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What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

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11–20 of 381 posts

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#11
post #7

I find it really annoying that top two articles on HN are completely separate from engineering. Since when have posts from news sources been able to not just make it to the front page, but dominate the front page? Years ago, coming to this site helped me to become an engineer and changed the way I think about problems. But now I don't get that, and instead get plenty of feel-good articles and useless posts that don't…

I second you. Important engineering / tech related articles don't make it to front page, and something's that's absolutely unrelated often does.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#13
post #7

I find it really annoying that top two articles on HN are completely separate from engineering. Since when have posts from news sources been able to not just make it to the front page, but dominate the front page? Years ago, coming to this site helped me to become an engineer and changed the way I think about problems. But now I don't get that, and instead get plenty of feel-good articles and useless posts that don't…

This is an engineering article.

Edit: if you're an engineer and you disagree, then you're the kind of engineer who's more likely to accidentally convince millions of people they are about to die and you are exactly who should be reading this kind of article.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#14

I live in New York City and I felt a small degree of panic when the reports showed up on Twitter. However, my initial instinct was "either the system doesn't work, or someone messed up". If someone started firing missiles at the US, the risk that we'd start shooting them back seems high, and I think NYC would be a city that would get pummeled in retaliation. This is probably true for a lot of major coastal cities, es…

Growing up I got the impression that a fallout shelter was a purpose-specific room deep underground. So every time I saw the "Fallout Shelter" sign on a building, I figured it was built with one of these "secret underground rooms". Think dedicated, locked stairwell that goes a thousand feet underground; after all, that's how it was pictured in my "Way Things Work" book. When we went to the bank, it was something of an intrigue, where the door to this secret underground cavern really was and what was inside.

As I got to go into more city buildings throughout my life, I noticed many of the rooms designated "fallout shelters" were just some spare room in the basement, complete with ventilation to the outside and really, not much farther than a few steps to the front door.

There may be a lot of "fallout shelters" in NYC but I get the impression that the labeling wasn't very strict and that many of these "shelters" won't really protect you from "fallout".

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#17
I'm currently living in Japan. So obviously I have a plan for nuclear war.

First, I'm going to press send on the doomsday draft which is sitting in my e-mail.

Second, I'm going to go to youtube and play "We all go together" by Tom Leher.

Third, I got a bottle sitting in my desk that I'm going to pop open. Presumably I'll be in the office at the time so one final round with the coworkers.

The people in this article seem much more stressed and have not yet come to terms with the fact that sometimes life ends abruptly (nuclear or otherwise). If you actually get a nuclear war warning for real, my plan is just as good as any other. At least I didn't spend my last moments frantically running a bathtub and panicking.

Re: What It Felt Like in Hawaii When Warning of an In-Bound Missile Arrived

#20
post #17

I'm currently living in Japan. So obviously I have a plan for nuclear war. First, I'm going to press send on the doomsday draft which is sitting in my e-mail. Second, I'm going to go to youtube and play "We all go together" by Tom Leher. Third, I got a bottle sitting in my desk that I'm going to pop open. Presumably I'll be in the office at the time so one final round with the coworkers. The people in this article se…

You should probably get an MP3 of that song, in case YouTube happens to be down at the time of the nuclear blast. That would suck.
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