Gizmodo: armadillo

Ugly, Obnoxious Armored Car Fights Crime With Cameras and Shame

Sean Fallon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:20:00 EDT

Behold the latest in crime fighting technology—the "Armadillo." It's mission: to shame evil doers into obedience using a potent blend of security cameras, heavy duty armor and sheer ugliness.

The idea is simple—police park this hulking monstrosity in pockets of high crime activity and just leave it there as a deterrent. It sticks out like a sore thumb, and if it's parked in front of your house the whole world knows your nasty business. Despite the fact that police don't spend much time reviewing surveillance footage, the truck has been remarkably successful. Law-abiding citizens have described the changes in their communities as like "night and day."

Law enforcement has been leaving empty cruisers around and setting up radar gun platforms for years now, and the Armadillo seems like the natural extension of the concept. Perhaps the fleet of Armadillos will expand and take on different, recognizable forms that tie into the offense—like parking an armored ice cream truck in front of the homes of known sexual offenders. [WSJ]

Armadillo Breadbox: Neat Enough to Post a Breadbox on Giz

Mark Wilson — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:26:00 EST

I was a generation or two too late for breadboxes, and looking at this particular breadbox, I realize that's just a shame.

The Armadillo Breadbox, a real, purchasable product ($90), will store your bread in a segmented, brushed aluminum shell. Then, when you are hungry for some carbs, just fold back the sneeze/bullet shield and eat the delicate product of flour, yeast and baking that's sustained Man for centuries.

If food isn't your thing, we also think this breadbox could be an excellent means to store a small baby. You might need some air holes. [Wheredidyoubuythat via cribcandy]

Armadillo Wins Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1, Crashes On 2

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:37:00 EDT

John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace has won the $350,000 Level One X-Prize Lunar Lander Challenge. As this video shows, their spaceship blasted off the designated area, got up to 150 feet, and then hovered for 90 seconds at that altitude to land with absolute precision on a pad 150 feet away. And they did it twice. Armadillo was also the first one to try the $1.65 million Level Two challenge, but unfortunately crashed badly on that attempt, as the next video shows: The second level of the challenge is even more difficult, requiring the spacecraft to hover for twice the time and then land in a simulated lunar surface full of craters and boulders. The problem with the second level was with the fuel mix, which was altered because of a slowly moving valve. The resulting mixture reached a temperature that was too high for the exhaust nozzle, which finally broke with obvious results. The Lunar Lander challenge is sponsored by NASA-providing the prize money-, Northrop Grumman, and the X-Prize foundation, and it has been designed to get new private companies into the space race using new designs and technologies. Definitely, we are getting there. [X-Prize]