Comments
Dave Aronson • October 20, 2008 1:59 PM
On the other claw, discarding your brain could be useful to save the rest of you, in a zombie attack.
Davi Ottenheimer • October 20, 2008 2:14 PM
Looks like you should hold your wits tucked under your arm…kind of like the ghost of Anne Boleyn.
A nonny bunny • October 20, 2008 2:44 PM
@ Dave Aronson
So what do we do in the case of terrorist zombies?
Clive Robinson • October 20, 2008 3:10 PM
Is it me or does the symbole in the middle look like a head on of Blake’s 7 battle ship?
(For those who do not know Blake’s 7 was a SiFi series a quater of a century ago on the U.K. British Broadcasting Corperation, it had wobbley sets and silly robots and aliens etc)
Aoi • October 20, 2008 6:26 PM
Discard brain? How? Ice cream scoop? Mellon baller? Volunteer zombie from Resident Evil? It’s the lack of connections in the brain, not just it’s presence in the skull, that count.
Witgunstein • October 20, 2008 6:43 PM
@ A nonny bunny
You remove your brain, load it into a shotgun, then shoot them with it. Brain not discarded. Wits used as a projectile weapon.
Orlando Stevenson • October 20, 2008 9:29 PM
You bet- moral boosting humor is a weapon all by itself. Here’s a few more:
“If you have set yourself on fire, do not run”
“If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle.”
“Use your flashlight to lift the walls right off of you! “
with pictures here: http://terrasol.home.igc.org/ready.htm
Getting back to reality, DHS’s Ready America provides a bit more useful duck and cover preparation information- i.e. Get A Kit, Make A Plan, and Be Informed: http://www.ready.gov/america/publications/allpubs.html#general
Whenever it works- I like Shoot, Move, and Communicate a bit more when it comes to dealing with this type of threat.
More • October 20, 2008 10:11 PM
I have the perfect plan, rather than discard my wits, I will only throw away a half of it.
Cassandra • October 21, 2008 1:35 AM
In my RSS feed, the final two letters were truncated off the headline. I came expecting a very different article.
Cassie
csrster • October 21, 2008 1:46 AM
At airport security (in Glasgow, in any case) one now need only remove ones footwear if one is wearing boots or high heels. I told the security guard I had left my heels in my checked baggage but only got a “I’ve heard it before” look. Children are allowed to keep their boots on. I assume this is all based on a very careful analysis of the amount of explosive one can hide in various types of footwear.
More • October 21, 2008 2:05 AM
I wonder how would the remove shoes rule change if everyone flying decided to stage a protest by not changing shoes and socks for 2 weeks before their flight?
The irony that everyone flying now have to adopt a procedure that is the norm / rule for entering a mosque….
Lesser Whark • October 21, 2008 4:35 AM
@Clive Robinson
According to the article, the central symbol is the US Army’s new chemical hazard symbol. I wonder if anyone pointed out that it looks like a methane molecule. Remember, avoid the baked beans or your digestive tract will become a weapon of mass eruption…
Lesser Whark • October 21, 2008 4:42 AM
Thinking further about the symbols, I realize that it’s been decades since anyone builds bombs like that. Therefore, I think that the message actually is “If your Classic-era Macintosh crashes it will release a cloud of digestive gases and three-leaf clovers. It will then decapitate you with a hurled cooling fan. You should then pick up your brain and tuck it under your arm – don’t mix it in a drink with ice cubes.”
bob • October 21, 2008 6:48 AM
People always make fun of “duck and cover” from the 50’s, but it was a good idea. You are far more likely to be on the periphery of a nuclear blast than you are to be at ground zero – especially if you are still corporeal to notice it; so
quickly getting to someplace where you wont be flayed by glass fragments, house debris and jeep shrapnel is probably a great choice.
Naveen JP • October 21, 2008 6:48 AM
It is not we who choose to discard the brain, it is the brain which chooses to discard what we think. One of those many wonderful strategies of the brain!
Mark • October 21, 2008 7:04 AM
@Clive Robinson
Is it me or does the symbole in the middle look like a head on of Blake’s 7 battle ship?
Kind of ironic for a terrorist warning poster to be referencing a Sci-Fi drama where the main characters were terrorists (and the “good guys”).
Instead of The Liberator. I though of a ball and stick model of methane, which goes with the radiation and bio-hazard warnings to indicate a chemical attack.
Dave Aronson • October 21, 2008 7:35 AM
@Clive: “Blake’s 7 was a SiFi series a quater of a century ago on the U.K. British Broadcasting Corperation, it had wobbley sets and silly robots and aliens etc”
Doesn’t that describe pretty much all BBC SF shows of that era? 😉
bob • October 21, 2008 9:11 AM
Would this apply to a motorcyclist who did not think it was desirable to wear a helmet? Since they apparently are already at least halfway to discarding their brain?
Clive Robinson • October 21, 2008 10:33 AM
@ Dave Aronson,
“Doesn’t that describe pretty much all BBC SF shows of that era? ;-)”
Yes and that’s why we remember them so fondly 8)
Adrian • October 21, 2008 6:21 PM
@aoi, the melon baller should be sufficient size to remove it in one single scoop for many people.
Anyway, we can’t discard our brains, all the bins have been removed to stop people putting bombs in them!
Orlando Stevenson • October 21, 2008 10:30 PM
More on “duck and cover” (nuclear weapon) – we were still doing drills in rural midwest grade school in the late 60s and early 70s However, I don’t recall any potasium iodine and no school fallout schelter. Assuming just fallout, duck and cover doesn’t do much except give the public a placebo – likely would need to hunker down 10-14 days after blast to allow short lived isotope bakeoff. Tough to pull off without good preparation and some training, meter/equipment- to minimize contamination and assess changing conditions.
At least the risks around MAD have (we hope) been reduced even if nutbars are working on developing the technology with delivery systems.
Some related news-
Little Congressional Interest in EMP Threat.
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3621581
Thursday, July 10, 2008 – 10:00 am – 2118 Rayburn – Open
The full committee will meet to hear testimony on the threat posed by Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack.
Chairman Skelton’s Opening Statement
http://armedservices.house.gov/apps/list/speech/armedsvc_dem/skeltonos071008.shtml
Video Webcast
http://armedservices.edgeboss.net/wmedia/armedservices/fc071008.wvx
Audio Transcript
http://hascaudio.house.gov/FC071008.wma
Witness:
Dr. William R. Graham (pdf)
Chair
Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
Fred • October 22, 2008 6:21 AM
@Clive, Re: Blake’s Seven
As someone else has observed, Blake’s Seven were a group of renegades/freedom fighters aka terrorists.
What’s a little worrying is that the 1970s idea of an evil, totalitarian government against which the eponymous Seven were rebelling was uncannily like the one we’re beginning to ‘enjoy’ now in many parts of the world, especially in the early episodes: Pervasive video surveillance, police snatch squads, rendition of prisoners to Gitmo’ style gulags, faux democracy USSR style and so on.
bf skinner • October 22, 2008 7:01 AM
” DHS’s Ready America provides a bit more useful duck and cover preparation information- i.e. Get A Kit, Make A Plan, and Be Informed: http://www.ready.gov/america/publications/allpubs.html#general ”
Ready.gov does little but provide general information. In the event of nuclear attack endevor to not be where the bomb drops and Don’t get any fallout on you…sheesh.
Try ReallyReady.org instead. http://www.fas.org/reallyready/ At least they give useful tips ‘watch which way the wind is blowing and move out of downwind from plumes.’
Clive Robinson • October 22, 2008 8:34 AM
@ Fred,
“totalitarian government against which the eponymous Seven were rebelling was uncannily like the one we’re beginning to ‘enjoy’ now”
Not just the Government.
Do you remember the drab lifeless architecture (Leeds Uni I’ve been told).
Well it appears to have infected the psychie of modern architects judging by what we are getting built in the UK…
Fred • October 22, 2008 3:31 PM
“Do you remember the drab lifeless architecture (Leeds Uni I’ve been told).”
I’ve never had the, um, pleasure of visiting Leeds Uni, but I remember the mix of concrete jungle and industrial locations that they frequently used.
I also remember some of the more exotic locations that Auntie Beeb managed to get permission to use, notably the running gunfight filmed atop the reactor core at Trawsfynydd nuclear power station.
A more innocent age in more ways than one!
Po • October 22, 2008 11:03 PM
You should make your voice heard at http://www.ratemycop.com
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
Pat Cahalan • October 20, 2008 1:32 PM
Sorry, I believe that some people have already failed to heed that warning, and thus have no brain currently to keep.