Bloomberg: Sparklers could be used in terrorism

[Darthlawsuit]

I dunno what to say, here:

Mayor Bloomberg will urge Gov. Cuomo to veto legislation that would legalize the sale of sparklers outside New York City, arguing that terrorists could resort to using even kiddie fireworks to ignite a bomb. And that’s a risk not worth taking, City Hall officials said.

The mayor opposes the measure, which the Legislature passed last week, even though it wouldn’t apply to the five boroughs, where a ban on sparklers — and all other fireworks — would remain in effect. The bill would allow the sale of sparklers and other small “novelty” fireworks only in counties outside the city.
AP
Faisal Shahzad

“While this bill excludes New York City, legalizing these devices everywhere else in the state would, as a practical matter, have the same effect in the five boroughs,” Joseph Garba, the mayor’s state legislative director, said in a memo. “A recent attempt to harm innocent lives provides a frightening example of how legally purchased . . . fireworks can cause dramatic harm and even kill.”

Garba cited the case of failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, who bought a package of legal M-88 from out of state to help ignite his dud bomb in 2010.

“Shahzad purchased fireworks at a Pennsylvania chain store, transported the fireworks to Connecticut and created a bomb-like device that he transported into New York City with the intent of killing and causing havoc in a busy tourist area,” Garba said.

Shahzad had bought numerous packs of firecrackers containing gunpowder, which aren’t in sparklers.

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[The Big Boss]

i dont like when people put sparklers in their hamburgers :eww:

 

[Darthlawsuit]

i dont like when people put sparklers in their hamburgers :eww:

Nothing like corroded metals to flavor your burgers.

 

[Javaweb]

DANG i didn't know the UK did that much

 

[Anorien16]

While its a stupid reason to ban sparklers.... but it might actually limit air pollution a bit, though insignificantly...... never liked fireworks since a defective one blew up my Dad's palm.

 

[Aim64C]

Huh.

Well - New York elected him. If that's the type of mayor New York wants... they can have him.

Personally, I'm just glad his insanity is, for the moment, contained.

Someone should tell him what I can do with a highschool biology lab, the common cold, and a pox virus. Actually - just give him: "The Cobra Event" to read. The dude will turn every public institution into a Level 4 Hot-Lab. Would be entertaining as hell to see him actually concerned about a relevant issue.

Seriously, though, why has no one given him foxglove tea?

 

[Darthlawsuit]

Huh.

Well - New York elected him. If that's the type of mayor New York wants... they can have him.

Personally, I'm just glad his insanity is, for the moment, contained.

Someone should tell him what I can do with a highschool biology lab, the common cold, and a pox virus. Actually - just give him: "The Cobra Event" to read. The dude will turn every public institution into a Level 4 Hot-Lab. Would be entertaining as hell to see him actually concerned about a relevant issue.

Seriously, though, why has no one given him foxglove tea?

Don't forget ammonia and bleach which is in almost every janitor closet.

 

[Aim64C]

Don't forget ammonia and bleach which is in almost every janitor closet.

Chemical weapons are horribly, horribly inefficient. You need to invest huge amounts of resources into producing something that will kill a few thousand people in an enclosed environment.

Biological weapons, however, are awesomely effective.

Something like Ebola is good for taking out concentrated targets. It's stupidly lethal and efficient, and transmission is relatively low (it's simply too hot for its own good - people die before they can really be an effective infection vector).

Something like Smallpox is good for the genocidal maniacs who want to collapse society. It's the "perfect" virus when it comes to humans. Almost 100% infection rates with 30% mortality rates. It survives in the human population while keeping us trimmed down to size.

Notice how many of the world's problems with population and resource consumption arose after we eradicated smallpox. The cause behind it was noble - but it was ultimately a short-sighted decision that will end up causing more harm than good.

Particularly once it makes its inevitable return to our population. -When- that happens, 2 billion people will die (roughly) from the virus, directly. Another 40% will starve to death after the shock of the return of small pox causes the collapse of society as we know it. Power failure, supply route failure - the whole works. The remaining 30% will be separated into post-apocalyptic tribes and small governments that will have varying degrees of success in recovering and rebuilding the world once again. Possibly 5-10% in addition to that would be lost to infighting (although that figure could easily include the 40% estimate who die from secondary effects).

The soviets were pumping out roughly 10 metric tons of smallpox for about a decade. No one can account for where the hell it went (or if someone can - he/she is, wisely, keeping their mouth shut). It will make a return. It's only a matter of time.

 

[Anorien16]

Chemical weapons are horribly, horribly inefficient. You need to invest huge amounts of resources into producing something that will kill a few thousand people in an enclosed environment.

Biological weapons, however, are awesomely effective.

Something like Ebola is good for taking out concentrated targets. It's stupidly lethal and efficient, and transmission is relatively low (it's simply too hot for its own good - people die before they can really be an effective infection vector).

Something like Smallpox is good for the genocidal maniacs who want to collapse society. It's the "perfect" virus when it comes to humans. Almost 100% infection rates with 30% mortality rates. It survives in the human population while keeping us trimmed down to size.

Notice how many of the world's problems with population and resource consumption arose after we eradicated smallpox. The cause behind it was noble - but it was ultimately a short-sighted decision that will end up causing more harm than good.

Particularly once it makes its inevitable return to our population. -When- that happens, 2 billion people will die (roughly) from the virus, directly. Another 40% will starve to death after the shock of the return of small pox causes the collapse of society as we know it. Power failure, supply route failure - the whole works. The remaining 30% will be separated into post-apocalyptic tribes and small governments that will have varying degrees of success in recovering and rebuilding the world once again. Possibly 5-10% in addition to that would be lost to infighting (although that figure could easily include the 40% estimate who die from secondary effects).

The soviets were pumping out roughly 10 metric tons of smallpox for about a decade. No one can account for where the hell it went (or if someone can - he/she is, wisely, keeping their mouth shut). It will make a return. It's only a matter of time.

Why does it sound that u want it to happen?

 

[Aim64C]

Why does it sound that u want it to happen?

Make no mistake - if I had smallpox in my hand - it would be reintroduced into the human population without a second thought.

The less time we spend in this delusional world, the better.

I would be demonized for millennia to come, and possibly become the central antagonist of some post-apocalyptic religion - but the problem was created by our own arrogance.

Let's say you were someone like... oh... the Muslim Brotherhood. The vaccine for smallpox is not all that difficult to culture. It's actually very primitive by modern vaccination standards (casualty rates from smallpox vaccinations are far higher than with any other vaccine). You can very easily stockpile vaccine for this stuff without drawing much regulatory attention - and it's not like attempts to vaccinate your members would really draw that much suspicion.

Human intelligence networks will likely report that something is up - but it only takes a few weeks to get your members vaccinated (and thereby draw attention to your activities).

It would take -years- for nations to stockpile enough vaccine. By the time they even form a committee to address the intelligence information - the first cases of smallpox are walking into hospitals. By that time - it's already hit an international airport hub and there's no stopping it.

Viruses are an endemic part of life. Smallpox was our virus. There was no virus better adapted to infecting and surviving within human populations. Its particles share the size and behavior of smoke particles and can survive on the open air for dozens of miles (particularly at night, when the UV from the sun isn't around to break up the genetic code). The infection is contagious up to a few days before the onset of symptoms. Case fatality rate is around 30% for some of the most potent strains.

I'd have to re-visit some of the math, but, basically; small pox is explosively infective within populations that have more than 20,000 people within a 3 day journey from each other. Since that pretty much applies to our entire planet, at this point in time - its rate of infection will expand literally uninhibited through our population at an unrestricted geometric rate. By the time people start panicking - most will already be infected.

There's another reason, though, why I'd do it.

A group in New Zealand was doing research on mouse-pox. It's essentially small pox for mice.

There are these chemicals used by your immune system to coordinate itself, called "cytokines." The New Zealand researchers were not attempting to create a lethal virus, but they decided to take some of the immune system genes for producing cytokines (this one known as IL-4) and put them into the pox virus (because pox viruses are very receptive to genetic engineering - they're hardy little viruses that are easy to work with and are part of a number of high school biology courses).

The results were sobering. Among unvaccinated mice: 100% case fatality. Among vaccinated mice: 60% case fatality.

The mice died due to full body hemorrhaging. That is where your body literally is being converted into virus at such a rate that up to 60% of your body mass at the time of death is virus particulate. You literally dissolve.

The phenomena is identical to the way in which viruses like Ebola kill their hosts. The virus simply replicates at such a rate that the body turns to mush. Which has led to many internet claims that there is such a thing as "Ebolapox" - claimed to be a genetic engineering project by the Russians.

The idea is ludicrous - but the people espousing such things point to pictures of "black pox" to bolster their case. "Black Pox" was a name given to small pox infections that had, for whatever reason, turned hemorrhagic in nature. Full-body bruises appeared as internal bleeding went unchecked as the virus dissolved various tissues.

Basically - Smallpox has absolutely insane potential as a bioweapon so long as it remains foreign to our species.

We know the Russians were in Iraq. We know Iraq was working on bioweapon programs. Nothing that will appeal to a court - but there are more than a few eyewitness testimonies of the mobile bioweapon labs. They'd show up to an "agricultural research lab" to find it scrubbed with bleach.

We know the Russians were working with, at one time, Small Pox.

We also know that groups like Aum Shinrikyo sent their members into biologically hot zones in Africa during outbreaks of Ebola with the intention of gathering samples. That's the group that conducted the Sarin gas bombing in the Tokyo subway.

Chemical weapons are horribly, horribly ineffective. A subway is a relatively optimal place for a gas attack. From a realistic standpoint - the attack was a failure. Chemical weapons are just not effective.

Had that been a biological weapon... a strain of Ebola that can survive airborne transmission... or a modified strain of Variola (such as the very same virus we use to produce the vaccine...) made to mimic the original small-pox but be less communicable...