Food for thought

There's a lot of talk about cellphone notification and text messages and emails as it becomes very apparent that Virginia Tech fucked up big time this morning.

Just for the record, in case anyone in a position to think about these things reads here...sometimes low-tech isn't bad.

Sirens work.

Campus-wide sirens, with two or three different tones, coded "fire," "tornado," "shelter in place," provide a notice to people walking around, joggers, students and faculty in parking lots. Sirens wake up sleeping students and, if they're good, loud sirens, can be heard over an ipod.

We're going to wait for things to become a little clearer before we talk about the very obvious, legal-in-Virgina, option that may not have saved every life, but could well have saved 30 of them.