Talk:Homeland Security Advisory System

Is this really a "current event"? Shouldn't the CE template be removed? --Tysto 2005 July 8 19:35 (UTC)

I've removed it. The excitement in London seems to be over. --Carnildo 8 July 2005 21:58 (UTC)

Court Decision

Did anyone catch this page being cited in the 11th Circuit case about the School of the America's protest? Pretty cool.

Here's the decision -- 84.129.121.164 10:54, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Actually, given that Wikipedia can be edited by anyone at anytime, I think it's quite scary. 69.58.249.133 2 July 2005 14:44 (UTC)

Wow, I've just read that, and I have to agree. What a joke.

---

Interesting, the court case citation said it's been raised to high six times, while the current article states five. Which is right, I wonder? Crisco 1492 18:44, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Threat Grading

What is it with the USA and it's use of colour grading systems that don't follow the natural order found in the optical spectrum? One would expect ROYGB (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue) not ROYBG. The NOAA is similar in that its map's hurricane strike probability zones run ROGY instead of the natural ROYG.

I don't know about the NOAA scale, but with the Homeland Security scale, blue is below green because it's considered a "cooler" color than green, and thus should be further from the "hot" end of the scale: red. --Carnildo 04:04, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Yes, but blue is NOT below green on the HSAS scale, and the point you mention (blue being cooler and furthest away from hot red) is exactly the reason I'm questioning the scales ordering - I'm glad we agree. =P I should really email both organisations and see if they have a reason for the ordering...

It's because green is the opposite of red. Red means stop, green means go. Red is bad, green is good. These are pretty common mnemonics anymore. 71.98.94.170 00:41, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, from a logical point of view, blue should be bottom. From a "green is a really friendly looking colour" point of view, green should be bottom. As Colbert would say, it just feels like the right thing to do. Also, I'd bet a good amount of money this thing is never going below yellow.--Headcase 06:00, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

From a logical point of view, there's no reason the system should follow the order of the optical spectrum. It's not the terror alert rainbow. That would get confused with the gay pride rainbow.--69.241.225.103 13:32, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

---

This article needs to discuss the process of deciding what the colour of the day should be. --snoyes 02:40, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hey, it's an American system, use an American spelling: COLOR. There, was that so hard?

Or at least describe what the various risk levels mean in concrete terms; what is the difference between "guarded", "elevated", and "severe"? User:Wiml

I don't even think Homeland Security has figured out the differences in concrete terms ;-) Karmafist 17:34, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't want to sounds "partisan" or "biased," but surely the public's perception of this device should be mentioned? Given it's supposed importance, it is openly mocked by journalists, entertainers, and some government officials. --Feitclub 21:11, Sep 5, 2004 (UTC)

By some journalists, some entertainers, and some politicians. The public in general seem to be split by it, so there should be something about it, but not to give the idea that the public are deadset against it.

Redirect

I believe that anyone who searches for "terror alert", "terrorism alert", or "US alert level" should be redirected here. Trying to find this page I first had to go to the US Department of Homeland Security article and then read until I found the reference to the color coded alert level article. I mean seriously, how many will search for "homeland Security Advisory System" when searching for information?

Retardedity??

Although I am a critic of the terror alert system, lets keep the information here objective and useable. The editorial in the first two sections should be edited or moved. I would do it, but I am not sure how to move anything less than a whole page.--Mirokudesign 05:16, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

History

Please see the end HSPD-5 which cleans up some old parts of HSPD-3.

"The Homeland Security Act of 2002 assigned the responsibility for administering the Homeland Security Advisory System to the Secretary of Homeland Security."

Changes in the alert is made in consultation with others (including Justice and the White House), but is the responsibility of the Secretary.

Other resources:

HSPD-5 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030228-9.html

HSPD-3 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020312-5.html

The Homeland Securiyt Act of 2002 at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:h.r.5005.enr: or http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=46&content=41070.61.22.110 16:35, 16 August 2007 (UTC)Gwynne

I'd give a lot to see a citation or link of a formal, governmentally-issued historical chart of threat levels.70.61.22.110 16:35, 16 August 2007 (UTC)Newt

For anyone who doesnt know

The current terror alert level is:

Burnt sienna

What level is this then?

${\sqrt {-}}7$ --Carnildo 00:44, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Referring by Colors

Please... DO NOT refer to the Homeland Security Advisory System by colors. That is why they have names. It is not Code Red, it is Severe. And the only Code Blue's there are involve crash carts. --Signed and Sealed, JJJJust (T C) 11:03, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Why in the world would they assign colors to the levels if you aren't supposed to us the color names???

This is not intended as a meaningful discussion for change, just an observation for wiki purposes.

From the Homeland security site [1] "Code Red or Severe" and "Code Orange or High" are used to describe current levels. It would seem that a code in reference to a color could reference any use of a word(s) as cross organizational standard has not been set. Otherwise, if standards where set, color codes would be limited to four or five uses. So if a government entity required the use of visual aids to describe action levels not relevant to an emergency room use, the government would have no choice but to move down the color spectrum to find a new color, henceforth they would have to use code colors such as ox blood instead of red and code sky blue instead of blue.

I might note that, as far as I could tell on my most recent visits to US airports (which was today and yesterday), out of all the repetitive announcements coming out of the PA system about the Homeland Security Advisory level, I heard zero of them ever referring to "high" as the current level; they all said "orange" only. Just as another data point. --Drake Wilson 00:44, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Added HSAS-based template

Template:HSAS I created this template for your convenience at the right. If you liked it, please contact me. --Bigtop 01:48, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

David Cross joke amusing but pointless

The whole paragraph about the David Cross joke about the President eating a baby may be amusing, but it doesn't contribute anything useful to the article. It only seems to be there to promote the comedian and/or make the article longer, and the "humor" affects the NPOV of the article. 64.169.12.26 22:20, 7 December 2006 (UTC) SKR

Color order

Is anyone else bothered in an OCD way that it goes yellow blue green? Is there a source out there that says this isn't the normal way colors are ordered?69.12.143.197 03:22, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, first off you have to consider the people who designed the system were idiots. Then you have to consider that green and blue are never used because Bush doesn't want people to know that our chances of getting attacked by terrorists is pretty close to 0, because it helps his rating among crazy people. Unfortunately, this has the net effect of everyone else completely ignoring it. It doesn't really matter what order the last two colors are in for that reason. Titanium Dragon 21:38, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

They were idiots? So they aren't anymore? And BTW this has already been discussed on this talk page. It's not a rainbow, or hot/cold. The reason why green is below blue is this: green is a universal "OK" symbol; red is a universal "Danger" symbol. -- 12.116.162.162 20:13, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure I agree with your logic. Blue could be said to be a universal "relaxed" symbol, while green is a universal "ready" symbol. Any 4th grade art student can tell you the logical progression (by color order) would be blue, green, yellow, orange, red. The current layot just feels "wrong". But this is all academic because I doubt the threat level will ever be lowered to green, nor do the threat levels really indicate anything meaningful.--Eion 18:10, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Alert level history

Is anyone aware of a history of the alert level changes? I can't find anything at the official DHS site, but perhaps some interested observer might have kept track of changes since the system's inception? Thanks.