Bullet proof T Shirt!

Scientists in the US have developed a flexible shirt made of the same material used in tank armour, by combining carbon in the shirt with the third-hardest material on Earth, boron.
The plain white T-shirts are dipped into a boron solution, then heated in an oven at more than 1000C, which changes the cotton fibres into carbon fibres. The carbon fibres react with the boron solution and produce boron carbide – the same material used to make bulletproof plates in armoured vests.
“We expect that the nanowires can capture a bullet,” Prof Li said. “Where does all the energy go?” soldier Kev asks. As an amusing aside, one comment says “OK, but can it make you fly”!

Apple iPad released

Apple quote $US499 ($AUD 553.20) entry price. Let’s see what the local market does with it. iPhone to iPad – natural technical progression. I want one.

RFID Car rego tags on the way

AUSTRALIA’S states and territories have begun exploring the use of digital vehicle registration tags, using technology similar to electronic toll collection systems. A spokeswoman for the transport and traffic authority, Austroads, confirmed that a multi-state licencing and registration taskforce had begun exploring the use of radio-frequency identity (RFID) tags to improve vehicle identification and reduce crime. I was tail-ended once and the guy just got out and walked while I was busy comforting wive and kids. He wasn’t insured or registered and as I’m sure this has happened to a lot of readers this move by the transport authorities can only be seen as a positive one. And here’s a stat to comfort those more concerned with human rights and privacy than practicalities. NSW Police last year detected nearly 38,000 unregistered vehicles!

Broadband

INTERNET users have been promised faster, cheaper downloads with Brisbane company Pipe Networks set to break the duopoly that controls Australia’s links to global broadband networks. Pipe Networks yesterday confirmed it would build a $200 million undersea cable connecting Sydney to Guam, an island broadband hub with links to Asia, Hawaii and the US mainland.
The 6900km fibre-optic cable will deliver up to 1.92 terabits of data a second – a significant improvement on Australia’s two existing links, owned partly by Telstra and Optus. Pipe Networks said contracts with internet service providers including iiNet, Primus and Internode meant the so-called “Project Runway” was viable.
Is that all it takes – another pipeline? I’m all for competition and hope this has some impact but I can’t help thinking that our local network is a major part of the problem. Data can travel at warp speed between countries but if it then has to travel via copper wire to get to my home then it is still going to be comparatively slow. At ZDNet my speed clocks at 3633 , 4355 and 4386 kb/s which is well below the stated Optusnet national average of 7,015kbps. Why? Interestingly, at Speedtest my figures are 6887 kb/s download and 619 kb/s upload which makes me far above average for Australasia and comparative with the US At CNet I clocked in at 3677, 4492 and 3384 kb/s which is way below the theoretical maximum of ADSL2 of 12m Mb/s Do I have a case to talk to Optusnet? Is it worth all the “Your call is important to us” patronising bullshit? I’d be interested in your speeds just to see where I stand.

Lift your game, Telstra

China’s largest mobile phone service provider successfully tested a transmission station on Mount Everest today, making it possible for climbers and those on next year’s Olympic torch relay to make calls, a state news agency reported. China Mobile had to hire yaks and porters to help transport equipment up to the station site at 6,500 metres, the Xinhua News Agency said
While Beijing hopes the feat will impress the world, groups critical of China’s often harsh 57 year rule over Tibet have decried the torch route as a stunt meant to lend legitimacy to Chinese control.
Who’s going to be first nation to put a tower on the moon?

Deep Impact

Nasa mission has a mission underway that will travel to a comet and release an impactor on July 4, creating a crater on the surface of the comet. Scientists believe the exposed materials may give clues to the formation of our solar system. I like the thought of NASA having the practised capacity to impact anything on a comet as in…comet on collision with earth…send up a spacecraft with an ‘impactor’…drop impactor in path of comet…wait for impact then detonate nuclear device inside impactor thus putting comet off course or disintegrating it all over space into little bits. Sounds like a good plot for a movie. What’s that you say? It’s already been done. A case of life imitating art – an unpleasant thought. (Can’t think of the name of the movie but the hero died) South Africa’s Independent Media Centre obviously has a ‘Tim Dunlop’ type journo writing for them as in this article, on the same subject, believe it or not, they miss the point altogether and then confuse it with ‘black hole’ class spin.
Nasa is presently drilling a hole into the core of an Astroid, and packing it with millions of Tons of TnT, to explode on the 4th of July. There is no public concensus. There should be.
and
This explosion could and will according, to NASA, possibly throw the Earth “a little ” out of orbit.
That bloody bastard Bush is at it again. I’ll have to shackle myself to the bar on this years 4 July celebrations. Don’t want to fall off my barstool when the Earth tilts a ‘little’.