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> But if you had to pick just one emergency notification technology for the modern world, it would be mobile telephones. There's really no significant argument there.

Definitely disagree. Mobile phones have a million failure modes. The only reason I'd choose them is 2-way communication, not reliability of 1-way communication.

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Was the last emergency notification you received actually on an AM radio? I was in Taiwan last week during the earthquakes and got them at 2am on my foreign phone via a temporary SIM I got for $9 at the airport.

Sorry, there is more to reliability analysis than just analyzing failure modes. Whether or not a technology is productively useful for its intended purpose is important!

They're useful for different kinds of emergencies. Nobody said one of them subsumed the other. You might as well say "when was the last time 911 helped you? I just used a first-aid kit last week and it saved me from my bleeding."

We’re one Carrington event away from coiling our own copper wire to pick up AM signals. I’m unaware of any similar mechanism for internet or cell reception. I’m pretty happy with AM being carried forward. Maybe the FCC could support that by loosening the requirements for registering and operating stations. I’d love to run my own from my house.

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