{"id":716,"date":"2006-04-03T09:23:40","date_gmt":"2006-04-03T14:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=716"},"modified":"2009-04-12T21:26:24","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T01:26:24","slug":"movie-plot-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/04\/03\/movie-plot-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie-Plot Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Bruce Schneier’s blog:<\/p>\n

For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for “movie-plot threats<\/a>“: terrorist fears based on very specific attack scenarios. Terrorists with crop dusters<\/a>, terrorists exploding baby carriages in subways<\/a>, terrorists filling school buses with explosives<\/a> — these are all movie-plot threats. They’re good for scaring people, but it’s just silly to build national security policy around them.<\/p>\n

But if we’re going to worry about unlikely attacks, why can’t they be exciting and innovative ones? If Americans are going to be scared, shouldn’t they be scared of things that are really scary? “Blowing up the Super Bowl” is a movie plot to be sure, but it’s not a very good movie<\/a>. Let’s kick this up a notch.<\/p>\n

It is in this spirit I announce the (possibly First) Movie-Plot Threat Contest. Entrants are invited to submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios they can come up with.<\/p>\n

Your goal: cause terror. Make the American people notice. Inflict lasting damage on the U.S. economy. Change the political landscape, or the culture. The more grandiose the goal, the better.<\/p>\n

Assume an attacker profile on the order of 9\/11: 20 to 30 unskilled people, and about $500,000 with which to buy skills, equipment, etc.<\/p>\n

Post your movie plots here on this blog.<\/p>\n

Judging will be by me, swayed by popular acclaim in the blog comments section. The prize will be an autographed copy of Beyond Fear<\/em><\/a>. And if I can swing it, a phone call with a real live movie producer.<\/p>\n

Entries close at the end of the month — April 30 — so Crypto-Gram<\/em><\/a> readers can also play.<\/p>\n

This is not an April Fool’s joke, although it’s in the spirit of the season. The purpose of this contest is absurd humor, but I hope it also makes a point. Terrorism is a real threat, but we’re not any safer through security measures that require us to correctly guess what the terrorists are going to do next.<\/p>\n

Good luck.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you have a chance, submit something to this contest. Maybe your plot will be good enough to be featured in a summer blockbuster movie!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“They’re good for scaring people, but it’s just silly to build national security policy around them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[389],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-fun-stuff","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-by","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":899,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/06\/18\/over-reacting\/","url_meta":{"origin":716,"position":0},"title":"Over-reacting","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Terrorism is a real threat, and one that needs to be addressed by appropriate means. But allowing ourselves to be terrorized by wannabe terrorists and unrealistic plots \u2014 and worse, allowing our essential freedoms to be lost by using them as an excuse \u2014 is wrong.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/07\/11\/bad-conclusions\/","url_meta":{"origin":716,"position":1},"title":"Bad Conclusions","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I worry about the bad conclusions that our government officials are going to be coming to after this attack. It\u2019s so easy to become \u201creactionary\u201d to these sorts of things, and that\u2019s just what you don\u2019t want to do.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3479,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/09\/08\/trust-no-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":716,"position":2},"title":"Trust No One","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In the post 9\/11 America, you are presumed guilty until... well, you're pretty much always presumed guilty.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/24\/profile-hinky\/","url_meta":{"origin":716,"position":3},"title":"Profile: ‘hinky’","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"The problem with computerized passenger profiling is that it simply doesn't work. Terrorists don't fit a profile and cannot be plucked out of crowds by computers.\"","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":186,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/07\/10\/propaganda\/","url_meta":{"origin":716,"position":4},"title":"Propaganda","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 10, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I saw Fahrenheit 9\/11 today. It was, at times, very \"documentary\" like... but at other times, very \"propaganda\" like.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3473,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/09\/02\/protecting-them-not-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":716,"position":5},"title":"Protecting Them, Not You","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The last 10 years have seen many laws enacted in the name of security, but they are meant to protect the lawmakers, not you.","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}