Well, howdy there internet people, Lidsboe again.

So today we are going to talk about rumors again and kind of dispel one, but this one's cool

because in the process of it you will get some context, some history, and with that context,

you will be able to gauge this stuff yourself in the future. It will hand you the tools. So if this ever

comes up again you can kind of put it in a frame of reference

and see if it's even plausible. The rumor is that right now we're at Defcon 2 or not.

Okay. Okay, so what is Defcon?

Defense condition, it's a system developed in the late 50s and it measures.

It's a scale that tells us how close we are to things going really, really bad.

People often get the scale inverted.

You will see people say, I'm gonna go to Def Con 5 on them. Well enjoy your picnic.

Def Con 5 is good. Def Con 1 is you know fireballs from the sky.

Okay. know fireballs from the sky. Okay, so developed in the late 50s, been around a

really, really long time. How many times you think we've actually gone to DefCon 2? There's one obvious

one in 1962. Def Con 2 is one step below.

Things going really bad.

The Cuban missile crisis, that's one.

That is one example of going to Def Con 2.

There's another one and when I say this there will probably be bickering about it

as to whether or not it should really count.

And that is at the beginning of the first Gulf War.

I happen to agree with the people who say it shouldn't count. I actually get their point and I agree with it.

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