At 10:12 AM 9/26/01 -0700, Tim May wrote:

Cities are just such perfect soft targets.

NYC is extra special because of the high number of foreigners who died. If you killed a random 6000 in kansas you wouldn't get the impact. Getting international businesses in the former WTC is extra points too. There's a bunch of guys with turbans and beards holding up white boards with 5.8 6.0 5.9 5.9 5.8 on it somewhere. Also because of the density, everyone is a few 'hops' ('degrees of separation', 'erdos number') from someone who is affected. That is, first you kill a lot because the 6000 were packed so dense, then on top of that you affect a lot more 'out of state' because you've gotten the attentioin of the 1e7 in the city who have connections everywhere. You can get a first-person report from any of ten million (less 6000) viewpoints...