It’s hard not to wonder if the story of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may turn out to be the biggest story of the year if it keeps developing the way it does. Actually, it’s getting hard not to feel a sense of deja vu all over again as more of the details come to light, because while the attempted attack on Northwest Flight 253 in no way resembles the horror and destruction of September 11, 2001 the lack of government preparedness in the face of a whole lot of intel leading up to it is starting to feel awfully familiar.

Eight years ago Philip Bump was living in California and woke up to the already-burning Twin Towers – a moment that would have seemed dream-like had it not been instantaneously jarring.

Like a growing number of others in a time obsessively concerned with the “digital divide”, he went to his desktop computer to get more information. Unlike many others, though, he took screen grabs of the sites as he visited them.