Now that the Washington-area snipers are captured, a couple of modest suggestions to prevent future incidents:

• Artists: Eliminate access to targets by wrapping gas stations, schools, shopping/parking areas, etc. inside vast billowing fabric shrouds (like the works of the one-time famous Christo) — thereby disrupting lines of sight. (Smoke generators might also work, but would be less æsthetic.)
• Engineers: Set up real-time audio tomography systems around the area to capture gunshot sounds and immediately compute their point of origin. Hook them up to silly-sticky-string casters (or land mines) to ensnare (or explode) any shooters.

And perhaps there are other countermeasures that could be implemented by philosophers, meteorologists, historians, newspaper columnists, numismatists, linguists, ....

(see also MorningMourning (23 Oct 2002), ...)

TopicArt - TopicHumor - TopicSociety - 2002-12-17

(correlates: SkyLights, BasementWorries, TrainingEffects, ...)