As I said, we’re in the very best of hands
I titled my previous post about the nuclear alert in Hawaii “Reassuring evidence that we’re in the best of hands.” Well, there’s more evidence [hat tip: commenter “Ann”]:
Around 8:05 a.m., the Hawaii emergency employee initiated the internal test, according to a timeline released by the state. From a drop-down menu on a computer program, he saw two options: “Test missile alert” and “Missile alert.” He was supposed to choose the former; as much of the world now knows, he chose the latter, an initiation of a real-life missile alert…
Part of what worsened the situation Saturday was that there was no system in place at the state emergency agency for correcting the error, [Hawaii Emergency Management Agency] spokesmansaid. The state agency had standing permission through FEMA to use civil warning systems to send out the missile alert ”” but not to send out a subsequent false alarm alert, he said.
FUBAR. FUBAR. If you don’t know what that means, you can look it up.
Who is writing this software? Who is approving it?
You know, when I go to some shlocky webpage by mistake and I want to leave, they almost always ask me “Do you really want to leave our wonderful site and miss all the great bargains here?” before they’ll release me. In other words, there’s at least a two-step process for getting out, and sometimes even more. And even at bona fide sites—for example, when I want to delete spam at Yahoo mail—it requires a two-step process in order to do it. They basically say something like, “Are you sure?”
I realize that with a nuclear alert, time is of the essence. But a delay of a second or two in alerting the whole state that they’re about to die seems like a small price to pay in order to make sure it doesn’t get announced in error. But somehow, that never occurred to anyone—or if it did occur, it was decided in favor of a simple one-step process subject to error.
And then—no way to inform the state’s citizens that it was a false alarm. If anyone has had any dire health consequences as a result of the prolonged terror the state’s residents and their loved ones had to endure, I bet there’ll be some lawsuits down the road.
How long did the scare last? Way too long: thirty-eight minutes.
Across Hawaii on Sunday, people spoke about gathering their families for what they thought would be their last moments, until the “false alarm” announcement went out…
Neil Abercrombie, the previous governor, whom Mr. Ige defeated in a Democratic primary in 2014, called the episode “a monumental example of failure of leadership ”” incredible.”
“It’s beyond incompetent,” he said. “It is stunning. It should have been rescinded instantly.”…
The Pacific Command first told Hawaii media that there was no approaching ballistic missile at 8:23 a.m. ”” about 13 minutes after Hawaii sent out the alert.
Of course, Trump is really to blame:
This Hawaii missle scare is on YOU Mr. Trump. The real FEAR that mothers & fathers & children felt is on YOU. It is on YOUR ARROGANCE. HUBRIS. NARCISSISM. RAGE. EGO. IMMATURITY and your UNSTABLE IDIOCY. Shame on your hate filled self. YOU DID THIS!
— Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) January 13, 2018
Another Hollywood depressive, with a history of substance abuse, lectures the world …
Neo,
My older brother called me yesterday to ask me about what happened here in Honolulu the other day. I explained what happened, explained how much of a sh*t show it was, how the incompetence of the state government was the main culprit, and how someone needed to lose their job. A rabid and committed anti-trump/anti-republican, he tried to tell me that there was no one to blame, and criticized me for being bitter about the subject. I told him that a panic was caused at Daniel K. Inouye Airport, at the hotels in Waikiki, and here in my own building. I told him that the situation had caused me to call my wife at 3 am (Japan time), scare her half to death and basically tell her this may be the last time she would speak to me, so yeah, I think I had a right to be a little pissed off about the situation. He hung up on me. It’s amazing to me the lengths that people will go to avoid accepting that maybe, just maybe, their side of the spectrum might f**k things up on occasion. But not to worry, the person responsible was not fired, merely reassigned.
I don’t believe it was an accident. Sure, state workers can be incompetent, but not that incompetent.
Just a case of bad programming. There are times when Microsoft Windows will ask 3 or 4 times whether you really, really wanted to do the thing you clicked on.
UNSTABLE IDIOCY, thy initials are JLC. What a bizarre reaction.
Sven,
I understand your doubts, and you may be right. But trust me, I work for the government (federal), and that kind of incompetence is much more common than you might think.
JLC is like most eye-candy: good to look at, but not to listen to, read, or plain just be with. They are selfish and egocentric. Poor thing is so molto agitato she cannot spell ‘missile’ in her anti-Trump frenzy, generated because she felt she had to upstage others in her field of mimetic contagion.
the biggest news is the loser who activated the false alert gets to keep his/her job.
After that little deranged tantrum by Ms Curtis someone should start a “People of Walmart”-esque collection of those sorts of mad rantings. It’d be like a trip to the zoo at mating time in the monkey house. That’d be for the TDS wing in the Trump Presidential Library.
It’s amazingly easy to accidentally click on the wrong item in a menu within computer software. I’m using an optical mouse now and if I get a small piece of lint or cat hair stuck in the area of the red light, my arrow can end up in all sorts of places that I don’t want it to be. That’s a serious problem in the design of the software. It’s almost hard to believe that nothing like this has happened before. In fact, it almost makes me wonder if we’re getting the real story. I had been wondering to myself if it could have been a Trump-hater messing around and trying to make people think that Trump had caused nuclear war. I definitely wouldn’t put it past some of his haters.
Frog has been reading Rene Girard.
Whoa! is Jamie Lee Curtis off her meds? Didn’t her publicist tell her that using CAPS is just a way of yelling?
Or, more likely, she is just doing the Hollywood/Leftist virtue signaling. Trying to get another movie gig. pathetic.
All you need to know is that Curtis has a career that today has devolved into telling post-menopausal women what yogurt to eat in order to have regular bowel movements.
“Sure, state workers can be incompetent, but not that incompetent.”
I think it is possible in Hawaii. It’s a great place to vacation but not strong on efficiency or attention to detail. Trump is being blamed to divert attention from the fact that Hawaii is the most overwhelmingly Democrat state in the union. Perhaps not a coincidence; as cjd who lives there and had to deal with this crap noted there will be only minor consequences for the person responsible.
I don’t believe this for a second. If I got an emergency alert about missiles I would turn on the freaking NEWS!!! If missiles were headed to Hawaii it would be all over television and radio stations. How could people take a text at face value without doing even the most cursory glances at other sources.
Not mine, but hilarious:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://gfycat.com/QueasyGrandIriomotecat&sa=D&ust=1516201048707000&usg=AFQjCNGkkI22zNttL_jlF6WMh9D6MLYfMA
If a celebrity went off on Obama, like how Curtis did on Trump, when he was POTUS they’d be met with immense backlash from their fans and the industry.
@ Frog: Curtis WAS good to look at (well kinda).
Terry: brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
Neo: anyone versed in security could have designed the software better, in any number of ways. (For example, before choosing something with far-reaching consequences, a password might be needed.)
I certainly expect that the relevant software will be rewritten now, to insert extra safeguards. (Although the now-infamous photo, with the password on a sticky note, does not inspire confidence in the relevant personnel!)
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/01/hawaiian-emergency-management-officials-hold-interview-post-notes-passwords-computer-screens/
Daniel: You can make the software better. But you can’t make it perfect.
Is a missile alert system a good idea? Unless you have built many shelters and have conducted drills, what can you expect from a civilian population? Chaos and mass confusion, not to mention the fear.
We got through many, many years of the Cold War without much in the way of warning systems or even plans for dealing with a nuclear bomb attack. Oh yeah, we had the pathetic duck and cover drills back in the early days of the Cold War. Pathetic because, if you survive the blast and heat, you probably won’t survive the radiation. When you know much about the destructive force of an H-bomb, you realize there is no real shelter from the effects except distance, lots of distance.
Unless there is a good plan in place and many lives can be saved, maybe it’s best not to send out a warning that is really nothing more than an early notice of imminent death. Or am I too much of a fatalist?
Daniel in Brookline Says:
January 16th, 2018 at 1:49 pm
Terry: brilliant! Thanks for sharing.
Neo: anyone versed in security could have designed the software better, in any number of ways.
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That Gateway post of the post-its — words fail me.
BurkeanMama Says:
January 16th, 2018 at 1:36 am
I don’t believe this for a second. If I got an emergency alert about missiles I would turn on the freaking NEWS!!!
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I would modify your observation by remarking that I would be accessing the news while headed for the basement, but, yeah.
Terry Says:
January 16th, 2018 at 12:33 pm
Not mine, but hilarious:
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It’s happened to me….
A word on software glitches and human error compounded by design: What should be happening, but obviously isn’t.
https://strategypage.com/on_point/20180116211630.aspx
“Learning From Hawaii’s False Missile Attack Fiasco
by Austin Bay
January 16, 2018
The false missile attack alert that the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency issued at 8:05 a.m. on January 13 provides American civil defense agencies and military planners with numerous points to ponder.
Three deserve immediate attention.
…”
Remember what I said about false flags?
They are just doing dry runs to test the systems.
Lil kim didn’t magicallay get nukes.