SKIRMISHER

Venezuela’s ever-bubbly Hugo Chavez launched a blimp (that’s Zeppelin for you Germans) on Thursday to patrol Caracas and stop crime.

The $465,000 Zeppelin, built by South Korean firm HanGIS, is the first of three such craft that will beam images into a command center. Police will be able to control the blimps remotely, steering them over the city of about 5 million.

In the refined cafes of east Caracas, there was more cynicism, condemning the blimps as a waste of money that would not work in bad weather or at night, when Caracas is at its most risky, resembling a shuttered-up ghost.

Please tell us the blimp’s equipped with laser beams specifically designed to instantly vaporize drug-lords on sight, because if it isn’t, then where’s the fun?

Stumble it!