- On my Business Conspiracy mailing list, we are discussing
crime and inventions for countering it. It is something of great interest
to me. But it seems, by this article... that inventing new ways of bypassing
gun laws and still defending oneself, is occupying the minds of our most
creative people.
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- So instead of building new things, developing new technology,
etc... we are just too busy trying to keep ourselves safe from the ever
increasing hordes of black thieves... Since there is less employment for
them, etc.
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- Also interesting but sad, is that the guy who invented
the flame thrower anti-hijacking device... had his invention banned by
our Criminal-Loving Government even before it could be used. I've been
saying it all along... I said it in my book, and I still say it... that
our Government loves criminals, loves crime, loves murderers...heck...they're
doing their best to make it pay! --Jan Lamprecht
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- By Alistair Thomson The Independent Online 1-2-5
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- JOHANNESBURG (IOL) - Want a computer that screams when
a thief strikes? Or a personal tracking unit in case you get kidnapped?
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- All this from the nation that brought you the anti-hijack
flame-throwing car.
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- South Africa's inventors are dreaming up ever more ingenious
ways of getting one over on the criminals.
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- 'It's not quite as loud as your car alarm' "We are
a tremendously inventive nation," said Adi Paterson of the government's
department of science and innovation.
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- "We are some of the quickest imitators in the world
as well - if somebody comes up with a great idea somewhere else, we are
very quick to pick it up and turn it into something successful," added
Paterson, who chairs an Innovation Board Trust intended to foster new ideas
and make them commercially viable.
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- The fund targets all manner of projects South Africans
come up with, but Paterson says many are security-based.
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- "What we have done sometimes is put together think
tanks to address a particular crime, and think how to tackle it more aggressively.
For example, cash in transit - there have been a range of inventions which
have brought down the level of cash heists," Paterson said.
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- Attacks on security vans carrying cash are a regular
occurrence in South Africa, and all too often it is the security guards
and drivers who end up dead at the roadside.
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- Their companies and the nation's inventors alike are
forever devising new systems to dye stolen bank notes with permanent ink,
track stolen vehicles or seal off the cash section of vans in a constant
battle to stay ahead of the equally resourceful criminals.
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- Anti-hijack devices and radio or satellite tracking devices
for family cars are becoming ever more sophisticated.
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- In Johannesburg's wealthy northern suburbs scarcely a
house is without radio-controlled gates, infra-red anti-burglar beams and
electric fences that bring armed security guards bursting through the door
at the drop of an intruder's hat.
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- "Joburgers" have become a byword for obsession
with security, with an ad for cheap flights to the Indian Ocean resort
of Durban showing a young buy on the beach building a sandcastle complete
with an elaborate system of razor-wire.
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- With millions of guns in circulation, South Africa is
fighting to contain a culture of criminal violence. Police chief Jackie
Selebi says he will use his new post as head of Interpol to wage war on
the spread of guns in South Africa and abroad.
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- At his farm northeast of Pretoria, Nic van Zyl is busy
inventing a "smart gun," as he has been doing for 15 years.
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- With a computer circuit board concealed in the butt and
a revolutionary laser firing mechanism instead of the traditional hammer,
the "South African Intelligent Firearm" would not look out of
place on the set of a science fiction movie.
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- The really clever bit is in the handle, which reads the
user's thumb print so only the rightful owner can fire it.
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- And when it shoots, a camera takes a digital photo of
the target, noting the time and the date - just in case the user ends up
in court having to justify opening fire.
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- "It records what you're firing at, not what you've
just destroyed," said van Zyl. "If fitted with a GPS (global
positioning system) you can even record the coordinates of where the gun
was fired."
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- A few kilometres away in Johannesburg, Jason Roper has
an idea for cracking down on office computer theft.
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- His system uses free wiring already present in most office
networks. As soon as a computer is removed, the system sends a text message
to the owner's mobile phone - and blasts out a high-pitched alarm.
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- "It's not quite as loud as your car alarm, but somewhere
near it," he said. "The PC itself screams at 97 decibels - it
just goes crazy."
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- Patrick Carter is touting a very different kind of device.
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- Venture out on the mean streets of South Africa and at
the press of a button his handy "Buddi on Call" will inform family,
friends and a central call centre - that the user is being kidnapped.
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- It may sound a little extreme in a country where kidnapping
for cash is relatively rare. But Carter says the idea proved a hit after
this year's high-profile kidnapping and murder of a student from a wealthy
family who was snatched from her university car parking lot.
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- Most ideas - however clever - fail to make the grade
commercially. Inventors would do well to bear in mind the experience of
crime-fighting Charl Fourie.
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- Almost as soon as he launched his flame-throwing car
to deter hijackers six years ago, it was banned.
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- (Additional reporting by Hannington Osodo in Johannesburg
and Gordon Bell in Cape Town)
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