Out of the Blue

The NYTimes has an article about that wee hours amber alert I mentioned yesterday, saying that I was not the only one awakened by this, explaining how the system works, and discussing whether a late-night alert is really advisable (thanks j.c.f.). It also tells us that the missing child that inspired the alert was found, so there's good news there, and in fairness, the amber alert played a part in this (albeit during the day when people were awake), so one can't complain about the results. There's also a post about this on Buzzfeed (thanks nin) including this explanation from the powers-that-be: "It truly is a city that never sleeps. There are always tons of people on the road. It makes perfect sense to send this out." So their actual intent wasn't to wake up the millions of us who were asleep, it was for people to read on their cell phones while driving that night. Okay, as long as they thought this all the way through.

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Follow-up: New study finds it’s too soon to tell if ice sheet loss is accelerating.
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26.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 19, 2013, 09:41
26.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 19, 2013, 09:41
Jul 19, 2013, 09:41
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Jul 19, 2013, 08:45:
Can you silence the Amber alerts but not the weather alerts? That's what I would do in that situation if possible. Considering the amount of time I am either in my house or at work and my general habit of truly ignoring random people, Amber alerts would be wasted on me, but weather...

Yeh there's the option to turn off the Amber but to leave Emergency. Emergency covers at least flooding and tornado, I imagine it's also there for any big-time emergencies the government deems fit. Like if a nuke plant exploded in your state or something.

I'd already turned my Amber alert one off though.


Those alert tones are loud as hell. They went off by us the other week when we had that huge down-pour and tornado warnings. It scared a bunch of us in the office, and my co-worker was driving to work when it went off and startled him enough to affect his driving.


-
"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you."
-Fry, Futurama
25.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 19, 2013, 08:45
25.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 19, 2013, 08:45
Jul 19, 2013, 08:45
 
Can you silence the Amber alerts but not the weather alerts? That's what I would do in that situation if possible. Considering the amount of time I am either in my house or at work and my general habit of truly ignoring random people, Amber alerts would be wasted on me, but weather...
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” -- Carl Sagan
24.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 19, 2013, 06:58
24.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 19, 2013, 06:58
Jul 19, 2013, 06:58
 
Cutter wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 19:49:

Oh they've been saying it a lot longer than that. Particularly if you were a follower of Thulsa Doom.
Ah well then. But I'm a follower of Gir Doom.
--
"For every human problem,
there is a neat, simple solution;
and it is always wrong."
--H.L. Mencken
23.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 19, 2013, 02:00
23.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 19, 2013, 02:00
Jul 19, 2013, 02:00
 
xXBatmanXx wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 22:45:
Wow. Gamestop just became useful. 50% bonus when trading in games for your Steam wallet! I have a bunch of stuff to get rid of to put into Steam.

Wow what?! I guess they gave up on pimping their Impulse/GameStop App. Remember when they removed the vouchers for free OnLive copies of Deus Ex: HR from the box.
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22.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 22:45
22.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 22:45
Jul 18, 2013, 22:45
 
Wow. Gamestop just became useful. 50% bonus when trading in games for your Steam wallet! I have a bunch of stuff to get rid of to put into Steam.
21.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 19:49
21.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 19:49
Jul 18, 2013, 19:49
 
Mashiki Amiketo wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 18:25:
New study finds it too soon to tell if ice sheet loss is accelerating? But here I thought that they had this all figured out already, haven't they been saying that along with DoooM and DOOOOM and DOOOOOOOOOOM for the last 25 years?

Oh they've been saying it a lot longer than that. Particularly if you were a follower of Thulsa Doom.
"The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip." - Henny Youngman
20.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 18:25
20.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 18:25
Jul 18, 2013, 18:25
 
New study finds it too soon to tell if ice sheet loss is accelerating? But here I thought that they had this all figured out already, haven't they been saying that along with DoooM and DOOOOM and DOOOOOOOOOOM for the last 25 years?
--
"For every human problem,
there is a neat, simple solution;
and it is always wrong."
--H.L. Mencken
19.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 17:40
19.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 17:40
Jul 18, 2013, 17:40
 
InBlack wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 09:53:
Kosher lube for oral sex...hmmmm... Why would anyone use lube for oral sex??

Flavored lubes. There's tons of different lubes for all kinds of stuff, and yes, including oral. Get thee to ye olde sex shoppe sometime and get an education! The women in your life will thank you for it. A I have a FWB that's down with the flavoured oral lubes.

And on a personal note I'd like to say....

It's about time! A good pastrami on rye I can get anywhere, but can I get some kosher lube? Is this too much to ask? Oi vey!

Edit: Oh yeah, and shouldn't that gas be coming out of the Milky Way's black hole? Hi-oh!

"The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip." - Henny Youngman
18.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 16:06
18.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 16:06
Jul 18, 2013, 16:06
 
Or how about even into CT? It's not like we're very far away from many points in NY.
17.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 15:56
17.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 15:56
Jul 18, 2013, 15:56
 
Does anyone else find it odd that the Amber Alert covered from the city to maybe 60 to 75 miles north, but they didn't even bother with the bordering counties in NJ? I get that the NYS Troopers are the ones who authorized it, so they can't do it in NYC, but this seems like a major hole in their alert system....the abductor just needs to choose the right bridge out of NYC.
16.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 14:20
Jivaro
 
16.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 14:20
Jul 18, 2013, 14:20
 Jivaro
 
I can adjust what type of vibration/ring/notification etc for specific numbers and text message sources on my SGS3. My Amber alert text messages light up the screen with a notification, but they do not make a sound or vibrate. I don't miss any alerts because I see them when I am up and about and at the same time they don't disturb me at night. Don't most cell phones do something like that? I mean, don't the Amber alerts in NY come from the the same source every time?

If all else fails, can't you put text messaging on silent without putting your alarm on silent? I thought that was a pretty standard thing.
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15.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 14:16
15.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 14:16
Jul 18, 2013, 14:16
 
Damn, the 2 PS3s won't talk to eachother for some reason. So i backed up my old one and bringing it to get fixed. (it sounds like a harrier jet and if you put any load on it, it overheats)

I will mess with it more later, maybe just sign up for that free month of playstation plus, I like that online storage of save games. Pretty neat.

I HATE their store front- why do I need to restart the machine and go into a new program outside of my ps3 dashboard? Takes forever.
14.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 13:18
nin
14.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 13:18
Jul 18, 2013, 13:18
nin
 
xXBatmanXx wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 13:13:
Anyone wants Binding of Isaac - grab now, it is $1.24. Make sure to grab the Wrath of the Lamb for like .74 cents! I have over 150 hours in the game FOR $2.00!

I might have to finally snag eurotruck...almost snagged it earlier in the sale.

13.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 13:13
13.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 13:13
Jul 18, 2013, 13:13
 
Anyone wants Binding of Isaac - grab now, it is $1.24. Make sure to grab the Wrath of the Lamb for like .74 cents! I have over 150 hours in the game FOR $2.00!
12.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 12:29
12.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 12:29
Jul 18, 2013, 12:29
 
Jamie Foxx as Electro..? That was unexpected. Should be interesting to see how they handle the character.
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11.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 12:22
11.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 12:22
Jul 18, 2013, 12:22
 
Verno wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 12:08:
Yeah, my phone sits on a dock beside my bed and acts as a clock/alarm. I don't really care where it is in the house, don't send me amber alerts at 3am

ugh, just asking for trouble.

My phone is in the kitchen when I sleep. I mostly sleep days, so it is obvious I would do this, but I also don't like being disturbed when sleeping period. People are too attached to their phones. I will often leave mine home on purpose.

/edit: Woohoo! 1 day off! Working 8 of 9 days, lets fire up that PS3!

//
Just don't add whipped cream (dairy).
That stuff is disgusting when it dries....need to shower after using it. We went to a non dairy cream, the stuff you can get at the liquor store. Just sayin.

This comment was edited on Jul 18, 2013, 12:28.
10.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 12:18
10.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 12:18
Jul 18, 2013, 12:18
 
Yes, mine does sit next to my bed. And that’s primarily because my phone is connected to our servers for alerts and issues that may occur during the night. I hate being attached to my phone!
Author of the Neverwinter Nights Eye of the Beholder Series of Mods.
Now integrated into Steams NWN: Enhanced Edition

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9.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 12:08
9.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 12:08
Jul 18, 2013, 12:08
 
Yeah, my phone sits on a dock beside my bed and acts as a clock/alarm. I don't really care where it is in the house, don't send me amber alerts at 3am
Avatar 51617
8.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 12:04
8.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 12:04
Jul 18, 2013, 12:04
 
Hyatus wrote on Jul 18, 2013, 11:51:
The better question is, since when did a cell phone become something that you must have sitting next to your bed when you sleep?

When you use it as an alarm clock.
Stephen "Blue" Heaslip
Blue's News Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, El Presidente for Life
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7.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Jul 18, 2013, 11:51
7.
Re: Out of the Blue Jul 18, 2013, 11:51
Jul 18, 2013, 11:51
 
The better question is, since when did a cell phone become something that you must have sitting next to your bed when you sleep?
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