Sunday, February 19, 2006

Fight Crime with Poetry

CNN reports that Apple Computers has buried a powerful anti-piracy weapon deep within its OSX operating system. Worried that someone will hack its code is such a way as to allow OSX to be run on a non-Apple Intel-powered computer, presumably without paying for it, Apple has embedded this verse deep in its code:

There once was a user who whined
His existing OS was so blind
He'd do better to pirate
An OS that ran great
But found his hardware declined.

Putting aside my penchant for literary criticism (meter and rhyme way off in Line 4!), I really like the idea of using verse to dissuade those who would from engaging in criminal activity. It is entirely feasible that poetry could be used as a crime-stopping tool for a wide range of illegal activities. Here are some ideas I think could work:

How about stopping terrorists with beat poetry:
I saw the best jihadis of your generation destroyed by the West
Detained, naked, in Guantanimo Bay
Peering hysterically through the Frost link fences
Thumbing brain-fevered through a wet Qu'ran.

What about reciting Anglo-Saxon epic poetry in the war against drugs:
Lo, we have heard &emsp in days gone by
Of the deeds of Limerick Lad &emsp and Doggerel Dude,
How they bravely busted &emsp grow-ops and meth-labs
Armed only with The Oxford &emsp Companion to English Literature.

Or preventing jay-walking with an appropriate Haiku:
Her body lies still
As a misty lake: road kill
On the boulevard.

Is this a great concept or WHAT?!!!

3 Comments:

Blogger Anna said...

Let's not forget the ever-popular limerick...

There once was a bear that was white;
Who decided to eat kids one night;
Their mom was nearby;
She punched his brown eye;
He was no match for her might.

12:24 PM  
Blogger nanuk said...

That's a cautionary tale, erm, limerick if I ever heard one! I'll make sure all the local bears hear it, but they'll have to wait another three weeks.

3:57 PM  
Blogger L said...

Very BAD poetry might work better

6:05 PM  

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