Phung

Recently, I wrote an article about Bird Flu and the problems it caused for human operated toll-booth on toll-roads. The article apparently hit a major publication and several high-traffic online websites. Then I was asked to further elaborate on my points of contention. One gentleman emailed me and said recently that a lady at the toll-booth was wearing gloves.

No surprise here, was it paper cuts, did she have warts or was she worried about contracting a virus or disease? I would be worried. Airborne, touching, etc are all serious issues. Yes, regarding the issues of Toll Booths with humans in them and the possible transferring of pathogens, we did a study on the possible effects of Bird Flu pandemic and decided that it would severely impact the economy.

Retail especially; Starbucks, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Office Max, etc. But our economy could survive mail-order and if people took precautions still operate by Internet, etc. But the transportation was a huge issue. Truck Drivers at Truck Stops traveling and delivering products, that cannot stop.

So, I did a back track on all those issues and traced some travel routing maps and thought about the reality of it all. Here is a recent project on Transportation and inside it is an effort to discuss "regulation" and "taxes" on truckers and what the unintended consequences are having and why.

http://www.worldthinktank.net/pdfs/futuretrucktechnologies.pdf

Homeland Security should be looking at all risks both big, as in International Terrorist humans and small as in viruses, pathogens and diseases. If we fail to protect the American People and shore up these risks now, we will be to blame later if things go South.

L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur http://www.worldthinktank.net . Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by http://www.Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.