Hacker News Reader

I'm not seeing the angle for an NSA-type agency - what would they benefit? There are enough events of significance that happen organically - they could track those much more easily. They don't need to create an artificial event.

The pattern is fairly predictable, too. Twitter users will hear of this first, followed by pockets of people with close friends in Hawaii. Then it will make the news sites and TV news.

View on HN

Events specifically related to an incoming ICBM? Context matters. People will react differently depending on the circumstances, which means there are things to learn there.

The least nefarious reason for a 3 letter agency to do this would be to dry-run a reaction plan to such an event, and take what they learn from reactions & apply what they learn to improve said plan

Then again, it could be a dry-run to measure peoples sentiments toward a war with NK. Less likely, but still possible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com