Wake up Europe! It's real

[Darth Rotor]

So you have never revised a hypothesis when additional information comes to light?
Ok-if that's the way you wanna be, so be it. I personally don't give a damn about the rest of the world, then. Nuke 'em all

I could do without the nuclear winter that goes with that, actually. My golf courses need the sunshine and rain, and less ozone.

(See recent SciAm article on India/Pak nuclear exchange, 50 vs 50 Hiroshima sized bombs for a neat look at the odds of that making for a bloody mess, globally).

DR

 

[rwguinn]

I could do without the nuclear winter that goes with that, actually. My golf courses need the sunshine and rain, and less ozone.

(See recent SciAm article on India/Pak nuclear exchange, 50 vs 50 Hiroshima sized bombs for a neat look at the odds of that making for a bloody mess, globally).

DR

Ok, for the sake of flog courses, I'll tolerate most of 'em. Long as they don't piss me off any further.

 

[Darat]

Sadly it appears that "Europe" was wide awake in this incident and it was the USA that was soundly asleep - Hopefully Obama really has "kicked some ass" as I believe you USA folk like to say.

 

[Eddie Dane]

Nominated!

Nominated!

 

[Eddie Dane]

I just read Art Of The Steal by Frank Abagnale, of Catch Me If You Can-fame.

It's about how con-men operate and it scared the crap out of me.

The thing is. In order to do a lot of things in an advanced society, we need to set up complex systems. That is difficult. Then people who want exploit those systems start looking for holes. And there are plenty of those. Then the systems need to be adapted to close those holes, often in ways that make it expensive to run a system, or even impossible.

Air travel is a probably favourite target becuase it kills quite a few people and has a psychological impact becuase we are all afraid of flying in a way.
But as the securtity measures get ever better and more holes are closed, terrorists will completely disregard air travel as a target.
The madrid bombings killed about two-hundred if I remember correctly. there are no security checks and you can just leave your bag and walk away.

I fear that they will change their focus more than continued attacks on airlines.

 

[rwguinn]

Sadly it appears that "Europe" was wide awake in this incident and it was the USA that was soundly asleep - Hopefully Obama really has "kicked some ass" as I believe you USA folk like to say.

Yeah. The USA knows everything that goes on. The CIA knew the guy was on a flight to Amsterdam with no luggage, a 1 way ticket bought with cash, and didn't bother to tell anyone in Europe about it. Then, they knew he got on a plane to Detroit, with no luggage and a 1 way ticket bought with cash, and didn't tell Amsterdam authorities. The CIA refused to stop him, and the CIA didn't even ask him questions, even though they control all airports in the world...

 

[Darat]

Yeah. The USA knows everything that goes on. The CIA knew the guy was on a flight to Amsterdam with no luggage, a 1 way ticket bought with cash, and didn't bother to tell anyone in Europe about it. Then, they knew he got on a plane to Detroit, with no luggage and a 1 way ticket bought with cash, and didn't tell Amsterdam authorities. The CIA refused to stop him, and the CIA didn't even ask him questions, even though they control all airports in the world...

Did you get that strawman for your birthday? (Happy B'Day!)

 

[rwguinn]

Did you get that strawman for your birthday? (Happy B'Day!)

How the hell is that a strawman?
You blamed the US for beiong asleep, but the guy entered from--Europe? The European authorities let him pass, not the US. The signals were there for THEM to see.

 

[Darat]

How the hell is that a strawman?
You blamed the US for beiong asleep, but the guy entered from--Europe? The European authorities let him pass, not the US. The signals were there for THEM to see.

Because I have not argued that the USA controls every airport and so on - yet you have attacked that argument as if it was an attack on an argument I had made.

Plus of course it's not me that is blaming the USA for being asleep, it is the President of the United States of America (OK he didn't use the phrase "being asleep" I was using your phrase to describe what he said).

 

[Thunder]

this guy should not have been allowed to get on a plane. this is a failure of America's intelligence network.

 

[Lurker]

Black powder is not a high explosive and so needs a fairly strong container to make a reasonable explosion. In a sock it would just burn you and everybody around you. Would get put out by fire extinguishers, and wouldn't be very effective terrorism.

As a kid, a friend of mine traded a Playboy for a handful of black powder. After school we piled it on the sidewalk and took turns trying to light the stuff with a match. Eventually, my friend "won" and the stuff went off in a whoosh of smoke. My friend had black on his face and the ends of his hairs had melted to little balls. Good times, good times.

ETA: My experience attests to black powder not being explosive in nature, merely a very fast burner. I felt no shock wave or even all that excessive heat. A heck of a lot of smoke though.

 

[rwguinn]

As a kid, a friend of mine traded a Playboy for a handful of black powder. After school we piled it on the sidewalk and took turns trying to light the stuff with a match. Eventually, my friend "won" and the stuff went off in a whoosh of smoke. My friend had black on his face and the ends of his hairs had melted to little balls. Good times, good times.

ETA: My experience attests to black powder not being explosive in nature, merely a very fast burner. I felt no shock wave or even all that excessive heat. A heck of a lot of smoke though.

(most) Smokeless powder burns even slower when not confined. As a matter of fact, an excellent emergency fire starter is made with the powder used for reloading pistol/rifle cartridges and nail polish remover. burns really slowly, and won't go out easily, even if wet.
Black powder burns really, really fast. But it is clo0see to the same rate of burn, even confined. Smokeless powder burns extremely fast under pressure--the more pressure, the faster the burn.

 

[tkingdoll]

There are 50 countries in Europe, each with different cultures, economies, politics, languages and histories. Always amazed when anyone considers Europe a 'whole' for anything, let alone trying to blame it for something. You might as well blame 'trees'.

 

[Architect]

They would, but they can't see the wood........

 

[Darat]

...for the terrorists.

 

[rwguinn]

There are 50 countries in Europe, each with different cultures, economies, politics, languages and histories. Always amazed when anyone considers Europe a 'whole' for anything, let alone trying to blame it for something. You might as well blame 'trees'.

I do.
Second only to Lisa...

 

[BeAChooser]

Al Queda needs a new trick.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/the-butt-bomb "The Butt Bomb"

 

[Almo]

Or has the war on terrorism become a US only problem?

You can't wage war on a tactic.

 

[Praktik]

but you can wage war on pony-tail wearin' Euro-trash.

rwguinn is the posse rounder-upper.