Clever idea

Some GIs are using silly string to detect trip wires.

Cool!
I saw this reported somewhere on the web on a blog or something, like 2-3 years ago. And the site owner was asked to remove the story by some GIs in Iraq because the soldiers didn't want the technique to be learned by the insurgents. It's interesting to see it popping up now a few years later in a mainstream news article.

It's apparently extremely effective.

Well, my memory is bad. It was a little over a year ago on Cockeyed.com. And he changed the page at the request of a Marine Sergeant to this. I thought it was cool that he would take a page down based on an informal request from someone in the field.

From the link;

Before entering a building, troops squirt the plastic goo, which can shoot strands about 10 to 12 feet, across the room. If it falls to the ground, no trip wires. If it hangs in the air, they know they have a problem. The wires are otherwise nearly invisible.

Or they could emulate the Israelis and just flatten the building without entering. ;)

Isn't that the equivalent of killing flies with a sledgehammer?

You mean effective? :D