worse than this.

[@Zappina]

Actually they dont even need to salt their bombs. Staged nuclear warheads can do the same. Three or four staged thermonuclear warheads can cause long term radiation like a saltes bomb. That why this concept is outdated now.

[@BrandonStonerAEP]

Your content is so educational and entertaining. Can't get enough of it!

[@peterobrien1499]

JFI: The CSIRO, the Australian government’s biggest scientific research organisation, announced about 20years ago. They said that owing to nuclear testing in Maralinga, Australia, during the 1950s to 1963, I believe, about 20,000 extra still born deaths were attributed to the nuclear testing. The incidence of childhood leukaemia also increased substantially at this time. Now you say a cobalt salted device was tested in the country I live in with about 27 million others. The original inhabitants suffered more than any other group in our country. This is a blot on our land left by our ‘allies’ and colonial overlords.

[@Fourside__]

Man, im always surprised the algo shows me MORE of simons chanells. At this rate, simon will create a youtube singularity in approx. 3 years.

[@rukeyazu8669]

You should subscribe…. OooOoOoOoOooo

[@davemccombs]

It's one of the least surprising things ever if you think about it for another... second. Tops. And go

[@cherrydragon3120]

youtube needs more simon XD

[@NapalmUnderwear]

All Simon, all the time.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@rukeyazu8669 No need to subscribe since all his videos show up in everyone's recco's all the time lol

[@purplehaze2358]

I'm kind of disturbed by the fact that cobalt bombs are so overwhelmingly powerful and horrifying that nobody has even _made_ one yet. Not even as just a threatening bluff.

[@jcgrx2251]

There is a bomb. It’s called the Poseidon and Russia has it.

[@themotorcyclemasswhole]

Are you joking? What kind of bomb do you think is being used as the failsafe in your site.

[@josephledux8598]

They haven't been made because they're ridiculously overblown. Pure fiction. Everyday nuclear weapons used in a ground burst produce such lethal fallout it would be a waste of money and effort to put cobalt in any of them. That's what the experts say. Not just my opinion. No need to find yet more to be scared of when the current mundane reality should be terrifying to anyone with any sense. You don't need cobalt bombs to exterminate the human species. The same old bombs we've had since the 60s are more than up to the job.

[@nerdyninjatemptress]

If something scares Dr. Bright of all people, then we should all be terrified.

[@whollyspokes3645]

A emp strike over the tesla car factory would turn each battery into c60

[@sparky7915]

What a great video! You translated very technical terms into minutes and days and so on that makes it easy to understand just how deadly these bombs are. Let's hope that diverse groups of people work and discover ways of getting along with each other. Humans helping humans is the basic concept.

[@HippocratesBlack]

I think you have to prime a fusion warhead with a fission explosion. They used to use a separate bomb to trigger the splitting of atoms, and then the fusion warhead facilitated the process of the atoms fusing into tritium and deuterium.

[@gregparrott]

Back in the '80's, I remember scientists commenting on the absurdity of nuclear war. They said "MAD" (Mutual Assured Destruction) was the WRONG assessment of full scale nuclear war. Instead, the correct moniker was "SAD" (Self Assured Destruction) This implied that even if one side did not retaliate, the nuclear fallout would be so extensive as to destroy the world, including the country launching the nukes.

[@greenl7661]

That's been largely debunked. Although society would be in a very bad spot, with a good chunk of humanity dying out, there really isn't a world ending threat. We're talking about major cities being blown out, with large swaths of land becoming uninhabitable, and a very ugly struggle for food and water for population numbers that can't support itself anymore. All industries severely disrupted.

[@tensevo]

@@greenl7661 No, it would be MAD and SAD, with hundreds of 1000MT devices aimed at major cities, it basically covers the entire planet. So no point being fearful of nukes, the only thing to fear would be suffering in the fallout zones, rather than taken out by the initial blast.

[@greenl7661]

@@tensevo ..no, it wouldn't. Unless you're in a big city you'd die due to infighting for last remaining bits of food. If you local population isn't super dense, you have supply of food and water, you'd likely survive the 'apocalypse'.

[@Neion8]

@@tensevo It depends; were it a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, other parts of the world like Europe, West Africa and the Eastern Americas could survive due to distance from Asia (albiet life would be changed forever for everyone) - were it between the United States and all its allies vs the neo-Soviet union+China then yeah game over.

[@sythiadawn]

Jeeze, Simon, thanks for reigniting my fears from the 60's. I grew up an hour away from a first strike by target. Over the years I've learned to never underestimate the hatred or stupidity or greed of the human species. We're a pitiable bunch.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

I'm currently about a 3-hour drive more or less downwind of Oak Ridge... On the bright side, if a nuke was to land in my back yard, I wouldn't have to worry much about regretting the politicians that led to it coming... ;o)

[@rudra62]

It's for this reason I've spent my entire adult life within striking distance of one, or most often several, primary targets. That way, my brain will be vaporized before any pain of the heat hitting my skin can reach the brain. No pain. I won't know much in advance that it's coming (probably).

[@wynfrithnichtwo8423]

Be surprised what a ground zero target is because it is not always military targets or cities. Sometimes it is small towns that sit on top of transportation junctions for multiple roads, highways, freeways, and rail, plus all of the power/telecom grip that typically follows transportation links.

[@vampiro4236]

I've spent my entire life living next primary targets, and at this point I've accepted and am glad that I'll most likely die in the flash, should it ever kick off.

[@Cbd_7ohm]

@@vampiro4236 Just take some 7-Hydroxymitragynine and low temp dab some Delta-9-THC before it happens. You'll feel great.

[@user-cr5yy4te3i]

Cobalt 60 was used in radio therapy machines. Basically a slug of cobalt in a shield and collimating tube.. The intense gamma emission was used to destroy cancerous tumors. These machines occasionally ended up in scrap yards and if the cobalt slug had not been removed, accidents resulted.

[@thomasordal8229]

Simon does a great job, i grew up in a scientific community, my father and my neighbors were research scientists/professors, i can relate two stories about Cobalt60, first i was a 16 year old living in Bedford in the spring of 1966 my Father and i drove over to Cambridge where they had a cobalt 60 source where i would help my father ZAP bacteria spores with sub lethal doses of gamma radiation, i actually did the irradiating of the samples the other story was a year and half later back in Illinois as a junior in high school i walked to a neighbor two houses away and asked him "What is a dirty bomb?" my neighbor worked with Oppenheimer on the Manhattan project developing the first atomic bomb he was a Harvard Phd in physics---- he answered "Tom you take a fission bomb and sheath it with 22 feet if cobalt 60" and he went back to reading his physics publications that was back in 1967 i still remember that conversation.

[@ojizarco-nu5fj]

Nuclear attacks on nuclear power plants that have stored decades worth of spent fuel on site could turn into the mother of all dirty bombs. The US and EU seem blissfully unaware of this vulnerability. 40,000 tons of spent fuel and fuel in the US spread over 90 nuclear power plants is about 450 tons per site. Chernobyl and Fukushima together released about 4.5 tons, nuking just one power plant would be 100 times that. France has less, sixty plants and 15,000 tons but they are a much smaller country one thirtieth of Russia. Western Europe will have a bad millennia. That's what Putin was referring to when he said densely populated European countries. This waste should be stored under mountains prior to WW3.

[@Dank-gb6jn]

It’s an interesting...and terrifying concept. Nevil Shute’s: “On the Beach” was a fantastic book btw.

[@Iamthelolrus]

Ill have to read the book. The movie ending for "On The Beach" is pretty unforgettable as well. I won't ruin it here.

[@seanbrazell6147]

The more recent Australian TV version is really good.

[@Dank-gb6jn]

@@Iamthelolrus I’ve yet to see the movie. I’ll have to find it and check it out.

[@Khalrua]

F* the Patriots, I’ll see you on December 8th in Orchard Park

[@goodknight5783]

Great book, read it in high school.

[@AlexOlson6182]

Uncomfortably watching this in early 2022.

[@robinkelly1770]

The action of plowing salt into the ground is called "razing" as in "razed into the ground"

[@stpnwlf9]

The best apocalyptic post nuclear war book I have read is "Level 7" by Mordecai Roshwald. The hero of the book is known only by his number. You never get any character's names or even know what country they are from. All you know is that tensions have grown, they go underground, a push-button nuclear war is fought, and ... well, then the rest. The book is stunning for me because of how much pathos you come to feel for the main character without ever knowing his name or what country he fights for.

[@skaughtsavage]

I think at this point the Beard has entered Simon's brain and is refusing to let him stop. All hail the Beard!!!

[@raistlin2k3]

Maybe it's actually the Beard that's talking... :-)

[@Kyle-qd2sy]

There is no more Simon, only beard

[@Giantist]

Bloody great big bushy beard

[@nyxknight7555]

Hail

[@not-a-raccoon]

I, for one, welcome our follicular overlord

[@brianjrichman]

Simon... You make an erroneous assumption at the end by assuming it is ONLY the USA and Russia that might use them. I suspect it is the small and even non-nation state actors that are the real problem.

[@celebrim1]

Yeah. This is the "Mad Scientist Postulate". One of the central aspects of all technology from livestock to the atomic age is it puts an increased amount of energy in the hands of the individual. The Mad Scientist Postulate argues that human technology will rise until it reaches the point where a sufficiently small number insane or irrational actors can destroy all the productive capacity of the rest of the world. Once designer viruses or home built fusion bombs are in the range of technology a person has available in their basement, you can no longer assume that rational self-interest will prevent that person from doing more harm than all the rational self-interested people can prevent or repair.

[@petersinclair3997]

Sort of True. It was Britain and Australia playing with Cobalt bombs. A less developed country or terrorists would need a supply of uranium or plutonium and enrichment capability.

[@SwarmerBees]

It's only a matter of time before an attempt is made. It could be centuries, but all you need is the combination of the technology and the willingness either due to religious or meglomaniacal reasons. EG religious: because the world has gone to the devil, and that rather than to go down to defeat, "cleanse the world of the opponent's devil cult". EG meglomania- Rather than go down to defeat the meglomaniac presses the button on the cobalt weapon saying- If I can't have the world, then no one else can either. (I am still all powerful because regardless what my opponents do- they lose either way.) Concievably, an international regimen of rigorous inspections could be put in place to stall this scenario, but it would require strong cooperation between all nuclear powers.

[@RCAvhstape]

Some Israelis have spoken of "The Samson Option", which is a theoretical plan to bring down the rest of the world in the case where the home country is facing extinction; basically holding the world hostage to ensure your own survival. Such a plan would be a good candidate to keep an eye on for cobalt bombs or other doomsday devices. Rational actors need not continue to be rational once they feel they have nothing to lose.

[@brianjrichman]

@@RCAvhstape Who knows? It may already be underway behind the scenes?

[@NorceCodine]

So the country with the most electric cars will have the biggest cobalt stockpile.

[@potterj09]

I found an original copy of On The Beach for $35.00 on ebay. Had not read it in 30 years. A brilliant read.

[@markodabrowski1040]

Now I live in a world that when I wake up the first thing I do is I check the news on my phone to see if a nuke has been dropped. Great times to live in

[@TheHeartOfTheHour1]

Don't my friend. We all have a personal clock ticking towards death anyways. Find peace and enjoy you're freaking life bro ✝️🙂 (I know that last bit might feel impossible but if I can, after witnessing devastating traumatic events, you can too- take steps toward peace... steps.)

[@22Epic]

It's still a great time to live in compared to previous generation.

[@mrD66M]

We humans are exceptionally good at destroying our fellow humans very quickly... but to connect with each other we have smart phones. Ironic

[@Skaatje]

@@22Epic Depends on where you live don't you think?

[@tonyv8925]

Hi Marko..wow, similar thing with me except I turn on non-cable tv to a news channel first thing in the morning. I live a couple of miles from a primary target large military base, so, if the world goes stupid all I will see is a bright flash and then turn into a cloud of disassociated atoms. I have heart felt worry for the survivors who will not live long anyways. smh...😥

[@tommunyon2874]

"On the Beach" was in our living room bookshelf throughout my childhood in Los Alamos. In high school I finally took the time to read it. Though I lived in the birthplace of the A-bomb, I had never heard of cobalt bombs until I read the novel.

[@markhodge7]

They made a movie and I saw it as a kid in the 60's. Gave me nightmares for years.

[@brianj.841]

I read a book "Level 7", they were the last surviving humans at the bottom of the shelter of some kind. Yes, they died too. It's maybe fourty years later, and I still remember.

[@tivet4]

@@markhodge7 location film in melbourne 1959

[@dmk0210]

@@markhodge7 They even made a remake of the movie in the 80s. Saw both to reinvigorate the nightmares.

[@gammon1183]

I'm curious , any super powers from exposure ? 😀

[@MartinTedder]

"Building a Cobalt bomb isn't that difficult", you say? >Pauses video, gets pencil and paper< "First you need a standard hydrogen bomb." .....damn....

[@oakfat5178]

Long ago, I saw a post titled "How to build a nuclear weapon using four washing machines" There was a detailed list of disassembly, wiring and welding, and (hopefully someone had followed step by step) "Now the tricky part is getting your hands on some plutonium. You could try smuggling some from the former Soviet states, but customs is a problem. In my opinion, you're better off hijacking a military convoy escorting some plutonium. Good Luck."

[@MartinTedder]

@@oakfat5178 don't tell anyone...but there is a way to make a nuke just using a toothpick, a roll of ducttape, a paperclip and a kilo of uranium

[@oakfat5178]

@@MartinTedder No worries, McGyver. Your secret's safe with me.

[@markszczepanski5293]

130 years in a bomb shelter

[@mobimaks]

12:38 "The russians are kind enough to keep it switched off" Shows monument in Kyiv, Ukraine 🙄

[@nokuhobune]

Possible target

[@papagalooleo559]

Eh it all seems like the same places to midwestern Americans like myself. Good enough, I say.

[@depressedTrent]

Well, during cold war Ukraine WAS part of Soviet union, so when talking about cold war era stuff, it's not entirely wrong... If he simply googled "soviet monument" for picture, this could be easily made mistake. (honestly, even I, living in postcomunist country, couldn't tell it's not something in Russia... I actually thought it's just some cgi to give it proper feeling)

[@fegsterr]

Another Simon Whistler channel? I’m surprised this channel wasn’t recommended to me in the last week

[@FPoP1911]

Simon Media Empire expands!

[@chadfife3265]

yes...but doesnt it seem his voice has changed?? hope all is well with his throat

[@StephenJohnson-jb7xe]

Holy crap it is too, I didn't even realize, I just assumed it was one of the other channels.

[@mfkfx5807]

Real great informations on this channel and nice guy with a good way to tell us about history and physics. The world needs less bombs and more guys like him.

[@erichziegler8699]

ANYTHING SIMON narrates is MAGNIFICENT CONTENT!!!

[@douro20]

You would use Co-59 as the salting material. The fast neutrons would convert nearly all of it into Co-60.

[@JackHGUK]

Yes...

[@Letyourcolorsblendwithmine]

NOT HELPING.

[@gunargundarson1626]

yes, thank you. I needed this info for reasons....

[@fragileomniscience7647]

Shush. Don't give them ideas.

[@uchihasurvival]

I'm not sure about this. There needs to be a practical experiment to prove this hypothesis.

[@mr.cardguy7635]

I have used Cobalt 60 to X-ray big thick metal things, usually I just x-ray normal pipe welds with Iridium 192, but for things very thick up to a few feet thick we use Cobalt because it's Rays penetrate deeper and thru denser materials

[@the_retag]

Its not x ray Its gamma ray tjat co60 makes

[@mr.cardguy7635]

@@the_retag people always say that but we use it to radiograph. We just call it x-ray cause we call ourselves x-ray hands

[@afnanali1503]

In what field do you work as?

[@mr.cardguy7635]

@@afnanali1503 weld inspection. We take radiograph of where they weld pipelines together to make sure the weld is good all the way through

[@steve1711]

I did the same testing welds on oil pipelines in the Middle East. Getting the cobalt camera through customs and into a safe storage was not easy!

[@nolongerblocked6210]

@8:00 Is it just me or did anyone else get worried that Simon was putting out a blueprint for how a super villain could destroy the Earth?!? We've got too many Lex Luthor's on this planet & no Superman to rescue us

[@PaulJakma]

"On the beach" - very good, somewhat forgotten book.

[@joecornejo5322]

Watching this in February 2022....hits a little different.

[@pamike4873]

Well yes and no. Dead Hand is a fail-deadly system. Basically, a second-strike guarantee to protect against a decapitation strike. Around Moscow are various sensors. One being a luminosity sensor, one a simple radio receiver, and most likely a seismic, since nuclear weapons create a wave unlike anything else. If a warhead hit Moscow, the Dead Hand would go hot. It would listen for the radio signal, which is nothing more than Radio Moscow. If it found no signal, and the luminosity sensor detected a flash, it would wait a certain amount of time to make sure it wasn't a bad sensor or something, and if all the parameters were met it would then send the go code to the launch facilities. The US has the same, sort of. It's not a fail-deadly system though. It's called the ERCS. If, in the event of all leadership being taken out, which is highly unlikely, and the destruction of all other comms being unable to transmit the order, a missile with a comms package would launch from Vandenburg, fly over the US, transmitting the order. It still takes humans to input the codes, but it's more of a fail-safe than an automatic response, unlike Dead Hand.

[@buckhorncortez]

The Emergency Rocket Communication System (ERCS) was deactivated in 1991. ERCS was to put a communication package into low earth orbit to broadcast a message to Strategic Air Command (SAC) units for a response. SAC was decommissioned in 1992 so there is no ERCS or SAC so your claim that the U.S. has some automatic system for launching an attack called ERCS is not true.

[@pamike4873]

@@buckhorncortez Well I guess that'll be your little secret then. Don't get hung up on names. SAC never went anywhere. Only the name has changed. As did the ERCS. It's now the ALCS. As I said in my comment, it's not an auto-launch system in any sense of the word. The NCA would still need a human to initiate the system, and still need humans sitting in LCFs to punch it in. It's simply a means of sending the go code if every other asset, like TACAMO, Nightwatch, Looking Glass, and our sats were knocked out in a first strike. In no way was it or is it, an automatic response.

[@longbow6416]

UVb76 goes on to this day....

[@carmadme]

I am of corse biased but I like the letter system we have on uk subs

[@timh36]

I'm afraid none of these systems mentioned can hold a candle to the " W.O.P.R. " 😁

[@teamloony]

Talk about ‘don’t speak too soon’…

[@leostgeorge2080]

What i can't comprehend is the thought of anyone thinking they are high and mighty enough to think they have the right to end the world. That they alone have the right to end all life of even the innocent. All of nature. The arrogance of anyone who thinks this is there call to make. Just incomprehensible to me. I can only imagine the hate and superiority they must feel. No one like this should ever be in a position to make such judgments.

[@bradritchie6255]

So after everything is taken from us and we lose half the population due to radiation poisoning, we won't be making much more noise about that after all. And Millenia later, something else will see it's own day, just like we did before we dropped the ball.

[@Taurickk]

I remember commenting about the Belgarod sub and it's intercontinental nuclear tsunami torpedo on one of your mega-projects videos. Glad to see you ran into that weapons system when researching this video.

[@OmicronX-1999]

Haha, my high school chemistry teacher told us how to theoretically make these back in 1998 or so. He even drew us pictures. I wrote it all down. Ahh, memories. That teacher also liked to tell crazy stories about wrestling alligators while skydiving, or how he had all his fingers burned off with acid one time even though he actually had all his fingers as far as I could tell. But the cobalt bomb thing I knew was theoretically plausible because I looked it up myself afterward. I just realised Mr. Hughes is probably dead by now. That sucks. He was cool.

[@ieat10kittens94]

Sounds like a great teacher

[@garyturner5739]

In theory there's no limit to how big a nuclear can be.

[@fosres]

High school chemistry teachers are the best at comedy!

[@kennybooboo3926]

It's going to happen to all of us😪

[@Lohanujuan]

I wonder how many teachers will die not knowing the effect they had on us. I’m going to go to my old high school and thank some of my old ones, while I still can

[@MorgothBauglir3791]

The US did produce salted bombs. Here is the list: Mk-21 Mod.0/1/1; Mk-36Y1 Mod.0/1; Mk-41Y1; B53Y1 Mod.0/1/2/3.

[@cchavezjr7]

"Salting the earth" was not a curse. It was spread over the fertile areas around cities and settlements to make growing crops nearly impossible. It was a way to completely destroy an area and no longer leave it able to produce food and thus leaving the area unlivable.

[@grantkruse1812]

Scorched Earth Policy....Same thing

[@cchavezjr7]

@@grantkruse1812 No, in the sense he said it, it was not scorched earth, only a perceived one as he said it was a curse. Salting was done to destroy the land in a very real way.

[@johnlynch-kv8mz]

Yeah, we’ll, it is a curse for those who were previously and obliviously living there. But they were not preferred.

[@meckifoerthmann9790]

You need a lot of salt to make just one field infertile. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot - several tons of it! Furthermore, salt was precious at the time, so it is a myth!

[@johnlynch-kv8mz]

@@meckifoerthmann9790 well, do you think they had slaves dig it up merely to put on their table? What motivates conquerors more, fine cuisine, or more real estate ( which includes denial of those one doesn’t care for of their real estate)

[@DaRocketGuy]

I love watching videos about nukes when they're more likely to be used now than ever in my life 😊

[@brandonhoffman4712]

This is why a good missile defense system could be considered a god send!

[@Canadian_Eh_I]

@@brandonhoffman4712 Im not sure there are adequate defenses against some of the new missile technologies. Especially for example SWARM missiles that can fractionalize

[@terranhealer]

Why would you put a smile emoji after saying that? If nuclear weapons are used during this Russian war things will change so much that the shutdowns during Covid will look like nothing

[@generalrodcocker1018]

yeah, it's like watching an aircraft-catastrophy movie on a intercontinental flight

[@interycreeper1152]

@@terranhealer sarcastically

[@Litepaw]

This guy's work ethic is insane. Aren't you on like 10 different active channels at this point?

[@BrendavonAhsen]

Well this didn't age so well. Cause everyone knows Putin would never be so crazy... Would he.

[@glennski]

Him again...I feel like this guy created at least half of all popular KZbin-Channels by now.

[@VintageTechFan]

3:50 .. those isotopes are the active products already. The blanket would be made of the natural occuring Au-197, Ta-181, Zn-64 or Co-59.

[@anthonykirby9445]

Correct. I noticed that too!

[@michaelhibbs3683]

Also, the conversion to the radioactive form happens after bombardment by neutrons, not neutrium. I thought he might be using neutrium as a neologism for a gas of neutrons, but a Google search reveals that neutrium (or more frequently neutronium) is sometimes used to describe the extremely dense material inside of neutron stars, not the sort of hot stream of neutrons that you would get from a nuclear bomb.

[@the_retag]

Probably not the au...

[@reginleif6703]

Considering current events, I probably shouldn’t have watched this one.

[@brandonhoffman4712]

Don't worry after the fallout the world can start over as our planet slowly drifts into nothingness that is somethingness at 500,000 miles per hour.

[@cwill2127]

Lmao yeah not ideal

[@PatientX989]

Entertaining as always

[@danielallison3540]

It's so destructive in theory, it's still theoretical, because testing it may be regrettably irreversible

[@DrDeuteron]

It’s so simple, it doesn’t need to be tested.

[@AldoSchmedack]

Has been in reactors, and it is nasty stuff.

[@srfrg9707]

Simon : It never came close to be a reality Putin : Hold my vodka.

[@jasonwong7140]

Read this in a Russian accent

[@mikestein1024]

Biden : hold my geritol

[@MrKopko2]

Biden hold my brain

[@StuBobsGhost]

Well after that I'm going to listen to some Joy Division to cheer myself up.

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

Or some Leonard Cohen… …that might be a step too far though…

[@ianhawkins4132]

And just for a moment I remember a song An impression of sound And then everything is gone forever....

[@2112jonr]

@@oliverlaw02 Oh well doooooone, you've caught up with everyone else on the planet who've know where they got their name from for the last four decades.......

[@DagazGriff]

Yeah watching this on 12.10.22 makes me chuckle nervously.

[@GentleGiantAudio]

Bro how many channels do you have? Anyways I just wanted to say how much I love your storytelling ability.

[@cray1996]

Great video and interesting. Cobalt bombs have appeared in popular media a few times. One of the best examples, being in Metro Exodus after was used on Novosibirsk by the USA.

[@walterengler5709]

I really liked this. I reminded me of another Science Fiction story. In the story scientists had managed to create a form of anti-matter fueled bomb. The bomb was not stable enough to place into a missle and lob at others, but instead the military had decided to create a series of bombs as a sort of deadman's switch, the ultimate MAD. So if the US was attacked the devices would go off. And the yield on the bombs and placement underground were so great the resulting cloud of radioactive dust thrown into the air would ensure a cold, radioactive death to the planet. And the bombs were built to essentially be armed and no one could in theory disarm them. You've all read that type of doomsday story. So in the story one scientist was drinking heavily in a bar unloading this ultimate secret of this existence of 50 such bombs on one of his friends, has was numb at the revelation and being told as he friend was obviously crossing the line saying anything. But then the kicker came in. Due to the interactions of magnectic fields keeping the anti-matter safe and aspects of quantum mechanics, there was a small chance every year that an atom of antimatter would get by the fields strike material and effectively self-detonate the bomb. But initially they calculated the odds of that being so low as any bomb would likely last a thousand years before it randomly went off (good enough for politicians). But they went and built 50 of these devices. And since each had a random chance each year of detonating the odds were 50-50 that in the next 20 years one would trigger the end of the world, randomly. And all they could do was sit, and wait, and hope....

[@andrieslouw3811]

for probability is a b.... at the black jack table

[@bernardedwards8461]

An antimatter bomb, if you could create the antimatter, would be far more dangerous to the user than to the intended recipient. Antimatter in quantities visible to the human eye is the most dangerous stuff in the universe, which is why no one will ever atempt to make it. If a quantity the size of a pin head came into contact with matter, it would explode with the force of a blockbuster bomb, and keeping matter and antimatter apart is almost impossible.

[@TheInsaneupsdriver]

i don't know whether to thankyou for this video or not, i had forgotten all about these, which i would've been better off forgetting about.

[@kazkk2321]

Simon should create a news channel to inform citizens in a post apocalyptic world. I would definitely Keaton to that station.

[@walzingdewormed3425]

KZbin's algorithm sure is impeccable! 😅

[@gillsmoke]

Less than a year later and the answer might be, "maybe this is how the world ends." Fingers crossed.

[@brandonhoffman4712]

Humans don't currently possess the power or mental fortitude to end the world, only life as we know it. The world was here 4.2 billion years before we crawled upon its surface and will most likely exist at least 4.2 billion years after humans evolved into whatever comes next. Our world was struck by an exo-planet which ripped the planet in two, giving us our moon. Yet the world just reformed into a ball and kept on trucking! I highly doubt we could do worse in the next 1,000 years if we tried our best.

[@ferrreira]

I just LOVE On The Beach. Have read the book and watched the black and white movie multiple times. Great story!

[@sdsa007]

great stuff!

[@tomorrow4eva]

I read a short fiction story this week about Russian's automated system getting triggered by the US using 18 older missiles (clearing out their stockpile to get funding for new ones) as counter-missile weapons against a North Korean missile (launched for pride) that the Russian system didn't pick up. It's just the kind of posturing, bureaucratic nonsense that I could see happening, which made it painful to read.

[@mrsscreamgirl5332]

Can you tell ne the name and author of the Story?

[@delphicdescant]

"It would be crazy, it would be insane, it would be like blowing up your house to cook an egg" And six months later we have Putin acting veeeery insane. Living far away from major population centers, I've always expected to probably live if nuclear war happens. But Russia being led by a declining madman who also happens to be the one person in the world most likely to possess a cobalt bomb is not encouraging.

[@1pcfred]

If there's ever an all out nuclear war it will be a total extinction event for the entire planet. All life will die. It is technically impossible for us to build any shelter from the fallout where we could survive long enough for the radiation level to decrease to safe levels. The experiments conducted to do that sort of thing have all failed. Staying alive be hard.

[@1pcfred]

@@rosequartz2290 who's leading America now?

[@delphicdescant]

@@1pcfred If everyone were using dirty bombs like cobalt bombs, then *maybe* you could make the argument that nearly all humans would die, or nearly all terrestrial vertebrates maybe. But with normal nuclear/thermonuclear arms, generally airbursted, there would be nowhere near enough fallout to kill everyone. Global weather patterns will not spread it equally, either. So it's almost certain that not even all humans would die. Probably not even *most* humans. And there's *no way*, even with widespread cobalt bombs specifically placed to distribute fallout everywhere by some crazy supervillain, that all life on Earth would die. If nothing else, plenty of microbial life would survive, and there would remain many refuges for multicellular life too. Underground, inside of glaciers, portions of the ocean floor, microbial life in the atmosphere, etc...

[@1pcfred]

@@delphicdescant it is possible that you simply do not fully appreciate the threat nuclear war poses. That would be down to a lack of knowledge or understanding. It is a topic that we don't really deal with in our day to day existence. Yet there are still facts out there if one seeks them out. Suffice to say in a total nuclear exchange this planet will be lifeless. You need to accept that as a fact. One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day. 14,000 nuclear bombs and it's game over. But things are better today than they were. We used to have 70,000 nukes.

[@delphicdescant]

@@1pcfred I appreciate the conversation, but I do not have to "simply accept" what some youtube commenter insists. Nuclear fallout, and the risks of elevated radiation in general, is massively sensationalized in popular culture and on the internet, as I'm sure you can tell. However, I *can* rely on my physics degree and a calculator. No matter how many warheads exist, there aren't enough launching facilities to deploy them all before launching equipment is destroyed by counterattack. Launching facilities would, of course, be among the first targets. So only a small fraction of all existing warheads would actually get used in a MAD scenario. BUT, even if it were somehow possible to put all of existing warheads into the air at once, assuming that they're conventional thermonuclear devices meant for air bursting and not intentionally dirty ones, that would *still* not produce enough fallout to end all life on the planet. I'm not sure what calculations you're relying on, though, or what kind of radiation density you're considering "fatal to all life." If nothing else, surely you'd agree that the extremophile life living in the Chernobyl plant itself, literally subsisting off of the elevated radiation levels, is a counterexample to what you're saying, right?

[@Sinn0100]

Why do I watch these videos right before bed? It never fails, I think "oh this looks pretty neat" and then I lay in bed thinking...damnit I did it again.

[@OPPOSMITE]

Bravo, this channel is brilliant.

[@sd906238]

Some kids in Brazil found some cool looking stuff in a garbage dump. They opened it up and found some really neat looking blue stuff and played with it. Turns out it was some X-ray equipment with Cobalt-60 and they died.

[@2112jonr]

Adults after a quick buck actually.

[@Boe-Temeraire]

The Goiania incident right?

[@chfire2004]

@@Boe-Temeraire pretty sure that was radioactive cesium.

[@Ndropazin]

@@chfire2004 you are right, it was cesium-137.

[@harrietharlow9929]

That was just awful. It was a couple of adults looking for things they could sell. Unfortunately for all concerned, the contents of the container they chose were highly radioactive.

[@Minalkra]

The KZbin algorithm has a sick sense of humor sometimes ...

[@vampiro4236]

That awkward pause after the "shall we" was clutch. lol

[@richl6966]

Haha, Simon is on top form here. Love it.