Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100415/0114419019/dailydirt-alternatives-to-projectile-weapons.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100415/0114419019/dailydirt-alternatives-to-projectile-weapons.shtml

The Russians are working on electromagnetic radiation guns that can attack a target's organs or central nervous system. Such electromagnetic weapons could burn people's skin from a distance or lobotomize crowds of people with a sweeping zap. [url]

Boeing and the US Air Force have tested a high power microwave weapon that can fry electronics and disable the electrical systems of an entire building. This weapon wouldn't kill anyone directly, but it could be useful for knocking out infrastructure in a prelude to a conventional military attack. [url]

A Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) can direct an artificial bolt of lightning at a conductive target. A laser pulse shot directed at a bad guy can zap him by creating plasma from the air that is synchronized with extremely high voltage. But what if the enemy has a lightning rod? [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100415/0114419019 Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:57:00 PDT Joseph Weisenthal http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070713/063009.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070713/063009.shtml Aaron points us to a story about an iPod listener in Canada who was struck by lightning, suffering major injuries in the process. This isn't the first time someone has been listening to an iPod before getting struck, although it bears repeating that there's nothing about an iPod (or a mobile phone for that matter) that would actually attract lightning (unless you think that God doesn't like iPod listeners, though that can't be demonstrated through science). In this case, the iPod listener happened to be sitting underneath a tree, which probably had a little more to do with it. Doctors think that perhaps the headphones may have caused the electricity to move towards the head, exacerbating the injuries, although the slim chances of this happening to someone probably doesn't justify the cost of getting bluetooth headphones.

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