Sonic boom panic?

Last Tuesday, F-15s scrambled from Portland, Oregon to intercept a small plane whose pilot now very likely wishes he had read the day's Notices to Airmen, which announced the location of a 30-mile "no fly" zone (established because of a visit by the President) he had flown into. The planes requested and were granted permission to fly at supersonic speed to expedite getting to where they needed to be. This created sonic booms.

The resulting volume of calls to the Pierce County 911 dispatch center apparently overloaded the system's 30 lines.

An online article in The News Tribune notes that:

[...] the system jammed up when thousands of scared or curious people across the region dialed 911 to find out what caused the booms. Emergency communications officials wish folks wouldn’t do that.

The article concentrated pretty much on the mechanics of the emergency response system infrastructure. I'm thinking the focus is likely mislaid.

I'm thinking what needs tuning is the level of public knowledge, if that's the right word. If an emergency response system can be brought to its knees because people are curious about loud noises, no amount of infrastructure is going to help. That some number of people were calling because they had been scared by what amounts to thunderclaps in broad daylight is also suggestive of a population that needs a bit more exposure to the world, in my opinion.

I like to think this sort of thing wouldn't happen where I live, but one never knows, does one?

Cheers...

Working Saturday...

I managed to translate about 4,500 source words, which is a good day's work, and saw the arrival of the next slug of The Big Edit™.

Around mid-day, Galina and I drove out to Site Lima, where I saw no lobsters, but I did see a copy of the yellowish mushroom I saw last year (in a slightly different spot), which - as it's likely a member of the Amanita family - could not help but raise the question of whether Amanita mushrooms can be parasitized by the lobster mushroom fungus? (The "traditional" lobster mushroom is actually the result of the parasitization of a Russula or Lactarius mushroom, but I recall reading, in one of my references, a general caveat regarding the possibility of the fungus doing its thing with a poisonous variety.)

Dinner was fried boletes with salmon and angel hair pasta. Scrumptious!

Tomorrow promises at least as much work.

Cheers...