Saturday, July 03, 2004

Water armor for cars.  Norwegian scientists have come up with a smart and cheap way of bullet proofing cars by lining the vehicles with flat tanks which, when filled with water, provide excellent protection against gun attack.  Each tank is thin, like a domestic radiator, made from plastic or light metal, and has several energy-absorbing carbon-fibre sheets stacked inside. afp [John Robb's Weblog] It's an original idea, but I'd like to see a comparison of how effective the water tanks are compared to an equivalent thickness of kevlar. There's also a clear weakness in the idea: after the first shot, the water in the tank will start to leak out through the hole. 9:13:18 PM    comment () Doc points me to an interview with Joe Biden, with this interesting quote (read the entire interview if you have the time): BIDEN:  The neocons are right: this is the first time stateless actors with no territory to protect, no interest in protecting individuals, capable of using modern technology, let alone nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction ... You don't need weapons of mass destruction. So the combination of technology, sophistication, laptop computers in a cave in Tora Bora. They can orchestrate that. We've never faced that before. TPM: Can I ask you a question? It seems that one of the shortcomings of the neoconservative worldview is their focus on states. BIDEN: Exactly right. Bingo. BIDEN:  The fundamental flaw --- forget flaw, the fundamental difference between Joe Biden, John Kerry on the one hand, and the neoconservatives on the other is that they genuinely believe --- and put it in the negative sense --- they do not believe it is possible for a sophisticated international criminal network that will rain terror upon a country, that has the potential to kill 3,000 or more people in a country, can exist without the sponsorship of a nation-state. Joe is on the right track.  Global guerrillas, a better name for what we are facing than non-state actors or transnational criminals, are the threat. Somebody should point him to my Global Guerrillas site, where I am providing a theoretical basis for policy formulation. [John Robb's Weblog] Biden is right on about the neocons' mistaken belief that terrorists don't need state backing. That belief seems to be an article of faith with them. Ever since 9/11 I've been reading claims that al Qaeda couldn't possibly have pulled off the 9/11 attacks without the support of some country. Whenever I see such a claim, I always ask, "why not?" But there's never an answer. Personally I think that even the idea that it cost al Qaeda tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry out the attack is flawed. In fact, with the possible exception of the flight training some of them received, all the expenses involved were so low that the terrorists themselves could have paid their own way by working temporary jobs in the US while they were preparing. 1:46:17 PM    comment () # Richard North at EU Referendum - Possible interruption of service - the tale of a tax protester. He withheld £78 from his taxes because the police service that it was supposedly paying for was worthless. They may throw him in jail for three months for it. [kimdutoit] Now we have the interesting situation of a "customer" being charged money by a police service, which does not provide a service, and refusing to pay for the lack of the same, then being summonsed by the customer service department of the council, where I will be dealt with by the court service, who may well do me the "service" of ordering me to be locked up, and thus passed to the custody of the self-same police service who had done me no service, until I can be handed over to the prison service -- or whatever it is called now -- who will do me the service of depriving me of my liberty -- while the criminals who robbed my house and smashed up my wife's car roam free. As they say, you couldn't make it up. [End the War on Freedom] 1:29:39 PM    comment ()

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