[PmbPhy (OP)]

I thought I'd start posting here again. After a while I get tired of a forum because each forum has things which irritate me and that will never change. Specifically, the things that irritate me are (1) things which cause people trying to learn physics to learn incorrectly and (2) things which are deadly. Alas, that's the nature of forums.

I left this one months back because of the very serious disturbing claims posted here which, if their advice was followed, can be very deadly. Namely the worst advice that I've ever seen, i.e. regarding suspicious packages left at bus stops etc and the irritating response by someone who claimed he doesn't bother with such things because he knows the relevant statistics and implied I wasn't being very smart/wise (or whatever his point was) for taking precautions. That is very dangerous advice and should not be allowed. The FBI put out an alert a while back which said that terrorists have been planting benign packages so as to tax response teams and desensitize the public. You'd think that people here would do a search on these things before posting possibly deadly advice like that.

Had all people reported such packages since 9-11 then its likely the bombing at the Boston Marathon would never have happened. And I myself are in that area and am thus in territory where terrorists roam.

[Colin2B]

I’ve lived, worked and travelled in a city during a terrorist bombing campaign and the thing that made a difference was public vigilance.

Welcome back Pete
nil lettum iligiti carborundum 

[alancalverd]

When I was a lad, the Luftwaffe unloaded a few hundred bombs on London every night, and showered the place with V1 aircraft and V2 rockets by day. Vigilance was useless, death was commonplace, and panic was pretty much unknown. I think the latter was partly due to careful use of language by politicians and journalists, who avoided glorifying such actions as "terrorism" and simply referred to their perpetrators as "Nazi scum".

Anyway, Pete, it's good to hear the voice of reason again.

[syhprum]

I recall lots of warnings about "butterfly bombs" that the nasty NAZI,s were trying to trick us into picking up