Silly String Goes to War Against IEDs

Luban Doyle writes "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."

President Bush will love this

[Anonymous Coward]

New slogan? "Iraq: It's a Party Over There!"

Re:Shipping

[Random Destruction]

Its for the war on iraq!!

If they don't accept it they're TERRORISTS!

Boom!

[tttonyyy]

1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver's one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia

Just needs one unstable can, and BOOM! One explosion in a spaghetti factory. :)

Re:IED?

[gEvil (beta)]

WTOWA? IDK.

Re:Government should pay

[Brewskibrew]

We also need to send pallets of Silly Putty for training Iraqi militas to fingerprint insurgents and cases of sugar-free Trident for detecting bubbles of mass destruction.

What do you expect?

[AltGrendel]

It's the military. The same group that calls a zipper a "sliding interlocking fastener".

No, I'm not kidding.

Re:And in a pinch

[emor8t]

It's like Napalm in a can! "I love the smell of Silly String in the morning!" Surfs Up!

Re:Poor Choice of Icons

[Anonymous Coward]

See, you're missing the subtle irony of posting the Monty Python foot in an article about light-weight silly string. If the foot were to come down on a room with a tripwire, it would surely set off whatever device the wire was hooked up to. However, silly string doesn't have that effect. Pure brilliance on samzenpus's part!

Re:Government should pay

[veganboyjosh]

hell, if Lockheed could create something which does the same thing and uses the same mundane process and chemicals, they can charge $5,000 per can, and the government may be interested.

It has other combat uses too...

[weatherguy48]

Seriously, silly string can be used during skirmishes as well.....has anyone ever gotten an eye-full of that stuff? Hurts like hell....

Silly String goes to war

[British]

Isn't this the 2nd time war and toys have crossed paths? IIRC Silly Putty was made by accident in WW2, attempting to make an explosion. While no explosive was made, the designers pressed it on a newspaper photo and went "but hey! Look what you can do with Hitler's face!"

Let's look for other toys with the word "silly" in them to see if they are usful in military applications. I'm betting now there's some research funds diverting towards it.

Re:Government should pay

[Junior J. Junior III]

Req. Order #12308-129

Item Description: Can, Aerosol, 12 oz., String, Silly, Camouflage
Quantity: 100,000
Destination: US Army, Baghdad, Iraq
Status: Approved
Comment: Can be weaponized as flame thrower if we purchase optional birthday cake.

Re:IED?

[MachineShedFred]

In the post Janet Jackson FCC gestapo tactics landscape, anchors on CNN are afraid to use the following terms:

boob
booby
boobies
tit
titties
fun bags
dirty pillows
natty-sags

I'm sure there are plenty more. This is the reason for the INAs we're hearing (Improvised Non-sensical Acronyms) such as "IEDs".

Re:This was on The Daily Show 2 days ago

[eln]

They use dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark they shoot bees at you.

It's a devastating weapon.

Re:IED?

[plover]

That's what I said! Booty traps!

Name Change

[writermike]

"Silly String?"

Couldn't we at least change the name to Freedom String-In-A-Can?

Re:IED?

[somersault]

At least they're Very Apt Germane Improvised Nonsensical Acryonyms

Slashdot tipping of the insurgents ;)

[edxwelch]

"The military is reluctant to talk about the use of Silly String, saying that discussing specific tactics will tip off insurgents."

Re:LOL, you said booby!!!

[jomama717]

As a consultant a few years back I worked on a product called GIS which ~half of the clients (the naive ones I guess) pronounced "jizz", with the unfortunate consequence of me sometimes being referred to as the "jizz expert". Hard work maintaining a professional air at one of those meetings...

IIEDDD

[fuggo]

Would that then make silly string an IIEDDD?

improvised improvised explosive device detection device

Re:IED?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a moment, you'll hear the sonic boom...

Don't you mean Waveform Originating Oscillating Sub-Harmonics?

Re: Almost perfect Req. order.

[TaoPhoenix]

Except in military usage, it wouldn't be called "silly". (This, besides being pejorative and politically incorrect, might infringe upon trademark.)

Expect instead "long-chained nontoxic polycarbon semi-liquid fast drying compound."

Also, some of your information seems to be missing. Accounting forwarded the following rejection notice:

Please supply

Department
Cost Code
Category type
Expected use rates for prepaid asset scheduling
Routing number
Authorized sign-off official

Re:IED?

[mrchaotica]

Military also uses VBIED a lot - that's Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device.

Phew, that's a relief! I thought for a moment it meant "Visual Basic Improvised Explosive Device" -- one of those could be the end of us all!

Re:Government should pay

[Technomonics]

Hmm, I think I need to buy this stuff up by the truckload, pay cheap labor to take off the labels and replace with a drab green, milspec-titled part number and name such as "Substance XKR-12", giving it a 300% mark-up and make a ton of money.

Re:Government should pay

[Brummund]

It would be delivered in 2015 and certified for field use around 2020. There would also be a specop edition using depleted uranium for extra can protection.

Re:IED?

[mkro]

Most of us would call them booby traps.

After the whole Janet Jackson/FCC thing, mainstream media prefer IED.

Re:IED?

[Tony Hoyle]

I thought IED was some kind of contraceptive.

Re:This was on The Daily Show 2 days ago

[jeffmeden]

-1 inaccurate...

Homer: (taunting Mr. Burns) What are you gonna do? Release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?

Re:LOL, you said booby!!!

[CthulhuDreamer]

Try keeping a straight face during a DCMAO conference. More than one person has stumbled over "dick-mayo".

Re:IED?

[yumyum]

Bet your wife is not too happy about that...

Re:I bet they refer to Kleenex(TM) as facial tissu

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

Booby Traps are trademarked?

Playtex(tm)

Re:This was on The Daily Show 2 days ago

[Pfhorrest]

Homer: (taunting Mr. Burns) What are you gonna do? Release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?

Homer: ...Well go ahead, do your worst!

Burns: My worst, eh!? Smithers - release the robotic Richard Simmons!