Rapid Fire 9/12/06

I’ve seen some stuff on the ceramic aluminum and it has potential. By square inch, the stuff is light and fairly strong for its mass. When I first heard about it, the concept reminded me of the combination plate and chainmail used by knights until the 15th Century.
My only concern is that ceramic armor can be nortoriously inflexible. It would definitely make a good helmet coating, but I wonder whether it would be popular with the troops. I’m also slightly dubious about its utility for blast protection. If it ends up being too stiff, it might to more harm than good to troops who face frequent IED threats.
Three other bits:
Does anyone else think it is fishy that tech security magnate Bruce Schneier is advocating expansion of government spending on software security? Securitizing the software industry would just stifle one of the U.S. last high-performing sectors.
I thought it was hilarious that Evergreen has modded up a 747 to ship 787 parts. The Taiwanese reputation for craftly business innovation is still alive and well I see.
Finally, the ammonium nitrate story really underplays a few key facts: The U.S. farm industry has been blocking FBI attempts to monitor fertilizer sales more thoroughly for year. Also, fertilizer is only good for making truck bombs and preparation takes a good deal of sophistication and resources. They make work well in Turkey or Iraq, where there is plenty of farming and ungoverned spaces to do the prep work, but TATP, HMTD, and PETN have been more popular outside of Iraq since Oaklahoma City.

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