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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/15/socom_plasma_blades/

Not clumsey and random like a blaster, a more elegant weapon from a more civilized time...

Sounds practical AND cool.

Nice useful tool. And one step closer to the lightsabres of my childhood dreams

Wish we had one. Didn't really need it but it would have been great to toast the crappy bread in MREs. Our unit didn't do much of anything, ever.

"Robot power suits" "surgical cutting tools" "super soldier drugs"
Its all the beginning friends, some day we will be under marshal law from real Space Marines

Nifty. Makes me think of the old SM Apothecary model with the wrist-mounted chain weapon for cutting out the Geneseed of fallen Marines:

http://www.solegends.com/citle/citle2000/GamesDay/gd1998apothecary.htm

I hope this tech filters down to the rest of the armed forces.

Its part of a larger project to support special forces with front line medical aid. One of the ideas being worked on is some sort of pill you can take to keep you from dying when you've taken a bullet or extreme hit to the head... assuming it didn't kill you outright. Another one thats mentioned is a fill in the wound bandaid... can cover upto 2 square feet of wounds... hopefully not all at once or in one place.

These are cool, I read a lot about the when they started gaining popularity in hospitals. Good to see that field medicine can get the benefits too.

They say Japans technology is ahead of ours, I have spent many years studying physics and what you have to to to harness plasma to that degree, not to bore you but harnessing plasma is easy in a sealed case is easy enough but to get it to a stage with a gap you can use for cutting, very complicated. This calls for some research

Tonytiger89 wrote:They say Japans technology is ahead of ours, I have spent many years studying physics and what you have to to to harness plasma to that degree, not to bore you but harnessing plasma is easy in a sealed case is easy enough but to get it to a stage with a gap you can use for cutting, very complicated. This calls for some research

Japan has a greater technological density than we do, but we crush them in most areas of development, just as we always have. Our robots are better, virtually all computer tech is designed here, we are the lords of medicinal research, we're just awesome (go usa!). Japan just gets all the benefits due to it's awesome free internet and tech focused culture. It also helps that a large amount of technology is manufactured and designed there (If not the actual research and development that makes that possible). Thats been lessoning though of late as other asian states muscle into the field, and we've been losing our edge over time as well due to the slow and steady degradation of our education system and the rapid advancement of the same in other countries.

Imagine it as a torture tool.

:S

gil gerard wrote:Not clumsey and random like a blaster, a more elegant weapon from a more civilized time...

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

ShumaGorath wrote:

Tonytiger89 wrote:They say Japans technology is ahead of ours, I have spent many years studying physics and what you have to to to harness plasma to that degree, not to bore you but harnessing plasma is easy in a sealed case is easy enough but to get it to a stage with a gap you can use for cutting, very complicated. This calls for some research

Japan has a greater technological density than we do, but we crush them in most areas of development, just as we always have. Our robots are better, virtually all computer tech is designed here, we are the lords of medicinal research, we're just awesome (go usa!). Japan just gets all the benefits due to it's awesome free internet and tech focused culture. It also helps that a large amount of technology is manufactured and designed there (If not the actual research and development that makes that possible). Thats been lessoning though of late as other asian states muscle into the field, and we've been losing our edge over time as well due to the slow and steady degradation of our education system and the rapid advancement of the same in other countries.

Is this an opinion or do you actually have any facts to support this?

Green Blow Fly wrote:

ShumaGorath wrote:

Tonytiger89 wrote:They say Japans technology is ahead of ours, I have spent many years studying physics and what you have to to to harness plasma to that degree, not to bore you but harnessing plasma is easy in a sealed case is easy enough but to get it to a stage with a gap you can use for cutting, very complicated. This calls for some research

Japan has a greater technological density than we do, but we crush them in most areas of development, just as we always have. Our robots are better, virtually all computer tech is designed here, we are the lords of medicinal research, we're just awesome (go usa!). Japan just gets all the benefits due to it's awesome free internet and tech focused culture. It also helps that a large amount of technology is manufactured and designed there (If not the actual research and development that makes that possible). Thats been lessoning though of late as other asian states muscle into the field, and we've been losing our edge over time as well due to the slow and steady degradation of our education system and the rapid advancement of the same in other countries.

Is this an opinion or do you actually have any facts to support this?

Yeah, where is apple, microsoft, amd, nvidia, intel, lockheed martin, boeing, tesla, pfizer, johnson and johnson, DARPA (DARPA counts for a lot), AMGEN, IBM, Texas instruments, ACER, ADOBE, CISCO, GOOGLE, MOTOROLA, SUN Microsystems, Xerox, Yahoo, GE, GM, etc located? Japan bought up a lot of manufacturing post their recovery from WW2, and Honda, Toyota, Sony, and Panasonic count for a lot, but they use technologies by in large fundamentally developed in the US (The cell processor in the PS3 for instance was developed with aid from IBM and the XEL-1 was developed using techniques pioneered in US universities). The U.S. is a service economy backed by a very strong research and development system/economy (Which is why it's sad it took so long for the government to recognize such).

Though I suppose it is actually an opinion, since "technology" isn't really that measurable of a contribution per company or country, and the difference between R&D and functional engineering of that R&D is a gray area at best.

Shuma is write but the problem with this disagreement is I think technology is a big umbrella term that ignores a number of distinction and there are a number of things to consider.

The US has researched and created most technologies.

We could make it ourselves, we often do, but we also allow Japan access to some of the manufacturing as a result of trade agreements and the incentives provided to support them.

Being closer to the manufacturing gives Japan first access, so they are often quick to adopt technologies.

The secondary result of that quick adoptions is that in the time it takes to make it onto the US market refinements have been made improving the product. Japanese end up with a mix of Gen 1 and Gen 2 products, US mostly Gen 2.

This holds true of consumer products more than advances technologies, when you move into that realm there are a limited number of fields the Japanese do excel and surpass us in (http://brianakira.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/fembot-aiko-and-le-trung.jpg), but by and large the sum total of our technological innovations surpass theirs.

America = The Imperium

Japan = The Tau

Orkeosaurus wrote:America = The Imperium

Japan = The Tau

Oh, god, delete that post before Luna sees it.

Now I just want to see what happens even more.

OverbossGhurzubMoga wrote:

gil gerard wrote:Not clumsey and random like a blaster, a more elegant weapon from a more civilized time...

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

Your lack of faith disturbs me....




Seriously though, this is pretty spiffy! I think plasma technology is going to be more and more common in this century. How big is this thing? Does anyone have a picture of one? I think this is pretty cool, it's like a power weapon. Now we just need to get it in a fist or klaw shape.

The US has researched and created most technologies.

In what, 300 years of history? Oh, DO behave. That statement is very silly indeed.

aka_mythos wrote:

The US has researched and created most technologies.

erm, what time scale are we using here because televisions, computers, phones, the telegraph, jet engines and THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION all happened in my homeland (the U.K.) and I think ancient greece, ancient egypt and ancient china would all dispute that claim quite strenuously.

A better statement would be "since the 1950's the USA has been the leading developer of advanced modern technologies, principally in the fields of flight and space flight, computing and medicine."

As for the Japan/America technology conflict the traditional notion was that America innovated and Japan refined taking concepts and ideas from American development firms and labs and making them progressively better and better. It's hard to point at any one big "invention" to emerge from Japan in the same way we can assert that the television is English, the radio Italian, the plane American, the car German etc (although iirc the mag lev train was a Japanese invention) but many of the best cars and televisions are produced in Japan because Japanese developers constantly make small refinements and improvements which stack up over time.

This notion of refinement over innovation is quite a widely acknowledged feature of Japanese culture actually. The concept of "do" or way ascribes that the student should constantly seek out the perfect method of achieving an action, be it writing kanji, swordfighting or making a cup of tea.

As with all traditional notions of Japan and its relationship with the rest of the world its hard to see how much of that is true any more. Since the 1980's and especially since the bubble burst values here have been changing faster than ever before. Hell we just got a new ruling party for the first time since world war 2! Japan is become more and more westernised at an exponential rate but at the same time is more comfortable with inventing new things that they can claim are truly Japanese (manga and anime culture being probably the best example since it is a sub-culture that started here and spread elsewhere reversing the usual trend).

Will a change in the larger culture signify a change in the nature of technological development? I suspect it will.


And Shuma, free internet?! That's the first I've heard about it. Care to inform me because I wouldn't mind me some free internet.

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:

aka_mythos wrote:

The US has researched and created most technologies.

erm, what time scale are we using here because televisions, computers, phones, the telegraph, jet engines and THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION all happened in my homeland (the U.K.) .

might want to recheck your homework, several of those are german inventions.

Albatross wrote:

The US has researched and created most technologies.

In what, 300 years of history? Oh, DO behave. That statement is very silly indeed.

Just to clarify that, I meant relative to Japan. The US has researched and created the most technology, compared to Japan. Even still as a singular geopolitical entity it outpaces any other country significantly. The issue pertained to who had more technology, to which there are many measures and no clear answer. The US however leads in volume of research, money spent on research, volume of scholarly writing, capitalization and investment spent on development to practical return. Different countries have however focused their efforts in different areas of technology and thus levels of sophistication and development vary.

At the rate of human learning and study mankind doubles the sum total of its collective knowledge every 10 years. Under US supremacy as the global power more knowledge has been accumulated than everything that preceded that. Even still directly attributable technological development from the US outpaces the majority of nations significantly, contributing 60% of all scholarly written research. Until the last decade that divide was more drastic.

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:

aka_mythos wrote:

The US has researched and created most technologies.

erm, what time scale are we using here because televisions, computers, phones, the telegraph, jet engines and THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION all happened in my homeland (the U.K.) and I think ancient greece, ancient egypt and ancient china would all dispute that claim quite strenuously.

A better statement would be "since the 1950's the USA has been the leading developer of advanced modern technologies, principally in the fields of flight and space flight, computing and medicine."

As for the Japan/America technology conflict the traditional notion was that America innovated and Japan refined taking concepts and ideas from American development firms and labs and making them progressively better and better. It's hard to point at any one big "invention" to emerge from Japan in the same way we can assert that the television is English, the radio Italian, the plane American, the car German etc (although iirc the mag lev train was a Japanese invention) but many of the best cars and televisions are produced in Japan because Japanese developers constantly make small refinements and improvements which stack up over time.

This notion of refinement over innovation is quite a widely acknowledged feature of Japanese culture actually. The concept of "do" or way ascribes that the student should constantly seek out the perfect method of achieving an action, be it writing kanji, swordfighting or making a cup of tea.

The other thing to point out is that when you point at "televisions, computers, phones, the telegraph, jet engines"you have to ask which aspects of those technologies... the concept? a working prototype? a scalable mass production design? or the contributing components? the mathematics required to provide proof of concept? The machines to make the parts?

All of those thing are "technologies". To claim a nation or people or person invented something requires great specificity in defining what exactly they did.

One person made the math for circuits, one guy took it designed a vacuum tube, another guy came up with a way to make said vacuum tube, another guy figured out that using its ability to control the flow of electrons allowed one to create a computer, another guy came up with the language for that computer, another guy the physical means of programming in said linguistic commands... which one invented the computer? Thus laying claim to a specific invention is rarely possible or worthwhile.

It should also be pointed out that Japanese refinement is only possible because for the longest time and still to a degree don't acknowledge the patent rights of most other countries, thus allowing their engineers to skip over the real work.

aka_mythos wrote:
All of those thing are "technologies". To claim a nation or people or person invented something requires great specificity in defining what exactly they did.

Well, conceptual proof isn't really a technology. Its better defined as a theorem, or method.

That said, you're spot on with this. Especially since most 'inventions' tend to occur at multiple point around the world within a very short time span.

Every developed country produces high level research on a roughly equivalent level. The US is no different in this, they're pretty much on par with the rest of us.

There is a difference in applications tech, though, as the US has always had an historically strong venture capital market. This is the natural result of being the biggest economy, as you have more consumer demand and a greater capital base. This means that lots of tech developed around the world is actually brought to market in the US first, but that tech itself comes from all over the world.

Which is an interesting thing, but stops being interesting the second people start playing the 'rah-rah my country is awesome' card.

To jump back bit here, the role of a SpecOps medic is far ahead of your standard field medic. These guys will be performing surgical procedures in the field to a greater degree than say Corpsmen, or medics.

Myself, I have attended numerous classes to go up beyond the normal 'Self-Aid and Buddy Care' that your regular line troops are taught.
The last one I attended was taught by the Navy, primarily for Corpsmen, but they let a bunch of us AF cops in...
I can poke a hole in your throat with a set of keys due to airway obstruction, infuse through bone, and a couple of other neat tricks - but I am not a medic, just a first responder. Note, I am not an EMT either.

What they are describing here (for those who think this is leading to a power first) has a blade less than an inch long (if in keeping with hospital versions) and is for use in cases where immediate field surgery is necessary as a life saving procedure.

No skulls on it, no purity seals (except the plastic packaging!)

And Shuma, free internet?! That's the first I've heard about it. Care to inform me because I wouldn't mind me some free internet.

Yeah, that was stupid of me to say, I suppose I meant mobile broadband networks which we in the U.S. are just starting to introduce now (wimax and other g4 networks). Even then though, it's really just a different infrastructure, and it's certainly not free.

Chalk one up to me being excited and dumb.

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:

aka_mythos wrote:

The US has researched and created most technologies.

erm, what time scale are we using here because televisions, computers, phones, the telegraph, jet engines and THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION all happened in my homeland (the U.K.) and I think ancient greece, ancient egypt and ancient china would all dispute that claim quite strenuously.

Pretty sure the germans came first with both the computer (Zuse Z3) and with the first aeroplane driven purely by jet engine(s) (Heinkel He 178). The inventer of the jet engine was a Romanian scientist.

About my last post i wasn't saying we were backward, we just don't shout about it. I just couldn't think of any other way to open my post




Automatically Appended Next Post:

ShumaGorath wrote:

Tonytiger89 wrote:They say Japans technology is ahead of ours, I have spent many years studying physics and what you have to to to harness plasma to that degree, not to bore you but harnessing plasma is easy in a sealed case is easy enough but to get it to a stage with a gap you can use for cutting, very complicated. This calls for some research

Japan has a greater technological density than we do, but we crush them in most areas of development, just as we always have. Our robots are better, virtually all computer tech is designed here, we are the lords of medicinal research, we're just awesome (go usa!). Japan just gets all the benefits due to it's awesome free internet and tech focused culture. It also helps that a large amount of technology is manufactured and designed there (If not the actual research and development that makes that possible). Thats been lessoning though of late as other asian states muscle into the field, and we've been losing our edge over time as well due to the slow and steady degradation of our education system and the rapid advancement of the same in other countries.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Shadowbrand wrote:Imagine it as a torture tool.

:S

Suprisingly less painfull if quickly sliced through, but tat would have to be quite quick