This sort of stuff is why I don't bitch about Defense spending. Here's a wad of cash, do what you need to.

Whoa.

THE WHALES ARE GONE!

Very cool. Hope they can bring the manufacturing costs down.

awesome, holy crap!

Great, now all we need is a Klingon Warbird and some whales. Where are we going to get whales?

What is so amazing to me is the DoD actually tells us this stuff, in this case vis a vis the USAF web site.

Imagine all the stuff they don't tell us.

Wow.

Good thing that, too.

Just sayin'

In a June 2004demonstration, an ALONtm test pieces held up to both a .30 caliber Russian M-44 sniper rifle and a .50 caliber Browning Sniper Rifle with armor piercing bullets. While the bullets pierced the glass samples, the armor withstood the impact with no penetration.

Praise JAYzuz! Now THIS is what tax dollars are supposed to be for! Almost makes up for mothballing the SR-71's.

Ooops. That was I.

FYI: I was the one who e-mailed Jonah about that story.

V the K: Why you wanna run to a shoestring operation like "The Corner" with your good tips?

Get 'em out here. Stories like that need an internet powerhoue like the Spades network to break 'em, baby.

The spin-off civilian uses are mind-boggling, depending on the cost of course.

Yup, we do cool shit.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

I've got a use for this material right now: replace that frigging scratch-prone polycarb they use to coat the iPod Nano. I've only had mine for two weeks, and have done nothing more than carry it around in a shirt pocket (with nothing else in the pocket). And yet it has picked up three scratches right across the display.

What the hell is scratching this thing, frigging solar rays?

Plus it'd be cool to not only carry an iPod Nano, but to carry a bulletproof iPod Nano. They could sell them as "up-armored" iPods to the military geeks among us.

Dr. Reo --- Duly noted. Now that I know y'all are into that sort of thing.

Monty--

Get Invisibleshield. I did, works great.

Instructions here.

Oh, and you can use Brasso to remove the scratches (one time only, but it works before you apply the shield).

Only hint I have? Buy two, or just be prepared to get it right the first time. The Invisibleshield works great, but it likes to warp a bit when you peel it off the Nano. If you do this a couple of times (it can be tricky to get it to sit right), it'll eventually look a little scratchy. Nothing too bad, but it's inevitable.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

This is very promising because the high-cost issues the article discusses are all minimized by economy of scale. Add to that the negligible increase in size and this could a be a cost effective way to upgrade existing vehicles with little to no design change required. If it works out really well, this could even be done by the unit mechanics themselves.

With the introduction of this new generation of body armor, I find myself more willing to accept the idea of women in the military.

so now we know that:

1. The guy Scott gave the formula to solved it in less than 20 years, and

2. He made a killing selling it to the USAF.

Okay, now for the phaser and transporter.

Big deal, Wonder Woman had this stuff years ago (what else are you going to build an invisible plane with)

Okay, now for the phaser and transporter.

We got 'em, they're just classified. :)

And of COURS Scotty's going to get the credit. This is the AIR FORCE, aka Geek Central.

Okay, now for the phaser and transporter.

Phaser, yes. Transporter, no. Or, at least, I ain't gettin in one.

I was never clear on how the Transporter worked - if your atoms were being tranferred to another place (i think this is what they were getting at) or if your atomic pattern was being reassembled from new atoms at the new destination.

I always thought the latter was sort of terrifying at a philosphical level. Was the recreated me, me? Or was it merely a super-identical twin with all my memories who though it was me, while I had ceased to exist. (And who would know? Everyone who ever used one would be dead, but they, the 'new' ones would all think they were the old ones, telling eveyone it's perfectly safe. - Well they wouldn't fool me!)

And if it's the same exact atoms that make me, me, why should the question of 'which paticular atoms' make any difference to who "I" am. And then, aren't my atoms being replaced constantly anyway? What keeps 'me' as 'me?' Am I constantly ceasing to exist?

Sorry for the freshman, dorm room bullshittery, but I'm just saying, I ain't getting on no trasporters. No way, no how.

iPod - lol...

iPod, you future zombie.

Or should it be mePod, you future zombie?

Yes, I'm incredibly bored and slacking.

and still no fucking flying cars!

Plus it'd be cool to not only carry an iPod Nano, but to carry a bulletproof iPod Nano. They could sell them as "up-armored" iPods to the military geeks among us.

I can just see Monty with his military buddies -- "Go ahead, shoot me. Shoot me right here in the shirt pocket. Go ahead! You'll see."

Well, now I know, and knowing is half the battle...
Now, about those phasers...

"The substance itself is light years ahead of glass,"

Light years ahead...huum.....

Phinn:

I am not a military man myself, understand: more a military historian. I do have some friends who are active-duty and ex-military, though, and they'd love an "up armored" iPod that could survive harsh use in the field.

Transporter, no. Or, at least, I ain't gettin in one

word.

v the k:

I'm waiting on the photon torpedos myself. They'll come in handy if we ever need to blow stuff up.. just to be sure...

Hi All,

This is a pretty cool development. I understand that it is sort of a non sequitur, but I chose Star Trek IV as a sure thing at Netflix. It was listed as a very long wait. I had never seen that before. Maybe this geeky news has been out for some time! :)

Mike

P.S. I assume that vonKreedon is upset with the loose-shit use of a lightyear. It is a distance, not a time.

bbeck: We're more nerds than geeks here, although we have our fair share of dorks and dweebs (the latter a.k.a. "Zoomies").

Dr. Symes: RE: the transporter, I wrote about that same problem in the comments to my posting here. I spent more time discuss that whole "transfering conciousness into a machine brain" dilemma, but I touched on the transportation problem too. Big voodoo going on there.

Oh, and if Dr. Brundle taught us anything, transported steaks taste funny.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Well, now that we have communicators and transparent aluminum, what's next? How about:

1. Phasers (for our infantry)
2. Those cool photon mortars (from TOS "Arena" episode) as support weapons.
3. Photon torpedoes for the Navy.]
4. And, of course, Klingon agonizers for interrogation terrorists - best device to use.

Yes, I am a total geek - so what?

Ah chemistry . . .what can't it do?

As for Symes' transporter question, I believe it's the "reassembly with different molecules at a new place" thing. Consider the incident in TNG where a Riker "clone" is made during a transporter accident. If it weren't a reassembly with different molecules, then that incident would make no sense whatsoever.

Consider the incident in TNG where a Riker "clone" is made during a transporter accident.

That's fucked up. How much more do we need to see before Congress will step up and outlaw Teleporter research and experiment?

Cap'n, there be whales here!

That said...this is something I kind of don't mind seeing my tax dollars supporting.

Great, now all we need is a Klingon Warbird and some whales. Where are we going to get whales?

Have you tried Michael Moore's apartment?

Oliver Willis' place is worth a try too.

CAPTIAN THERE BE WHALES HERE

I read that aluminum is like 95% clear already. The only reason you can't see through it is because of impurities. I read that article after I guffawed at "trasnparent aluminum" in the Trek whale movie, thinking that was such ad hoc bullshit.

Whoops.

CAPTIAN THE ENGINES THEY CANNOT TAKE THE STRAIN