Monday, February 13, 2012

WEATHER

100% chance of snow. That's what I discovered on Friday when checking the weekend weather. My first thought was wow this weather guy is really sure of himself. My second thought was what if it said 100% chance of murder instead?


This second thought was more than likely fueled by the movie MINORTY REPORT, considering that it's on my movie shelf and I've watched it uncountable times. It was my first introduction to Collin Farrell and also, that's right, it's based on a Phillip K. Dick story and the idea is kind of brilliant.

But I want to take that premise one step further. Not only would it be possible to predict crime, but what if these statistics were available to the public? Imagine logging into a website every morning, inputting your zip code, and viewing what the crime rate is supposed to look like for the day.

I think I'm going to stay in for lunch today, there's an 80% chance of murder.

Of course, just like weather, the forecast would affect different locations in different ways. In my Virginia hometown, the schools and businesses shut down at the sight of snow. One inch of snow would usually warrant 2 days off of school. Imagine this town if there was a likely chance of murder. Everyone would stay in for days, peaking out their windows, waiting for the crime to roll-over.

Now, fast-forward to life in NYC. While I'd rather stay in during the snow, I'm probably still going to go to Shake Shack like I'd originally planned, the play that I have tickets to is still going to run smoothly, and I'll definitely still have to go into work on Monday (Oh yeah, that's right, that 100% chance of snow only amounted to about 20 minutes of non-sticking flurries - go figure). Similarly, if the crime rate's high in certain parts of town, I may just take a different way around the block or hop on an alternate subway.

Well, looky there - I just tapped into one of the reasons why I prefer to write stories that take place in small towns instead of metropolises. I've always found in more interesting to explore a crime in a small town where the tragedy affects the entire community.

Now back to weather. My Monday morning pre-coffee brain has gone as far as comparing the precipitation odds to the murder odds, but that's were my creativity fizzles. So I'm turning it over to you, Readers - What about the temparture scale or the pictures of clouds and sunshine? Jumpstart your imagination this week by expanding on The Murder Channel.

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