Now a SECOND False Nuke Alarm

[Kriegsspiel]

I'll concede that maybe some people feel the need for squeeze before work now that sexually harassing people is frowned on.

[dualstow]

And of course, Japan broadcaster NHK issued a false warning recently.
Maybe everyone's just a little too panicky, subsequently keeping their fingers too close to that button.

[Xan]

Update from Hawaii: it now looks as though it wasn't a drop-down menu problem; the person sending the alert DID believe there was a real threat.

It seems the real problem is that the announcement that plays for the people who actually send the alert contains the words "this is not a drill", even when it's a drill, which is supposed to be known by the presence of the words "EXERCISE, EXERCISE".

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... alse-alert

[Kriegsspiel]

Oh for goodness' sake, just eliminate the humans from the process entirely and turn over the nuclear decisions to a DoD-controlled supercomputer.

[Don]

Update from Hawaii: it now looks as though it wasn't a drop-down menu problem; the person sending the alert DID believe there was a real threat.

It seems the real problem is that the announcement that plays for the people who actually send the alert contains the words "this is not a drill", even when it's a drill, which is supposed to be known by the presence of the words "EXERCISE, EXERCISE".

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way ... alse-alert

Is weed legal in Hawaii?

[ochotona]

An idea for another way for Korea to play out, after watching the Olympic opening ceremony -

South says to North, OK we want a piece of those nukes. We will fund them 50%, and they are under joint North South control. If USA doesn't like it, they don't get any smartphone screens. We grant you, the Kim ruling family, immunity from prosecution for all past crimes, but not if you pull any crap in the future.

[Kriegsspiel]

The bad news arrived, as all news seemingly does now, as a smartphone push notification. But this notification looked and sounded different than most. It was, in fact, an emergency alert from the state government. The form of the alert was not a radio wave or an electronic signal, as in decades past, but computer code. Attached to the alert was an audio file with a recording of a synthesized male voice, for the vision-impaired. “The U.S. Pacific Command has detected a missile threat to Hawaii,” the voice said. “A missile may impact on land or sea within minutes. This is not a drill. If you are indoors, stay indoors. If you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter.” The stilted tone of the robot voice was all the more eerie, tasked as it was with effectively announcing the impending death of whoever heard it.
...
Managers at Starbucks and McDonalds, in the style of British cavalry officers in Crimea, ordered workers to stay on duty, missiles be damned! One young woman responded with a definitive anti-endorsement of an Oahu confectionary chain, writing: “DON’T TELL ME THIS MISSILE THING IS REAL I AM NOT DYING AT COOKIE CORNER.”

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/blame-the-computer-pein

So this might be fun; if you were to be obliterated in a nuclear tussle, where in your usual day would you like to be?

[dualstow]

bed.