nizo's Journal: Serious uses for silly string

Troops in Iraq are using cans of silly string to detect boobytraps in buildings. How weird is that? See the yahoo story here about one lady who is collecting cans to send to troops.

Hm

[turg]

I suppose nobody has told her that it's dangerous and prohibited to send pressurized containers (like aerosol cans) through the mail -- especially air mail.

From the Article

[Morosoph]

Marcelle Shriver said that since the string comes in an aerosol can, it is considered a hazardous material, meaning the Postal Service will not ship it by air. But a private pilot who heard about her campaign has agreed to fly the cans to Kuwait -- most likely in January -- where they will then be taken to Iraq.

I thought that the other improvisations were more interesting; sending silly string is like sending nylon tights for parachute material in WWII: tolerated and encouraged as it helps morale.

I

Simple, yet brilliant.

[rk]

If the Pentagon were to try and specify this stuff, it would take about 50 million in research funding to come up with a system that works half as well, and by the time Congress got done with it, a single unit of the inferior solution would cost about 30,000 bucks.

There's nothing quite like mortal peril to focus the mind and innovate. :-)

This also caught my attention:

"Medics use tampons to plug bullet holes in the wounded until they can be patched up."

Nearly full circle with that innovation now.

Re:

[Red Warrior]

There's nothing quite like mortal peril to focus the mind and innovate. :-)

Yep. Never presume where the next great idea will come from. However, it will likely be from a guy who does the work day in and day out.

My initial reaction was less than flattering. But then I got to thinking... After all, using string on a stick while crawling forward has been a standard method of doing the same thing. This is similar to using that, or a thrown ball of yarn/string. Except that a ball of yarn/string would be continua

Re:

[(H)elix1]

When I saw this on digg, I ment to ask you your thoughts on this. I can see how it could work - but is there that much of this kind of traps about?

The other question was shipping. Normal channels would be ugly, but do they have another way to send stuff if you can get a case on base?

Re:

[Red Warrior]

I wouldn't expect that there would be all that many tripwires to be contended with. However, as the saying goes, it only takes one grenade to ruin your week. In fact, I see the relative infrequency as a big selling point of the silly string. The "normal" method is time-consuming and nerve-wracking. However, if you have even a suspicion that the area my be booby (heh I said booby) trapped, it is really hard not to take the time. And the more time you take, the more of a target you are.

Isn't a "magic bullet".