When a ship sinks or a plane crashes, emergency services are scrambled to hunt for survivors. Sometimes these searches go on for days or even weeks, consuming huge amounts of time and money. The search is prolonged long after there is any resonable hope of finding anyone, mostly to placate the relatives of the lost.

So, put a countdown timer in every lifejacket and raft. After 6 days, the timer causes the survival aid to instantaneously deflate, putting the luckless user out of their misery.

Then after 7 days you can safely call off the searchers in the certain knowledge that you're not going to find anyone.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 19 2002

thought this was about radioactive clothing
-- po, Jun 19 2002


Combining po and 8th of 7, you could fit heavy uranium pendants round the necks of all sea travellers. These would ensure that in case of accident, the person would sink quickly, rather than floating around for days, and if they didn't drown, the radiation would kill them off. Geiger counters could then be used to locate the body at leisure. The additional radioactivity in the ocean would vastly increase the supply of fishbones, which could then be directed at this idea.
-- pottedstu, Jun 19 2002


//heavy uranium pendants round the necks //

on first read, I thought this said "heavy uranium pedants round the necks...." yeah, that *makes* sense.....

oh, and fishbone.
-- runforrestrun, Jun 19 2002


Reading this title, I assumed you'd be able to play Half-Life as you walked around town.
I suppose that's just a completely different idea...
-- NickTheGreat, Aug 07 2002


Or you could have a radio transmitter in the jackets so it could be located...but this is CynicBakery, I forgot.
-- BinaryCookies, Aug 07 2002


its a little inhuman but totally viable!
-- young mc, Jul 02 2003


Countdown timer not necessary - people die quite readily in the sea.

Depending on the location/weather, in many cases searchers know they have a infinitessimally small chance of actually saving anyone, e.g. JFK Jr, but go about their task with dedication and diligence way after the point where it's worth bothering.

I wonder why instead of life jackets we don't have one size fits all inflatable exposure suits. Surely it's not too much to ask.

//oh, and fishbone.//
-- FloridaManatee, Jul 02 2003



random, halfbakery