Posted by
CowboyNeal
on from the jumping-the-gun dept.
giampy writes "New Scientist reports the creation of a 'smart bullet' that can be fired at a target and then transmit back informations via wireless connection. The range is 70m. The project is funded by Lockeed Martin and its official goal is the detection of hidden TNT."
Smart Bullets, Tom Toles, and Spider-Man
by
The+I+Shing
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The headline about "Smart Bullets" reminds me of a Tom Toles book entitled At least our bombs are getting smarter, a cartoon preview of the 1990s. The cover art is humorous... a daft (and probably tragically typical) American student can't figure out how to spell "budget," while the man-sized smart bomb sitting at the desk behind him is working out some kind of complex mathematical equation. In the corner of the cartoon, as in all Toles cartoons, there's a tiny punch-line. In this case, someone, probably the teacher, assures the smart bomb that "There'll always be a job for a chap like you." Dear God, it's more true today than it was fourteen years ago.
As far as smart bullets go, it sounds like the little spider transmitters Spider-Man uses to track the henchmen of his enemies, whom he inevitably follows right back to the bad guy's lair just in time to get clobbered by $villain. I wonder if there's an average number of years between the time a technology is introduced in comic books and the time it becomes a reality. Looks to me like it hovers around thirty.
-- You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
As an ex-EOD tech, I can assure you that your impressions are quite incorrect.
All explosives are detonated by shock and/or heat. The amount of either depends on the formula used for the explosives. RDX, which is the active component of C-4, is quite sensitive on it's own. C-4 adds plasticizers to both reduce the sensitivity of RDX and to make it more plyable (hence, "plastic" explosives). Setting off explosives uses blasting caps (detonators) to provide the approriate shock to cause the explosive to detonate. This is accomplished by setting off a sensitive amount of explosive, which detonates a slightly more powerful explosive, on up until the last bit is powerful enough to set off the C-4.
The reason that you are required to turn off cell phones and other radio transmitters is because the blasting caps are usually electrically primed, and stray RF can set the caps off. Those long lead wires make very good antennae.
--
What good is a double standard if you can't enforce it?
Slashdot Mirror
The headline about "Smart Bullets" reminds me of a Tom Toles book entitled At least our bombs are getting smarter, a cartoon preview of the 1990s. The cover art is humorous... a daft (and probably tragically typical) American student can't figure out how to spell "budget," while the man-sized smart bomb sitting at the desk behind him is working out some kind of complex mathematical equation. In the corner of the cartoon, as in all Toles cartoons, there's a tiny punch-line. In this case, someone, probably the teacher, assures the smart bomb that "There'll always be a job for a chap like you." Dear God, it's more true today than it was fourteen years ago.
As far as smart bullets go, it sounds like the little spider transmitters Spider-Man uses to track the henchmen of his enemies, whom he inevitably follows right back to the bad guy's lair just in time to get clobbered by $villain. I wonder if there's an average number of years between the time a technology is introduced in comic books and the time it becomes a reality. Looks to me like it hovers around thirty.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Shoot first, get answers later.
Won't somebody please think of the Karma!
We've got warchalking, wardriving, so this would be ... er, warwar?
Don't know why nobody has noticed this yet, but we already covered this topic a couple days ago.
As an ex-EOD tech, I can assure you that your impressions are quite incorrect.
All explosives are detonated by shock and/or heat. The amount of either depends on the formula used for the explosives. RDX, which is the active component of C-4, is quite sensitive on it's own. C-4 adds plasticizers to both reduce the sensitivity of RDX and to make it more plyable (hence, "plastic" explosives). Setting off explosives uses blasting caps (detonators) to provide the approriate shock to cause the explosive to detonate. This is accomplished by setting off a sensitive amount of explosive, which detonates a slightly more powerful explosive, on up until the last bit is powerful enough to set off the C-4.
The reason that you are required to turn off cell phones and other radio transmitters is because the blasting caps are usually electrically primed, and stray RF can set the caps off. Those long lead wires make very good antennae.
What good is a double standard if you can't enforce it?