At 04:46 PM 12/27/01 -0800, Tim May wrote:

Easy to imagine safer activators. A magnet arrangment, where an external magnet pulls something. A dual activator system, where two switches must be closed simultaneously, ampoules to be broken or pierced under the skin, and so on.

Yeah but then you have to explain that you have an implant or somesuch when you trigger the magnetometer. This 'dual activator system' ---the equivalent of a mechanical pin you must pull or push to arm the primary trigger--- is the solution to the mechanical trigger problem.

A person willing to martyr himself is almost assured of being able to take down a plane.

If all you want to do is drop it, a perfume bottle with some volitile nerve agent will work ---do pilots have separate air? Amusingly, a plane flew over rural NorCal, pilotless, after it escaped while being worked on. Presumably it crashed somewhere in the hills. No talk of F15s because the un-pilot called the FAA. And, a small plane (piloted by arabic-surnamed but nonhostile people, because Allah has a twisted sense of humor) crashed a mile from San Onofre ---communities around which may be offered KI, its also reported. Curiouser and curiouser. ----- Imagine if Jim "butyric acid" Bell had been a mujahadeen... dimethyl mercury, anyone?