[conspire] Panic buying

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Peter Knaggs (peter.knaggs at gmail.com):

> There was an entertaining video from China showing how someone had placed
> toothpicks in the elevator for patrons to use to press the buttons. I guess
> it isn't a recommended approach, but it made me wonder whether carrying a
> metal object as well as a lighter would allow pressing elevator buttons and
> subsequently heating up the metal using the lighter so that the virus gets
> killed. A better design might perhaps be a metal rod enclosed in a
> ultra-violet emitting enclosure: once the rod has been used to press the
> elevator button, it could be pulled back inside the enclosure where the VUC
> would kill virus that happened to get onto it, making it suitable for reuse
> without causing spread of the virus. Perhaps a silly idea, but they do have
> keyboards that use a similar VUC approach to rid themselves of viruses
> after each use.

I don't want to rain on your parade of technological creativity, but
consider the low-tech option I mentioned:  Push the elevator button with
the tip of a ball-point pen.  Then, put the pen back in your pocket,
point-end down.

I don't know about you, but I don't go around licking or fondling the
tips of my ball-point pens.  (People who do, your kink is OK with me,
not to mention people who semi-consciously nibble on their pens, but
they can always store a not-for-nibbling-or-fondling pen in the _other_
pocket.

I don't need a fancy solution, just something that works well enough.
And, no, AFAIK it's not actually necessary to flambee the pinpoint
object that touched the elevator button.