Thursday, November 4, 2010

“Minutes to Spare”

http://www.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/Index

French officials say one of the Chicago-bound toner cartridge bombs intercepted from Yemen last week was disarmed a mere 17 minutes before it was set to explode. American officials couldn’t confirm because the clock was analog, not digital.

The bomb would have been diffused with 32 minutes remaining, but French labor unions are very strict about workers taking their 15 minute break.

Had the bomber been more clever, he would have disguised the bombs as a pizza, guaranteeing delivery within 30 minutes.

Had the bombs been mailed this weekend instead, the end of Daylight Savings Time would have given the bomb squad an extra hour.

In the likely movie version of the event, the 17 minutes will be represented as exactly one second.

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