Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Butterfly effect

Around Christmas time, a Nigerian National tried to blow up a plane in Detroit. The flight originated out of a town near Amsterdam. Fortunately he was unsuccesful.
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Related to this attempted terrorism is me doing the wash.
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Last night I did Laundry for the second day in a row, and as often happens when I do this chore, I ran into my upstairs neighbor who was sitting out in our little courtyard taking care of his Vice (smoking). My apartment has a beautiful little courtyard area, and off to the side is the apartment building's laundry room. I asked him how things were going and he was telling me how slammed they are at his job. I recalled that a few months ago he was telling me how they were going through layoffs. He didn't think that he was going to get the ax, and he didn't, but it was still stressful for him.
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I asked him why the switch, from laying people off to a hiring binge? His answer was that a dude tried to blow up a jetliner. His company makes body imaging machines and those conveyor belts that x-ray your stuff.
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TSA just put in an order for 165 million dollars worth of that equipment with his company, and the airport in Amsterdam gave one for 67 million.
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Terrorism that orignated from Nigerian National, that came through Amsterdam and was foiled in Detroit, that was probably/possibly funded by Al qaeda, has helped the economy in general, the Tampa Area specifically, and my smoking upstairs neighbor particularly. It reminded me of that butterfly that flaps its wings in Africa which ends up in a tsunami in Japan. The Butterfly effect.

2 comments:

Native Minnow said...

I'm just wondering when we're going to become proactive instead of reactive when it comes to acts of terror. I'm glad the guy heading into Detroit was unsuccessful, but why does it take something like that happening before precautions are taken? I don't know what the answer is, but it feels like our security is always a step or two behind. That said, they have done a good job at catching other potential attacks, so I don't want to sound like I'm bitching too much.

Bill From Gainesville said...

Agree about not bitching to much. In fact even in this instance stuff slipped through, but there was information on this guy in some of the correct hands. - They do a good job overall, they are just not perfect. and the terrorist are on scholarship also.