How to find out about nuclear war?

Question

Say Putin decides to use a tactical nuke in Ukraine. I'd like to know as soon as possible--ideally within a minute. Is there a service, watchdog, NGO, etc. out there that monitors for this sort of thing and would give speedy notice? I couldn't find one.I know about emergency alerts on phones in the U.S., but who knows how long it would take to get one of those (or even if .gov would decide to use it in the case of a single tactical nuke in a far-away land).I'm also sure I could monitor Twitter / Telegram / Discord / MySpace, but I don't want to have to monitor anything. I want to get an alert as soon as possible after $EVENT == 1.

jstx1 · Accepted Answer

> I know about emergency alerts on phones in the U.S., but who knows how long it would take to get one of thoseI wouldn't be so dismissive - your country has an alert system and more information than you can ever gather and filter by yourself - what more do you possibly expect? Like, what would be an ideal answer to this question that can potentially be an improvement over the national emergency alert system? It looks like you're asking for a solution to a solved problem.

nonameiguess · Answer

This seems like a variant of trying to time the market. If you really believe the risk of nuclear war is elevated and you have a contingency plan to go live in a safer place, do it. Don't try to beat the general public by five minutes. What happens then if you get the alert, but you're in the middle of taking a crap, a shower, your phone happened to be a different room, you're driving through a tunnel, or you're more than five minutes from your house anyway? Are you really in a position to respond within five minutes 24/7/365?

crate_barre · Answer

Nuclear war really is the new &lsquo;Is Yellowstone about to erupt?&rsquo; now days huh? You are partaking in Armageddon fantasies, a guilty pleasure of many.

moistly · Answer

You can be sure that HN will be flooded with reposts about the event, just as it is every time github, Reddit, or iCloud has a hiccup. The front page will comprise 32 near-identical headlines posted with 1 minute of each other as users vie to get the most karma by being the &ldquo;frist psot.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s as inevitable as spam.

PaulHoule · Answer

I live in a rural area where we figure it would take at least a day for fallout to reach us. Our plan then is to go to the gas station and buy all the Budweiser we can. (ok... bottled water and soda too.)

mymllnthaccount · Answer

Would earthquake monitoring systems pick up a nuclear blast?

qnsi · Answer

If you preorder my subscription system for 10$/month I will build this and guarantee you don't die my friend

Jcowell · Answer

Twitter. My bet is Twitter being the fastest propagation of information given you actively look for it.

mikece · Answer

if (Russian use of nuclear weapons is all over the news)

|| (all news sources and the internet itself seem to be offline) {

  initiate_use_of_nuclear_weapons_contingency();

}

In all seriousness, if that happens it's not something that can be concealed and it will be all over the news.

hogrider · Answer

TCP over carrier pigeons

How to find out about nuclear war?

Nuclear war really is the new ‘Is Yellowstone about to erupt?’ now days huh? You are partaking in Armageddon fantasies, a guilty pleasure of many.

I live in a rural area where we figure it would take at least a day for fallout to reach us. Our plan then is to go to the gas station and buy all the Budweiser we can. (ok... bottled water and soda too.)

Would earthquake monitoring systems pick up a nuclear blast?

If you preorder my subscription system for 10$/month I will build this and guarantee you don't die my friend

Twitter. My bet is Twitter being the fastest propagation of information given you actively look for it.

if (Russian use of nuclear weapons is all over the news)
|| (all news sources and the internet itself seem to be offline) {
`initiate_use_of_nuclear_weapons_contingency();`
}
In all seriousness, if that happens it's not something that can be concealed and it will be all over the news.

TCP over carrier pigeons

How to find out about nuclear war?

Nuclear war really is the new ‘Is Yellowstone about to erupt?’ now days huh? You are partaking in Armageddon fantasies, a guilty pleasure of many.

I live in a rural area where we figure it would take at least a day for fallout to reach us. Our plan then is to go to the gas station and buy all the Budweiser we can. (ok... bottled water and soda too.)

Would earthquake monitoring systems pick up a nuclear blast?

If you preorder my subscription system for 10$/month I will build this and guarantee you don't die my friend

Twitter. My bet is Twitter being the fastest propagation of information given you actively look for it.

if (Russian use of nuclear weapons is all over the news)|| (all news sources and the internet itself seem to be offline) { initiate_use_of_nuclear_weapons_contingency(); }In all seriousness, if that happens it's not something that can be concealed and it will be all over the news.

TCP over carrier pigeons

if (Russian use of nuclear weapons is all over the news)
|| (all news sources and the internet itself seem to be offline) {
`initiate_use_of_nuclear_weapons_contingency();`
}
In all seriousness, if that happens it's not something that can be concealed and it will be all over the news.