5 October 2001
Submitted by eve on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 10:28am. Graffiti
"Soda Hall Emergency Procedures: PANIC"
--The sign someone slipped into the plastic display case that housed the official emergency procedures
Comment viewing options:
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to submit your changes.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Fri, 12/07/2001 - 8:23am.
Archived comment by Arlene:
But do you have to worry about scabs crossing the picket line?
Posted by Anne Onymous on Thu, 10/11/2001 - 9:35pm.
Archived comment by umrguy:
Hell, I hit college, and my neurons started a picket line.... and the rest of me is about ready to join 'em
Posted by Anne Onymous on Thu, 10/11/2001 - 8:36pm.
Archived comment by Saint:
In my previous post, I meant "fliers," of course, not "flyers." They force you to think for 4-10 years, and the minute you're out, your brain goes on strike...
Posted by Anne Onymous on Thu, 10/11/2001 - 8:17am.
Archived comment by Ben:
Mike, did you grow to be so witty and intelligent because of some Darwinian thing? It really seems that many of your childhood stories involve people trying to naturally select you out...
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 10:16pm.
Archived comment by talshadar:
Ben - thanks. That means my brothers are the evil ones and I'm the nice one ... right?

As for the rest of your post - well spoken as always.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 5:38pm.
Archived comment by Mike:
I remember the tornado drills from high school. For some reason, my homeroom class was assigned an emergency position directly in front of the trophy case. Surely all the glass would protect us!

It was about that time that I started skipping school.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 1:06pm.
Archived comment by Ben:
I highly reccomend people take a good look at the movie Canadian Bacon this week if they've got nothing better to do (such as wax the floor). In it, you see the media manipulate public opinion of Canadians, thus promoting a war between the US and Canada. Now, I'm not saying this because Canada is evil (I did meet Talshadar and one of his brothers in Calgary. If we judge on him and both of his brothers alone then, 66% of all Canadians are very cruel people.), but I am merely pointing out that the media is playing up warmongering. We claim we don't want ethnic violence yet the only picture which we plaster of middle eastern people on the television are extremists and terrorists from the other countries. When violence occurs on US soil against someone, the media acts shocked...

Every speech a reporter has given on television for the past month has been far too deliberate. Its almost as if they want their word of warning to be the replayed reel of film in the remote chance that another horrible even happens first. Their looking for the pulitzer prize through tabloid news. Every report on bioterrorism runs low on information and plays high on fears. Last week, the most respectable news broadcast on the subject came from the Daily Show, when Jon Stuart had on one of the Bioterrorism task force heads just to dispell much of the crap news reporters were saying. When the Daily Show has to give quality news reports on a subject because the other news stations are too concerned with raitings, something is drastically wrong.

Did they say there wasn't a chance of a bioterrorist attack? No. They did however say that the chances of it were low, they gave a better explination on what "feeling bad" from anthrax exposure is, and they said that there are several venues of both response and treatment. They also said a gas mask would be very little help (help nonetheless, but very little), so people don't need to panic that they can't find one... The gist was:
1. Bioterrorism is a lesser threat than the media would like it to be.
2. We have measures to handle a situation in the unlikely event that it occurs.
3. You cant live your life in fear.
4. If it happens it happens, and most forms of bioterrorism are treatable.
5. Jon Stuart can still make a very serious segment funny.
6. Go out and enjoy yourself.

...this is of course, coming from someone who has recently been going through a bit of a nervous breakdown...
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 12:35pm.
Archived comment by Jim:
The idea is to create an irrational fear of the "enemy", making it a lot easier to recruit cannon fodder and pass laws that limit your civil rights.

Of course, sometimes the enemy does a pretty good job of creating an irrational fear all by themselves.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 11:40am.
Archived comment by Oldman:
Yeah, I went through the drop drills a long time ago. And we all knew, as elementary school kids, that the magic desks would protect us from anything, even nuclear blasts.

The question is, what were the adults thinking, to make us go through these drills?
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 10:33am.
Archived comment by anson2:
OK - Showing my age here. When I was young we actually had 'drop drills' in case of Russian bombing, including nuclear attacks. Big enough fear that my parents (and 5 neighbors) built a large bomb shelter under their back yard. So all the children of the 50's and 60's who grew up in major cities got used to hearing a teacher say 'drop' and we'd get under our desks instinctively.

As a senior in high school we had a teacher discuss Pavlovian conditioning and then he stopped and said 'drop'. I didn't know how it happened, but I (and everyone else) was under the desk in 0.35 seconds.

What goes around, comes around. A bomb shelter isn't such a bad idea these days.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 8:46am.
Archived comment by Ben:
Some buddies of mine had this problem my first year in college... some jackass would pull the alarm at 3 am and the building would have to be evacuated. They eventually drilled a hole through the concrete above the ceiing tiles, rigged a camera up through the wall, and pointed it at the alarm that kept getting pulled. Rather than turn the tape to the RAs, they gave a copy to the offender - told them not to do it, and had free beer and a whipping boy for the rest of the year...no joke.

That camera came in handy so often... between fire alarm monitoring and covert water balloon strikes it was the greatest gadget ever.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 8:16am.
Archived comment by umrguy:
Then, of course, there was the one Halloween a couple years ago where some genius had the bright idea of setting the vinyl(?) shower curtains in the bathroom on my floor on fire. That was a bit more scary and annoying. Fortunately, the only damage done was to the shower curtains (total loss).
Posted by Anne Onymous on Wed, 10/10/2001 - 8:15am.
Archived comment by umrguy:
Here at Rolla, we have two dormatory complexes: the two high-rise towers of TJ, and the 5 buildings of the Quad.

Immature pranksters love to pull the fire alarms over at TJ, because they then go off in both towers, resulting in the evacuation of 18 floors. They also love to do it at 3 am or so.

Here in the Quad, where I live, if you pull a fire alarm, it only goes off in the one building you pull it in, so nobody bothers to pull them, it's not nearly as fun. (Or, all the immature brats who like to pull fire alarms live in TJ. Could be, I dunno.) Last year, in the building I was living in, the fire alarms went off several times, but that was because they had remodeled the building to include several kitcheonettes, and I think the smoke detectors were on like a hair trigger, 'cuz the people cooking would occasionally set them off.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Tue, 10/09/2001 - 10:33pm.
Archived comment by Saint:
My freshman year, the alarms in my dorm went off almost every night--no joke, no exaggeration. At least 4 times a week, and usually more. By the end of the year, I slept through them. Which was fine, except for two things.

1) Twice a semester, there were fire drills, and the RD gave you community service if you failed to respond to the drill. Is that even legal?

2) More than half of those fire alarms resulted from actual fires. Some guy liked lighting up the flyers in the hall. It takes all kinds.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Tue, 10/09/2001 - 12:09pm.
Archived comment by Jon:
Very topical! Today we had a fire alarm at work. 10 minutes of beautiful sunshine later, we all trooped back in.

It is a sign of how compulsive I really am that I cleared my browser cache, closed the browser and email, and set the screensaver before I left! *sigh* (Yes, I clear the cache every time, even though it is pretty much pointless.)
Posted by Anne Onymous on Tue, 10/09/2001 - 10:14am.
Archived comment by Ben:
The fire alarm in our building goes off periodically. Trucks race down, and its off probably 15 minutes later - no damage - no fire. After a while you learn to ignore them (despite the very loud blaring sound), which while admittedly a bad practice in general, once you've got a sensitive fire alarm and a company that would rather raise rents to cover the fire trucks (as opposed to out of pocket fix/repair the sensor). Anyway, september 1st was move in day, so when the alarm went of last night *scamper scamper scamper* most of the new people left and stood outside. 15 minutes later, we hear the them coming back through the building... We kept watching TV - 'Who's Line is it Anyway' was on Comedy Central.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Tue, 10/09/2001 - 9:44am.
Archived comment by umrguy:
No, you're not the only one who's thought of that. I recall one of those school shootings a few years ago, the two gunmen did just that, set off the fire alarms, and then picked off people as they came out.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Tue, 10/09/2001 - 8:56am.
Archived comment by Jim:
Am I the only one that thinks a good way to get people out in the open, as in 'sitting ducks', is to create some kind of false alarm and get the buildings evacuated?

So, the next time you hear that fire alarm, be sure to listen for gun shots before you leave the building.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Tue, 10/09/2001 - 2:38am.
Archived comment by Sheep:
Hehehe... that's better than the Latimer Hall Emergency Procedures, which are basically "Ignore Any Emergency."

Seriously, I was in o-chem lab last semester and the fire alarm went off. We all looked at the TA and she just shrugged and said not to worry about it. Five minutes later, the alarm was still going off and we could hear fire engines. We didn't evacuate until someone noticed smoke curling along the ceiling of the hallway outside, due to a nearby elevator fire.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Mon, 10/08/2001 - 9:10am.
Archived comment by JP:
I mean, I'm not even competent to spell "conversational"....
Posted by Anne Onymous on Mon, 10/08/2001 - 8:52am.
Archived comment by JP:
Yeah, but RAH was quoting somebody. I even saw the reference the other day.

Of course I don't remember what or where it was. What do you think I am - competent to complete a converstational gambit or something?
Posted by Anne Onymous on Mon, 10/08/2001 - 6:58am.
Archived comment by Jon:
Specifically, "The Number of the Beast". A book I alternately(how appropriate) like or dislike, I do!

In other news, although I was wary of Sam Neill being the host(Oh yes, he was in "Event Horizon", wasn't he?) the TLC series "Hyperspace" is most entertaining. The CGI kicks ass, too.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Mon, 10/08/2001 - 12:48am.
Archived comment by AOYB:
youa ctaully have emergency procedures....hmmm....ooops....but panic is pretty standard...goes without saying......."whazzat...the cow gave birth and aate the placenta?" hmmmmmm....old movies....
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 9:21pm.
Archived comment by Adam:
Josh, why didn't you offer coolpoints!? I need all I can get! Robert Heinlein, of course.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 9:10pm.
Archived comment by Jo3sh:
"When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout."
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 6:18pm.
Archived comment by Santiago:
Well, at least if you lose power during the
emergency you've still got that giant abacus...
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 5:28pm.
Archived comment by umrguy:
*BREEEEEEEEEE* "This has been a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This was only a test. Had this been a real emergency, you would have heard this sound: *AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!*"
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 3:46pm.
Archived comment by Marla:
When I was in first year we were in a lecture and the fire alarm went off. But the lecturer said we were behind and it was a false alarm and we'd keep going.

At this point the fire alarm was going "ding! ding! ding!"

After a while of her talking over this relatively quiet alarm, it changed to: "ding-ding-ding-ding-ding" this whole continuous ringing thing. But she still kept going. By this time everyone is getting a bit nervous, comments were being made about this being the titanic of lecture theatres and that we would go down writing notes.

Then it started whooping...we didn't pay much attention to the lecturer then � yeah, pretty much panic!
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 12:32pm.
Archived comment by killjoy:
Whoever made that modification is obviously a very clever and resourceful individual. He must be dealt with cautiously.
Posted by Anne Onymous on Sun, 10/07/2001 - 12:21pm.
Archived comment by guy:
yes, run like hell, push and trample your way to freedom.
Control panel
Comment viewing options:
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to submit your changes.