Serious Use for Silly String - AP

[applegrove]

Serious Use for Silly String
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 6, 2006
Filed at 3:52 p.m. ET

STRATFORD, N.J. (AP) -- "In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it's the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq.

American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq.

Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.

Now, 1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver's one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia, ready to be shipped to the Middle East thanks to two churches and a pilot who heard about the drive.

............SNIP"

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Silly-String-to-Iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[Mythsaje]

1. That's damn useful info...

Thanks for posting it.

[applegrove]

3. Was on TDS last night too.

[NYC]

2. Clever.

Marcelle Shriver may save lives.