The Past, With Added Blast

Tonight We Will Be A Bit Retrospective
I hadn't planned this, it's just how life, imagination and a few screen-shots worked out.  If I had any integrity or serious critical intent then I'd be carefully laying out ideas, having them cross-over, analysing and analogising, working out puns ahead of time and being clever with words.
     Instead I'm just going to make it up as I go along*.
     Okay, first of all the BBC website this morning was reporting on obsolete technology still in use in South Canada's strategic defences.  Art?

This, for the younger among you, is a floppy disk

     Well now.  I suppose you lot, being all Metric, don't know what inches are.
     GO AND FIND OUT!  BOOJUM! still sticks proudly to Imperial measures, because they are what made the Empire great.
     Assuming that you are now educated in inches, Conrad loved the response of a military spokesman about all this comparatively stone-aged technology (cutting edge for the Sinisters, mind): "It works."
     Yes it does, as we have not been immolated in a gigantic planet-wide thermonuclear shooting match.  In fact clunky older technology tends to be more robust and resilient than cutting-edge present day stuff, as we shall soon see.  Not only that, with the bigger vacuum tubes you could toast bread on them, they gave off so much heat.

Oh Look More Old Kit
It's not just old computers the South Canadians still hang on to, take a look at a B52:

A.k.a. the "B.U.F.F." - Big Ugly Fat Fellah

     This flying dinosaur came into use in 1955, making it another 50-year veteran.  They've been progressively upgraded over the years and whilst they retain all the aesthetic charm of a flying cement-truck, their ability to Blow Things Up Big Time has only increased.
     And what's this, making a noise like a woodpecker from Mars**?  Why, it's the M2 Browning Machine Gun.  Art?

The Ma Deuce.
Quite the mother.

     This antique has been in use since the Thirties.  Why is it still around?   
     "It works."
     Not just works, works dangerously well.  Unless you're sitting inside a tank when one of these opens up, you are going to be seriously perforated.  You can demolish walls, split boulders and chop down trees with an M2, although this kind of thing is frowned upon anywhere except the battlefield.

More 50-Year Veterans
If you have been paying attention then you know one of Conrad's favourite bands is Pink Floyd.  Their run of records from "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" to "The Wall" are what your talented typist believes to be their best stuff, when they were a genuine group.
     What's this about the Royal Mail?  Art?

RM are going to make an absolute mint on these!

     They're fudging the 50-year thing a little by claiming that's when the group went professional, although I shall cut them a little slack, no doubt relieving them mightily.  A little scary.  50 years!
     I recall Nick Mason's autobiography stating that in their early years audiences hated them, absolutely hated them, because their music was so different.  Who's laughing now, eh?

E.M.P.
NO!  I have not mistyped "E.L.P." - we have moved on from prog rock.  Pay attention!  "Electro Magnetic Pulse" which is a brief yet very intense burst of energy produced by the detonation of a nuclear warhead at altitude.  It is about the only thing a foofoodilly does that isn't harmful to Hom. Sap. although it's extraordinarily bad for electrical and electronic systems.  Anything with sufficient cable or components large enough will fry like pork lardons in butter.  

Local magnetic field also matters

The critical aspect is height, and we're talking kilometres here.  So, "Broken Arrow" and "The Day After" both got it wrong.  Heck, in "BA" the explosion was in an underground mine, dammit - height, Hollywood, height!
     Now, recall what I've been going on about recently, the Sprint and Spartan nuclear-tipped interceptor missiles, the latter especially, both designed to Go Off At Height.
     Would this not create an EMP that could affect vast areas of the USA?  Imagine a footprint at Ground Zero of thousands of square miles affected.
     Not only that, wouldn't this same EMP also knock out any incoming warheads to the limit of the horizon, like blindsided birds***?  Which would, ironically, render Spartan far more effective than intended or designed.
     Come to think about it, "Miracle Mile" got it wrong as well.
     Oh yes, the 50 year veteran bit.  Well, one of the "Starfish Prime" high-altitude nuclear detonations resulted in an EMP that knocked out streetlights in Hawaii, a very long way from the detonation point. 900 miles away, in fact.  That was then, with clunky old resilient robust technology so - if this happened today ...

A lovely sunset?
NO!  The Starfish Prime detonation.

*  As usual
** I nicked this from Faith No More
*** An American allusion, yet quite fitting I think