[Dr. S. Mann is a faculty member at University of Toronto, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he teaches, does research, and provides service to the community.]
``The Government Is Telling Us That Terrorists Are All Around Us. The Solution They Say: Submit to a Highly Dictatorial Police State.'' [1]
It has often been said that the real cause of terrorism is oppressive foreign policy, rather than merely a lack of security, or a lack of video surveillance, a lack of mandatory national ID cards, or the like. Others have even gone so far as to argue that terrorists are or were once funded by the nations that they attack. Weapons-grade anthrax, for example, is not something ordinarily made by the average disgruntled citizen, but, rather, is the domain of large government or corporate laboratories.
Foucault [2] describes how authorities once used the specter of plague to justify draconian quieting of any civil unrest. Just the mere mention of the word ``plague'' could be used for quarantine or forced mass evacuations. Forced evacuation to mass delousing centers, cleansing stations, or the like, have sometimes been used to remove undesirables from a given area. Even ``ethnic cleansing'' could fall under the domain of decontamination (``decon'').
More than a hundred years ago, the loss of dignity and autonomy associated with decon was noted:
``delousing and disinfection of people and their clothing. ... showering, smearing the body with petroleum or other substances ... passengers obeying all orders like meek children, only questioning now and then what was to be done with them. ... strange-looking people driving us about like dumb animals, helpless and unresisting ... ourselves driven into a little room where a great kettle was boiling ... our clothes taken off, ... In 1895, as part of this concept of "decontaminating" immigrants'' [3]
The existentialist writer Viktor Frankl comments on decon:
``Suddenly there was a stir among my fellow travelers, who had been standing about with pale, frightened faces, helplessly debating. Again we heard the hoarsely shouted commands. We were driven with blows into the immediate anteroom of the bath. There we assembled around an SS man who waited until we had all arrived. Then he said, ``I will give you two minutes and I shall time you by my watch. In those two minutes you will get fully undressed and drop everything on the floor where you are standing.'' [4]
Mandatory delousing was often met with some degree of resistance:
``The intense resistance by the local population ... difficulties ... encountered when they tried a variety of methods to induce people simply to bathe and have their clothes deloused either with steam or cyanide.'' [5]The ability to ship ``verminous persons'' off to a cleansing or delousing center, still remains written into many laws:
``The Council may, if satisfied that any person, or the clothing of any person, is verminous,... cause such person to be removed to a cleansing station and cleansed as to his person and clothing.'' [6]
``Removal to cleansing stations of dirty and verminous persons ... Any person who wilfully obstructs the execution of, or fails or refuses to comply with, any such order shall be guilty of an offence.'' [7]
One victim describes how being ``taken to a soccer field and told to strip down to her underwear as strangers watched'' [8], as being like rape:
``Huizar and the others who were decontaminated, most of them women, said they had to strip down in an area that was within the view of a crowd of at least 100 emergency personnel, TV crews and other spectators. "It felt like we were raped," said Huizar, 42, reenacting how she was told to lift up her arms and turn in circles as she walked down the line.'' [9]
With the threats of terrorism, airports are being equipped with machines for the mechanized processing of humans:
``The disinfection/decontamination process is akin to "putting humans through a car wash" after first destroying their garments. Los Angeles World Airports have put in place a contingency plan to disinfect up to 10,000 persons who might have been exposed to biological or chemical substances.'' [10]
Elements of social control, methods of containing and controlling large numbers of civilians, etc. while not explicitly stated, are evident in the decon process. They include the suspension of civil liberties, systems of surveillance, false accusations, mandatory vaccination, and incarceration of those suspected of being ill.
Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government describes powers that responding agencies might desire:
``The authority to compel people to remain in one location or move to
another, including temporary detention;
The authority to use the military for domestic law enforcement,
population control, and mass logistics;
The authority to seize community or private property, such as hospitals,
utilities, medicines, vehicles, or transit centers, or to compel
the production of certain goods;
The authority to compel individuals to undertake decontamination
procedures, take medicines, or be quarantined;
The authority to censor and control the media;
The authority to liberalize standards for conducting searches and
seizures;...
The authority to waive regulatory requirements on the use of certain
pharmaceuticals....
No reasonable person wishes to sacrifice any of these principles, but it may
be necessary to do so in a real incident if lives are to be saved." [11]
We are now witnessing the erosion of the separation between various government agencies, and the destruction of checks and balances on authority, such as recent congressional changes to the Posse Comitatus Act (which is supposed to prohibit federal troops from participating in domestic law enforcement activities) etc.. We are also witnessing the powers of government joining with those of corporations.
Professor Kenneth Miller of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at San Francisco State University suggests that persons suspected of having come in contact with hazardous materials should be hosed down:
``Ambulatory victims may then undress and wash with soap and water and then dry and redress in large trash bags with holes cut out for the head and arms. Since a suspected terrorist incident constitutes a crime scene, all clothing removed from victims will be evidence. This means the clothing needs to be bagged... and set aside in a secure location until the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) -- the lead law enforcement agency -- determines its disposition.'' [12]The ability to seize all clothing, jewellery, keys, wallets, and other personal effects from thousands of people, and hold this material indefinitely, while putting large numbers of people into garbage bags, puts forth the possibility of a very strong form of social control.
Such an approach may be used as a mass strip search of thousands of persons, to search for evidence. Such a strip-search is far more invasive than a traditional strip search where the victims might retain their clothing and personal effects afterwards. Without checks and balances to limit this power, there is a possibility that it could be abused.
Just as the strip search room at Canada Customs and Immigration contains two video cameras, video surveillance is recommended for decon as well:
``Victims are also videotaped as they proceed through the decontamination line.'' [13]
Here are some further quotations from various government and industry documents pertaining to mass casualty decontamination:
``The perpetrators may be the first victims.'', ``The city has taken steps to establish decontamination centers at various undisclosed locations'' ``Victims must be confined'', ``processing victims'', ``garbage bags to wear'', ``dozens of people could be herded through decontamination lines simultaneously.'', ``Get them out of their clothes... What am I going to do with watches and rings and eyeglasses and all those valuable kinds of things? The problem we face is... fled by the time we get there. Getting these people corralled and headed toward a decon corridor is the most difficult task.'' [14]
Thus even the language of decon[tamination] would be worth decon[structing] in the tradition of literary criticism. For example, Webster's dictionary defines ``corral'' as:
Main Entry: [^1]cor.ral Pronunciation: k&-'ral, -'rel Function: noun 1 : a pen or enclosure for confining or capturing livestock
It is indeed clear that persons could be treated as livestock, herded like cattle without regard to their personal property, freedom, or dignity.
Public health concerns have been used as a pretext for mass evacuation of the poor, or other undesirables confined to ghettos [15] (where disease may in fact be a serious problem), or to round up eliminate undesirables. Bempechat (freedomdomain.com) cites the existence of large holding pens, such as a facility for detaining up to 500,000 persons at a U.S. air force base in times of emergency or martial law. [16]
A representative from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
flew up from Atlanta to testify.
...
Conflict of Interest and CDC Cover-up
_____________________________________
The way CDC currently withholds information, circles its wagons, and
cites only the studies which support its views, ignoring those studies
that dont, ...
The CDC committee which sets national vaccine policy, the Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices, whose recommendations are
routinely mandated by state legislatures, until 1997 operated for more
than 20 years without making verbatim transcripts of its meetings
available to the public. ...
ACIP conflict of interest
_________________________
Conflict of interest among ACIP members and vaccine manufacturers is
quite common. While federal law (18 U.S.C. section 208) prohibits
members of federal advisory committees from participating in matters
in which he/she, wife, or child, or organization has a financial
interest, the conflict of interest can be waived if the need for the
individuals services outweighs the potential for a conflict of
interest created by the financial interest involved
...
I was told last week by a CDC official who helps manage the conflict
of interest waivers for ACIP members that all ACIP members serve under
waivers
...
Vaccine policy top secret
_________________________
Citizens are also confronted with similar obstacles when they try to
research how vaccine policy is formulated. [17]
Mandatory medicine has the potential to take ownership and control
of the individual body as part of this secret policy.
Other doctors have also been critical of mandatory vaccination. [18]
``The scrolling newswire on CNN said that some of the terrorists could try to infect themselves with contagious diseases and try to spread it around the US. Do they check refugees for diseases?'' [19]
In addition to the obvious possibility of justifying xenophobia, one wonders, therefore, if a person practicing poor personal health might be accused of terrorism, or at least be a suspect in the ``war'' on terrorism. Criminalization of the diseased is an age-old tradition:
``In 1903, Hermann Biggs ordered the incarceration of willfully careless patients in a place that was called "the consumptives' prison." Eighty-eight years later, the same thing was happening again: New York City detained 44 TB patients in hospitals. Soon it began to happen all over the country. Incarceration -- the forced confinement of people with tuberculosis -- has become the second technique in the battle against TB.'' [20]
The exhibit was entitled ``Prior Art: Art of Record for Personal Safety''.
In the exhibit, decontamiation was deconstructed by literally building a futuristic mass decontamination facility open to the public. [21]
The details of the decon facility design expand upon that which is mentioned briefly in the final chapter of my recent book [22] with a look at the design, [de]construction, and testing of this new mass decontamination facility, as described in the patent [23]. The title of my Gallery TPW exhibit, ``Prior Art: Art of Record for Personal Safety'' borrows from the terminology, ``prior art'' and ``art of record'' commonly used in patent law. Moreover, rather than use the traditional literary manner of ``deconstruction'', I ``deconstruct'' decontamination by constructing decontamination. In other words, through the actual invention, design, and display, of how a futuristic decontamination facility might be constructed, I attempt to take a critical look at decon.
The following text is what I wrote to go with the July 2001 Gallery TPW exhibit:
In the event that persons are suspected of having come into contact with biological agents, such as anthrax, it may be necessary to evacuate thousands of persons to a cleansing station or decontamination facility.
The need to corral masses of panic-stricken individuals to a decon facility includes not just a need to herd large numbers of persons to the facility, but also a need to ensure high efficiency and high throughput in processing them.
Without pipelining, it typically takes each victim 30 seconds to strip, 30 seconds to wash, and 30 seconds to cover = 90 seconds total = 40 persons/hour throughput.
This assumes the three steps:
However, by having multiple stages, and herding persons through each stage of a decontamination line, with pipelining, it is possible then to process persons at a rate of 30 seconds/person = 120 persons/hour throughput.
Even though it still takes 90 seconds to process each person, in steady state conditions, persons enter the decon line every 30 seconds, and persons emerge every 30 seconds.
With parallelism in addition to pipelining, a further increase can be obtained. Suppose, for example, that each stage of the pipeline can accomodate six persons at a time (e.g. a six station stripdown room, six station shower, and six station examination/drying/dressing room).
If privacy were not a problem, the throughput could be increased to 720 persons per hour.
However, when six persons enter the stripdown room, shower room, and drying room, together, there is a privacy problem. This problem is solved by having separate decon pipelines for men and women, so that the facility processes 720men/hour and 720women/hour.
In addition to solving the privacy problem, having these two separate pipelines results in additional parallelism: 720 men/hour + 720 women/hour = 1440 persons/hour.
My floorplan (my original design for the gallery space) is depicted in FIG.1
[FIG. 1 CAPTION] Gallery TPW Decon facility floor plan. A honeycomb structure of closely packed rooms, 1W (Women's stripdown room), 2W (Women's washdown room), and 3W (Women's examination room) is used for the three stages of decon (1, strip; 2, wash; and 3, cover). Likewise 1M, 2M, and 3M denote the three rooms in the Men's pipeline.
A feature of this space-efficient hexagonal packing is that people never need to turn at angles tighter than 120 degrees, so throughput is very high. Also, the 120 degree angles where walls meet facilitates the installation of high security rotogate turnstiles like those used in unguarded automated subway exits. This ensures that no person can flee from the facility without passing through in the proper direction. Moreover, the hexagonal packing of the six rooms creates lost space in the center. This lost space is actually put to good use as a central triage observation room. The walls of this central room are made entirely of smoked lexan so that guards in the room can have a clear view of activities taking place in the six rooms around the outside, but, for reasons of national security, persons in the six rooms cannot see into the central guard tower. This central triage/observation room also houses computers and video cameras to buffer the video for archival, for quality control and training purposes, and to ensure that safety policy and procedures are complied with.
[FIG. 2 CAPTION] Building the hexagonal-shaped countertop and moving it into position so that six walls made of darkly tinted bulletproof ``glass'' (darkly smoked lexan polycarbonate) can be built around it, to form the central room, of the seven rooms depicted in FIG.1. Three of these walls are being assembled behind the stepladder shown in the background, and will later be moved forward and joined to the other three walls to complete the central guard tower.
The countertop were intended to be used by decon/triage officers for setting down their notepads or portable computers. However, six high resolution video cameras were also installed on the countertop, in case the decon/triage offiers are at a remote location, or to record video for evidence as victims later move through the decon lines. Six walls made of smoked polycarbonate were then built around the countertop with the cameras and computer equipment inside. It was found, therefore, that decon officers did not need to actually be physically present in the central guard tower's control room.
To ensure complete total absolute privacy, a black cloth sheet hangs down the center of the triage observation room, so that men cannot look into the smoked lexan and see through to the women's side, or vice versa.
Support beams were then placed across the top to provide additional structural integrity, to bear the weight of the ceiling of the central triage/observation room.
A black opaque hexagonal ceiling fits on top of the triage/observation room (resting on the support beams), for security, and to ensure that it is dark inside the observation room. The darkness in this room makes it easy to see out into the six surrounding rooms, but hard for people in the six rooms to see into the central seventh room.
Next the showers are installed. The showers are highly efficient
hexagonal shower columns. FIG.3 shows the newly installed men's
showers to the left of the triage/observation room.
[FIG. 3 CAPTION] Deconstructing Decontamination: A partially (de)constructed mass casualty decontamination facility is shown, so that we can understand how anthrax hysteria might motivate the design of architecture.
This exhibit is meant to show the partially (de)constructed facility. The complete decon facility is to be built at a later date [24]. After the showers are installed, six hexagonal rooms are to be built around the central triage/observation room, together with high security rotogate turnstiles similar to the turnstiles used in unguarded subway exits.
The locations where the walls of these six hexagonal rooms are to be built are marked in red tape, and the positions where the turnstiles are to be installed are marked in yellow tape:
Separate entrances for men and women are to be provided. Three of the six rooms are for men, and the other three are for women.
A second Bradley column shower is to be also modified for sensor operation and
is to be installed in the women's shower room.
A Bradley six station column shower donated by Bradley Corporation
has already been modified for sensor operation.
I has already been installed in the men's washdown room
(See Fig.3). A close up picture of the modified column shower is shown
in FIG.4.
[FIG. 4 CAPTION] Sensor operated column shower in which five of the six nozzles are visible. Also visible are three of the six small round viewing windows, and some of the 12 laser diode body scanners, two being positined below each viewing window.
The knobs and soap dishes have been removed from the column shower, and the holes where these items once were have been replaced with a machine vision system comprised of 12 laser diode body scanners together with six round lexan viewing windows moulded into the inside of the column. An infrared video sensor in each of the six windows works in conjunction with two laser diode body scanners for each of the video sensors. A set of six video motion detectors with an Internet connected machine vision computer is placed inside each of the shower column. The system is sealed and completely watertight.
Up to six men can use this shower at the same time, but only the number of stations actually being occupied will consume water. Moreover, water is only consumed when a user is present. Since there are no knobs or controls of any kind, there is no possibility for deliberately destructive acts such as might otherwise happen when users deliberately (or accidentally) leave the water running. Each of the six nozzles face one side of the hexagonal shaped room to maximize space usage and efficiency.
The six rooms around the central room each have one wall facing the central triage/observation room. Therefore one of the six walls in each of the six rooms is made entirely of smoked lexan, so that triage personnel or decontamination officers in the central room can supervise the decontamination process, whereas the six or fewer men or women in each room cannot see the triage personnel or decontamination officers, because of the darkness of the lexan (transmissivity is approximately 10 percent, meaning that transmissivity squared is approximately 1 percent, as compared to roughly four percent reflectivity of the surface, such that any visual perception of triage personnel or decontamination officers will fall below a noise floor).
Typically, however, the triage personnel or decontamination officers operate the facility remotely by way of the six video cameras installed in the triage/observation room.
The cameras are of very high quality and high resolution, so that remote triage personnel can clearly distinguish, for example, anthrax, from dust or other dirt. Archived images can also be used as evidence to prosecute those placing society at risk by failing to properly undergo decontamination. Recorded video may be used to prosecute those who refuse to undress, or refuse to cooperate with medical staff or decon officers.
Thus high resolution image sensors were used throughout the facility to
ensure satisfactory video quality, as shown, for example in the COLOR PLATE:
[CAPTION for Fig. Color Plate] Here is the view from the men's decontamination/triage officer station, during a Decon Drill, held at the 80 Spadina Ave. facility, Thursday July 5th, 2001. Patients showering at a modified Bradley six station column shower in the hexagonal men's washdown room, as viewed remotely from high-resolutoin telemedicine video link located in the adjacent hexagonal shaped triage/observation room.CONCLUSION: THE NEED FOR FURTHER INQUIRY
The July 2001 anthrax-ready mailroom exhibit at Gallery TPW has raised a lot of important questions. In the wake of the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this work has taken on a new relevance. Many questions remain unanswered, and need to be explored in a subsequent exhibit: DECON3 (DECON cubed = DECONstructing and DECONtextualizing DECONtamination). DECON3 will take the form of a DECONference (decontamination conference) with a fully functioning decon facility. Perhaps the most important as yet unanswered question is what happens when the new heroes of society are placed in such high regard that they fall outside the scope of scrutiny. Take for example the fireman. From fire extinguishers to riot extinguishers (big cans of pepper spray), the need for crowd control has been marketed as a new social order. And with fire hoses for crowd control the need for the fireman has changed from controlling fire to controlling people. As crowds of people are hosed down to prevent them from leaving [25] one might ask: Is he the firefighter cum people fighter? Or has his desire to control fire [26] merely evolved into a desire to control people?ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Bradley Corporation, Leonard, Symmons, and Sloan Valve donated plumbing equipment to make the exhibit possible. ViewCast and ATI donated video capture equipment to make the six channel telemedicine video link possible. Dupont donated the white Tyvek jumpsuits. James Fung, Corey Manders, Chris Aimone, and Thomas Hirmer assisted greatly with the construction of the facility. Thanks also to Gallery TPW, curator Kathleen Pirrie Adams and curatorial Web site designer Michelle Kasprzak. DECON3 (DECON cubed) is being done in collaboration with Chris Aimone, and Dylan Crichton, and with guest speakers: Derrick de Kerckhove, director of the McLuhan Program on Culture and Technology; Professor Arthur Kroker, coeditor of web journal 'CTHEORY'; surveillance artist Julia Scher; and tactical media collective Critical Art Ensemble.NOTES AND REFERENCES:
[1] ONLY THE POLICE STATE STANDS TO GAIN, Alex Jones documentary infowars.com, cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_summary.htm [2] Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, Pantheon books, New York, 1977, Translated from ``Surveiller et punir''. [3] This took place in Germany in the 1880s. http://www.wearcam.org/decon/decon_1881_inconshr.html [4] "MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING", VIKTOR E. FRANKL, WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020, ISBN: 0-671-83465-7, revised and enlarged version of ``From Death-Camp to Existentialism'', 1994. [5] This resistance was in response to the decon efforts beginning along the Polish-Russian frontier in 1921: ``put a cordon round healthy areas, with the aid of the military and barbed wire, to prevent the ingress of infected refugees. This was in many cases done locally, though eventually a cordon had to be established right across Europe... Patrols watched the open country and brought stragglers into the disinfesting points. At each such point were arrangements for bathing and disinfestation, and all persons passing the cordon were thoroughly "de-loused" with their belongings.'' http://www.wearcam.org/decon/required_to_bathe_weekly.htm [6] City of Edinburgh District Council Order Confirmation Act 1991 (c. xix), ISBN 0105119911, Part V Public health, 20. Cleansing of verminous persons and clothing. http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/locact91/Ukla_19910019_en_1.htm [7] PUBLIC HEALTH ACT (Act No. 19 of 1924 as amended through Act No. 12 of 1997) (Chap. 15:09); cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_summary.htm [8] Earlimart residents urge review of pesticide policies - By Javier Erik Olvera, The Fresno Bee, December 9, 1999, cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_strip_in_soccer_field.htm [9] Residents sickened by pesticide cloud; CHRISTINE HANLEY, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, December 7, 1999, cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_like_rape_dec99.html This incident took place in Earlimart community in the Central Valley of California. [10] ACI World Report, 7-8 June 1999, cached in http://www.wearcam.org/decon/human_carwash.htm [11] Richard A. Falkenrath, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, December 2000, cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/authority_to_compel_medecon.htm [12] MERGINET.News for November/December, 1999, Biological Agents as Weapons: Medical Implications Part 2 -- Countermeasures & Decontamination, Ken Miller, M.D., Ph.D., cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_summary.htm [13] ANOTHER PERPSECTIVE ON THE DOMESTIC ROLE OF THE MILITARY IN CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT, Chris Seiple, cached in http://www.wearcam.org/decon/victims_videotaped_trough_decon_line.htm [14] Many of the government web sites, and official documents have disappeared from the Internet over time, making scholarly citations on the web difficult. Some of the material, however, may still be found in a google cache (www.google.com) or is cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_summary.htm. [15] ``Government is attempting to create buffer zones by mass evacuations of ... villages resisting oppression. ... Government has taken advantage of the strategic situation created by the crisis ... to step up the evacuation ... on the pretext of maintaining security.'' COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, Fiftieth session, Agenda item 11 (d), HUMAN RIGHTS, MASS EXODUSES AND DISPLACED PERSONS, cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/forced_evacuations.htm [16] Estimated capacity of 500,000 Elmendorf AFB - Northeast area of Anchorage - far end of base. CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN AMERICA, www.freedomdomain.com/concamp.html See Miami Herald for July 5, 1987, http://www.freedomdomain.com/concamps/fema01.html See also http://GulagAmerika.homestead.com/CampsHistory.html [17] Mandatory vaccination, Presentation by Kristine M. Severyn, R.Ph., Ph.D., 56th annual meeting Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, October 14, 1999, cached in: http://wearcam.org/decon/mandatory_vaccine_cdc_corruption.htm [18] MANDATORY VACCINATION IS MEDICAL GENOCIDE, Dr. Grady A. Deal, Ph.D.,D.C., Part 4, October 1, 1995 cached: http://wearcam.org/decon/vaccination_is_genocide.htm [19] Anti-Immigration - - American Discussion, News/Current Events Front Page News Source: New York Daily News Published: September 28, 2001 Author: ROBERT INGRASSIA Posted on 09/28/2001 02:09:13 PDT by sarcasm http://wearcam.org/decon/terrorists_could_try_to_infect_themselves.htm [20] The People's Plague: Tuberculosis in America, A Film by Diane Garey and Lawrence R. Hott, Florentine Films, Narrated by Joe Mantegnaa, text cached in: http://wearcam.org/arrest_of_diseased_persons.htm [21] Steve Mann - Prior Art: Art of Record for Personal Safety, Essay by exhibition curator, Kathleen Pirrie Adams, July 2001, http://www.existech.com/tpw/index.html See also the June 4, 2001 press release for this anthrax mailroom exhibit: ``Wearable Computers paint a path to a future where packages arrive on time, terrorism is zero, and morale is high.'' http://existech.com/press_release_deliverify.htm as well as my Call for Volunteers to undergo decontamination: ``Volunteer as a subject for our Decontamination Drill: Open to the public, Thursday 2001 July 5th, 7:00pm.'' http://wearcam.org/tpw.htm. [22] Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer, Steve Mann (with Hal Niedzviecki), Random House Doubleday, November 2001, ISBN: 0385658257 [23] Canadian Patent 2303611, filed on the morning of April 1, 2000, describes a novel approach to the problem of processing thousands of unwilling or uncooperative civilians. See also an April 1, 2001 posting: http://www.wearcam.org/decon/decon2001apr1/aa040101a.htm which provides the link between this exhibit and my previous work in wearable computing, as described in the final chapter of [21]. [24] A more recent exhibit called DECON3 is now being constructed in a building of cement and steel construction, supplied by a six inch watermain and a 600 amp three phase electrical service. This new fully working decon facility provides working showers with twenty gallons per minute capacity, fed from a 200,000 BTU hot water heater with 400 gallon capacity. Nobody will be allowed into the DECON3 exhibit without removal of clothing, contraband, and contamination. Complimentary conference attire (a white jumpsuit with no pockets in which to store contraband) will be provided for each of the first 200 attendees. The rest will wear garbage bags with holes cut out for the head and arms, as advised by government and industry documents. [25] ``Police officers ... help fire crews hose people down both to decontaminate them and to discourage them from leaving the area. In some jurisdictions, law enforcement officers have standing authority to use non-lethal force to maintain order during riots.'' Metropolis, USA: Progress, Pitfalls in Front-line Readiness, Amy E. Smithson, cached in http://wearcam.org/decon/decon_squad_tyvek.htm [26] S. Freud, The acquisition of power over fire., Int. J. Psychoanal., 13: 405-410.