Tv or video now days. Power grid at risk too.

[Old Rabbit]

Sometimes I wonder about these new flat screen tv's , video monitor, internet receiver digital
channels galore. Even still capable of being an anolog receiver with channels, my my so
outdated. 

Course that's nice when you want to use it with an old VCR.. Or perhaps a ooooold video
game..

Just a video monitor with a computer built in I guess.  When I was a young fellow you could
heat a small room with all the tubes in a television set. and it took about a minute to warm up.

Now these new things take a while to get started too. You would think they would have made
them instant on like the older hand held computers. I don't know about the phones, but my
tablet takes a while to come on just like the new tv's. 

Best thing about the flat tv's is they take up so much less room. 50 years ago we used to
dream of having a tv on a wall like a painting, and now we have them. I wonder if the power
grid could support all those old style sets these days. They ran 300 or more watts instead
of 50 or so. I guess some of the huge flat screens use a fair bit more.

No complaints though. All you youngsters are fortunate. Interactive video games and
all kinds of movies and information available at your finger/paw tips these days. When I was
a young fellow I was happy to have 2 channels on tv and had to have a small library of books
for the information I needed.

Perhaps one day soon we will have a android that will do all our work too. I already fear
we are too dependant on all these computerized  electronic devices, and may starve if it's all
destroyed by one EMP pulse from some terrorists atom bomb. Not counting a massive solar
storm that could wreck the power grid and internet as well.

We need more humans in the loop, and some backup EMP resistant equipment too..

[phinox]

I completely agree with you. Since we're becoming so Electronically dependent I'm beginning to wonder when we'll end up with a microchip or Android as part of us. And perhaps the invention of prosthetic organs. Letting us live a lot longer. But it's too dangerous to rely on tech IMHO. As you said if a solar flare destroyed all electronic power grid then we'd be sent into the dark ages. Then what will we do?

[Amducious]

I completely agree with you. Since we're becoming so Electronically dependent I'm beginning to wonder when we'll end up with a microchip or Android as part of us. And perhaps the invention of prosthetic organs. Letting us live a lot longer. But it's too dangerous to rely on tech IMHO. As you said if a solar flare destroyed all electronic power grid then we'd be sent into the dark ages. Then what will we do?

True, though I'd NEVER want to be microchipped, fact that the government would know your EVERY move bothers me. Then again you'd have some individuals that would survive fine without electronics. I could live without electronics or technology, I'd be like camping all the time. All of us would actually have to talk physically. If it were a survival situation, I'm more than capable of surviving and defending myself (I'm very accurate and deadly with firearms or bladed weapons.) Anyways I think we should be ready for anything, and if all of our technology got knocked out we should be ready to survive without it.

[Old Rabbit]

I understand they are hardening the power grid against Solar Flares, but much of the
grid is controled over the internet these days and poorly protected against terrorists
attacking substations.

They need to prevent the cascade effect when part of the grid goes down. I would much
rather be out of power for a few hours than weeks. The idea of having the grid unified
across the nation isn't a very good idea.  It would be better to have it serve sections of the
country instead.. I know they try to balance the needs by buying power back and forth, but
when a problem occurs it can affect us all..

I wish we had power trasmission as Tesla tried to set up a hundred years ago. Of course
those selling the power were afraid someone might steal their precious power. So we have
power lines and substations instead that are subject to distruction by solar storms, ice and
wind.

[Amducious]

It's bound to happen, but it would cost a lot more to install things to protect the grid. Some EMPs detonated closer to the ground would be catastrophic. Also EMPs cause a nuclear winter, and those last for years. The temperature would plummet to the low 20s or even below, it would be snowing were it shouldn't be. Crops would be destroyed, so even with technology protected we would have to survive the unclear winter.

[Foxpup]

I wish we had power trasmission as Tesla tried to set up a hundred years ago. Of course
those selling the power were afraid someone might steal their precious power. So we have
power lines and substations instead that are subject to distruction by solar storms, ice and
wind.

There's also the slight snag that it's physically impossible, not that anyone seems to care about such trifling details.

Also EMPs cause a nuclear winter,

The EMP from a low-altitude nuclear explosion is too weak to affect anything much further than the blast radius (and if you're that close, you've got bigger things to worry about). A strong EMP requires a high-altitude explosion, which won't produce a nuclear winter. Neither will non-nuclear EMPs, obviously.

[cause the rat]

The Tesla thing. The psychological effects of EMF fields on the brain would be overwhelming. Even if it were possible the huge EMF fields would cause acute paranoia in millions of people. 

I remember the big bulky TVs. There is one difference most people don't talk about. If your tube tv broke there was almost always a way to fix it. If your older transistor tv broke there was almost always a way to fix it. I had a friend who was a TV repair man.

We had a black and white TV. For you youngsters, thats not the color of the tv. That's the only two colors the TV would display.   I was in my teens before we got our first color TV. I remember repositioning the large antenna we had strapped to a chimney . The old 'rabbit ears' and double circle antenna that would sit on top of your tv. Yes we had less channels. But the system was way more reliable than cable or satellite is now. And it was FREE! The commercials you see on tv actually paid for the programing. Now we pay for everything and still get commercials. Go figure.....

Phones. We had a party line. If you picked the receiver up and heard someone you had to hang up and wait till they were done. When you called long distance there was a few second lag. You'd ask a question, wait a bit and get an answer. If you wanted to make an in town or very local call all you had to do was dial the last digit of the first three and then the number. So all I had to do was dial 6-5555 to get someone in town. I remember the government breaking up 'Ma Bell'. The one and only telephone company America had at the time. For anyone who thinks all big government is bad toss your cellphones in the trash. We'd still be using analog rotary phones. In truth, we wouldn't be communicating on line anyway. Communication technology seemed to jump into high gear after ma bell was put down.

It's obvious they need to divide up the power grid to more localized areas. Large power grids have proven to be problematic. The only upside to a large power grid is the ability to re rout power around an effected area.

Added,
Nuke winter is a myth. Right now thee is way more energy being set off in our atmosphere than all the nukes ever created. And it happens every day. 365 days a year for millions of years now. A single volcano is more dangerous than most arsenals of nuclear weapons.

[Amducious]

Ah i see thank you for correcting me  Foxpup. I think that a nuclear winter Is very possible Cause, scientists(source daily mail, Life after a nuclear war revealed using computer models) said that in a war with 100 small(imagine it with huge warheads) nuclear warheads dropped earth would suffer a 20 year famine and very cold long winters. Leading to the death of millions or even billions. It would be a terrible effect, also it would reverse "global warming".  It is very possible it could happen, nukes are very powerful. Even if there wasn't a nuclear winter you would suffer from the fallout and the radiation. Also the after effects years after, there would be a cancer increase over the years. 5 megatons of black carbon would be released into the atmosphere after all the bombs were dropped. Black carbon rain is also fatal to humans, it absorbs sunlight and begins cooling the planet. So there are a lot more things that could kill us even if there wasn't a nuclear winter. We shouldn't be worrying though, we're still trying to get rid of all nukes worldwide, but I see a problem with the Iran nuclear deal. If bombs were dropped then the effects of a nuclear winter would come into play.

[Foxpup]

Nuke winter is a myth. Right now thee is way more energy being set off in our atmosphere than all the nukes ever created. And it happens every day. 365 days a year for millions of years now. A single volcano is more dangerous than most arsenals of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear winter has nothing to do with the raw energy released by the explosion. It's all about the smoke released into the atmosphere when ground targets are incinerated in the blast. The smoke blocks sunlight, which means the Earth receives less heat, which means (in the worst case) everybody starves when crops fail worldwide. Volcanic eruptions (which release similar amounts of smoke) have been observed to have the same effect on the climate.

I think that a nuclear winter Is very possible Cause, scientists(source daily mail, Life after a nuclear war revealed using computer models) said that in a war with 100 small(imagine it with huge warheads) nuclear warheads dropped earth would suffer a 20 year famine and very cold long winters. Leading to the death of millions or even billions. It would be a terrible effect, also it would reverse "global warming".  It is very possible it could happen, nukes are very powerful. Even if there wasn't a nuclear winter you would suffer from the fallout and the radiation.

Specifically, those studies were concerning low-altitude airbursts against cities. Again, EMP is the least of your worries in such a scenario. High-altitude blasts won't cause a nuclear winter and produce far less fallout.

[Amducious]

Thank you again Foxpup for the info  ! I guess we shouldn't really worry but always be ready. The likelihood of any of this happening is close to none, but that doesn't mean we don't prepare for these things.

[Old Rabbit]

When I was a kid the local phone system had human operators. You picked up the phone
and you heard the operator saying "Number Please." ours was 359j if I remember right. If
you were calling long distance they had to do it for you. And we were on a party line. My
mother often thought our neighbor listened in on her conversations.

Our first TV was a 9 inch that showed a black and white picture. It worked pretty good, but
we usually only had one channel to watch. Sometimes two if we didn't mind a bit of snow
and ghosts in the picture. Now and then when conditions were good we might get some other
stations but not often.

I have no real evidence of wither Tesla's power transmission was feasable or not. I worked
next door to a realativly large substation for over 30 years with no noticable effect on my
mental condition.  Of course the EMF probably wasn't too great since the transformers are
incased in metal.. The main transformer was about 40 ft from my work area. You could hear
the ac hum from that transformer over a block away. I rarely noticed it since I was around
it all the time.

I did read a technical  book by the government on Tesla about 40 years ago. They had
more info on him than I have ever found online or anywhere else. His experiments in
Colorado created problems with the local power grid and a nearby town that experienced
strange electrical problems too. Also the book had reference to the Soviets searching
for any and all info on his experiments.

There were other claims I don't remember well enough to say. But I am sure it would
be good fodder for conspiracy theorists today. 

[phinox]

I hope I'd do pretty well in a survival situation. I'm a damn good shot and I have good knowledge on what to eat and what not to. How to get/filter water etc.