Now these guys want to set themselves up as the people who "should have known" and "should have warned" everybody that an earthquake/tornado/mudslide/whatever was about to happen. The plaintiff's bar must be licking its chops. |
Posted on 04/10/2002 11:46:51 AM PDT by CounterCounterCulture
By Seth Borenstein
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
April 10, 2002
WASHINGTON - If your TV is off when disaster looms, some emergency managers want to be able to turn it on to warn you of the coming danger.
The technology that would allow the government to remotely activate your television or radio already exists. But it's never caught on because so many people don't like the idea of government reaching into their homes.
Still, one emergency specialist who believes a "smart receiver" system can save lives intends to delicately broach the idea at the National Association of Broadcasters convention today in Las Vegas.
"The more you know about what's happening, the better off you are," said Peter Ward, chairman of the new nonprofit advocacy group Partnership for Public Warning, which will raise the subject at the broadcasters convention. "We hope to reduce loss of lives . . . .
The reality is if you look at warnings and the history of warnings, they have saved lives."
"As an emergency manager, it is a necessity," said Jim Butchart, communications technology coordinator for Alaska's Division of Emergency Services. "Because all of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) weather radios, all of the cable television scrolls, all of the television announcements do you no good if you're home asleep."
Nevertheless, it's still an uncomfortable idea, and the White House Office of Homeland Security says it's not actively exploring the idea.
Since 1997, the Federal Communications Commission has required radio, broadcast television and cable television companies to have the equipment "that sends out the proper codes to turn things on," said Frank Lucia, the retired emergency communications bureau director for the FCC who has joined Ward's efforts. But the FCC hasn't required radio or television makers to install the equipment to receive such automatic-on signals, he said.
Cable companies can turn on your set with a simple burst of reflected infrared light, said Mark Smith, spokesman for the National Cable Television Association. And in Europe, a smaller-scale version of this concept is used in 95 million car radios that can switch from playing a compact disc to issuing an emergency or traffic warning. Residents near nuclear power plants in Sweden have radios that turn on automatically in an emergency at the plant.
So the technology works. The question for Americans is whether it should be installed.
"Just the reality of it coming on in your home, if that technology is there, it becomes easier to add the capability to peek," said Wayne Crews, director of technology policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian research center in Washington funded primarily by business interests.
"Anonymity still matters to a lot of people, and privacy still matters to a lot of people," Crews said. What's more, people already have access to nearly instant communication through the Internet, he said.
Supporters say consumers would still have some control over privacy because they will be able to program what warnings they want to receive.
TV that watches you.
TV that watches you.
FINALLY, revenge when people park their bodies between me and the tube! (Could we maybe add a taser function?)
you'd still pay for it as you now pay for algore's V chip TM... just more nannyism
Now these guys want to set themselves up as the people who "should have known" and "should have warned" everybody that an earthquake/tornado/mudslide/whatever was about to happen. The plaintiff's bar must be licking its chops. |
In the story, all people had to have a TV (called "FreeVee") on, all the time, because of the "mandatory benefit" law.
Between the advent of "reality TV" and reading this article, I'm...nervous.
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This is Lawsuit City. Look at how New York is being sued to death right now on the grounds that city government "should have known" that a terrorist attack was imminent.