NUCLEAR CONSENT SETTINGS
- YES
- NO
- MAYBE
- CAN YOU REPEAT THE QUESTION?
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
235 points (99.6% liked)
HistoryPhotos
1512 readers
327 users here now
HistoryPhotos is for photographs (or, if it can be found, film) of the past, recent or distant! Give us a little snapshot of history!
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive.
- No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
- No genocide or atrocity denialism.
- Photos MUST be at LEAST 10 years old, and ideally over 20. We appreciate that we are living through events which will become history, but this is ultimately not a comm for news or current affairs, but events which have occurred some time in the past.
Related Communities:
- !militaryporn@lemmy.world
- !forgottenweapons@lemmy.world
- !historymemes@piefed.social
- !historyruins@piefed.social
- !historyart@piefed.social
- !historyartifacts@piefed.social
- !askhistorians@piefed.social
founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
-YES -MAYBE LATER
I love the implied message in various switches.
Your average wall switch is about convenience. It says that it's ready to go on or off with reasonable effort.
The "emergency stop" switch is designed to be as easy as possible to hit. If you're barely hanging on to consciousness, are missing your hands, and have only a vague notion that you really need to push that button, you can smash it with any available body part and it will switch.
The nuke switch is the opposite. It says that you really really really better be sure before you flick this switch. If you aren't alert enough to solve a bit of a puzzle, the switch stays off.
I'm sober and not impaired in any way. Now tell me how tf do I drop some nukes????
They guy asking where the nuke button is gets an extra big button. It's labeled "Do the Nuke NOW!!!"
But we just wire it up to a recording that says, "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
Nice try mr president
Good to know that one of the high-tech speed bumps between us and atomic obliteration is an inconveniently positioned ½" steel tab with a warning that says "you really probably shouldn't" 🤣
"one of" is doing some heavy lifting there :)
That button isn't meant to stop crazy or evil people from killing us all. That's (hopefully) taken care of by things like careful pilot vetting.
A completely sane and non-mass-murderous pilot might still accidentally press a normal button. Especially if they were tired near the end of a long mission.
It's not as stringent as the safeguard that Roger Fisher proposed. He suggested that the nuclear launch codes be placed in a capsule and surgically implanted near the heart of a volunteer. That volunteer would follow the president around with a butcher knife. If the president ever wanted to launch the nukes it would need to be serious enough that he was willing to take that knife and carve the launch codes out of the chest of an innocent man.
The current guy has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people globally for his own ego, so one orange shitgibbon filleting an innocent person to end his amphetamine psychosis fueled tweet rampage at 3 am isn't far fetched.
I like the Homer approach. I want three different nuclear launch codes! One here, here, and here. You can never remember the nuclear launch code when you're angry.
We should put a piece of tape on the switch too. That'll really get the point across
But not just any tape! This 3x1" hyper-engineered marvel has been rigorously tested, exhaustively reviewed, signed off by a slew of brass, lost in a logistics chokepoint, found again, shipped faster-than-thought to a facility that's nearly spelled the same but on the wrong continent... So, this tape? This is what we pulled off the battery hatch for the coffee room's boombox while we wait for the certified piece.
Looks like we just found our new marketing executive for HEMtape boys! Tell us more about this tape's military applications.
Well, I'll be honest with you all. This here tape's military applications are legion! Truly grasping the array of options here, often leaves lesser men whimpering in the face of that freedom. So, you gotta ask yourself: you gonna cry about it, or are you gonna bitchslap that problem solved and roar at whatever challenger's in the wings? Grip that roll of answers. Dole out justice. We'll make more.
"Nuclear Consent" would make a helluva band name.
"Oops, bumped it with my knee again!"
You’d be shocked at how many times we’ve almost seen a nuclear apocalypse for this exact reason.
The end is far more likely to come from a whoopsie daisy than an intentional decision.
If I wasn't feeling lazy I would post the lyrics to 99 Luftballoons
Who’s got two thumbs and has your back?
This guy! (you can’t see it, but I’m using both thumbs to point at myself. I’m really doing it. As I type this. Don’t doubt me.)
Hast du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst du vielleicht grad' an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und dass sowas von sowas kommt
99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man für Ufo's aus dem All
Drum schickte ein General
'Ne Fliegerstaffel hinterher,
Alarm zu geben, wenn's so wär'
Dabei war'n dort am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons.
99 Düsenflieger
Jeder war ein großer Krieger
Hielten sich für Captain Kirk
Es gab ein großes Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fühlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons
99 Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons
Wegen 99 Luftballons
99 Luftballons
99 Jahre Krieg
Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt's nicht mehr
Und auch keine Düsenflieger
Heute zieh' ich meine Runden
Seh' die Welt in Trümmern liegen
Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an euch und lass' ihn fliegen
If you want it en ingles then find a site that doesn’t make it a bitch to copy and paste. It’s about a world civilization ending war because people in love let loose a bunch of balloons. 99 to be exact. We’ve been 30 minutes away from white hot civilizational atonement ever since nuclear armistice became a concept.
Dammit, Horndog Tango, that's how we lost Belgium!
Damn. I really liked their waffles...
I'm fluent in Belch.
... isn't there someone you forgot to ask?
Judgmental F-16 watches
REL ONLY
"Enjoy your 350kg of radioactive scrap, fuckers!"
Gives them a way to jettison the bomb in an emergency, like before a forced landing or crash. A flaming pile of wrecked airplane is bad enough without a nuke also being on fire
Or gives person with a conscience a way out of vaporizing a few hundred thousand people.
Three different fastener heads within like two inches.
Government efficiency at its best
Imagine if there was an accidental nuclear strike because the government refused to spring for $0.01 worth of panel fasteners and the industry standard will-only-fail-once-every-million-years arrangement hit that one-in-a-million situation.
Penny-wise and pound-foolish.
I'm not thinking of upfront cost, I'm thinking about the engineer that needs to constantly change drivers to access something. Huge pain in the ass, plus a higher chance of FOD.
High torque on the side holds one of the cockpit fairings and isn't involved with the switch. Flathead fasteners are trapped screws and part of a different module that can be removed independently of the switch. Only the phillips is part of the switch assembly.
The vast majority of screws are high-torque, while a few odd bits and bobs are different types for one reason or another. It's not as bad as you'd expect.
Not a Phillips, that's a Pozidriv.
And Torq-Set might be higher torque, but it still sucks. The heads strip and bits cam out just like Phillips. If anything, they use it because it's easier to take out because the offset gives it more torque in removal.
I'm guessing the slotted screws are there to discourage a 200 lb gorilla from trying to use an impact driver.
Just use Torx, for the love of science. I'll allow Robertson but only for wood screws.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Since when do they put nuclear warheads on F-16?
Or is it just the button to say "You are allowed to nuke my position if it is necessary for the mission"
F-16s were certified to carry B-61 nuclear bombs in October 1980, the same time they were certified as combat operational with the USAF.
In GI-JOE, they had lasers and everyone had a parachute.
I had a very smug "ACKSHULLY" all lined up about how the Joes only flew F-14 and X-29 derivatives, but nope. Late in the run, they got an adorable little mini F-16.
Oh that one they had in the 80s with the wings that would fold back, that was an F14? I always thought it was an F16, but I don’t know shit about planes other than some flight sims I played decades ago.
Folding wings is practically the trademark of the F-14 Tomcat. I understand why we stopped making planes that do that, but I thought the folding wings was the coolest shit as a kid.
Right up there with suicide doors and the bench-seat as trunk-space "upgrade". 🤣
As a kid, I was super interested in entering/exiting vehicles being dramatically faster, and spent years watching every trip go by via rearview w/ the fam noise in the back of my mind. ☝🏼
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
That second one absolutely does not require your consent
What needs to be done to move/remove the red guard piece so that the switch can be used? Is it something the pilot can just do quickly, does it require a special tool, etc.?
It flips to the side, freeing the switch to move up and down.
view more: next ›