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NERV Disaster Prevention
- evanjrowley 3y agoFor those unaware, the name and logo are inspired by NERV from the Japanese anime Evangelion (1995): https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/NERV https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/NERV
- phantomathkg 3y agoThe creator is a die hard fan of EVA according to Asahi Shinbun's interview in 2020. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13996940 https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13996940
- nvahalik 3y agoMy first thought. Both cool but also a little weird, given the content of the anime.
- chromakode 3y agoIt's very funny and odd that they retained the "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world" text.
- Hamuko 3y agoI imagine to the average Japanese person, that's just cool English text and nothing more.
- pizza 3y agoThat's what made me think that it was a parody at first... Like.. that's just the Eva NERV tagline.. must be an Eva account.
- shadowgovt 3y agoIt's the message I'd hope to see in relation to natural disaster prediction!
- aspire2Bamalek 3y ago“Pippa’s Song” THE year’s at the spring, And day’s at the morn; Morning’s at seven; The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d; The lark’s on the wing; The snail’s on the thorn; God’s in His heaven – All’s right with the world! Robert Browning (1812-1889)
- Garlef 3y agoAh... I just realized for the first time that this must be the same Robert Browning whose poem served as an inspiration for Stephen Kings "the dark tower"
- devindotcom 3y agonever knew this was a Browning poem, interesting. thanks!
- chronid 3y agoThe company behind it is called gehirn to add more fun to the story. :)
- throwaway892238 3y agoI'm honestly kinda spooked out at the multiple websites and companies here that seem to be from NGE. I can't really tell if these are fake or real.
- djur 3y agoThere's a product called "Soylent" and a company called "Palantir" -- lots of precedent for this kind of thing.
- kmeisthax 3y agoAah yes, we've finally invented the Torment Nexus from the famous sci-fi classic Don't Invent the Torment Nexus
- djur 3y agoThis goes way back. Over a century ago a guy named his beef extract after the Victorian equivalent of the Force from Star Wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril
- sehansen 3y agoThis life force "Vril" is from a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, best known in hacker circles as the author of the opening line "It was a dark and stormy night" and the namesake of the Bulwer-Lytton (bad) Fiction Contest. Winning entries are a fortune staple. Or "were", since the newest entry on my Arch Linux box is from 1990.
- XorNot 3y agoI hate that tweet. It was coined in the context of whatever Meta was doing with "the Metaverse" which for some reason everyone decided to lose their minds about as some sort of imminent threat rather then just a ge nobody wanted to play. The thing is, The Metaverse wasn't a problem in Snow Crash. It just was - it was a thing, and it was generally regarded as one of the last places not totally under the dystopian corporate lawlessness that the rest of the world was. So the motivating example is built on misunderstanding the original text, in the same way that Meta doing it was built on misunderstanding everything about the concept.
- mezzode 3y agoThe logo isn't even just inspired by, it just outright is the NERV logo from Rebuild https://wiki.evageeks.org/Nerv_Logo https://wiki.evageeks.org/Nerv_Logo
- noduerme 3y agoYou know what would be great would be an app like this for shootings in America. (Unfortunately).
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoAre they really that frequent, and would an app actually help? I thought the gun lobby advocated for more guns so they can shoot down shooters.
- jitl 3y agoCitizen does this (https://citizen.com https://citizen.com) I used it for a bit, and it had decent UX, but it seems designed to raise your anxiety until you pay for a snake oil subscription. YMMV
- Rebelgecko 3y agoCitizen was also exploring offering private security services. Great synergy I guess
- sneak 3y agoShootings affecting many people (ie mass shootings) in America aren’t common, and are over very quickly. Notification apps would not change the outcomes. Earthquakes in Japan are a fact of life, and affect many many people very often. Mass shootings anywhere (USA included) are rare, freak occurrences, that involve small numbers of people. Additional fearmongering over the very tiny risk from gun violence in the US actually makes the problem worse, not better. The mass media already does more than enough of that.
- noduerme 3y agoI didn't mean mass shootings. In my neighborhood I hear gunshots almost every night. There were several shootings within a block of my house just in the last six months, including one where patrons of the nearest bar had to run and hide in the walk-in freezer while two idiots shot at each other (and both missed). Often times I hear shots and check the police log and can't even find a reference to them.
- positus 3y agoThis is somewhat eerie considering the earthquakes happening in Japan over the past day.
- MBCook 3y agoThey got some fame because they were posting “too many updates” this morning due to the earthquake/tsunami and got blocked on Twitter and had to tell people to use their app instead. That’s the reason I heard about them, for the first time, this morning. I saw the name and had to go digging to see if it was real (yes), if NERV was a real government agency and not fictional as I always assumed (no), or if they stole the name/logo (no).
- InTheArena 3y ago[flagged]
- chronid 3y agoThe japanese rights holders for the logo and the japanese company (?) making it at least disagree I think. The name and logo if nothing else are pretty recognizable and memorable. I know nothing about features, but they seem to be collaborating with institutions too...
- hdjrbrbn 3y agoYou think that they created this app, got permission to use nerv and all the infrastructure to detect earth movements in a day after the earthquake?? Please be more realistic.
- mplewis 3y agoYou may be confused about the history of this app.
- jitl 3y ago> The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series.
- Yhippa 3y agoThis would motivate me to use this app if I lived in Japan.
- paulgerhardt 3y agoDoes this app report real information relating to actual earthquakes? My understanding from looking at the website and logo and tagline (“God’s in Heaven, all is right with the world”) is this is an augmented reality game set in the Evangelion universe. Similar to Pokémon Go.
- Osmose 3y agoYes, check the footer for links to the company behind it. The original developer was just a huge EVA fan and got permission to use the branding.
- spike021 3y agoThe About page explains what data they use and where it comes from. The landing page itself could probably use more details, however.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- madrox 3y agoThis is interesting, but feel like the name and logo do it a disservice. I took way too long figuring out whether this was a parody app or not.
- chemicalnovae 3y ago100%, I had to pop into the HN comments after opening it because I wasn't sure which it was! Though perhaps there is something we're missing that the target audience would more quickly identify it as real.
- c54 3y agoI read somewhere that Evangelion has similar cultural impact with the Japanese as Star Wars does in the US. In that way naming this app NERV is similar to the US’s “Star Wars” strategic defense initiative… Except there was a law suit in that case because nobody bothered to get the rights from Lucasfilm
- InTheArena 3y agoI very much doubt that they licensed the NERV logo from Gainex here.
- striking 3y ago> The name and logo of "NERV" are used with the explicit permission of khara Inc., the copyright holder of the "Evangelion" series, and Groundworks Corporation, which manages the rights to the series.
- pacificmint 3y agoThe government didn't call it Star Wars, they called it SDI. Some lobbyists used that term and they were the ones that Lucasfilm tried to sue. The lawsuit was dismissed, btw. > On November 26, 1985, the suit was dismissed by Judge Gerhard Gesell of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, on the grounds that the lobbyists' use of the mark in a noncommercial and non-trade context fell outside the jurisdiction of trademark law. [1] [1] "Lucasfilm Ltd. v. High Frontier, 622 F. Supp. 931 (D.D.C. 1985)". Justia Law. (via Wikipedia) https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/622/931/2395863/ https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/6...
- marcellus23 3y agoGP never said the government named it that. Besides which, "Star Wars" was not a term used only by lobbyists, even if they coined it. It's a very common name for that program among the general public.
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- beloch 3y agoX cut them off during the Earthquake because they didn't pay for a higher tier plan[1], but they also had a Mastadon account going that was unaffected. If you rely on this service, you should probably either have the app or use mastodon. X doesn't seem to be a reliable option anymore. Twitter might have temporarily lifted restrictions when such info could save lives, but X wants its $$$ first. [1]https://www.dexerto.com/tech/japanese-disaster-prevention-x-account-cant-post-anymore-after-hitting-api-limit-2451266/ https://www.dexerto.com/tech/japanese-disaster-prevention-x-...
- phantomathkg 3y agoJapan has a very high penetration of X usage, but not Mastodon, so it is natural for them to have X instead of Mastodon.
- bowsamic 3y agoWe have a similar situation for public transport here in Hamburg. The status updates for outages on the S Bahn network are only available on X, if you don’t have an account there there’s no where else to see it
- anonporridge 3y agoAdditionally, Mastodon working well at the current low scale doesn't tell us much. We don't actually know how reliable it will be if it ever reaches X scale.
- beloch 3y agoX has failed in a way that endangered lives, and in way that will likely persist. Mastodon has yet to be tested. It seems logical to start testing Mastodon's limits in earnest.
- GaggiX 3y agoMastodon has massive Japanese communities on it, Pawoo (social that was owned by Pixiv, was the largest Mastodon instance before Musk took over Twitter, now it's second), mstdn.jp (used to be second, now third), now there's also Misskey, which is not a Mastodon instance, but it's perfectly compatible with it. Mastodon was battle-tested by the Japanese, almost no one used it seriously before them.
- Yhippa 3y agoFor another fun Eva partnership, check out the ROG x EVANGELION collection: https://rog.asus.com/microsite/ROGxEVANGELION https://rog.asus.com/microsite/ROGxEVANGELION and https://rog.asus.com/microsite/ROGxEVANGELION-02 https://rog.asus.com/microsite/ROGxEVANGELION-02. I would love to have these, but I have daycare to pay for.
- Heliophobia 3y agoIn 2022 they also did a collab with MSI. Those components are pretty cool, but they're for a more mid-range build than the premium ASUS components (something like an i7 with an RTX 4060): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0MHh1l5QLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0MHh1l5QLY
- johnchristopher 3y agoThat's it, I can't no longer tell at a glance if it's legit, legit sponsored, satire or derivative work. I don't know if it's something real, if it's something real with an Evangelion sponsoring/branding for acceptance reasons, if it's someone who quickly made a mock-up app to show how NERV started in our world and in the anime's world, if it's related to today's earthquake in Japan. Or maybe I am tired :/ ?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- djur 3y agoIt's real and has existed for several years. They licensed the name and branding from the Evangelion rightsholders. It got attention today because their Twitter account got rate-limited due to frequent updates related to the earthquake.
- eps 3y agoThe "Enter" button of the splash page is under the cut when my iPad is in landscape mode. The page is also not scrollable, so the whole page makes no sense. Had to turn the iPad 90 degrees for the button to appear and to be able to "enter" the site. Just FYI if the devs are here.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Osmose 3y agoSince a lot of people seem confused, this is a real disaster prevention app made in partnership with the Japan Meteorological Agency that's been on app stores since 2019: https://www.gehirn.co.jp/en/news/2019-09-01/01-press-nervapp/ https://www.gehirn.co.jp/en/news/2019-09-01/01-press-nervapp... Their Japanese Twitter account has 2 million followers, the branding hasn't really caused enough confusion in Japan to hinder them: https://twitter.com/UN_NERV https://twitter.com/UN_NERV
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- LeoPanthera 3y agoAnd was in the news today because their Twitter account hit the API limit and so was unable to send out emergency warnings.
- dmix 3y agoThey apparently failed to register with as a public utility which bypasses the API restrictions https://x.com/un_nerv/status/1741794666218180929 https://x.com/un_nerv/status/1741794666218180929
- fungi 3y agohttps://unnerv.jp/about/more https://unnerv.jp/about/more they have an excellent mastodon instance
- timnetworks 3y agoIt's a little fascinating to me that Japan's public can so easily take advantage of stuff like this while the USA market seems resistant, while all the next-gen technology that enables the Next Thing is coming out of the USA. Seems like a strange juxtaposition.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- layer8 3y agoI hope the app plays this as the alarm sound: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8KKkdIODSok https://youtube.com/watch?v=8KKkdIODSok
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- corethree 3y agoThe UI/UX graphic design from Evangelion is actually pretty cool and clean. The only other sci-fu UI design I've seen that is also clean and nice looking is from star trek the next generation. Actually they made the UI from star trek better with Picard. Borrowing the name from Eva might be a bit much in this case but borrowing the UI look won't be. They've done both here. They could've even gotten away with borrowing the graphic design look from Eva without citing it as the Eva UI designs are generic enough that it's not an obvious copy. Examples: eva: https://medium.com/astromono/the-amazing-ui-design-of-evangelion-de1126a7a85d https://medium.com/astromono/the-amazing-ui-design-of-evange... lcars: https://www.thelcars.com/themes/lcars-ultra-picard.html https://www.thelcars.com/themes/lcars-ultra-picard.html
- djur 3y agoWhy not use the name? It's very memorable.
- corethree 3y agoBecause it's strange and distracting? Is this a promotional app or an actual earth quake app? Imagine this: Star Trek the next generation Earthquake Locator! and it's an Lcars interface. Additionally Eva was a very divisive series. Popular yes, somewhat main stream in japan but also strange enough that its mostly liked by a certain crowd. I'm part of that crowd but at the same time I get why that crowd is different. To help illustrate imagine 2010s Justin Beiber or Twilight themed earth quake apps. Right? That's sort of a different crowd from the people who like Eva and not everyone is into that stuff. Are you more likely to download the app if it was themed liked that? Additionally Anime was not always mainstream in the world. It was considered nerdy to like it. It's become mainstream now in the last decade outside of japan, but in japan it's still considered a little different.
- p_l 3y agoAs others mentioned, it's apparently partly because of how the twitter account associated with the application was source of good information during the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, setting the stage for making more.
- hollow-moe 3y agoI'm kinda confused, shouldn't this kind of app be developed and diffused by government, open source and not include paid plans to have better information in case of emergency since it should be funded by your taxes ??
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- GuB-42 3y agoThe Japanese government already has its own system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Early_Warning_(Japan) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Early_Warning_(Japa...
- Washuu 3y agoIt works reasonably well, but a lot of times I just never get an alert. The two minutes of shaking I experience yesterday in Osaka I received no alert. Last year there was a very brief level 3 that they blared the dreaded tones on everyone's phones in Tokyo. Stuff like the NERV application are more accurate and I can customize what earthquake levels that I get alerts for.
- djur 3y agoIt looks like all of the emergency notification features are available in the free version. The data is obtained from public agencies. I know in the US there's a wide variety of apps that present data from NOAA and that you can also get it from NOAA directly.
- getwiththeprog 3y agoThey certainly have a nerve to dilute and add an extra layer to an important public system. Also the name is somewhat fearmongering, so many might prefer to sign up to this than the real thing.
- godelski 3y agoPersonally: Yeah, I think that would be a good use of tax money. I'd love to see systems like this (as well as ones like covid contact detection) built by governments, in open source, and I literally mean goverment__s__. I'd love it if they had strong encryption and privacy preservation. Practically: they aren't doing it, so does that mean it shouldn't be made? Government also seems pretty captured by industry (not just US) who are more interested in profits than utility. Sadly that's supposed to be where governments should shine the most as they are supposed to have different incentive structures. Best note(?): Seems when incentives align and there isn't strong capture that the two can work in tandem pretty well. But that seems more and more rare these days. In fact, this particular app works with JMA (government). Additional note: But couldn't we also say the same thing about texting, calling, and even email? Are these not social goods? In fact, even in some ways the government does this. It's why the USPS exists, which is not a profit seeking entity and services places that UPS and FedEx don't. Also, the US gov donates to Signal (and Tor and some others) under the Radio Free Asia program. The intent is to get people under oppressive regimes encrypted communication so they can organize against tyrannical rule. But this also causes conspiracy around Signal (and Tor) because there are larger factions of the government that want to destroy encryption. This also creates a lot of distrust, especially among Americans, so would we/they have trust in such a system?
- move-on-by 3y agoI read the everything trying to determine supported locations. After finding nothing, I decided to install the app. After agreeing to everything and giving permissions, it informed me that only locations within Japan are supported. I’m not surprised, but it would have been nice to have that information somewhere on the website.
- jonnybgood 3y agoIt’s on the front page underneath the headline. “Delivering the most appropriate information at the fastest level in Japan”
- hotjump 3y agoI'm japanese.TBH for a long time i had thought this was a parody account. Around the time of 2011 3.11 earthquake, the NERV Twitter account(the origin of this app) gained popularity and reputation as a reliable source of information in the social media space (At that time government official information provided on Twitter was extremely little). I guess a part of the reason of its popularity today belongs to otaku culture on the Internet that was a good fit for this kind of anime-origin stuff. Plus the company that runs NERV is owned by Sakura-Internet, which is one of the biggest computer infra business, and is believed to provide a reliable system at time of emergency.
- Andrex 3y agoHow effective is this at detecting Second Impact? That's the only thing that really worries me.
- humanlity 3y agoIt is like a biological company named Umbrella.
- snvzz 3y agoIs there any actual reason this is not open source?