IANMTU, In 1957 Arthur Clarke penned a short sci-fi story, Silence Please, in which the protagonist, (Fenton) came up with a device (the infamous Fenton Silencer) that used a mic and a special inverting amplifier coupled to speakers to produce silence over a wide area. Clarke realized such a wide area device is impossible, but exactly the same idea, it turns out, applied to headphones actually works. Too bad he missed that angle.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
