The little guys

Glenn Reynolds has it down. An Army of Davids is here.
The LA Times today has an article about a small town police officer who enlisted the help of experts through the internet to solve a crime.

Aware that his years in Mammoth Lakes hadn't prepared him for the job ahead, Dostie reached out for help with the best tool he had: the Internet. Through e-mail, he slowly assembled an A-team of investigators, each with a different talent.

None worked in law enforcement. Instead, they were academics — scientists who study how ancient peoples lived and died.

They were two anthropologists, a stable-isotope geochemist from Canada, two DNA analysts and a pioneer in American forensic skull reconstruction.

"That's my claim to fame," Dostie said dryly. "I know a lot of people smarter than I am."

Cool.