jstro - I like the way you tie those events together. Although I'd heard of each one, I wouldn't have thought of a commonality between them - besides being bad news. As much a cynic as I am, I don't think that the human race as a whole has gotten worse, there's just more of us, so more opportunities for the jackasses of the world to screw over more people. There's always been psychopaths, but now there's lots of new toys like Anthrax and a target rich environment. In a town of 500, when people start disappearing, it's noticed quickly. In a town of 500,000, who notices a few missing people? If you're in charge of a company with 20 people, you know your employees, so it's harder to justify screwing them over. With 2,000 or 20,000, what's a few peons to you?