<story><title>Deep underwater, submariners are likely unaware of pandemic</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-30/blissful-ignorance-submariners-likely-unaware-of-pandemic</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>soneil</author><text>I’m not sure there’s anything specific about France here.  The UK’s bombers operate similarly, and I can’t see any reason anyone else’s wouldn’t.&lt;p&gt;My father worked aboard one, and we got to send a weekly “familygram” message - a short, telegram-style message where you put one word in each box until you’re out of boxes, and then mail it off to the Navy.  You weren’t allowed to even hint at any bad news - not even that the dog had died - and we were told that any bad news would be removed from the message.  And receiving a too-short, redacted, or no familygram at all would probably be more worrying than not being told at all.&lt;p&gt;The reality of it is that if you’re half-way through a 10-week patrol, there’s nothing about this pandemic that’s remotely useful to you.  Nothing you can do, nothing you can say, no way you can benefit from this information.  It’s 100% useless mental overhead.&lt;p&gt;And to be honest, I think I’m a little jealous right now.  I don’t think 100% news saturation is good for us either.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lbeltrame</author><text>&amp;gt; I don’t think 100% news saturation is good for us either.&lt;p&gt;I agree. In Italy basically all the news are just about the coronavirus and nothing else, plus a lot of sensationalism (&amp;quot;we&amp;#x27;re all gonna die&amp;quot; style), and the Big Brother style press conference every day with the reports of daily numbers of cases, deaths, and recoveries.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s so aggravating and anxiety inducing that I only check a news roundup in the morning and I shut myself away from any other news sources. Not ideal, but at this point it&amp;#x27;s the only way to make sure I&amp;#x27;m not consumed by the constant stream of bad news.</text></comment>
<story><title>Deep underwater, submariners are likely unaware of pandemic</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-30/blissful-ignorance-submariners-likely-unaware-of-pandemic</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>soneil</author><text>I’m not sure there’s anything specific about France here.  The UK’s bombers operate similarly, and I can’t see any reason anyone else’s wouldn’t.&lt;p&gt;My father worked aboard one, and we got to send a weekly “familygram” message - a short, telegram-style message where you put one word in each box until you’re out of boxes, and then mail it off to the Navy.  You weren’t allowed to even hint at any bad news - not even that the dog had died - and we were told that any bad news would be removed from the message.  And receiving a too-short, redacted, or no familygram at all would probably be more worrying than not being told at all.&lt;p&gt;The reality of it is that if you’re half-way through a 10-week patrol, there’s nothing about this pandemic that’s remotely useful to you.  Nothing you can do, nothing you can say, no way you can benefit from this information.  It’s 100% useless mental overhead.&lt;p&gt;And to be honest, I think I’m a little jealous right now.  I don’t think 100% news saturation is good for us either.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>michaelt</author><text>Your description reminded me of the British WW1 postcards [1] where, if you were admitted to hospital the messages allowed were &amp;quot;hope to be discharged soon&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;am going on well&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;commons.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;File:BRITISH_FIELD_SERVICE_POSTCARD,_FIRST_WORLD_WAR_MH34058.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;commons.wikimedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;File:BRITISH_FIELD_SERVIC...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>