DailyDirt: Weapons Of Some Destruction

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Apr 13th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Projectile weapons are so old school. There are so many other kinds of weapons to choose from nowadays. Some are non-lethal, but others are just as lethal -- even though they only send out electromagnetic waves. Here are some examples of new weapons under development that could cause some damage (temporary or permanent).

Set your flashlight to "stun" your enemies -- there's a stun ray gun that incapacitates with a really really bright light. It's not even a laser, but it causes "the inverse of blindness" -- disorienting a person from 200 feet away. Just hope that your attackers aren't wearing sunglasses..? [url]
A green laser can be used to temporarily blind pirates on the open water. Sunglasses won't stop these lasers, but maybe more pirates will start wearing an eye patch to save one eye from this laser-induced blindness. [url]
The US Navy is testing a new high energy laser that can destroy small boats at sea. Now they just need to put these lasers on sharks... [url]
Apparently, a cyber-army could be built with just $100 million in 2 years. But an experienced spammer could probably take down that cyber army with a fraction of those resources. [url]
To discover more interesting war-related stuff, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: cyber-army, lasers, navy, stun ray

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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 13 Apr 2011 @ 5:57pm

Speaking Of Eyepatches ...
... is it true that B52 bomber pilots do, or used to, fly with an eyepatch over one eye?

So if the working eye gets blinded in a nuclear blast, they can just switch the eyepatch and keep on flying.
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- Angry Puppy (profile), 13 Apr 2011 @ 7:34pm
  
  Re: Speaking Of Eyepatches ...
  Possibly at one point, but strategic bombers have blackout curtains/shutters and pilots fly on instruments only until clear of probable target areas. An eye patch is not thick enough and may slip out of place and even the loss of sight in one eye is not desirable.
  
  I want a fricken mutant shark with a fricken laser mounted on its head!
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- Michael Ho (profile), 13 Apr 2011 @ 11:59pm
  
  Re: Speaking Of Eyepatches ...
  hmm. not sure about bomber pilots wearing eyepatches... but I'd think bombs are mostly dropped by drones now, so no eyepatches necessary for drone pilots.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2011 @ 9:29am

I don't know about bombers, but I heard that pirate used to wear them to preserve their night vision between upper and lower decks on the ship.
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bdhoro (profile), 15 Apr 2011 @ 3:19pm

Point of the eye patch
Yeah thats what I thought too, they kept one eye in the dark at all times to have an advantage below the deck. I really need to test that out one day.
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