Archive Category: Weapons & War




Holocaust Hero Chiune Sugihara

Posted by Miss Cellania in Weapons & War on November 6, 2009 at 11:41 am

Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara was stationed in Lithuania when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Thousands of Jewish refugees came to the consulate seeking travel documents in order to escape the Nazis. Sugihara’s superiors in Tokyo ordered him not to issue any travel visas.

Sugihara discussed the plan with his wife Yukiko and decided to risk his career and his entire future by defying his superiors. The couple then spent 29 days issuing travel visas, up to 300 a day, as thousands of refugees stood in line at his office. Yukiko would prepare and register the visas while Chiune Sugihara would sign and stamp them, hour after hour, without breaking for meals. They would work late into the night until Yukiko would massage her husband’s weary hands in preparation for the next day. Sugihara was under orders to leave, which he could no longer delay. The family departed on September 1st, but he kept signing visas even as he boarded the train. Sugihara then tossed his official stamp out to the crowd, as he hadn’t time to stamp them all.

Sugihara’s actions enabled around 6,000 Jewish refugees to escape the Holocaust. For his efforts, Sugihara was imprisoned by the Soviets and fired from his job by the Japanese Foreign Ministry. Read the entire story at mental_floss. Link

 
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How An American Soldier Is Made: The Story of Ian Fisher

Posted by Alex in Pictures, Weapons & War on November 4, 2009 at 1:35 pm


Photo: Craig F. Walker / The Denver Post

What does it take to create an American Soldier? Denver Post Photojournalist Craig F. Walker tracked Ian Fisher from his high school graduation through basic training, assignment to Colorado’s Fort Carson, and deployment in Iraq:

His decision to join the Army grew out of many things. The opportunity to fight for his country. The desire to add to a family legacy. The need to point his young life in a productive direction. In the spring of 2007 and at the depths of the Iraq war s unpopularity, Ian Fisher graduated from Lakewood s Bear Creek High School and, two weeks later, shipped out to basic training. There, he began the challenging process of becoming an American soldier – and outgrowing the trappings of youth. Like many recruits, he would struggle, learn, make mistakes and rebound. His training prepared him for violent conflict in a foreign land. Nothing prepared him for the war within.

Photo Gallery at Denver Post’s Captured Photo Collection Blog | The Story | Flash Page

 
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Internet Movie Firearms Database

Posted by Miss Cellania in Movies & SciFi, Weapons & War on November 1, 2009 at 9:25 pm

If you’ve ever watched a movie and wondered what kind of gun that is, or if you have argued with a friend about movie weapons, here’s the perfect resource. The Internet Movie Firearms Database (imfdb) has the answers! You can look up movies by title, actors, television shows, the weapons themselves, and even video games. Pictured is Johnny Depp with a M1911A1 in the 2001 film Blow. Link -via Transbuddha

 
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Surprise Homecoming

Posted by Johnny Cat in Baby & Kids, Weapons & War on October 31, 2009 at 3:23 pm

Fourth-grader Hannah Eschrig got a surprise on the next-to-last day of class at her school: her father, Air Force Master Sgt. Joseph Myers returns early for a surprise homecoming.

Matt Woolbright of My San Antonio has the story:

Myers’ reunion with 10-year-old Hannah was his second of the day. He reunited with his 19-month-old daughter, Adison, just before surprising Hannah.

Adison didn’t know how to react, burying her face into her mom before uttering, “Hi, Daddy,” and bringing tears to many of the people there.

Hannah’s class was interrupted when Bessette announced that some friends would be talking to the class and taking pictures. When everyone was in place, mom and dad walked in.

Hannah’s expression and instant tears drove her mother to tears as well as she watched her daughter and husband reunite.

“I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it,” Hannah said. “I don’t really remember what happened because I was just so happy.”

Link | Watch the heartwarming video (Photo and video by John Davenport / Express-News.net)

Update 11/3/09 by Alex – I replaced the unattributed video with the original source over at My San Antonio News – Thanks Michael Knoop!

 
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A Teacher's Blog: The Cuban Missile Crisis

Posted by Johnny Cat in Blog & Internet, Weapons & War on October 16, 2009 at 2:44 pm

731px-MRBM_Launch_Site_1,_25_October_1962This week marks the 47th anniversary of The Cuban Missile Crisis, an event that spanned thirteen days and brought the world close to total nuclear war.  It was also a valuable lesson in Presidential powers, and global negotiations.

NYC teacher Mr. D. decided to have his students re-enact the crisis, with surprising results.

I laid out a dossier of the facts of the case: missiles were discovered in Cuba by an American spy plane.  The United States is under pressure from the Soviet Union to withdraw missiles from Turkey.  The Russians are not saying for certain that there are missiles.  The United States is prepared to escalate with possible military action.

I had the class divide into groups, take the facts and create a course of action.  Amazingly, their plans mirrored the plans created by Kennedy’s cabinet and Pentagon officials in 1962.  One group favored a military option, a direct strike on the Cuban missiles.  Another group favored a covert operation to disable the missiles.  Still another favored a unilateral pullout from Turkey as a sign of goodwill.

What was most astonishing was my last group.  They actually said, “Maybe we should get other countries on our side by showing them what we have.”  By doing so, they figured, it would make the Soviets look like the bad guy, the aggressor.  I was floored.  These were barely teenagers and they tackled delicate foreign policy like a pro.

Link with embedded video clips of Adlai Stevenson’s triumph at the U.N. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

 
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No One Wanted to Claim Rocket Launcher

Posted by Miss Cellania in Weapons & War on October 15, 2009 at 10:06 am

Jarrette Schule found a rocket launcher in his backyard in rural Comal County, Texas on Tuesday. Against all common sense, he took it in his house, then began calling authorities to report it. He called the FBI, the sheriff’s department, and Homeland Security.

“Everyone was handing it off to everybody else,” Schule said.

He was surprised at the amount of work it took to get the military to pick up its lost missile launcher.

Schule initially was nervous when he found the weapon. But as the hours passed, he did what most guys would do — marvel at the mind-blowing awesomeness of finding a missile launcher. He posted photos on Facebook and called his buddies, saying: “Guess what I found?”

Schule called the military police at Fort Sam. But their jurisdiction doesn’t extend off the post. Schule’s information was passed along to an Army criminal investigator, who visited Schule on Wednesday morning — about 19 hours after he started making phone calls.

Three hours later, an Army ordinance disposal team retrieved the weapon. There is still no word on how it got to Schule’s yard. Link -via Queuebot

 
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Bullet Impacts in Super-Slow Motion

Posted by John Farrier in Video Clips, Weapons & War on October 9, 2009 at 3:12 pm


(YouTube Link)

This 10-minute video shows the impact of bullets on various targets at 1 million frames per second. It was made by Werner Mehl, an engineer noted for his development of high-speed photography:

Germany’s Werner Mehl is the talented engineer who created the PVM-21 infrared chronograph, in many respects the most sophisticated ballistic speed-measuring system currently available to the general public. Werner runs a company, Kurzzeitmesstechnik, which specializes in high-tech ballistic measuring systems and ultra-high-speed photography. Werner has engineered camera and lighting systems that can literally track a bullet in flight, millimeter by millimeter, with eye-popping resolution. Werner employs digital cameras that record up to 1 million frames per second, with effective shutter speeds as fast as 1.5 nano-seconds. The videos produced by Werner’s systems are amazing. Below are two short samples. The first shows a 7mm bullet penetrating cardboard. Note you can clearly see the engraving of the rifling on the bullet.

Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Werner Mehl’s Website

 
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A Difficult Goodbye

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Weapons & War on October 8, 2009 at 8:51 am

Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum was ordered to Iraq in July. His four-year-old daughter Paige had a hard time letting go, so much that she held onto his hand in formation. No one, including the commanding officer, had the heart to pull her away. The picture of the incident, taken by Paige’s mother, has gone viral and touched people all over the country. Link -via Buzzfeed

(image credit: Abby Bennethum)

 
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How To Build Your Own Vomit Gun for $250

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Video Clips, Weapons & War on October 2, 2009 at 9:06 am

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security developed a ‘dazzler’ — a non-lethal weapon which uses flashing lights to distrupt a target’s equilibrium. A person effected by lights for long enough, will temporarily lose visual acuity, balance, and become nauseous. The government spend about $1 million on the project. Limor Fried, a MIT-educated engineer, decided that she could build one for a lot less money. She’s made her design schematics and source code available for free online. Below is a video of the results of her work.


(Video Link)

Link via io9 | Fried’ s Bio | Image: AdaFruit Industries

 
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Electricity-Generating Backpack

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Weapons & War on October 1, 2009 at 3:42 pm


Image: Lightning Packs

Lightning Packs is a company that is developing backpacks that generate electricity with the motion of their users. As the user walks, the spring-mounted backback bounces slightly, turning a gear on a generator. It is the brainchild of Lawrence C. Rome of the University of Pennsylvania, who hopes to market his idea to the U.S. military:

“Soldiers now carry GPS receivers, night vision goggles, headlamps, communication devices, and more. And with this technology, means of powering them becomes critical. Soldiers carry eighty pound backpacks, up to twenty pounds of which are spare batteries. Now, with the Suspended Load Backpack, electricity can be generated to power the equipment directly or to charge a lightweight rechargeable battery,” Dr. Rome said.

When walking, the Suspended Load Backpack can generate up to 7.4 watts, more than enough power to simultaneously power an MP3 player, night vision goggles (or 3 LED headlamp), a PDA, a CMOS image decoder, a handheld GPS, Bluetooth, and a GSM terminal in talk mode.

Link via Gizmodo (where there’s a video)

 
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Is Russia's Doomsday Bomb Still Operational?

Posted by Queuebot in Weapons & War on September 25, 2009 at 10:41 pm

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, we still don’t know if Russia’s doomsday weapon is still operational.  It’s a bit of a worry, because the weapon, code name The Dead Hand, is 50,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima:

As far as anyone knows, the Dead Hand remains operational. What is truly worrying, even today, is the secrecy that continues to surround the whole subject. Thompson has found that neither George Schultz nor former CIA director James Woolsey had heard of the Dead Hand system. Former Soviet era officials will still not discuss it. One who dared to talk died in mysterious circumstances. Such secrecy is, as Dr Strangelove realised, disastrous: ‘Yes, but the…whole point of the doomsday machine…is lost…if you keep it a secret! Why didn’t you tell the world, eh?’

The doomsday machine is supposed to be the ultimate deterrent. But if no one knows that the deterrent exists… Well, you’ve all seen the final scenes of Dr Strangelove.

Link – via markarayner

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by drtundra.

 
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Immense Anglo-Saxon Gold and Silver Hoard Discovered

Posted by Minnesotastan in Everything Else, Weapons & War on September 24, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Anglo-Saxon treasureExperts in Great Britain are overwhelmed by both the magnitude and the quality of the objects, which include not only coins but beautifully-crafted works of art.  There are 1,500 items, most of which are warfare-related (sword pommel caps, hilt plates) and jewelry, crosses, and decorative items designed to be worn by males rather than females.  It appears to be a collection of trophies, perhaps from a battle or the accumulation of a military career.

The Staffordshire Hoard contains about 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, making it far bigger than the Sutton Hoo discovery in 1939 when 1.5kg of Anglo-Saxon gold was found near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

Leslie Webster, former keeper at the British Museum’s Department of Prehistory and Europe, said: “This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries.

“(It is) absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.”

Some of the gold pieces are inlaid with precious stones such as garnets.  The hoard appears to date from the 7th century; at present there is no indication of who owned it or why it was buried in the Staffordshire field.

Link to BBC article and slideshow of 12 photos.

Link to a gallery of photos at The Guardian.

Photo credit to The Stafforshire Hoard, which appears to be a sort of “home page” for the find.

 
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Military Installations Converted Into Homes

Posted by Miss Cellania in Architecture, Weapons & War on September 15, 2009 at 11:00 pm

A well-insulated 20,000 square foot home complete with an airstrip and a Jacuzzi sounds really nice. This one is underground in an abandoned missile silo! It was once the home of an Atlas-F missile built for the Cold War, but it’s been converted into a luxury home. See seven such military installations now used as living spaces. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

 
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Airless Tires for Military Vehicles

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Weapons & War on September 10, 2009 at 7:54 pm


Photo: Resilient Technologies

Pneumatic tires take a lot of abuse in combat, which is why Resilient Technologies is trying to develop an airless tire. Because they can’t be punctured, vehicles equipped with such tires can stay mobile after taking damage that would incapacitate others:

The Wisconsin design breakthrough, first developed by Resilient’s in-house design and development team, takes a page from nature. “The goal was to reduce the variation in the stiffness of the tire, to make it transmit loads uniformly and become more homogenous,” Osswald says. “And the best design, as nature gives it to us, is really the honeycomb.”….

The patent-pending Resilient design relies on a precise pattern of six-sided cells that are arranged, like a honeycomb, in a way that best mimics the “ride feel” of pneumatic tires. The honeycomb geometry also does a great job of reducing noise levels and reducing heat generated during usage – two common problems with past applications.

Link via DVICE

 
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The Kopp-Etchells Effect: Eerie Halo of a Helicopter's Rotor Blades in a Dust Cloud

Posted by Alex in Pictures, Weapons & War on September 1, 2009 at 5:42 pm


Photo: Michael Yon

Reporter and former Green Beret Michael Yon took a series of intriguing photos of glowing rotor blades as a helicopter lands in a military base in Afghanistan. The eerie "halo" is caused by static electricity generated as the titanium/nickel blades move through a field of dust (which is kicked up from the ground as the heli lands).

The phenomenon, striking as it is, has no name – and Michael decided to name it the Kopp-Etchells Effect, as a tribute, after Corporal Benjamin Kopp and Corporal Joseph Etchells, who died in battle.

The full story at Michael’s blog: Link via TYWKIWDBI

 
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Saddam’s Military Planes Found in Serbia

Posted by Miss Cellania in Car & Vehicle, Weapons & War on September 1, 2009 at 12:33 am

Iraq’s missing Air Force jets have been traced to Serbia, where they are mostly in pieces. They have been cannibalized, parted out, or left to deteriorate over he past twenty years.

Iraqi officials said they found the planes in the process of trying to trace what Saddam, the former dictator, did with the country’s military assets. The 19 planes, all Soviet-built, were sent in 1989 to a Yugoslav maintenance plant in Zagreb, in what is now Croatia, but never got the overhauls they needed.

In 1991, when the Croatian war for independence broke out, the jets were transported to Serbia in parts. And there they remained.

A delegation from Iraq will go to Belgrade to negotiate the return of the jets, but they are unlikely to help Iraq rebuild its air defenses. The Iraqi Air Force currently has no jets. Link -via Fark

 
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One-Legged Hopping Tank

Posted by John Farrier in Weapons & War on August 20, 2009 at 3:39 pm

This design, patented in 1945 by Henry Wallace, never made it into mass production (or, I suspect, even a prototype). Odd, that. From the text of the patent:

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a tank having an extensible leg capable of imparting a series of vertical oscillations to the tank, and having means to vary the angle of inclination of the leg to obtain directional movement of the tank.

Another of the objects of the invention is to provide a tank which is adapted to traverse difficult terrain.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a tank which is propelled in such a manner that its progress is intermittent, thereby rendering it a difficult target. Still another object is to provide a tank provided with means whereby the direction of its course may be rapidly changed, thereby rendering it a difficult target.

Link via Boing Boing

 
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Flak Towers: The Continuing Legacy of the Luftwaffe

Posted by Queuebot in Architecture, Weapons & War on August 16, 2009 at 1:26 am

In 1940, Hitler, incensed by the successful bombing of Berlin by the RAF. ordered the construction of three enormous flak towers to protect the city. Soon afterwards, this idea quickly spread around Germany. 

Considered invulnerable at the time – and they pretty much were – many of these colossal structures still stand today, albeit serving much more "civilian" purposes:

The L Tower in Vienna is now, well, you take a guess. If your German is any good then its current name – Haus des Meeres is a complete giveaway. If not, then you may be surprised to discover that it is an aquarium. Instead of weapons of war and people huddling from falling bombs it now houses over three and a half thousand animals, with huge fish tanks containing sharks, turtles and piranhas (in different tanks one assumes). There is even a new tropical house with free flying birds and free-running monkeys.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

 
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The World's Youngest Practical Shooter

Posted by John Farrier in Sports, Weapons & War on August 13, 2009 at 11:17 am


(YouTube Link)

At the age of six, Miko Andres from the Philippines is thought to be the world’s youngest competitive practical shooter. Practical shooting is a sport in which participants shoot rapidly at multiple targets around an obstacle course. His father says:

“As a growing, normal kid, Miko is also into other children’s games. He enjoys the company of his schoolmates.

“Miko is very young but is determined to excel in the practical shooting sport,” says Mike.

“He has been taught a lot of discipline and respect.

“Miko, I and his team coach, constantly talk about the dangers of the sport and we are always reminding him that he is in a ‘big boys’ game and that safety of of the utmost importance.”

Link via Samizdata

 
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Fat Inmate Hid Gun in Fat Rolls

Posted by Alex in Crime & Law, Weapons & War on August 8, 2009 at 12:07 pm

We’ve posted some creative prison smuggling schemes before on Neatorama, but never one this … beefy:

An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh. [...] The 500-pound man was searched during his arrest and again at a city jail and the county jail, but officers never found the weapon in his rolls of skin. Vera admitted having the gun during a shower break at the county jail.

Link (Image: Houston Police Department)

 
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Hiroshima, 64 Years Ago

Posted by Miss Cellania in Weapons & War on August 6, 2009 at 7:10 am


Today (August 6th) is the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States. The blast killed an estimated 70,000 people immediately, with possibly that many again dying of radiation in the years afterward. The Big Picture has a collection of photographs from the time to commemorate the anniversary. Link

(image credit: US National Archives)

 
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15 War Machines by Leonardo Da Vinci

Posted by John Farrier in Weapons & War on August 3, 2009 at 7:04 pm

The Toy Zone has pictures and descriptions of fifteen weapons or defensive systems that historians have found sketched in the notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. These include a tank, cluster munitions, and mobile walls. The picture above is of a pivoting radial barrage canon found in the Codex Atlanticus.

Link via Ace

 
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The Massive Ordnance Penetrator Will Be the Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb Ever

Posted by John Farrier in Weapons & War on August 3, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Weighing in at 30,000 pounds, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator of the US Air Force will become the largest air-dropped non-nuclear bomb ever built:

The MOP is 20 feet long and can penetrate bunkers up to 200 feet before exploding. At 15 tons, the MOP is a third heavier than the previous “mother of all bombs”, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, which was only 10.5 tons. The MOP also packs a whopping 5,300 lbs of explosives, which is 10 times the amount its predecessor bunker-buster, the BLU-109, carried. Basically, it’s massive.

The push for accelerated deployment is due to the increased perceived nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea. It’s believed that many of their nuclear programs could be in development underground, below levels of current bunker-busting bombs’ range. The Pentagon intends the rapid deployment to send a message that the United States is tweaking strategies to address new threats. And nothing is more American than advertising the sheer size and tonnage of the bombs hanging below our jets.

Link

 
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US Navy Developing Submarine-Launched Drones

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Weapons & War on July 29, 2009 at 10:38 am

These drones include both aerial and surface craft intended for clandestine operations:

* Sea Stalker, a torpedo-size underwater robot that specializes in snooping on radio signals and other communications. “The [concept] is to launch these from submarines at night,” Kenny said. “They will transit to offshore, anchor, put their antennas out and begin collection. Ideally you would have a series of these … to cover different ports or hotbeds of terrorist activity. And then you would collate that information on board the ship.”

* Scan Eagle, the 45-pound aerial bot that has seen heavy use by the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kenny says Special Operations Command is looking at boosting Scan Eagle with extra fuel and sensors — and maybe even weapons, like the Air Force’s armed Predators and Reapers. It seems Scan Eagle is launched from a sub’s deck while she is surfaced, but that could change. “We’re looking at launch and recovery from an SSGN payload tube to allow clandestine close-in operations,” Kenny said.

* BUSTER, a 15-pound UAV that Kenny says is particularly useful when working with foreign armies. “We’ve … done some very successful operations with allies, doing foreign internal defense, training them to operate this vehicle.” The allied armies launch BUSTER from land, while the submarine “pull[s] in the full motion video and the infrared, correlate[s] it and fuse[s] it in our battle management centers on board.”

The picture above is of the Sea Stalker. [Correction on 8.3.09: It's the Sea Stalker by General Dynamics and is unmanned, but is a surface, rather than subsurface craft. Thanks, AeroNut!]

Link

Previously on Neatorama: The Navy’s Armed Sea-Bots

 
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A Submarine That Can Go 100 Knots

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Weapons & War on July 28, 2009 at 7:31 pm

The fastest submarine in the US Navy can go only 25 to 30 knots. But the Electric Boat Corporation, the primary designer for US Navy submarines, is trying to design one that can reach up to 100 knots. It plans on testing a 1/4 scale model off the coast of Rhode Island next year:

The sub utilizes the phenomenon known as supercavitation. Supercavitation is the process wherein an object moves so fast through the water that it creates a gas bubble around itself, nearly eliminating drag. Unencumbered by the high drag of water, the object is free to speed along at much higher speeds than otherwise possible. Supercavitation has been known since the end of World War Two, and the Soviets succeeded in creating a torpedo that utilizes supercavitation for high-speed travel, but so far no one has succeeded in scaling the effect up to the size of a whole submarine.

Link

 
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Pearl Harbor Hero Turns 100

Posted by Miss Cellania in Weapons & War on July 24, 2009 at 1:19 am

John William Finn {wiki} of Pine Valley, California reached the age of 100 on Thursday. He was honored on the occasion by a biography in the Ramona Sentinel newspaper.

John William Finn is our nation’s oldest living recipient of its highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor (MoH). He is also the last surviving MoH recipient who earned his medal on Dec. 7, 1941, the last living recipient of the Navy’s MoH from World War II, and the only MoH recipient having his Navy rating, that of an Aviation Ordinanceman, to ever be awarded the MoH in the history of the United States Navy.

…when the attack came on that first Sunday morning in December, Chief Finn single-handedly mounted a 50-caliber machine gun on a stand on the base’s aircraft parking ramp and began firing on any attacking enemy aircraft that he could bear on.
John’s position was totally exposed to enemy strafing and bombing attacks, but he kept it up for more than two hours while under attack, despite being wounded five times and in severe pain. Fellow sailors implored him to seek medical care for his wounds, but John steadfastly refused to vacate his firing position until he received a direct order to do so from a superior officer.
Twenty pieces of shrapnel were removed from John’s body by the base’s medical staff

Finn was honored by local civic organizations last month. He is spending his birthday as a guest of George W. Bush and his wife in Crawford, Texas. Link -via Fark

 
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A VTOL Unmanned Aircraft

Posted by John Farrier in Science & Tech, Weapons & War on July 23, 2009 at 12:49 pm

That stands for “vertical take off and landing”, not in the way that a helicopter does, but more like the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey in the U.S. military inventory. As the U.S. Air Force is moving toward a greater role for unmanned aircraft, the Excalibur could have a production future:

The unmanned aerial system (UAS) could pack a 400-pound payload of four Hellfire missiles, and also deliver weapons or other supplies to warfighters deep in rough territory. Its design allows it to have a maximum speed of 460 mph, but also have the ability to loiter overhead at just 115 mph.

Link (where you can find a video of a 1/2 scale version in flight)

 
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10 Useful Inventions That Went Bad

Posted by Miss Cellania in Weapons & War on July 19, 2009 at 8:45 am

Some of the most notorious discoveries and inventions arose by accident, or more commonly, were developed for uses other than what they ended up doing. Listverse looks at ten such products, including trinitrotoluene, a chemical discovered by Joseph Wilbrand in 1863 and meant for use as a yellow dye. With the name shortened to TNT, the explosive was used to wage both world wars. Link -via the Presurfer

 
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Buy a Truck, Get a Free AK-47!

Posted by Alex in Car & Vehicle, Weapons & War on July 19, 2009 at 2:07 am

Remember the dealership that gave away handguns if you buy their car last year? Well, they’ve upped their firepower: Max Motors in Butler, Missouri, is now giving away an AK-47 (technically, a voucher redeemable for one) when you buy a pick-up truck!

Mark Muller, owner of Max Motors, is upgrading an earlier sales gimmick in which he offered new truck buyers to choose between a $250 gas voucher or a gun voucher. The website says the dealer is giving away guns again "due to popular demand."

"Muller calls the initial deal an overwhelming success," Business Insider reports. "He also says it generates a lot of publicity and really angers ‘liberals.’"

Link | Max Motors’ website

 
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Manufacturers Defends EATR

Posted by Miss Cellania in Science & Tech, Weapons & War on July 18, 2009 at 7:19 am

In an update on the story about the new military robot in development that refuels itself by consuming biomass, Robot Technologies and Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. issued a press release denying that its robot would consume human bodies. Wired published the release, which says in part:

RTI’s patent pending robotic system will be able to find, ingest and extract energy from biomass in the environment. Despite the far-reaching reports that this includes “human bodies,” the public can be assured that the engine Cyclone has developed to power the EATR runs on fuel no scarier than twigs, grass clippings and wood chips – small, plant-based items for which RTI’s robotic technology is designed to forage. Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI.

Link -via Digg

 
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