Science Fiction Perimeter Security

Occasionally on our Perimeter Security Blog we like to take look at the more lighthearted aspects of our business and the terminology we use. Today is one such occasion ...

When people talk about perimeter security it's usually of the 'earthly' kind such as providing oil refinery perimeter protection or cellular phone mast security against theft and vandalism.

So what about perimeter security in outer space? Sounds odd? Well, it's something that our children may well have already taken onboard as being quite real thanks to science fiction movie makers like George Lucas.

In 'Attack Of The Clones' (2002) for example, there's a scene where the Jedi are outnumbered and surrounded by the forces of Count Dooku. Out of nowhere space ships appear with Yoda in the leading craft who gives the order:

"Around the survivors a perimeter create"

Another example is "Return Of The Jedi" (1983) where Admiral Akbar talks about the Death Star orbiting the Forest Moon of Endor and says:

"Once the shield is down, our cruisers will create a perimeter, while our fighters fly into the superstructure and attempt to knock out the main reactor"

You can read a whole array of quotes from these movies on the imdb.com website, as follows:

Attack Of The Clones (2002) quotes

Return Of The Jedi (1983) quotes

Nice to see modern day movies using good, formal English vocabulary!

Securing The Perimeter For Quantitative Easing

One of the most featured news items in the media both last year and currently, has been the crisis in the global economy. Reports on how governments are handling the situation have become daily occurrences and 'the man in the street' has become accustomed to hearing a plethera of previously unfamiliar terms - such as Quantitative Easing.

This is where, in order to revive consumer spending and economic growth, national banks expand the amount of money circulating within their economy. In the UK for example, where interest rates are currently at their lowest in the entire 315 year history of the Bank Of England, the Bank is reported to be using the quantitative easing process to expanding the amount of money in the system by some £200 billion. However, it will done electronically, not by printing more actual paper money.

Printing great volumes of paper money has been synonomous with serious hyperinflation in the past - read Wikipedia's page on the history of hyperinflation to learn just how many countries have suffered because of this. Moreover, according to the Maastricht Treaty, EU member states are not actually allowed to finance their public deficits by printing money. Effectively, we think this is a good analogy of perimeter security in monetary form.

As for the physical kind, we once provided perimeter security using our Flexiguard™ system to protect premises where newly minted Euros were being housed for the Portuguese Mint.

With a large volume all in one location it was a prime target for theft.

Read our Euro Security Case Study.

Perimeter Security For UN Building

The United Nations is recognised worldwide as perhaps the most valued of organisations - its continued efforts over many years to secure and maintain peace between all nations are undeniable. The UN has many buildings in many countries and between them they perform a wide variety of functions.

In 1994 the UN Security Council set up the ICTR - the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda or the Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR) as it is also known. The court still operates today in Arusha, Tanzania. Due to the nature of the valuable work conducted within the court, security to protect the perimeter of the building is an important consideration. We were delighted to receive the commission in 2008 to provide this element of United Nations security.

Here is a photograph of part of the perimeter security installation which uses all 3 of our main security products Flexiguard™, Electro-Fence™ and Multisys Security™.

As we approach the end of 2009 we take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their business and support. We wish everyone a happy, healthy and fulfilling year ahead - one that is hopefully full of the peace that the UN strives so hard to preserve.