Anyone watching the Smokecam? (1 Viewer)

[Francois Caron]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7367404/

It's actually pretty funny. Here we are in the 21st century, using just about every modern communications device we've ever made, and we're using all of it to watch a smokestack.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

It does seem odd. But things only become obsolete when they stop doing their jobs.

No cell phones or computers are allowed inside the Conclave for security reasons, and the place is swept for bugs with equipment that the CIA and KGB might envy. Yet they need a way to communicate with the outside world the bare fact that votes are being taken as required. The old method serves the new situation well. What has changed is how the news gets to the rest of us.

But, consider the bayonet: A device originally invented to turn a musket into a pike at the dawn of the gunpowder age, yet it is carried into battle by soldiers, marines and airmen who may arrive in the combat zone via nuclear powered warships, supersonic aircraft or stealth helicopters, and covered in synthetic body armor and wearing night-vision goggles. Why do they still carry the bayonet? Because in the last extreme, it will still do the job.

Regards,

Joe

 

[John Spencer]

And worst come to worst, it'll open an MRE.

 

[RickER]

Off Topic,
John i love your sig. from the urination shiver thread, right?

 

[DaveF]

That link was for Papal election news.

 

[Lynda-Marie]

I wonder when they are going to come up with the "Watching paint dry" cam?

 

[Chris_Morris]

And SmokeCam is done, a new Pope is elected.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I'm going to make a fortune by planting webcams along the interstate highway system nationwide. That way when there's a major accident, a fender-bender or even a tire changer, all the morons can stay home and watch to their hearts content while those of us who have actual jobs drive to work unimpeded by nitwits who are dazzled by flashing lights, even when they're on the other side of a divided highway.

Joe