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The Guardian reports:
At least 19 people were killed and more than 50 injured after an explosion in the foyer area of a crowded Manchester concert hall, which left hundreds of people fleeing in terror. [...] Police said they were dealing with a possible terror incident and counter-terrorism officials were assessing what caused the explosion. Investigators from the police and the domestic security service MI5 were part of the investigation.
Greater Manchester Police statement:
I can confirm the details of events tonight that we currently know. At around 10.33pm last night we received reports of an explosion at the Manchester Arena in the city centre. It was at the conclusion of an Ariana Grande concert.
Currently we have 19 people confirmed to have died and around 50 people injured.
The injured are being treated at six hospitals across Greater Manchester. My thoughts are with all those who have been affected and we are doing all we can to support them.
[...] We are currently treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise. We are working closely with the national counter-terrorism policing network and UK intelligence partners.
Unnamed sources, who have not been directly quoted are widely reported as suspecting this incident was a suicide bombing.
Multiple senior U.S. law enforcement officials briefed by British authorities told NBC News that forensic evidence at the scene — including a body found at the blast site — indicated a suicide attack. British and U.S. law enforcement officials said they believed they had tentatively identified the bomber.
U.S. officials said initial reports indicated that some of the casualties might have been caused by a stampede of concert-goers.
Sky News reports:
Officers carried out a controlled explosion at nearby Cathedral Gardens shortly after 1.30am, but have since confirmed the item they found was abandoned clothing and not suspicious.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by isostatic on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:31AM (10 children)
The problem is the increasing lethality of attacks
This is what really worries me. It used to be that an individual could kill someone else. Explosives and guns could expand this by an order of magnitude, or even two if well organised. To kill a lot of people you had to organise in large groups, which were headed by governments, and were identifiable. This expanded throughout the millions killed in WW1, and then even more in WW2. In 1945 a small group could kill 10^7 people, but these groups were identifiable and controlled by their population and other groups. Nuclear weapons increased At that point we amalgamated into two equal powers both capable of killing 10^9, but those groups were identifiable and thus controllable.
However if you get unidentifiable groups or individuals capable of killing more than 10^2 you get. Lockerbie was a 10^2 event, 9/11 was a 10^3 event. Bio-weapons have the potential of 10^4 or even 10^5, all instigated by a group or even an individual. That's a concern - there's no checks and balances. Even Kim Jong Un has checks and balances (he wants to stay in power, he has generals who will overthrow him). Terry Terror in his bedroom in Cardiff has no such checks and balances, and once you don't care about dying the final check of self preservation goes away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @07:55AM (5 children)
A constructed bacteria or virus designed to spread quickly and then kill could do more like 10^6 or 10^7, if not more. An airborne version of AIDS with much less killing potential could become a huge problem and kill off countries that are unable to afford or distribute treatments.
You may have heard claims that the elites or some elites plan to kill off billions of poor people. If they did want to do that, they could engineer an airborne AIDS or similar virus, making sure it becomes as common as the cold or HPV, and then consolidate power as things go to shit. There is no need for a cure. As long as living with the disease is manageable, it can be cured decades later after the damage has already been done. A lone wolf can be used as the scapegoat.
Whether Terry Terror can do something like this all by himself is an open question. Terry Terror, PhD has a better chance. Anthrax spores in envelopes won't cut it. He needs to have a few infected individuals coughing away on street corners, at subway stations, and airports. It would be best to spread it from multiple cities at once to maximize spread before travel bans and quarantines can take effect.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @08:24AM
There is already activity in this direction going on. In 2009 WHO changed the definition for pandemic. So that the protocol can be activated without heightened mortality. This makes it possible to force countries to vaccinate their population. In February 2009 Baxter Pharmaceutical, Austrian subsidiary shipped a batch of unattenuated bird flu of 2005 together with ordinary seasonal flu to sixteen laboratories in Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany. That is the optimal way to make the viruses mix and create a cocktail that will be deadly and contagious at the same time. But a Czech lab technician at the Company Bio Test, tested the batch on ferrets just to be sure it was safe before being delivered for vaccination. The next day the lab animals were all dead and a emergency alert was sent out to stop the batch.
If it had went through, a gigantic epidemic might have been set of. So some people say they will just refuse to get the vaccine then. Sure, but states like Massachusetts, US can charge you 1000$ per day for that. Regardless the government can in most cases impose itself on any citizen by various means. And in emergencies law makers are eager to get things done with speed and thus skip checks and sign away liabilities.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 23 2017, @12:52PM (3 children)
A billionaire with a plan like that would be profoundly stupid to even attempt it. The breakdown in order from a plague scenario is much more dangerous than the plague itself. How would he protect himself when his private army instantly deserts to take care of their own families? Who protects him from the thugs in the private army after the government is gone and they decide they should be in charge instead? They'll take his daughters and trophy wife and double tap him in the head. If he was enough of a dick to them in the BeforeTime they might do it in that order, too, instead of the other way around.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 23 2017, @01:51PM
Oh please. You release it on a battlefield or a border and get two groups to coordinate a he-said she-said. Convince the Islamic world its crazy Christians trying to promote the end times, convince the Christians its an Islamic biowarfare terror attack..
None of the strategies or policies or political tools are new, all that's new is the individual weapon and its lethality which doesn't affect the management of the overall project.
Whats infinitely more likely is something like the smallpox blanket scenario where China wants Africa's resources and the Africans are so unable to get their stuff together that they're kinda in the way. Also not kidding about smallpox. Everyone not in Africa gets vaccinated against smallpox its no big deal, whoops no one in Africa gets vaccine there's just not enough effective doses, what little order exists in Africa breaks down, the (vaccinated) Chinese army jumps in to "maintain order" which boils down to make sure the locals get no food, water, police coverage, or vaccinations, then China gets all the African resources. That's much more likely sci-fi movie plot than some James Bond world wide stuff. It'll be easy to spin the propaganda too, whoops a daisy those things happen ya know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @04:58PM
It only takes one. The amount of billionaires in the world is climbing. They don't need to have a cure if it's AIDS. AIDS can currently be managed, not cured. If the disease can be cured, can every North/South American, African, European, Asian, and Australian afford the cure? For everything else, you just get a self-destructive billionaire who doesn't care about family or their own life. Private army? Try bot army. Or a bunker or Vault.
Profoundly stupid? Is supporting terrorism smart or dumb? Osama bin Laden was a pampered multimillionaire. He could have lived decades longer and in luxury if he had not taken up his cause.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 24 2017, @03:55AM
1) You eventually wouldn't need the resources of a billionaire: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-controversial-us-scientist-creates-deadly-new-flu-strain-for-pandemic-research-9577088.html [independent.co.uk]
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/11/crazy-dangerous-creation-deadly-airborne-flu-virus [theguardian.com]
2) There are stupid/crazy/evil billionaires.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 23 2017, @08:16AM
My thoughts too. The big problem is that as the cost and complexity goes down the threshold for some deadly event to occur will be lower and lower and thus happen with increased probability and frequency.
Now adding a larger population and environmental stress will just push up the likelihood of bad things taking place.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Tuesday May 23 2017, @09:12AM (2 children)
I've discussed this with an ex-housemate and we have absolutely no solution for keeping murders in check. In the base case, a reasonable person with self-preservation can be kept in check through consequences such as natural justice. However, there is no suitable justice for a multiple murderer because incremental costs rapidly become meaningless. Killing the first person is hard. Killing the two millionth person is easy.
1702845791×2
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 23 2017, @12:34PM (1 child)
Lockup and eject persons with violent belief systems.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 23 2017, @12:57PM
It is possible to exterminate beliefs, but you have to be willing to exterminate. The British exterminated the Thuggees. The Spanish exterminated the Aztecs. The Russians exterminated the Chechens; they pretty much leveled Grozny to do it. You have to be so ruthless that you raise the certainty of the extinction of them, their families, and their entire way of life to 100%. Then, you offer them a more palatable alternative of cooperation on your terms.
Not many these days have the stomach for that.
Washington DC delenda est.