OK, theres a lot of stuff going on about Las Vegas and terrorist threats, and I'm going to be there in Jan. for CES. Well, I might be. My father is freaking out now and doesn't want to go, he's willing to eat the money we already spent on tickets and the hotel. I think that's a little ridiculous. I could care less about threats, I don't live in fear; I want to go, damn it. What do you all think about these threats?

Completely unfounded. The US has this too huge and poorly researched watchlist, and they thought several people who were on it were on these flights, but the French questioned and cleared them all. And the only reason they mentioned Las Vegas was because it was on the flight path of a Paris to L.A. plane, but it is complete guesswork on their part; extrapolating blindly from a premise that turned out to be untrue in the first place.

The goverment may or may not have had valid reasons for their own hyping of this, but once the media got ahold of it they blew it all out of proportion like they always do. Here is a tip, always look at everything American news does, particularly broadcast news, with the awarness that they want people to tune in as much and as often as they can, and that causing fear and panic about something so you will came back soon for an update is a common practice for them, and that they never want anybody to tune out because they are bored with in depth coverage or they are showing too many important but tedious stories instead of the mindless pop fluff that people want to see. Keep all that in mind and you can begin to put American broadcast news in its proper place.

Exactly my thoughts. You took the words right out of my mouth. Your second paragraph is very close to what I told my father; though trying to get that point across to him is basically impossible. It's all scare tactics and completely unfounded. Like I said, I don't live my life in fear.

It should be fine and as ninti said, the media like to overhype everything to cause a panic. They said that there would be massive riots and bombs when Bush came over to London a few weeks back but nothing happened at all. They told people not to travel during those days unless absolutely necessary as Bush would be such a large target.

But hey, if you don't go then I'm always open for donations

Well, I'm going (with Claire) on the 8th to CES (followed by Florida for a few days to try and soak up some heat to take back to the UK ).

I wouldn't necessarily put myself in harm's way (eg, going to Zimbabwe) but I can definitely live with the probabilities of air crashes/terrorist attacks/that sort of thing.

OTOH, I know people who take advantage of the cheap holiday offers just after a terrorist attack / molisha uprising / dodgy political situation on the basis that it's damn cheap and trouble is unlikely to reappear so soon after the last load

Hugo

followed by Florida for a few days to try and soak up some heat to take back to the UK

Just don't get drunk and try to sing in Florida... (link)

Just to show how silly all of this was, there is an article talking about the people they stopped and questioned about this stupid thing, including a child, a Welsh insurance agent and an elderly Chinese woman. What a debacle. And of course most news will not report it, since that would show the world what morons they are to have hyped this up as they did.