Last week, we noted the rollout of the Personal Localized Alert Network or PLAN, the broadcast system that allows the government to push alerts right to your cell phone. Starting in 2012, those phones will have to have an embedded PLAN chip to allow access to local, state, and federal governments to text you about emergency situations, such as Amber Alerts for missing children. Consumers will be able to choose to opt out of all but “presidential” messages but will have to contact their cell-phone providers to do so.

In her latest Hammertime, Mary Katharine Ham produces a public-service announcement extolling the, er, virtues of PLAN:

Mary Katharine also highlights some of the messages she expects to receive, including a new terror alert level system:

Be sure to check out the rest, especially the one from TSA.