# May all the kidnapped children roast in hell! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 28, 2021, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673 "2021-08-28T13:40:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/61 "2021-08-30T17:09:35Z")
I remember the first weather alert I got on a smartphone. I was walking, briskly, from my parked car to Mad Mex. It looked like it would start raining any minute. My phone made a loud alert sound, so I stopped and looked at it. It said a storm was imminent. It started raining and I got a bit wet. Had I not stopped to see why my phone was worried, I would have made it to the restaurant before the rain began. So, I sat down at the bar and figured out how to turn off all the emergency notifications and I’ve been good ever since. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/62 "2021-08-30T17:18:14Z")
Well, I can’t say for sure if they’re nationwide over the TV (and did say I only believed they were). But they’re broadcast on TV and radio around here and I’d be _very_ surprised to find that this isn’t the case in most areas, especially urban ones. Maybe we should have a poll. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/63 "2021-08-30T17:20:46Z")
I’m in suburban Chicago, with Comcast/Xfinity cable TV, and Comcast breaks into programming here with amber alarts, with the same alert tone and synthesized voice that is used for weather alerts. One flaw in their system is that the same alert will sometimes repeat multiple times (one immediately after another) – my guess is that there are multiple counties in our Comcast service area, and each county is triggering its own alert. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/64 "2021-08-30T17:24:01Z")
NY & NJ, not on Cable/FIOS/Satellite as far as I know. The weather alerts are. Maybe it is broadcast TV only here. It would be a terribly stupid system honestly to broadcast Amber alerts that interrupt programs. It wouldn’t do any good in an overwhelming number of cases. Leave it on the phones. Leave it capable of Opt out. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/65 "2021-08-30T17:29:50Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > NY & NJ, not on Cable/FIOS/Satellite as far as I know. The weather alerts are. > Maybe it is broadcast TV only here. I was certainly getting them while on Xfinity, but it may have been on stations that are also still broadcast stations, such as PBS. I could swear I’ve seen them on at least some of the cable stations, but maybe not. I’ve only had FIOS for a short time so I can’t speak to it (yet). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/66 "2021-08-30T17:33:14Z")
I think Public TV stations are required. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/67 "2021-08-30T18:12:13Z")
There are road signs on major highways that can be seen from a goodly distance away that flash license plate numbers, car models, etc., and this would be a pretty good way of giving out this information safely to drivers who could then keep an eye out for the kidnapper’s car. I have no problem with this system. I just can’t figure out what they think they’re accomplishing by alerting people inside their homes watching TV about such things. The clip (above) of everyone immediately running out into the street and commandeering vehicles illustrates my problem with the system, which is not useless but actively annoying, and is designed for its annoyance value. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/68 "2021-08-30T21:17:36Z")
I have AT&T and an iPhone. It’s really easy to turn off Amber Alerts and similar alerts if you want to. I’ve turned off Amber Alerts because I routinely get alerts for incidents that happened a state or two (and 8+ hours driving) away and it’s basically spam. If it only alerted me about things that were actually in my vicinity that would be one thing, but I don’t need to be alerted about something that’s not happening anywhere near me. Griping about it, though, is pitiful. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/69 "2021-08-30T22:37:49Z")
Amber Alerts only come over my TV if they’re local, as in the area of that station’s TV coverage, the way severe weather alerts go out. For a while, any Illinois Amber Alerts activated on Illinois TV stations and phones, and they got enough complaints about it that they also stopped doing it statewide. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/70 "2021-08-31T00:05:17Z")
And if they actually used the signs for that purpose, that would be awesome! Many times, the sign just says “AMBER ALERT DIAL ### FOR INFO” (and to show you how effective they are, I can’t remember the info number at the moment). Very rarely they’ll display a description of the vehicle involved, along with the license plate. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/71 "2021-08-31T02:42:40Z")
> [@Roger\_That](#): > > I could leave my TV set on in “sleep” mode and turn it on in the morning, or when I got up from a nap, without retuning it to the station I wanted to watch. You see, that is unfamiliar to me since… (a) Every electronically/digitally tuned TV I have owned has retained the last-tuned channel unless the actual flow of electricity into the power supply module has been interrupted more than momentarily… (b) … because for decades now virtually every TV has really been in a “standby” quick-start mode when we say it’s “off”. If it’s plugged in it stays on channel unless there’s a power outage. (c) And the same has happened with every cable/satellite box I’ve dealt with: stayed set unless mains power or the cable/satellite source signal were cut off making it reset. (d) And, all that said, _I have **never** experienced any category of Emergency Alert making **any** TV or Tuner Box “wake up” from standby mode_ (be it Amber/Silver _or_ severe weather disaster). And I have been in the same room with the TV and the smartphone when those have come up. So I don’t know what to tell you about dealing with what seems like some particularly obnoxious system configuration designed by psychopaths. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/72 "2021-08-31T05:16:01Z")
Obviously, different systems work differently in other places. There is no way for me to keep my TV on (activated by a single switch) and not get these annoying emergency alerts at random intervals. I can shut the whole thing down, but that means I’ll need to figure out what channel I want to watch, and hit at least four buttons for any (HD) signal. Not the worst problem, I admit, but still a problem. I would be interested in hearing more from those who have found a way to disable AT&T’s tests of their weekly emergency warning alerts. These often happen when I’ve got the TV on and suddenly the set goes completely insane, requiring me to locate the remote to shut off the noxious sounds. Again, if this were an irritating but low-volume accompaniment to what sounds the TV is making, this would be a very minor problem but I can’t figure out why they need to do it every week and do it so loud. this is different from the Amber Alert problem. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/73 "2021-08-31T06:03:02Z")
The alert is loud to get people’s attention, as alerts should be. You’re the one avoiding the obvious solution to avoid the issue all because of the minor inconvenience of having to (gasp!) change the channel when you wake up! I might have sympathy if you’d posted this just after waking up, and then apologized for that vile garbage of title. I might even try to look up your manual to see if there was a way to tell Amber alerts not to wake up your TV. But, no, you doubled down on that garbage, and admit you just wrote it to “get eyeballs.” Do you really not get how utterly self-centered this makes you sound? You asked before if there was another “Roger\_That” who people had a bad history with. Well, it seems that Roger\_That is the one who started this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/74 "2021-08-31T07:21:56Z")
These systems aren’t really designed to be rational. At most, they provide a vague sense that The System cares about our welfare. Tornado sirens work on the same principle. There’s zero evidence that they _do_ anything beneficial, but people still want them and agitate for new ones to be put up; my county has dozens of the things and we’ve had about three actual dangerous tornadoes in the last 60 years. > [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Also, does anyone get any kind of alerts on their landline? I mentioned to an elderly relative the other day that I was thinking of canceling my landline service, and she was very concerned that I wouldn’t receive severe weather alerts anymore. 🤨 This sounds like a “reverse 911” service provided by the local government. It’s not universal, and in many places it’s opt-in (especially for weather alerts). ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/75 "2021-08-31T11:54:52Z")
You’ve obviously got some reading comprehension issues here, so I won’t even try to correct you on the most severe of them, but much animosity as you choose to bear me, it doesn;t change one of my complaints here, namely the need for such excessive noise in the attention-grabbing process. To narrow it down even further for your limited mind, if a piece of classical were to be played at the same earsplitting volume as the annoying alarm sound, as senseless as that might be, that alone would mitigate some of what I’m complaining about. There’s no need for me to be startled, even terrified, for a moment while I realize that nothing horrible is happening, I’m just being informed of something that I need to pay a second of attention to. This is only the smallest part of my complaint–the whole system makes no sense to me. But go ahead, be offended by the title of this pitting, and use that as your excuse to try and turn the pitting on me. What I’d recommend for idiots like you would be that you stop reading my post and return to the one I linked to from a decade or so ago. It made some of the same complaints, just not so systematically, Go find something to bitch about there. ---
**Author:** ![tricoteuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tricoteuse/32/4334_2.png) [@tricoteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tricoteuse)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/76 "2021-08-31T12:52:49Z")
What kind of prehistoric TV do you have that’s either full on or full off and has an actual switch and also picks up HD channels? And if you must leave the TV on to keep it on your channel why not just mute it before you go to sleep? ---
**Author:** ![tricoteuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tricoteuse/32/4334_2.png) [@tricoteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tricoteuse)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/77 "2021-08-31T12:56:02Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You asked before if there was another “Roger\_That” who people had a bad history with. > > Well, it seems that Roger\_That is the one who started this thread. In other words he’s his own partner in crime 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/78 "2021-08-31T14:45:25Z")
> [@Roger\_That](#): > > Obviously, different systems work differently in other places. There is no way for me to keep my TV on (activated by a single switch) and not get these annoying emergency alerts at random intervals. I can shut the whole thing down, but that means I’ll need to figure out what channel I want to watch, and hit at least four buttons for any (HD) signal Now I, too, am wondering about what your set-up configuration is like, and where are you. ‘cause that _seems_ odd. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/79 "2021-08-31T15:33:53Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > But, no, you doubled down on that garbage, and admit you just wrote it to “get eyeballs.” Which is, by the way, a blatant admission of trolling. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673/80 "2021-08-31T15:53:07Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Now I, too, am wondering about what your set-up configuration is like, and where are you. ‘cause that _seems_ odd. Yeah, I’m really confused. Is your cable box integrated into the TV? Can’t you just turn the TV off and leave the cable on? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/may-all-the-kidnapped-children-roast-in-hell/949673.md?page=5)