"Nobody Wins a Nuclear War" But "Success" is Possible (fwd)

[J.A. Terranson]

On Sat, 19 Feb 2011, Bill Stewart wrote:

> It was really freaky the first time I heard the Emergency Broadcast System
> come on the radio in the ?early 90s? and say "this is not a test"

Interesting: I have *never* heard the EBS et al used other than for 
testing.  Had I ever heard it, it would have scared the crap out of me - I 
don't know if I'd even hear past that point, having spent a childhood 
listening to that damned system being "tested" all the time (?I believe it 
was weekly or bi-monthly?).  Like most Americans alive through the period, 
I can still recite, word for word, the text of the EBS "test" 
announcement:

	"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.  This is only a 
test.  The broadcasters in your area, in voluntary cooperation with the 
FCC and other authorities, have developed this system to keep you informed 
in the event of an emergency.  If this had been an actual emergency, you 
would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and other 
local information.  This concludes our test of the Emergency Broadcast 
System."

	I can't even imagine the panic of hearing "this is *not* a test"!  
Interestingly, the EBS had at least one accidental activation in the late 
60's or early 1970s, which I fortunately missed out on: good for me!

> using it for flood warnings during a storm, which is a sensible thing to do,

Very.  But then we wouldn't have paid any attention to it when the 
Russians were finally ready to end it all!

//Alif

-- 
"Never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public
plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to
the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always
be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by
predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty."

Joseph Pulitzer, 1907 Speech