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Causing Terror On the Cheap
jhigh writes "Bruce Schneier posts on his blog today about the value of terror with respect to cost-benefit for the terrorists. If you look at terror attacks in terms of what they cost the terrorists to implement, compared with what they cost the economy of the nation that was hit, the reward for terrorists is astronomical. Add in the insane costs of the security measures implemented afterward, particularly in America, and it's easy to see why the terrorists do what they do. Even when they're unsuccessful, they cost us billions in security countermeasures."
No matter how hard terrorists try, what if there is a disease that will wipe out 1/2 of the world's population in our lifetime anyway? This disease causes people to spontaneously fall into comas, go blind, become covered in open sores, spontaneously lose limbs, and die horrible deaths. And no, I am not talking about AIDS.
The media, public opinion, and policy makers have shown no interest in this incurable disease.
What if scientists say that half of Americans will get this disease in the next 10 years, 1 out of 4 Chinese are already affected by it, and 1 out of 3 Nepalese are affected? Maybe we are in the midst of the 21st Century Black Plague, and nobody realized it.
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=122611
http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa0908292
http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=25199