Fake 'Inbound Missile' Alert Sent To Every Cellphone in Hawaii (chicagotribune.com) 227
"Somebody sent out a false emergency alert to all cell phones in Hawaii saying, 'BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL'," writes Slashdot reader flopwich, adding "Somebody's had better days at work." The Associated Press reports:
In a conciliatory news conference later in the day, Hawaii officials apologized for the mistake and vowed to ensure it will never happen again. Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Vern Miyagi said the error happened when someone hit the wrong button. "We made a mistake," said Miyagi. For nearly 40 minutes, it seemed like the world was about to end in Hawaii, an island paradise already jittery over the threat of nuclear-tipped missiles from North Korea...
On the H-3, a major highway north of Honolulu, vehicles sat empty after drivers left them to run to a nearby tunnel after the alert showed up, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Workers at a golf club huddled in a kitchen fearing the worst... The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted there was no threat about 10 minutes after the initial alert, but that didn't reach people who aren't on the social media platform. A revised alert informing of the "false alarm" didn't reach cellphones until 38 minutes later, according to the time stamp on images people shared on social media.
On the H-3, a major highway north of Honolulu, vehicles sat empty after drivers left them to run to a nearby tunnel after the alert showed up, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Workers at a golf club huddled in a kitchen fearing the worst... The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency tweeted there was no threat about 10 minutes after the initial alert, but that didn't reach people who aren't on the social media platform. A revised alert informing of the "false alarm" didn't reach cellphones until 38 minutes later, according to the time stamp on images people shared on social media.
Brown Pants (Score:5, Funny)
Bring me my Brown Pants!!
Re:Brown Pants (Score:5, Funny)
From Red Dwarf:
Kryten: "I suggest we go to red alert."
Cat: "Forget red alert. I say we go straight to brown alert!"
Kryten: "But sir, we don't have brown alert."
Cat: "You won't be saying that in a minute...and don't say I didn't alert you!"
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Are you sure, sir? It does mean changing the bulb.
Orson Welles was an amateur. (Score:4, Funny)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Why did it take 40 minutes to correct? (Score:5, Insightful)
This message ostensibly was sent to every cell phone in Hawaii - didn't the guy who "pushed the wrong button" get the alert as well?
And seriously - their first thought when sending out a correction was a Tweet? Don't they have the ability to send an "all clear" over the same channel they sent the "LOOK OUT YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!!!" message?
Re:Why did it take 40 minutes to correct? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't they have the ability to send an "all clear" over the same channel they sent the "LOOK OUT YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!!!" message?
No, apparently they do not:
"[Emergency alerts] aren't like text messages, where a sender can dash off a quick 'sorry my bad' if they mistype. IPAWS notices have a specific format, which must be composed formally and in advance. Audio files for broadcast notices must be recorded or generated and uploaded. Often, this has to be done by special software on special equipment."
https://www.theatlantic.com/te... [theatlantic.com]
Re:Why did it take 40 minutes to correct? (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the history of the Cold War, it's a little disturbing that they didn't have a "sorry, that was a false alarm" message already formally prepared.
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In the history of forever, whenever bureaucracies fuck up - 'blame the new guy'. Someone thought it was a good idea and did it, likely for political reasons, it went down way worse than they thought and... So what was the follow up marketing meant to about, obviously stoking war fears, real war fears. Who was playing, drive war fears as an FCC distraction, make more War Industrial Complex funding more palatable, attack property values in Honolulu (Pearl Harbour is the number one target in the US and make no
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So to be clear they had a formally formatted and pre-prepared alert for "incoming missile", but don't have one for "crisis over"? That seems counter-intuitive.
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People in a panic make mistakes. What would be the consequences if there really was an incoming missile and the "all clear" got sent out?
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If they were pre-recorded then it is a mistake that can easily be reversed. Especially since the all-clear with no prior would be obviously incorrect.
In any case it sounds like it is a difficult and convoluted process according to the GP to send one of these out. Having an area in a state of emergency simply because it takes time to record a message to say the emergency is over is not without consequence either.
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Seriously, if you receive a missile warning over an official emergency broadcast channel that stresses "this is not a drill", would you trust an "all clear" message that's sent as a bloody tweet?
In addition.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Funny part is that there was a prompt for "are you sure?"
The thing is, like all state of the art systems of this sort, it's run on NT or Win95, so Clippy is involved.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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Off hand, I'd expect that the kind of place that monitors for ICBM's and issues that sort of warning probably doesn't allow cell phones or many other kinds of wireless device. In a lot of cases, things like Internet access might also be locked down.
You can see the timeline and offical actions below (Score:2)
Hawaii officials give timeline of events surrounding false alarm [thehill.com]
Not much of a timeline (Score:4, Insightful)
Although interesting to see what happened after "the wrong button was pressed", I would still love to know more about how such a terribly incorrect action could be triggered so easily with no outside verification. Like the governor doesn't even get one minute to verify and cancel a state-wide alert?
I know time is of the essence in these things but it just seems crazy a shift change could trigger this, and in a way crazier that if that was possible, it never happened before. It seems pretty obvious something must have changed recently to allow this to happen, what was that?
Re: Not much of a timeline (Score:2)
It was probably a system test. Those need to be done to see how the thing actually works. Must be fascinating to collect and study data on people's responses.
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I agree it was a system test, but they probably do those regularly - again I'm really wondering, how come this has not happened before? There is some kind of story here.
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This message ostensibly was sent to every cell phone in Hawaii - didn't the guy who "pushed the wrong button" get the alert as well?
And seriously - their first thought when sending out a correction was a Tweet? Don't they have the ability to send an "all clear" over the same channel they sent the "LOOK OUT YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!!!" message?
What I am interested in is the "pushed the wrong button" business. Aren't they required to have one of these? http://www.12voltunlimited.com... [12voltunlimited.com] . I cannot imagine that if there was an actual button, it would have to have a switch guard. And if you have an alert that tells millions of people that they need to kiss their asses goodbye, a keyboard press to actuate is simply criminal.
But I'll bet it was a keyboard press.
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How would all diplomats in the USA react? Calls made, messages sent. Reactions in their embassy, communications used from their embassy out of the USA.
Spies been watched by the FBI all over the USA react in any way at all?
Do US survivalist have any national or global messaging system that was not yet under constant FBI/NSA/CIA watch?
What did averag
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It's far from obvious to me that any of these (no doubt mostly pathetic) apocalyptic machinations pass the "very interesting" test.
Nor is it obvious to me that the government of America (in the large) is just a grown up version of that strange kid in sixth grade who snuck a live iguana into the girl's change room—just to see what they would do.
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No one system user would be allowed to do a fat-finger error https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] with that kind of warning.
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Just watch for all the "other agency people" return to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. Some parts of Oregon and Washington.
The SUV's from the north east of the US arrive with people driving out to their summer cabins (bunkers).
No influx of gov/mil/contractors from the intelligence services to their safe havens? Its all just a test until they drive in.
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At some stage in this "test" a real person in the USA with clearance had to physically give an order to allow the message to be sent. That would need some great social engineering on site
AC got a "clue" on how many other nations nationals are spying on the US navy in Hawaii? They would notice a strange message in real time. Some of them might have made contact with someone.
AC re you "If the alert is for real" then
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If a person is seeking to join most interesting groups, they are no longer interested. Trust is now with family, community, faith groups, friends.
Only after a long test of social media, background and consideration will people be approached and made an offer.
Re "It's a bit
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You've got to inform the guy with the massive button so he knows it's fake, so naturally you send a tweet.
After that you can update all the plebs.
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Agile project. This feature was not prioritized now. Maybe in Sprint 24.
. . . and the other buttons . . . ? (Score:5, Funny)
So, they have a button programmed to broadcast a missile attack, and the operator "hit it by mistake."
So what other alert buttons are pre-programmed on the board . . . ?
"GIANT TUNA DEVOURING BEACH VISITORS!"
"AI POWERED SLINKY ARMY ATTACKING PASSENGER CARS!"
And, of course, worst of all:
"HAWAII DECLARED TO BE A SHITHOLE!"
Re:. . . and the other buttons . . . ? (Score:5, Funny)
"IMMINENT COVFEFE! STAND BY!"
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I see your list omitted the Sharknado. . . . are you trying to be funny or something? ;D
Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)
From Monsters vs Aliens. [youtube.com]
Real not fake...mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
It wasn't a "fake alert" it was a real alert from the real Agency empowered to issue them, that's way worse than a "fake" one.
It was a mistake... That's not the same as being "fake", words matter. Editor's please take some English classes before posting any more.
Re:Real not fake...mistake (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed, it was a false alert, not a fake one.
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English usage nowadays is worse than malapropisms. People are laughed at for using rarely used synonyms ("LOL, look at this Thesaurus guy").
I hate every bit of Western culture that elevates so called "common" man. I want to live in a world where people need to have some kind of exam before getting access to the Internet, before that stupid Eternal September thing.
I miss classes. Not classes at school. Classes in Marxist definition. I want to receive a formal acknowledgement for being a Ph.D. from plumbers a
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Are you talking about army tactics or Rugby Union?
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English usage nowadays is worse than malapropisms. People are laughed at for using rarely used synonyms ("LOL, look at this Thesaurus guy").
I hate every bit of Western culture that elevates so called "common" man. I want to live in a world where people need to have some kind of exam before getting access to the Internet, before that stupid Eternal September thing.
I miss classes. Not classes at school. Classes in Marxist definition. I want to receive a formal acknowledgement for being a Ph.D. from plumbers and waiters. I want them to take of their stupid baseball hats when they see me while I respond with dismissive acknowledgment of their existence.
I hate egalitarianism. I am not equal to you, dumbass that was flanking high school just few years ago.
No sarcasm. I am tired living in a consumer society.
I miss people who knew the difference between “of” and “off,” and who bothered to check their writing BEFORE posting remarks about how much fucking better they are than everyone else for allegedly having been awarded a “Piled higher and Deeper” degree.
Having memorized by rote other people’s ideas doesn’t make you any “better,” than other people, you fucking snob, so on behalf of all the plumbers and waiters of the world, all of whom are more useful
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Editor's please take some English classes
Ooops
I was there... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Spare laptop with web cam, other spare cellphone that can pointed out a window after such an alert.
Re: I was there... (Score:5, Insightful)
The closest Hiroshima survivor was in a cellar only 300 m from ground zero -- which is very close when you consider that the bomb was detonated at 500 m altitude.
Now the device North Korea tested back in September was 10x to 20x more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, but still if a bomb were detonated over Pearl Harbor and you were standing on the beach in Waikiki, you'd almost certainly survive, albeit possibly with thermal burns.
Here's the thing about all that Duck and Cover stuff from the 50s: when you're talking about a handful of bombs distributed over the entire country, diving under a picnic blanket actually makes sense. It wont' help you if you're at ground zero, but if you're five miles away or so it could make the difference between surviving uninjured or requiring hospital treatment. Multiply that by tens of thousands of people, and duck and cover type education is a sensible defensive strategy.
There is, however, a simple counter: attack with a lot more warheads. By the early 70s the Soviets had something like 25,000 of them. An all-out attack would not only result in multiple bombs falling on every city, it would guarantee the collapse of American society and a short and hellish existence for anyone unlucky enough to survive. Fatalism makes sense in that scenario. You might as well enjoy the show for a few hundred milliseconds and then die.
That's not where we are with a North Korean nuclear attack, not by a long shot. North Korea's arsenal is not large enough yet to cause the collapse of American society, or even to kill the majority of people in a city like Honolulu. So maybe we should be dusting off those old civil defense films.
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North Korea's arsenal is not large enough yet to cause the collapse of American society, or even to kill the majority of people in a city like Honolulu. So maybe we should be dusting off those old civil defense films.
Hiroshima was ~350k people and 90-146k people were killed by a 16kt nuke. Wikipedia says Honolulu itself has 377k inhabitants and North Korea's latest test was probably around 250kt, so unless Honolulu is vastly more spread out I'd say it only takes one. Maybe it wouldn't take out the majority of the million or so living in the metro area but you'd probably be more than halfway to the total WW2 losses. And the greatest loss of civilians since the Civil War.
That said, Honolulu is probably mostly a psychologi
Re: I was there... (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. The radius of destructive effect rises as the 2/3 power of yield. That's because the energy is dissipated in a three dimensional volume, and you're calculating the radius of intersection of that volume with a two dimensional surface. TL;DR: 20x the yield equals 7x the destructive radius.
Anyhow you can look up on the expected fatal radius by bomb type and yield, and the immediately fatal thermal effects of the warhead NK tested for an unprotected individual would be less than 5 miles, although many closer would survive because of shelter. Honolulu is about 12 miles across. If you put the warhead in the geographic center of the city to maximize casualties a lot of people on either end will survive. A lot of them will be uninjured too. The 5 psi blast radius is only three miles, outside that radius even residential buildings will still stand and people shaded by them will likely escape uninjured if they can get inside before the fallout.
Shitty wat to wake up (Score:3)
Hope I never read a message like that again.
Didn't last long, but people were running red lights, etc.
Friends were trying to decide which of their children to save.
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Friends were trying to decide which of their children to save.
Save them how, exactly?
Re:Shitty wat to wake up (Score:4, Interesting)
Bring them to shelter. People have survived nuclear attacks before, no doubt they will in the future as well. If you avoid being killed by the initial blast and radiation you want to shelter from the fallout, most of which fades in two weeks.
Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [atomicheritage.org]
Fallout Protection - What to Know and Do about Nuclear Attack [wa.gov]
Nuclear Strike Drills Faded Away In The 1980s. It May Be Time To Dust Them Off [npr.org]
Nuclear weapons and their effects operate according to the laws of physics, not magic. The physics, effects, and countermeasures are known.
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Private shelters from the cold war had design limitations given the idea was to sell owners on bunker not design a bunker for different locations.
The land the 1950/60 shelter got placed into might not have been well prepared and by 2018 that shelter might have cracked, moved, failed. Soil conditions and what wate
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It seems to me you have a few things wrong there. There will still be survivors of an attack by a 150kt nuclear warhead, it just becomes more difficult or less likely as you get closer to the explosion. But ultimately you are going to reach an area where the force of the explosion attenuates to the point it is no longer a major threat (a cube root function) The same goes for larger warheads. Next, it is reasonable to doubt that North Korea has enough warheads to cause nuclear winter. Finally, there see
Re:Shitty wat to wake up (Score:4, Informative)
I really liked this TED talk about it: Surviving a Nuclear Attack [youtube.com].
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Or was it which ones to get rid of?
Inquiring minds want to know (Score:2)
So say I get similar alert in my home in CA. Don't have any basement, have one bathtub where children can fit. How do I maximize chances of long term survival? Stay in the house or in the car which at least has a partial metal envelope?
Re:Inquiring minds want to know (Score:5, Interesting)
I grew up in the 60s and 70s. I remember some of the cold war films they showed us in school. According to them:
Stay indoors. If you’re close enough to the blast, you’re probably dead anyway (that was mostly just implied). For many more people, though, fallout is going to be the main worry - so stay inside. And even if you still have running water... you probably shouldn’t drink it. Use what’s already in the back of the toilet and in your hot water heater.
Of course nowadays, post 9/11, most reservoirs are supposedly covered - so I have no idea if that’s as important.
In any case, water is probably going to be the main short term issue. If you have some pre-blast warning, filling up as many containers as possible with water is a good idea.
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Iodine?
Since most if not all Iodine isotopes have half life measured in days or hours, you don't need to block iodine update for a long time.
You need to flood your body with iodine, so that any radioactive iodine that is ingested is excreted out again, instead of being accumulated in the thyroid.
Re: Inquiring minds want to know (Score:2)
The automobile has little to maintain its position, just four tires. It wasn't designed to withstand extreme conditions. The windows can be shattered, and the frame can crumple on top of you. Few vehicles are strong enough to survive such extre conditions.
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Duck and cover, mocked endlessly, is a good way to react. If you are close enough either the radiation or the blast will kill you outright, but that's a pretty small area (particularly when its a maybe 20kt fission weapon from Korea, probably with an impact trigger). Otherwise, your biggest danger is from the flying debris. Ducking out of the way of flying glass and getting under some substantial cover to avoid falling roofs and ceilings will certainly raise your odds of getting through it.
Re:Inquiring minds want to know (Score:4, Informative)
Baby boomer here. I remember when they taught this shit in school. Stay in your house, away from windows, keep curtains drawn. Have a battery radio and fill up containers with drinking water.
There are multiple ways for a nuclear strike to kill you: ionizing radiation burn, pressure wave, thermal radiation burn, firestorm, and fallout. Each has its own characteristic radius within which you will probably die from it, but your chances are improved by being inside.
You car would be a bad idea for many reasons unless it is in a garage. If your car is outside it will get quickly covered with very hot short-lived radioactive fallout. The gamma rays will cut through your car like it wasn't even there. You want physical distance to cut down your radiation dose until the hottest isotopes decay. The area in which the fallout will kill you quickly actually begins to contract after only an hour or so, even though the fallout is spreading. The area in which short exposures to fallout represents a health risk starts to drop after a day.
Get inside, stay inside, listen on the radio for the all clear.
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Get inside, stay inside, listen on the radio for the all clear.
Presuming your radio survives the EMP.
The radio station, particularly AM station, stands a better chance of surviving because in many cases, the transmitter amplifiers are still closet-sized tube amplifiers. Of course the studio will probably get toasted, but it's easier to work around that than it is to work around a tens-of-kilowatts amplifier going up in smoke.
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Depends on the altitude of the blast. EMP is primarily produced by the interaction of gamma rays with the upper atmosphere. A single large warhead detonated at an altitude calculated for maximum casualties would almost certainly NOT produce the kind of EMP effects lazy thriller writers have taught the public are an inevitable part of any nuclear attack.
I know this because I've critiqued a number of science fiction manuscripts, and the "huge bomb creates the end of technological civilization" scenario is s
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Store some food and water to start with.
If the home is yours and you can get planning approval consider an approved Root cellar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] design
If you have land, got gov approval and can hire an expert consider some of the much smaller bunker designs. They are turn key, functional and don't cost millions of $.
Stay in the house. Have water and food set aside.
The time after will be like the movie The Road https://en.wikipedia.org/w [wikipedia.org]
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You really want to do some preparation since your situation improves considerably with it. Neither a standard wood frame house nor car is going to be much protection if you are in them, and remember the radiation would come from above as well. You want to be in the shelter for 14 days if possible to allow the radiation levels to drop. If possible you want to get at least a meter of soil between you and the radiation - in all directions, including above you. The radiation will be the worst at the beginni
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Get a new president. Best way to survive a nuclear blast is to not have one.
A good wake up call (Score:2)
This may have been the result of minor incompetence, but there is major incompetence happening further west.
We ignore North Korea and China at our peril. They will soon have capability to reach Hawaii. Then what will we do when they start attacking S. Korea? Nothing that is what. Cannot endanger Hawaii.
And anti missile missiles are only partially effective. They would need to be near 100% to risk it.
Sure, we could retaliate, but remember, N. Korea need not act rationally.
Re: A good wake up call (Score:2)
We ignore North Korea and China at our peril. They will soon have capability to reach Hawaii. Then what will we do when they start attacking S. Korea? Nothing that is what.Cannot endanger Hawaii.
Bomb the launch sites? You know we have bombs the size of railroad cars that we can drop on their military installations - they impact a 1 mile radius area, as isis learned a little while ago... what's it called, the "Mother Of All Bombs"?
good (Score:2, Interesting)
This is so colossally bad as to be irrecoverable. (Score:2)
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I don't know, people can wrap their heads around fucking up once. A second such incident would probably have the result you mentioned, though.
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Honestly, I hope you're right...
Although I hope even more that we never need to find out.
Not every cellphone. Only allegedly "smart" ones (Score:3)
Simple Solution (Score:2)
Is this the 2018 equivalent. . . . (Score:2)
. . . of Leeeeeerrooooyyyyyy Jeeeeeeeeennnnkkkiinnsssss!!!
(grin)
Re: State Exercise? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Ah, it's Saturday, so it's "the government never makes a mistake" today. Presumably tomorrow we'll go back to "the government can never do anything right".
But if you want to go with a "it was a secret test" conspiracy theory, consider that the government doing the secret testing may not have been the American government.
Re: State Exercise? (Score:5, Interesting)
Exercised ? (Score:2)
Imagine Kim is drunk, time to troll Hawaii....
Kimmie wants a raise, time to troll Hawaii, Alaska, NYC
Kimmie just enjoys a good laugh
After all Pops made a good living at it and there only bonuses....
This one was (Score:3)
Did any other state get a similar warning? No? Then how was it not a state deal? If the feds has messed up we all would have gotten a notice on our phones, or at least some other part of the U.S.
Re:This one was (Score:4, Interesting)
Or, this was real but neutralized and then disavowed with a cover story.
I'm pretty sure the feds wouldn't send a nationwide alert for a localized threat. Initiating mass panic is dangerous enough over a small area.
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A cover story for a single missile that was neutralized may be feasible. However, there is no way in hell a US retaliatory response could be hidden by a cover story.
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Something tells me this isn't the first missile we've neutralized (shooting down a missile that has no chance of reaching the US is just good defense practice). But to retaliate means to acknowledge it. Pretending it never happened would be a huge blow to KJU's ego. All of this is wild speculation, of course.
Re:State Exercise? (Score:5, Informative)
Scaring the crap out of everyone is considered "a state exercise?"
It was a mistake by state officials, plain and simple.
Hawaii officials give timeline of events surrounding false alarm [thehill.com]
Approx. 8.05 a.m.: A routine internal test during a shift change was initiated. This was a test that involved the Emergency Alert System, the Wireless Emergency Alert, but no warning sirens.
8.07 a.m.: A warning was erroneously triggered statewide by an employee at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA).
8.10 a.m.: State Adjutant Maj. Gen. Joe Logan validated with the US Pacific Command that there was no missile launch.
Honolulu Police Department notified of the false alarm by HI-EMA.
8.13 a.m.: State Warning Point issues a cancellation of the Civil Danger Warning Message. This would have prevented the initial alert from being rebroadcast to phones that may not have received it yet. For instance, if a phone was not on at 8.07am, it would not receive the alert later on.
Re:State Exercise? (Score:4, Insightful)
Scaring the crap out of everyone is considered "a state exercise?"
It was a mistake by state officials, plain and simple.
My interst is that I would want to know where the thing is aimed for, so I could stand a few miles away and enjoy the show. Radiation poisioning isn't pretty, and to actually witness the explosion, then get quickly incinerated seems like the ticket. Google Hiroshi Ouchi - but only if you have a very strong stomach. Ouchi and another fellow were pouring Uranyl Nitrate solution into a container, and for some reason poured 16 Kilograms worth of Uranium into a vessel that was only supposed to have 2.4, and there went the pretty blue flash that announced to them that they had a criticality. Ouchi caught 17 freaking sieverts of radiation, when 8 is likely to kill ya. His buddy Shinohara experienced 10 sieverts. They ded. For some reason the powers that be did everything possible to keep him alive, possibly to save face, but the combination of having no more skin, losing incredible amounts of bodily fluids - one day over 20 Kg, and organ failure. 83 friction days of nuclear provided happieness, as you can see by his last photo. But once again, don't look if you are sensitive - it looks like something from a horror movie.
Which is why my popcorn and tequila party to witness the event and check out before I turn into Mr Ouchi is much more appealing. And if it is a fake or a mistake, at least we had a fun party.
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Scaring the crap out of everyone is considered "a state exercise?"
It was a mistake by state officials, plain and simple.
My interst is that I would want to know where the thing is aimed for, so I could stand a few miles away and enjoy the show. Radiation poisioning isn't pretty, and to actually witness the explosion, then get quickly incinerated seems like the ticket.
Knowing where to be in Hawaii to see a nuclear attack, and not be injured, is easy to figure out.
If North Korea is dropping one its new 250 kT warheads on Hawaii (which could possibly be a 500 kT design), they will be dropping it on the Honolulu/Pearl Harbor urban/military complex. They are cheek by jowl and regardless of the actual aim point, the entire area will get devastated. 72% of Hawaii's entire population lives on Oahu (a total of 950,000 people in the island) and 81% of those live in or near the H
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So, if I shout "FIRE!" in a crowded theater, I can just say it was an "accident"? I suppose, with the right connections...
The guy responsible should at least have to wear a pink tutu and dance the "Sugar Plum Fairy" downtown during rush hour.
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The official statement is that state employee "hit the wrong button on a computer". Unlike a physical button you'd imagine when he clicked "Send Alert To Everyone In State" button there would be a "Are you sure?" follow up question -- or two -- with possibly "Sending mass alert in 10...9...8... press Cancel to abort". And then if it was a mistake, wouldn't he have clicked on the button again and said "sorry ignore the last one" immediately, not after 38 minutes?
Could it be that the said employee was acting
Re: State Exercise? (Score:4, Informative)
Scaring the crap out of everyone is considered "a state exercise?"
Yes.
It was a state warning system activated by state employees that was sent to everyone in the state of Hawaii.
The clear meaning is that there was no federal involvement in the alert.
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FALSE. NK missles have gone a bit over Japan. There is zero indication they have the technology to hit anything besides the ocean.
FALSE. The missiles were a lot more than a bit over Japan, in one case the apogee was 4,500km. An ICBM will generally have an apogee of about 1,200km, so by flattening the trajectory the range can be greatly increased.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency says that during its 53 minutes flight time, the missile soared some 4500km into space — that’s 10 times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.
Defence analysts say this demonstrates it has the power and range of a fully functional ICBM capable of travelling more than 10,000km - putting all of the United States mainland and most of the world within its reach.
http://www.news.com.au/world/a... [news.com.au]
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One of my first memories was in 1950 when the communists in NK invaded the south and the UN voted on a resolution against them. Did you forget almost 70 years of history?
Re: Trump is trying to create... (Score:5, Informative)
Trump is trying to create... a problem in Korea where there has never been one before?
You can't be that stupid.
Ever heard of the Korean War? They made a tv show about it called M.A.S.H., it was quite popular.
There was also a movie, called Team America, that explored some of the issues involved with North Korea.
Every president since Eisenhower has had to deal with a "North Korea Problem", even Obama, the difference is Trump isn't trying to bribe North Korea to get them to pretend to suspend their nuclear weapons efforts...
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Hanlon's Razor.
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It's not a universal law, it's a methodological tool for critical thinking. Like Occam's razor, it encourages you to include no more assumptions than you have evidence for.
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Yes and no. Yes, they can easily get a list of everyone's number, but no, it is a little more difficult to locate each individual number at any given time.
Instead, the broadcasts are sent based on connected tower. Think of it just like a broadcast packet on a LAN Subnet. Phones connected to the particular towers (in this case, literally every single tower in the state) received the message.
This is also pretty much the same system the AMBER alter system uses.
Re: The government shouldn't have everyone's numbe (Score:5, Interesting)
Why do you imagine that the only way the message could be sent to every phone is to have a list of all phone numbers? I suspect the system relies on beacon signals broadcast from cell towers that every cellphone within range picks up, displays the message, then stores a record of the alert for a pre determined period of time (24 hours), after which the alert is ignored.
Do you really imagine the system sends out several million simultaneous text messages? Why just send a message to every device within range?
Re: The government shouldn't have everyone's numbe (Score:2)
The government shouldn't have everyone's number. They should definitely not have such a tool of powerful propaganda and fear in everyone's pockets.
You propose they instead do what, print their alerts about impending danger in the newspaper, but not on the front page - that might scare people?
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That's OK, it hasn't been discussed here till now . That discussions is part of the magic of Slashdot.
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American tanks *WILL* roll into Bejing.
Oh please. Dream on.
America could possibly beat China in an all-out war (and tanks driving into Beijing would require an all-out war) but the only way the US will be driving tanks into Beijing is if they've already levelled it with nukes first.
The US just isn't going to win a conventional war against China in China.