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Curious as to the scope and effectiveness of the Nationwide Emergency Alert System test scheduled for 2pm EST today, I did a little research. A quick scan of various news sources seems to suggest it didn’t go off “without a hitch”.
ABC News out of DC reports that the first-ever nationwide test today “appeared to be a failure“, while CBS New York reported still more technical difficulties.
The ABC report described the test as being, “designed to allow the president to commandeer the airwaves and deliver an audio message to the U.S. people in a national emergency.”
This is either complete technical ignorance and buffoonery, or maybe something slightly more insidious? I’m guessing it’s the first. Hoping?
Haven’t these people heard of social media? Within seconds of the event, the entire world now knows news before any big cable news or radio station can broadcast it. Twitter, Facebook, Google+… you name it. Regular people report the news and literally within seconds to at most minutes, that news has spread with more success than apparently the EAS had today. (And they had their test planned for weeks… even months?)
Fascinating …
Maybe someone can give FEMA a crash-course in the latest technological advancements. Seems like they could benefit from a little refresher.
Now Greg you know that probably most of the computers in this network of networks run Windows, so it’s a small wonder things didn’t go as planned!
😀
jk no pro-Windows flamers please!
Ha! Indeed. 🙂 That could have had something to do with it!
Either way, it seems like they are very “out of the loop” with this whole thing. And spending our tax money on it, too. Good thing we have all that giant surplus to spend! 😉