The Pentagon tried an experiment, they placed ten red balloons around the USA

[Toots]

And issued a challenge for anyone and everyone to find those balloons without any guidance. MIT and Dartmouth took up the challenge and MIT found all ten balloons in eight hours and fifty two minutes by using the internet and asking everyone to help them. Politicians could learn something very important from this. News gets around very quickly in this new age. The Pentagon about crapped their pants. They did not believe it could even be done at all, let alone in a single day.

[meegbear]

1. MIT! MIT! MIT!

Go Middle Indiana Tech! :woohoo:

[TexasObserver]

2. Recommend

[Tracer]

3. What did they mean by "without any guidance"?

Asking for help on the internet surely qualifies as "guidance", doesn't it?

[Toots]

5. Without clues from the Pentagon

The challenge was to see how well the Internet could be used in a situation such as this one. There was a time line it had to be done within. All of the balloons were easily identifiable and in plain sight along well used corridors

[Toots]

6. dupe

[pnwmom]

15. The other competitors weren't able to match MIT.

It wasn't just a matter of having the Internet, it was knowing how to use it most effectively.

[Fumesucker]

4. They should have used green balloons..

Just sayin'..

:evilgrin:

[HereSince1628]

7. Which I suppose suggests that bin Laden could be found in the US if

he didn't hide any better than 10 red balloons.

[tavalon]

11. I think we would notice

The dead tend to give off a terrible odor.

[HereSince1628]

17. True, at least, until the stinky necrotic stuff is decomposed.

[tavalon]

18. Good point

He probably doesn't smell at all anymore. He's been dead for 5-6 years at least. Yeah, just a bunch of bones by now.

[sui generis]

8. hey - is there a link for this?

Nine and ninety luft balons . . . .

[rgbecker]

9. Killjoy.

[sui generis]

13. nah - I think it's very cool.

:P

[Toots]

10. Try this one

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/60348

[arcadian]

12. link?

[Toots]

14. Here

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/60348

[leftynyc]

16. I saw this story on Rachel Maddow's

show before the holidays. Part of her geek stories.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. Damn..I was hoping the Pentagon would not notice our little internet secret.

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. Red balloons are real hard to come by.

Did they by any chance end up with more than they started from or does MIT really have that many twitter followers.

[leveymg]

21. And, they couldn't find 19 intending hijackers, even though they knew who half a dozen of them were

Too hard. Not enough "actionable intelligence." "Nobody could have imagined anyone using 4 airliners as missiles."