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

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

#221

Post by lovethebombs »

totalZero wrote: post #194
chiefalchemist wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. The USA has actively created plenty of shitholes - in places where the faces are not pure European white - and that gets zero public reaction. The current POTUS uses the word shithole to describe a group of countries and he's X, Y and Z. Yeah, Trump is a moron. But the hypocrisy of the press and the public is a moral violation.

The USA has contributed to the development of plenty of flourishing economies. Panama is a rich nation thanks in large part to international cargo shipment. American tourists spend heavily in several other Latin American and Caribbean economies. South Korea is one of the most highly developed nations in the world, despite having been relatively poor prior to the Korean War. Canada and Mexico have benefited for years…

America's track record in South-America is pretty poor. For a long time it was a proxy battle ground for the Cold War.

And Trump just cut most of the relief funding, so a lot of social welfare programs are being cut short.

Making countries rich is part of geopolitical strategy (for instance, West-Germany vs. East-Germany). For every country that the US "made rich" is a country where life expectancy went way down due to US involvement.

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

#222

Post by newfoundglory »

rectangletangle wrote: post #140
macintux wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people consider nuclear war an end of the world event. Working hard to survive just to be left adrift in the ashes of civilization with likely long-term health effects seems counterproductive to some of us.

The US/Russia/France have already detonated thousands of full power nuclear weapons all across the globe, primarily for testing. Although major cities would be ash, with millions lost in the senseless conflict, life would go on. You'd likely only have health problems if you had acute exposure to the blast. If you live somewhere irrelivant, radiation exposure won't be much more of a concern than it already is currentl…

Two centuries ago some of us would have been slaves. I’m not entirely sure I would want to live through that setback.

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

#223

Post by vilhelm_s »

IIAOPSW wrote: post #47
0xdada wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's as bad as you think. Check out this thread: https://twitter.com/lcamtuf/status/952265416289632256 . If shit hits the fan and you end up surviving, your help in the aftermath can be crucial.

If I survive, I'm a refugee, foreign national with minimal language skills, I'm likely in an active war zone and my nation is probably one of the belligerents. My chances don't look good.

North Korea is estimated to have 10 - 20 bombs [1], and their bombs would have a similar yield to the two that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Presumably, only a fraction of the North Korean stockpile would be used against Japan (they would also want to attack targets in South Korea).

This is much less than the American bombings of Japan in World War 2, when 60 Japanese cities were firebombed (see e.g. [2]). But even so, the total deaths in Japan in the entire war were something like 4% of the population. If there is a war now, most people living in Japan will survive.

[1] https://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/nuclear-notebook/ [2] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/10/national/deadly...

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

#224

Post by newfoundglory »

politelemon wrote: post #43

> and an employee pushed the wrong button I would assume that was how it was explained to the governor, and that the actual system is software based (right?) - there couldn't possibly be an actual physical 'ballistic missile alert' button right next to the 'shift change' button. In which case, the triggering of this alert is probably a bit more complex. However, this is treated as a sensitive system so there likely w…

Not a public one, but I expect there will be an internal one.

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

#225

Post by tambienben »

matte_black wrote: post #195
pault wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think basic knowledge of electrical engineering, solar & battery technology, radio, and mesh networking would make you pretty handy. Front end developers will be the first ones in the stew pot.

If there’s no need for front end devs anymore does that mean apps will be designed in very utilitarian, command line like interfaces with no frills? That might actually be pleasant.

If true, Armageddon can't get here fast enough.

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

#226

Post by bahmboo »

cookiecaper wrote: post #133
cantrip wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think it's one of the worst reactions you could have. Without any indication of how bad the attack actually is, you should really assume the best and set yourself up to be able to survive. What if it's a conventional bombing, or you're not directly in the blast zone? Or if the nuke fails to detonate? The immediate aftermath if the most important time. While he's futzing around with Youtube and getting drunk th…

>What if it's a conventional bombing, or you're not directly in the blast zone? Or if the nuke fails to detonate? Yeah, this has been the most frustrating thing reading all of these accounts. A "ballistic missile" does not necessarily have a nuclear warhead. I don't see anyone correcting this and it seems like an important thing to know.

Context. It's hard to explain to people who didn't go through it. The word "threat" didn't even register. There is no other information to evaluate except the message and the dprk situation. No one is going to launch a conventional ballistic warhead into Pearl Harbor. The ONLY conclusion you can come to in the minute after you just got the info is some serious nuclear stuff is about to go down (but please let it not). The head of our (US) armed forces has been saber rattling for months. The risk of miscalculation is off the charts. Also there was no indication who sent the message (state, fed, ?). You are also in a surreal stunned state. Then you start looking for shelter and yes monitor twitter. Honestly I'm surprised people didn't freak out more and get hurt.

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

#227

Post by nbsd4lyfe »

anotheryou wrote: post #34
baursak wrote: post #25

A good piece of perspective on this -- it's what many civilians feel day in day out in places like Pakistan when killer drones are flying over.

Until it becomes the sad norm and you just get on with your life I guess.

Below the surface there's an abnormally high rate of PTSD and a small percentage of people who fail to function.

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

#228

Post by tambienben »

hateduser2 wrote: post #206
rdiddly wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're saying this person is worth less than you, then the plan suited to them is indeed as good as the one suited to you. A few popular assumptions that aren't necessarily true: Living is always better than dying. Your actions have an effect on the outcome. You can do it. People should always do what they should. It matters.

Why do you call those things assumptions? That says more about you than the people you claim are assuming these things.

They can be assumptions because life is complex & sometimes people tell themselves convenient lies to make themselves feel better.

It depends on the circumstances.

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

#229

Post by henrikschroder »

marcosdumay wrote: post #107
sho_hn wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating. I live in Seoul, and we really just don't care.

South Koreans seem to be calmer about the entire situation than just everybody else. And I say that as a Brazilian, that is not only on the literally opposite end of the world, but also did not get to see a war since WWII and even then had minimal involvement. You certainly know something that nobody else knows.

Perhaps because they understand the reality of the situation better?

Look, almost everyone gets the situation with North Korea wrong. NK has exactly one deterrent from being invaded, and that is a ton of very boring, very conventional artillery that is within firing distance of Seoul.

In the case of NK being invaded, they would immediately start shelling Seoul and trying to reduce it to rubble.

If you start evacuating Seoul, NK will assume they're going to be invaded, and start shelling it.

In the improbable case that NK would start something, they would start by shelling Seoul.

All of these scenarios end with NK being reduced to rubble by the overwhelmingly superior force of South Korea + Japan + USA. That's the deterrent we have against them.

The nuclear missiles that NK is barking about is not a real threat. Everyone is watching NK 24/7,they cannot launch anything undetected. If something is detected, then South Korea, Japan, and the US will compete with each other about who can shoot the shit down first. And they will shoot the shit down. And after they've shot the shit down, they will invade NK to reduce it to rubble so as not to have to go through that again, at which point NK will start shelling Seoul, which sucks, but at that point it's an acceptable loss.

Every single scenario ends with NK reduced to rubble. They know this. They have zero reason to move the status quo. Instead, the real reason for them barking about their nuclear capabilities is to get more leverage in sanction discussions. And everyone goes through with this dog-and-pony show, because we can't openly state the exact capabilities of the anti-missile defense systems that are in place around NK.

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

#230

Post by nbsd4lyfe »

newfoundglory wrote: post #212
totalZero wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA has contributed to the development of plenty of flourishing economies. Panama is a rich nation thanks in large part to international cargo shipment. American tourists spend heavily in several other Latin American and Caribbean economies. South Korea is one of the most highly developed nations in the world, despite having been relatively poor prior to the Korean War. Canada and Mexico have benefited for years…

America’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t start after 9/11.

the first gulf war was in 1990 and the US was a party to it
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