A DANGEROUS WORLD

Enemies abound. Paranoia has nothing to do with it we are surrounded by creatures that, for one reason or another, want to do us in. Since most people don t want to die just yet, they take steps to defend themselves. 

Threats of aggression can come in all shapes and sizes, so defenses have to be versatile. The largest-scale threat is war between nations. Rulers of nations always seem to be wanting the resources of neighboring countries, so threatened countries have to defend themselves or suffer unpleasant consequences. In modern times, countries can have very sophisticated means of defense indeed. The United States has stockpiled atomic bombs if some other country shakes its proverbial fist at us, we can rattle our bombs at them. If threats escalate to violence and we don t wish to use atomic bombs for one reason or another, then other machines can be deployed jets that drop smart bombs, AWACS planes that monitor the air space for many miles, tanks equipped for night combat, surface-to-air-missiles that shoot down surface-to-surface missiles, and much more. To the techno-war-monger, we live in a golden age. 

Terrorism and war threaten us, but they happen infrequently. On a day-to-day basis more people are assaulted by muggers and mayhem in their neighborhood than by exotic groups or foreign countries. The streetwise city dweller will have bars on his window, use an intercom or peephole to see who is at the door, and carry a can of pepper spray when it s time to walk the dog. In lands where such modern conveniences are unknown, stone or wooden walls can be built around the hut to keep out intruders (both two- and four-footed), and a spear is kept by the bed in case the wall is breached. 

Humans and large animals are not the only threats a person encounters. There are also Lilliputian aggressors against whom bombs or guns or rocks are ineffective. Bacteria, viruses, fungi—they all would 

To discourage any outsider who manages to climb to the top, sometimes stockade walls have spikes on them. Where I lived in the Bronx, almost all of the cyclone fences were topped with razor wire, which apparently is more effective at lacerating intruders than old-fashioned barbed wire. Spikes and razor wire are not parts of the fence proper they are little addons that increase the effectiveness of the barrier. Still, like the fence itself, razor wire is not a physical precursor to, say, a gun or a landmine. 

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Scintrex Trace Corp. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Trace Detection Products and Systems for a Dangerous World. Available at http //www.scintrextrace.com/. 

We live in a dangerous world. Yet it is also a world safer in many ways than it has ever been. Life expectancy is up. Infant mortality is down. Diseases that only recently were mass killers have been all but eradicated. Advances in public health, medicine, environmental regulation, food safety, and worker protection have dramatically reduced many of the major risks we faced just a few decades ago. [22]... 

In Part 1 Threats , the book notes that James Bond fives in a dangerous world, whose role is to avert the greatest dangers facing Britain or, indeed, the whole world. The key issue is International Relations ... 

Catalyst chemists, like others, live and work in a competitive world. Competitors may react to new plants, or process improvements, in various ways, and it usually helps to look at the situation from their standpoint, and visualize dangers. In particular, if additional capacity can only be filled at the expense of a competitor s market, his standard costs will rise, and he may be expected to react vigorously, by talking to customers, offering them benefits or security of supply and price, or price cutting. On the other hand, if the new capacity merely provides for market growth that no one else has the plant to supply, then there may be no adverse reaction. 

With good reason, Allied military leaders regarded malaria as a dangerous enemy. Quinine was unavailable because the Japanese controlled production areas, and other antimalaria drugs had to be developed. The disease was still endemic to parts of the United States, northern and southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and a broad swath of the Earth from Africa through the Pacific islands. It was—and remains today—the world s most widespread contagious disease. 

Immediately Dangerous To Life or Health (IDLH) This is a standard set by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) which limits exposure to any toxic, corrosive, or asphyxiant substance that poses an immediate threat to life, or would cause irreversible or delayed adverse health effects, or world interfere with an individual s ability to escape from a dangerous atmosphere. 

Nostradamus sighed. There is an alternative. Jacopo deceives himself too, remember. He lives in a fantasy world of his own making. I hope that he will now see how dangerous his own position has become and go to the chiefs to confess. Pity him. He was reared in a palace, even if he did have to eat in the kitchen. If his father had lived he would probably have been provided with an apprenticeship, but apparently nobody else cared. Then, suddenly, he is offered more money than he has ever seen in his life just to dress up like the rich playboy noble he has always dreamt of being and haunt brothels. Do you wonder he succumbed Or that he shuts his mind to what is happening as he tracks down the victims Poor devil ... 

During the first centuries of the opium trade, the drug became popular not only in Asia but in the Western world as well. In Britain, especially, opium became an extremely important product, both within the country and for its economic attributes abroad. For much of this time, the British attitude toward opium was much like our modern view of coffee. The English, along with much of the rest of the Western world, viewed opium as a luxury and a pleasantry, albeit a mildly addictive one. Like coffee today, opium was realized to be mildly addictive, but it was not seen as a dangerous narcotic. 

Security The world is increasingly a dangerous place, and my family must have a secure home far from potential upheaval and unrest. 

I ve no doubt. But not nearly as dangerous as Razum or some of the other technologies he has developed. He has a prototype weapon, for example, that I believe the world has reason to fear. And he s a dangerous enough man without such accessories. ... 

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