Emergency Alert Test 23 April

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reohn2
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by reohn2 »

drossall wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 1:36pm
Mick F wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 9:30am I think it's a load of tosh. We'd be better off with an "air raid siren". :lol:
Or lighting beacons on the hillsides.
And in the event of a nuclear strike,lighting a beacon would at leas warm you up before being well done! :D
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drossall
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by drossall »

When sirens were in use, did the government offer free ear plugs to those who didn't want to hear them?
Jdsk
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by Jdsk »

drossall wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 5:40pm When sirens were in use, did the government offer free ear plugs to those who didn't want to hear them?
Yes, but it was a long way down in the Settings.

Jonathan
Jdsk
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by Jdsk »

Pebble wrote: 20 Mar 2023, 11:22pm ...
I don't want to be on the road at the moment so many drivers will be trying to answer their phone - they will be going through hedges and everything.
On iPhones it overrides the Silent setting. I haven't been able to discover how it interacts with Driving Focus.

Jonathan
rjb
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by rjb »

[XAP]Bob wrote: 20 Mar 2023, 11:13pm You forgot the towel
42 :lol:
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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simonineaston
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by simonineaston »

More, please: what are these "strange new ways of behaving"?
There is the notion that broadly speaking what we do is informed by our sub-conscious, as much as our conscious brains. As the raw data pours in to our minds, to be processed and reappear as what we do and how we act, we continually tell ourselves stories so that our conscious minds feel comfortable about ourselves.
Information with respect to impending existential threat is increasingly available in a way that it never has before. The consequence is that people - most people - are becoming aware of the serious possibility of The End coming sometime soon. This, naturally, has the potential to have a destabilising effect on people's conscious and sub-concious minds.
Combine the above with fast-emerging culturally relevant infrastructure, like the internet, social media and AI chatbots, and the result is that we're all in a place that allows people to imagine pretty much whatever they want, in order to bolster the stories referred to above.
Thus we see, for example, the emergence of post postmodernism / hauntology / post truth & hypernormalisation, as well as a great many less formalised ways of thinking, such as focus on conspiracy theories and wide use of games / virtual reality. As the conscious ways of thinking descend into a miasma of artificiality, lies & deception, at the same time the grim reality of possible futures makes its way into our subconscious minds.
These are very difficult ideas for a simple animal - a chimp-that-learnt-to-talk. So it's no wonder that things are going a bit wobbly! Frequently, individuals' reactions to all this complexity is simply to shut their eyes tight and try really really hard to imagine they are anything they could possibly want to be. That's a story that, from their troubled subconscious pov is way more preferable to focusing on two very difficult possibilites - the first, that it could all be over sometime soon and the other, that it follows that there really can't have been any point to any of it...
Fortunately for us all, our cycles remain reliable and pleasant to use and allow us an escape route to effective relaxation...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Jdsk
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by Jdsk »

Thanks.

There's nothing "new" about either apocalyptic predictions or the madness of crowds.

But they aren't obligatory.

Jonathan
reohn2
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by reohn2 »

Jdsk wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 9:06pm Thanks.

There's nothing "new" about either apocalyptic predictions or the madness of crowds.

But they aren't obligatory.

Jonathan
But they're very real to a mindset that has already seen via very realistic media whether that be fictional or real what those scenarios can be.
Ever wondered why shopping or collecting or many other pointless pursuits which can include cycling,have become an end in themselves?
Could it be the mind has an ideal set aquired within it from an outside source and seeks that ideal to overcome reality,it's a salesman's dream and a punter's dream too.
Simon makes a very good point IMHO
EDIT:- The very real thought that everything we love,family friends all the good things in life we all have and have strived for can be wiped out in an instant,can be a very frightening thought that many people don't wish to even give a second's thought to for fear of that thought becoming overwhelming.
One only need look at very recent events,Ukraine,Syria,Turkey or the onset of global warming to realise all this is reality,add to that the very powerful computers everyone carries aren't with them which can access these possible disasters in glorious technicolour and it's no wonder people dye their hair all the colours of the rainbow or have plastic surgery to enhance their perceived ideal looks or ink themselves,sometime to an alarming degree or wear extreme fashions and look toward sportstars or celebs for there ideals peddling such looks,heck some even look to and believe in politrickians diatribe.
Last edited by reohn2 on 22 Mar 2023, 9:55am, edited 1 time in total.
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ANTONISH
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by ANTONISH »

drossall wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 5:40pm When sirens were in use, did the government offer free ear plugs to those who didn't want to hear them?
If you'd experienced an air raid you would know that the last thing you want is ear plugs to prevent you hearing the warning.

Later in the fifties air raid sirens were repurposed to warn of flooding - this emergency alert test just seems to be using modern technology for the same purpose - and of course a warning system needs to be tested.

Unfortunately both those events may be on the horizon though I doubt we would cope well with a nuclear strike.
Jdsk
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by Jdsk »

reohn2 wrote: 22 Mar 2023, 9:33am
Jdsk wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 9:06pm There's nothing "new" about either apocalyptic predictions or the madness of crowds.

But they aren't obligatory.
But they're very real to a mindset that has already seen via very realistic media whether that be fictional or real what those scenarios can be.
Ever wondered why shopping or collecting or many other pointless pursuits which can include cycling,have become an end in themselves?
Could it be the mind has an ideal set aquired within it from an outside source and seeks that ideal to overcome reality,it's a salesman's dream and a punter's dream too.
...
If the point is that our minds evolved in settings that that are different from the environment in which they now operate then I totally agree. If it's that much of our information processing isn't conscious then I totally agree.

But that's very different from asserting that there's something new in apocalyptic predictions or people believing things that aren't true.

...

The UK implementation of the alerts doesn't include attack with nuclear weapons. But even if it did there could be many survivors whose chances could be improved because they knew a bit earlier. For the events that it does cover there would typically be quite large numbers.

Jonathan
Last edited by Jdsk on 22 Mar 2023, 10:03am, edited 1 time in total.
Jdsk
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by Jdsk »

ANTONISH wrote: 22 Mar 2023, 9:53am
drossall wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 5:40pm When sirens were in use, did the government offer free ear plugs to those who didn't want to hear them?
If you'd experienced an air raid you would know that the last thing you want is ear plugs to prevent you hearing the warning.

Later in the fifties air raid sirens were repurposed to warn of flooding - this emergency alert test just seems to be using modern technology for the same purpose - and of course a warning system needs to be tested.

Unfortunately both those events may be on the horizon though I doubt we would cope well with a nuclear strike.
I remember them being tested, and then them being there but unused for some time.

Yes, this new approach needs to be tested, both technically and in evaluating the effects, including those on road safety, as upthread.

Thoughts about surviving attack with nuclear weapons just posted.

Jonathan
reohn2
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by reohn2 »

Jdsk wrote: 22 Mar 2023, 9:58am
reohn2 wrote: 22 Mar 2023, 9:33am
Jdsk wrote: 21 Mar 2023, 9:06pm There's nothing "new" about either apocalyptic predictions or the madness of crowds.

But they aren't obligatory.
But they're very real to a mindset that has already seen via very realistic media whether that be fictional or real what those scenarios can be.
Ever wondered why shopping or collecting or many other pointless pursuits which can include cycling,have become an end in themselves?
Could it be the mind has an ideal set aquired within it from an outside source and seeks that ideal to overcome reality,it's a salesman's dream and a punter's dream too.
...
If the point is that our minds evolved in settings that that are different from the environment in which they now operate then I totally agree. If it's that much of our information processing isn't conscious then I totally agree.

But that's very different from asserting that there's something new in apocalyptic predictions or people believing things that aren't true.
There's nothing new in nuclear warnings or people believing things that aren't true the point is what's going on in the uneducated and reactive mindset of many people as the possible threat of war,economic disaster,global warming,etc,etc,becomes an ever growing monster on there peripheral vision.These are things generally becoming a very real threat.

The UK implementation of the alerts doesn't include attack with nuclear weapons. But even if it did there could be many survivors whose survival could be enhanced because they knew a bit earlier. For the events that it does cover there would typically be quite large numbers.

Jonathan
People want and seek a quite mind but in recent years things have become evermore unquite due a number of things some quite cataclismic,people who once did no longer feel secure.
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maximus meridius
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by maximus meridius »

simonineaston wrote: 20 Mar 2023, 11:23am I recall reading a Penguin book called Hiroshima (my dad worked for Allen Lane in the late '50s, but not for long...) when I was young and being struck by the passage that described the scorch marks left behind people who'd otherwise disappeared - vapourised by the heat. The scorch marks formed a sort of ghastly hyper hot equivalent of their normal sun-powered "shadow".
Still, I don't s'pose it hurts much...
It's a myth.
complete vaporization of the body is impossible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Sha ... d_in_Stone

Something that blocks the brief but intense infrared radiation, radiant heat, will produce a similar shadow, as the railings in the photograph have done.

It is worth pointing out the bank in question wasn't the one that Akiko Takakura survived in, even though she was only 300 metres from ground zero. Her survival, though with severe lacerations, ought to point to the survivability of nuclear attacks, for some people, with adequate preparation, or even by taking appropriate action in the short time after a warning.

I've seen The War Game a couple of times (maybe more), The Day After once. I've seen On The Beach (a long time ago). I've never seen Threads. These sorts of films portray the power of nuclear weapons very dramatically. But propagate many ideas about nuclear war which can't be known, some incorrect things, and in the case of On The Beach, straightforward lies, about what a nuclear war would be like. They are works of dramatic fiction, another form of entertainment, really.

A more useful work if you are interested is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_W ... val_Skills

It is to the eternal shame of many western governments that they have not taken anything like the steps to protect citizens that the USSR did.

The enormous reduction in the worlds stock of nuclear weapons since the 1990s is very good news. Ronald Reagan deserves credit for starting that process. He is reported to have been deeply affected by The Day After, if I remember correctly.

I have seen, somewhere, the calculations for the destructive power of the entire stock of Russian Federation nuclear weapons. Obviously they are very destructive weapons. But not capable of anything like the dramatic "end of all life on the planet" destruction that is so often talked about.

Putin may start a nuclear exchange, or he may not. It's worth pointing out that of the 6,000 nuclear weapons Russia has, only about 1,500 are operable, IIRC. And as has been pointed out, the Russian army is so corrupt that they can't even maintain weapons systems they might actually have to use, like tanks and trucks, as we have just seen in Ukraine. I'd be willing to bet that nuclear missiles, which nobody in Russia would be expecting to use, will have been very badly maintained, if at all. They may not fire. Or the officers tasked with firing them may refuse.
reohn2
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by reohn2 »

maximus meridius wrote: 23 Mar 2023, 2:54am .........Putin may start a nuclear exchange, or he may not. It's worth pointing out that of the 6,000 nuclear weapons Russia has, only about 1,500 are operable, IIRC. And as has been pointed out, the Russian army is so corrupt that they can't even maintain weapons systems they might actually have to use, like tanks and trucks, as we have just seen in Ukraine. I'd be willing to bet that nuclear missiles, which nobody in Russia would be expecting to use, will have been very badly maintained, if at all. They may not fire. Or the officers tasked with firing them may refuse.
I tend to agree about the state the Russian armed forces corruption and total lack organisation,and that would most likely be the case for it's nuclear arsenal.
That said however unlikely,were but three dropped on say London,Paris and Berlin,can you imagine the devastation not to mention the after effects botth short and long term,it would make the devastation of the Syrian/Turkey earthquake look very small by comparision.And that's before we even think about the counter strikes.
I don't believe Putin would ever start a nuclear war as even he realises there's no winners in such a conflict but the Ukraine war is have economic effects in Europe not to mention devastating effects on the Ukraine,one can only guess at what the war's effect is having on the Russian people and it's economy.

For many people in the west war is OK as long as it's far away in some Arabic country,but this one's getting a little too close for comfort and it's having psychological and economic effects on nations that haven't experienced anything like it since WW2,this can't be viewed in isolation,but it's one of the major parts of the present western world downturn in living standards and therebye security and safety.
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Mick F
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Re: Emergency Alert Test 23 April

Post by Mick F »

Just had a chat with Mrs Mick F about this alert.
We've both been in and out a lot over the last week, so it was only after breakfast that the subject was raised.

She said that she read about it yesterday not knowing anything about it before.
"Where?", I asked.
"On FaceBook", she replied.
She added that there are lots of people chatting about it on FB and who have turned the alert off. She will be doing the same no doubt.
Mick F. Cornwall
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