From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 18:02:12 MDT
Of course not; we never have been. Total safety is illusory.
So the question is "how safe are we"?
How about a poll...
Who on the list personally knows someone affected by terrorism. Personal
acquaintances as maximum distance, no friends of friends please.
More subjective: would you rate yourself now (hopefully based on some kind
of quasi-empirical guestimate, at least) as more or less safe than you were
10 years ago? 20 years ago? What are the major threats to your continued
existence/lifestyle? How about 10 years into the future?
Just for a bit of extropian perspective, remember that it is still the case
that we all have a death sentence hanging over our heads, and will be until
someone fixes it.
Emlyn
> According to a NY Times report today, hundreds of millions
> of dollars may have been raised for terrorist activities
> (either in Palestine or the U.S.) [1].
>
> To my best recollection the 911 bombing financing was in
> the neighborhood of $100-200K.
>
> So one has a potential financing ratio of ~1000:1 (i.e.
> there are 1000 times as much funding out there as what
> may have been spent on attacks thus far) -- i.e. about
> 1000 potential 911s could be currently being financed.
> Assuming a comparable loss of life in such attacks --
> 3000 people * 1000 attacks = 3 million people, one has
> to wonder *just* exactly where must we draw the line?
>
> And terrorists seem to be showing little discrimination
> as to precisely *where* they may act. So the question
> becomes for anyone "are you safe anywhere?".
>
> Robert
>
> 1. Links of Saudis to Charities Come Under Senate Review.
> NY Times, 31 Jul 2003;
> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/31/national/31SAUD.html
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jul 31 2003 - 18:11:31 MDT