Bruce Schneier is offering a signed copy of his terrific book Beyond Fear in a movie plot threat contest. He did announce the contest on April 1 but promises it's not an April fools joke.
" Movie-Plot Threat Contest
NOTE: If you have a blog, please spread the word.
For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for "movie-plot
threats": terrorist fears based on very specific attack
scenarios. Terrorists with crop dusters, terrorists exploding baby
carriages in subways, terrorists filling school buses with explosives
-- these are all movie-plot threats. They're good for scaring people,
but it's just silly to build national security policy around them.
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. Let's kick this up a notch.
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.
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.
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.
Post your movie plots here on this blog.
Judging will be by me, swayed by popular acclaim in the blog comments
section. The prize will be an autographed copy of Beyond Fear. And if
I can swing it, a phone call with a real live movie producer.
Entries close at the end of the month -- April 30.
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.
Good luck.
Post your entries, and read the others, here:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/announcing_movi.html
Movie-plot threats:
http://www.schneier.com/essay-087.html
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,175951,00.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/exploding_baby.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/02/school_bus_driv.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075765
There are hundreds of ideas here:
http://cockeyed.com/citizen/terror/plans/terrorwatch.html"
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