Nobody I talked to today noticed.
Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
91–100 of 116 posts
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a fellow German, I can understand the anger, though. Basically, we don't have a warning system anymore, because the pieces that are left are mostly being dismantled (sirens, tv and radio) and all they seem to want to replace it with is an app that doesn't reliably work when the network is fine. Lets be honest, if catastrophy should strike here, we would be last to know.
This x100. It's an utter catastrophe. We had a fully working siren network (at least across Western Germany), and after the end of the Cold War it all got left to rot to pieces - estimates for rebuilding it are well into the hundreds of millions of euro range. And then the whole radio clusterfuck. AM radio got totally torn down years ago to "cut costs", there's always discussions to dismantle plain old FM radio too a…
> We had a fully working siren network (at least across Western Germany)
East Germany had a fully working siren network as well. And it was tested every Wednesday at 1pm.
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#93People in The Netherlands are used to this sound, hearing it every first Monday of the month at noon for the last 17 years now. I wonder how effective this will work in case of real trouble. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/terrorismebestrijdi...
And in Sweden since forever
Actually the same in the Netherlands, except that for a few years we had "silent" alarm tests. This was of course a bad idea (actually letting everyone hear it is quite reassuring, and it's good to know what it sounds like), so this was reverted, although that took longer than it should have.
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#94Correction to the article: the annual test day will be the second Thursday in September, not always the tenth. I don't understand why Cell Broadcast is not used. Surely many people don't have the app installed? I'd never heard of it and I've lived in this country the whole time it's been available.
> I don't understand why Cell Broadcast is not used.
Maybe the telcos aren't ready? But they wanted to start practicing the other parts of the system?
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU-Alert
There are a few implementations, but not as many as I would have assumed:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast#Public_warning_...
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#95Tension in Europe is real. This was planned well ahead of pandemics and possibility of war is finally on the table.
Where in Europe is war a possiblilty?
Possibility? Several places, in roughly decreasing order of likelihood by my estimation:
* Russia v... well, just about anyone else. Russia has made it clear that they consider a large part of Eastern Europe to be their sphere of influence, and have twice this century (Georgia and Ukraine, the latter mostly undeclared) going to war to prevent "the West" from expanding influence.
* Turkey v Greece and/or Cyprus. Discovery of gas in the eastern Mediterranean has meant that delineating EEZ boundaries there is critical, and especially given the fact that Greece owns a lot of islands just off Turkey's coast, there is an awfully high chance of flashpoints. Furthermore, there is a frozen conflict on the island of Cyprus itself that still poses risks for conflict.
* Balkan War #i-don't-even-know-anymore. The place has long-lasting political antipathy between different countries that provoked two major periods of war (the Balkan Wars that culminated in World War I, and the very messy breakup of Yugoslavia). Serbia hasn't admitted that Kosovo is lost to it, and Bosnia is a fractious country that holds itself together only through a convoluted power structure that hasn't healed the wounds of the Yugoslav Wars. Reignition of war here definitely remains a possibility.
* Civil war in Spain, Italy, or Britain [including a war between Britain and Ireland over Northern Ireland]. To be clear, I'm really scraping the barrel here: this is a war I consider possible, but extremely improbable. These countries have strong, persistent separatist movements--and national governments that are equally persistent in quashing them. It's possible, in exactly the wrong circumstances, that everyone ends up making moves that create a dispute that is only resolved by a war.
* Don't forget the possibility of an external regional conflict escalating into a world war, much as what happened in World War I. This is largely a rehash of the first option, though, since that's the only great power alliance breakdown that could result in this situation.
Note that you asked where it's a possibility, not where it is likely.
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really am struggling to understand why it's a big deal? Honestly asking, what's the thought process behind the worth of maintaing one? TV channels and radio stations will just broadcast a breaking news thing. Websites will have notices. I'm entirely unclear why you'd need an emergency broadcast system? Or place so much emphasis on its importance? What would you use it for? And why would having one that worked over…
FM is still widely used, in most European countries still way more than DAB.
Considering the sheer numbers of FM radios and how long they last it will be decades before DAB takes over. I don't plan on replacing mine until it breaks.
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#97Meh, the sirens are tested here twice a year. This is the case in many areas. Where my parents live, they are tested every 3 months. More interestingly, the federal government is realizing that it may have been a mistake to dismantle the sirens in many areas after the Cold War ended, mainly because things likes TV, radio or app messages cannot warn people at night, when their devices are off. I have heard of 3 possib…
Do the mandatory smoke alarms already have some 'smart' capabilities with a communication network, or are they considering using them because they are mandatory, and the 'smart' implementation would come later?
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#98Correction to the article: the annual test day will be the second Thursday in September, not always the tenth. I don't understand why Cell Broadcast is not used. Surely many people don't have the app installed? I'd never heard of it and I've lived in this country the whole time it's been available.
> I don't understand why Cell Broadcast is not used Because of utterly dumb people in charge: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/warntag-zum-ziv... > Unger: Ja, die Niederlande zum Beispiel setzen auf dieses Cell-Broadcast-System. Wir haben davon Abstand genommen, weil die Mobilfunknetze - wie man etwa an Silvester sieht - im Fall der Fälle nicht ausreichen. Hinzu kommt ein datenschutzrechtliches Problem. W…
I'd say it's the reverse. "Daten sind das neue Gold / Öl!" Because of this they don't use somehing like cell broadcast, but an app-based approach. They just don't dare to say so in public, or don't care at all. Do you honestly expect anything competent from any of the current talking heads, making appearances in the mainstream of the presstitutes catering to the oh so sensitive public?
(Yes, Yes, I know, the German service providers (allegedly) didn't implement it so far, therefore we(allegedly) can't do it. It's not like a superspecial Extrawurst, since it's in use in many other places. I guess, depending on the vendor of the equipment it would be nothing more than a configuration flag to enable, since it's already there, just needs a license for the feature, or something like that. /ENDRANT)
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't understand why Cell Broadcast is not used Because of utterly dumb people in charge: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/warntag-zum-ziv... > Unger: Ja, die Niederlande zum Beispiel setzen auf dieses Cell-Broadcast-System. Wir haben davon Abstand genommen, weil die Mobilfunknetze - wie man etwa an Silvester sieht - im Fall der Fälle nicht ausreichen. Hinzu kommt ein datenschutzrechtliches Problem. W…
Privacy report of NINA: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/de.materna.... Sure looks like they take data protection seriously by including advertising trackers...
Data is the new oil...
Re: Germany conducts first nationwide emergency warning day in decades
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really am struggling to understand why it's a big deal? Honestly asking, what's the thought process behind the worth of maintaing one? TV channels and radio stations will just broadcast a breaking news thing. Websites will have notices. I'm entirely unclear why you'd need an emergency broadcast system? Or place so much emphasis on its importance? What would you use it for? And why would having one that worked over…
In case of, say, fire at a chemical plant, it may be important that people downwind get notified right away, there might not be very much time to get inside, close windows etc. Same for collapsed dams, radiological accidents, that sort of thing. Sirens can do that very well. Other channels are much less reliable (people might not have a news website open on their computer, might not be looking at their phone to catch…
I'd think in case of radiological accidents it would be policy to NOT use them, to avoid panic. I fully expect road barriers / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordon_sanitaire to be implemented, if one happens here and word of that gets out.