io9 blogs on Evan Booth, who devised weapons built from items found inside an airport, after you go through security.

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/h3hjbnSroA/

From the original post on io9:

Shotguns are not allowed through airport security. But what does that matter if you can build one from items purchased in an airport gift shop? The break-action shotgun pictured above was made from Red Bull cans, a hair dryer, batteries and a can of Axe body spray – and it can blast a handful of pocket change through a sheet of drywall.

My dad always says that if someone wants to hurt you bad enough, they'll find a way to do it. However, it looks like they don't even have to try that hard. All they have to do is get a little clever. To me, knowing that this is possible is NOT scary. This has been possible for years and will go one being possible. Why am I not afraid? Simple: the overwhelming majority of people on Earth are not killers, terrorists or psychopaths. The overwhelming majority of people in airports are just trying to travel, just like you. And if you happen to have the bad luck of ending up on a plane or in a terminal at the same time as a killer, terrorist or a psychopath, take stock in knowing that it was just random bad luck.

Or, if you swung by Evan Booth's website, you may have already learned how to arm yourself against the insanely unlikely event of being on a plane or in a terminal at the same time as a mean person. That's ultimately my point. All these security measures at airports (taking off our shoes, x-raying our bags/coats/laptops etc, backscatter x-raying our bodies and sometimes getting felt up by a TSA agent) are not going to stop someone who really wants to hurt people.

The likelihood of getting hit by a car, even killed by one, is infinitely higher than of getting killed, or even harmed, in an air-travel-related act of violence. But do we ban cars, stop ourselves from crossing the street, or avoid leaving our homes? Of course not. Yet we act like we can stop someone if they really want to be horrible at the airport.

But the odds are in our favor. So, why bother living in fear? Why bother making air travel such a huge pain in the ass? Sure, keep x-raying bags and making me empty my pockets, but can I please keep my shoes on and my water bottle filled?

Read the original post on io9: http://goo.gl/4CHNg0

The Absurd Disconnect regarding what we fear illustrated to perfection. We’re a bunch of cowards.

motherjones:

“The Right is going insane. A hundred years ago, when Chesterton was asked ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’ his answer was succinct: ‘I am.’ Now the answer is from more and more of the Right is, ‘They are!’” —Blogger Mark Shea

SIGH… it’s still us that’s the problem. 

Chances of a WMD Attack in a big city better than 50%??

Grabbed this on my iPhone just now and I have to admit that I don't trust this task force. These guys MUST be lying or hopelessly paranoid. There is no way you could say there's a better than 50/50 chance that a city will get hit by WMD.
 
Of course, bio or chem weapons I could see as being more likely, but still not a 50% chance, but nukes (which are what we all think of first when we hear the letters "WMD")?? No way, man, and reporting this story this way is nothing short of alarmist and fear mongering.
 
Reuters is really doing us a disservice by not making it immediately clear that nukes are much less likely than chem or bio. And even knowing that, when I saw that headline and read that first paragraph, I thought they meant their was a better than even chance that nukes would definitely hit a big city--then reality set in and I remembered how the odds of any random big city being hit are dramatically against.
 
Thanks, Reuters, for making us crap our pants...again!
 
Oh and newsflash: government task forces have been getting it wrong for the last 8 years--probably longer--all the press ever does is highlight the fear and bury the logic. Way to unquestioningly quote the party line and question little-to-nothing.

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