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Zeppelins on Patrol?

Posted by michael on from the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction dept.

Our Man In Redmond writes "Everything old is new again: The Seattle Post-Inteligencer is reporting that NORAD is considering deploying zeppelins along the west coast and Canadian border to keep an eye out for terrorists. Larger than jumbo jets, easier to repair/upgrade than satellites, this may be an idea whose time has come. Again."

9 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Only one problem.......... by brad3378 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Gee Whiz.......

    Sure is gonna be tough to outrun a big balloon eh? &lt/Canadian Accent &gt
    Won't drug runners and terrorists just look up in the sky and decide to take another route?

    --
  2. Fly by Konster · · Score: 5, Funny

    The result of one of these flying into a building would be similar to me bouncing a marshmallow off of your forehead.

    It might catch you off guard at first, then piss you off as the shock and abject fright wore off, but no real harm would come to your forehead. The fate of the marshmallow wouldn't be the same, however, and this is to be expected.

    1. Re:Fly by WhaDaYaKnow · · Score: 3, Funny

      The result of one of these flying into a building would be similar to me bouncing a marshmallow off of your forehead.

      Uhm, not exactly. These things do have a structure, it's not a balloon.

      So it's maybe more like throwing, say, an egg at your forehead. (unboiled)

      The difference between a Jet hitting a building and a Dirigible hitting one is then more comparable to me throwing the egg versus using a high power canon to fire the egg at your forehead.

      Be warned though, I _can_ throw it hard enough to do some damage.

    2. Re:Fly by delcielo · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Allah Akbar!"
      BOING!
      "Damn it."

      "Badal!"
      BOING!
      "DAMN IT!"

      etc...

      --
      Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
  3. Gotham City by DarkZero · · Score: 4, Funny

    All you need now is a few supervillains and a well-meaning, but deeply troubled borderline psychopath in a batsuit and all of the West Coast's cities will officially be entered in the Gotham City look-alike contest.

    (Yeah, so only about five people will get this joke, but all five of them are going to get a good laugh out of it.)

    1. Re:Gotham City by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 3, Funny
      (Yeah, so only about five people will get this joke, but all five of them are going to get a good laugh out of it.)
      Looks like they had moderator points, too!!!
  4. Re:Nothing to do with "Terror" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny


    Where's the '-1, Paranoid' moderation option?

  5. Re:Larger than a Jumbo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What are you talking about? It was obvious from the video footage that the flames were white.

  6. More like a nerf by wirefarm · · Score: 5, Funny

    The article said that these things would only have a structure for supporting cargo, which, I'm guessing would be hanging about where a blimp's gondola is, so I guess the original assumption about the marshmallow might be true. (I have no idea why the author of he article kept referring to them as dirigibles...)

    I'm pretty sure that if you plowed any sort of non-rigid blimp into any sort of skyscraper, the blimp would do a minimum of damage before being punctured - though if it managed to break some windows first, the occupants of the building might be running around talking in squeaky voices from inhaling al that helium, which would make for some very confused 911 operators I'm sure...

    Cheers,
    Jim in Tokyo

    --
    -- My Weblog.