Originally Posted By: wildman800
In Cliff's defense, I too notice sometimes, that something is out of the ordinary, try to see how extensive it is, and then get on the net (if I can) and ask around to find out if others are noticing the same event in their areas.

Yes, I am paranoid about a few things.

I fully realize how an insignificant event can (and has) been confused as the start of a major event by the superpowers in the past. The Norwegians launching a weather rocket from their northern end almost had Yeltsin launching Russia's Missiles because their computers were telling them that the USA had launched a pre-emptive strike. Despite having had a few vodka's, Boris knew that there was no reason for us to attack them, so he waited for the missile to hit. It didn't hit and Boris closed their version of the "football" thus NOT starting WWIII on bad information.

In this day and age, I do not expect our govt or the MSM to announce that the city of Moscow is being evacuated for unknown reasons, or Beijing, or any other significant event occurring that would be indicative of a catastrophe being planned or executed.

Perhaps the wording should be a little different as well as the phrasing. Ask a question if anybody else has run into such & such problem within the last few, minutes or hours.

Questions such as that might be the first indications that any of us may get of a major event occurring. Just my views of course.


I would agree with wildman.

The internet is a double edged sword. We are all reporters of news of world-wide (in many cases) events that can travel much quicker through the web than CNN, etc.

Since many of us are not trained as journalists (after quickly perusing some of the profiles) or have the time to fact-check something before posting (posting at work or on the run) a query we are at risk for passing along misinformation.

However, many of us because of our training / careers are expert observers and documenters.

That is our strength (many eyes and ears).

In order to prevent confusion, it is a wise course of action to differentiate between reporting observed data and drawing conclusions and communicate the difference.

"I observe 'x' happening in my area"
"Has anyone else observed 'x' in their area?"
"I suspect 'y' is happening, anyone else got any ideas?"

As we collect more information then, we can start drawing much more accurate conclusions.

I appreciate the heads-up, and am re-evaluating our the family emergency cash plan as a result.
_________________________
peace,
samhain autumnwood