No terrorist nukes in NYC…

Well, there were no terrorist nukes in NYC on May 27-28, 2008. I reported Tuesday on the H3Tec nano-ionic resonance scanner. About six months after we ran the ad in Chicago's USA Today, I made a special trip to New York City to spend two nights racing bicycle messengers all around Manhattan while using the H3 to scan for kilogram-sized chunks of weapons-grade nuclear materials. Since I put between 3,000 and 7,000 miles a year on my bicycle, and since spring is a really fun time to bicycle around Manhattan, I decided to kill two birds and go play superhero. Here's the ride map for the two evenings of May 27th and 28th captured from my Garmin GPS (and merged using Photoshop):

The yellow lines denote my path, and I tested for nuclear material every mile or so and for a radius of about two miles. Each night, I made my ride between 8:00 PM and 1:00 AM. Again, this is a terrific time to cycle around Manhattan! To my disappointment and/or relief, nothing popped. I'm glad, because I didn't have a solid plan for dealing with a positive hit. Somehow, the "A-Team" motto of playing it by ear and then exclaiming "Ain't it great when a plan comes together?" probably wouldn't have worked out for me.

Yes, I could have triangulated not only the location but the elevation of the materials. But then what? Dial 911? Interesting conversation: "I'd like to report weapons grade nuclear material at 666 Madison Avenue…Well, I picked it up on my H3 scanner…No Maam, I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat…" You get the picture.

Or I could tap on the window at the suspect location and ask the security guard to show me around. Trouble is, if he was in on the plot you'd be finding pieces of me all over Saudi Arabia. Worse yet, my visit could have spooked the jihadists into detonating their nuke. Then, of course, I wouldn't be writing this blog. Nor would a lot of my NYC audience be reading it.

One thing is certain: I couldn't possibly have left New York City without doing something. Getting on a plane to save my own skin simply isn't a part of my DNA. I met some really cool guys, sprinting to pass bicycle messengers and chatting up three-wheeled sightseeing pedal taxis. I told one of the pedaling taxi guys that he had a GREAT job. He said I should try it, because I could make a lot of money. So I told him about a venture capitalist friend of mine in Silicon Valley, whose son quit his job to be a bicycle messenger around San Francisco. The cabbie thought the boy made a perfect career decision. Maybe he did.

As soon as the weather turns nice, I might take another bicycle ride around Manhattan with my trusty H3 scanner (maybe one of my new friends will let me take his three-wheel taxi for a spin). There was a lot of cocaine downtown, and a lot of nitrates (aka serious ammunition) up around Harlem (I probably won't be taking any more midnight bicycle rides around Harlem, though). Back in my own neighborhood, though, there are some possibilities when they finish the $1.5 billion cyber security center in Utah. I ride my bike by there at least three times a week. Maybe I could read some USB-based data from a safe distance (just kidding guys, just kidding).

It is too bad nobody in the Moscow airport had an H3. The guy with the bomb wouldn't have gotten within a mile of the place.