<![CDATA[Gizmodo: bullet-proof]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: bullet-proof]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/bulletproof http://gizmodo.com/tag/bulletproof <![CDATA[Craziest Factory Spam Yet]]> I am pleasure to know you from Internet! Forget Viagra! Forget software! Forget Rolex watches! You need bulletproof attack vehicle! Combined riot shield Explosive-proof blanket! Navy patrol boat! Blast prevention torch! Best regards, Mr. Frank.


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am pleasure to know you from Internet !
If this email disturb you, Please ignore or delete ! Thanks !

We are a professional manufacturer and exporter of life safety protection products from china,
We are looking for an importer/agent all over the world who would purchase our products.
Our leading products including:

1. Bulletproof series:
bulletproof cash-carrying car, bulletproof attack vehicle, bulletproof vest & plate, bulletproof helmet,
bulletproof glass (it can resist AK47 rifle), bulletproof door (It can resist AK47 rifle), bulletproof window etc.

2. Anti-riot series:
handcuffs, chemical protective clothing, cut proof clothing, stabproof vest, combined riot shield etc.

3. Explosion-proof series:
explosive-proof blanket, explosive-proof fence, bomb disposal suits,
explosives trace detector, drug/dynamite detector, explosive-proof glass etc.

4. Fireproof series:
fire helmet,fireproof blanket,fireproof glass, fireproof door,fireproof suits, high temperature resistant gloves etc.

5. Search and Rescue
police patrol vehicle, army/hunting vehicle, navy patrol boat, blast prevention torch, infrared imaging devices etc.

Our products can be used for police, prison, military, bank and Post Office (cash-transport vehicle),
fire department, VIP protection, Executive protection, Bodyguard, security Agencies, private detectives,
Patrol Teams, life safety consultancy, national security agencies, gun holder, government ministry of defence, army, anti terror work, law enforcement officer, special forces, anti-piracy patrol in the sea etc .

For further information about our products, kindly send a email to us,
We will offer our website and more detail for your reference as your request.

We are looking forward to receive your inquiry soon !
Best regards,
Mr. Frank (sale manager)

THANK YOU MR. FRANK!

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<![CDATA[Woman's Hair Weave May Have Stopped Bullet]]> Say what? A Kansas City woman with a tight weave gets shot at by her boyfriend through a car window. Later, the cops find a spent bullet in her hair. Did the hair stop it?

Apparently some weaves are tighter than others. (Apparently, some relationships are tighter than others too.) After 20-year-old Briana Bonds told her boyfriend Juan she didn't love him anymore, the a-hole shot up the back of her mid-'90s Pontiac. The rear windshield was shattered, but she was still alive and without major injury, possibly thanks to that weave.

The ladies down at the beauty parlor are not totally convinced, though. Scientifically speaking, the weft (where the weave meets the hair) is where the fibers are interlocked most tightly. But whether or not that makes it any where close to the equivalent of a Kevlar mesh is beyond current beauty-parlor technology to ascertain.

Hair stylist Kim Walton told Kansas City NBC affiliate KSHB, "I never heard of weaves saving anybody's life." Still, if it turned out to be what saved Bonds, she added, "Thank God for weave."

Bonds herself told the news channel that it was more about God than the weave: "I think God was in my passenger seat." As of Thursday, Bonds had a headache; no word on what happened to that dick Juan. [WOAI via Geekologie]

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<![CDATA[Barack Obama's Bulletproof Inaugural Suit]]> Jesse Jackson choked on his sandwich on CNN when Barack got out of the Beast and walked in the open, unprotected air. Thankfully, the reverend could have relaxed: BHO was wearing a bullet-resistant suit.

That's according to the law enforcement junkies at Officer.com, who are carrying a McClatchy-Tribune story that quotes law enforcement officials saying Obama would wear "bullet-resistant clothing" for the inauguration.

While this could just mean some standard kevlar, we agree with our friends over at Slate's Explainer that it's much more fun to hypothesize an actual bullet-resistant suit, tailored to Obama's exacting standards. Slate points to the wares engineered by the intrepid Miguel Caballero—the Colombian designer known for dressing international journalists in his anti-assasination fashions and then firing guns at them.

I'm assuming Barack's test fitting wasn't quite so dramatic. But hey, bullet proof clothing—from the Medellín mean streets to Washington! [Slate]


Update: The Vice TV guys, makers of fine hipster travelogues, wrote in to remind us that they've been shot by Miguel too. More good stuff.

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<![CDATA[Chinese Bathtubs Are Now Bullet and Bomb Proof]]> I've finally found a bathtub that'll give me the ultimate peace of mind: A tub that's both bullet and bomb proof. The catch? It's made out of glass, which makes it completely transparent awesome.

So instead of worrying about air-strikes and assassination attempts while I bathe, all I have to worry about now is how my ass will look, magnified by murky water and surrounded with flat bubbles. Great! [Product Page via Nerd Approved via Luxury Launches]

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<![CDATA[Bulletproof Handkerchief: Snot-Drenched Protection For the Discerning Pimp]]> The word "gentleman" comes up a lot when talking about pocket squares, but the way I see it, only a pimp would stuff a huge handkerchief made of military-grade Kevlar into their purple suit pocket. Obviously, a square of fabric would not offer the same level of protection as a full vest, so any pimp wearing one is still taking a big risk. They can only hope that the rival pimp, john, hooker or cop that shoots them has really good aim. [Sruli Recht via Gearfuse via OhGizmo]

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<![CDATA[Bullet-Proof Bras Being Issued to German Policewomen]]> Policewomen in Germany are getting another layer of protection thanks to a new bra that has been secretly tested for the last two months. I never thought about it before but it makes sense that a woman could still sustain life-threatening injuries when shot wearing a standard bullet-proof vest. Traditional bras can have metallic or plastic parts that could tear into flesh when impacted with a bullet. This new version features thick pads for protection and a blend of cotton, polyester, spandex and polyamide with no buttons or fasteners. That's all well and good, but my question is what about the guys? When are the bullet-proof cups coming out? [Bild via Crunchgear]

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<![CDATA[Defender Hoodie: Look Good, Avoid Bullets]]> Knife-proof, machine-washable T-shirt not enough protection for you out there on the mean streets? Bulletproof backpack insert just won't cover enough of your nice, lead-free body? Maybe you need a hoodie with 2mm of Type IIA bulletproofing, enough to stop a 9mm full-metal-jacket round at a velocity of 1,090 feet-per-second. The bad news, besides the $600 price tag, is that the protection is only in the body, not the hood itself. Bladerunner Ltd., UK-based retailer of the Defender Hoodie, says the pullover also protects you from unspecified "lesser ballistic threats." (Do the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune count?) The hoodie goes on sale sometime in the next month, so please, for your own sake, don't go pissing off any mailman/lunch lady/ex-girlfriend in the meantime. [Product Page]

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<![CDATA[Crazy Rugged SwitchBack UMPCs Hit the Market]]> Roper Mobile announced that it was buying Black Diamond Advanced Technology, creator of the SwitchBack super-rugged UMPC. The machine debuted last fall, wooing fans with its hot-swappable batteries, all-weather reflective screen and full waterproofing to three meters underwater. But until now no one could actually buy one. Though not many knew it, SwitchBack was also the brains used in Intel's Satanic Chopper. Today the computers are finally for sale. We talked to creator Todd Einck about his uniquely kick-ass UMPC:

The problem the company dealt with was this: how do you build a PC capable of withstanding extremes of temperature, moisture, impact and dust, but then let some dude in the field plug in his iPod or digital camera, and screw it all up? Says Einck: "How do you hang on to a tablet if it has all this junk hanging off it? We embed all that stuff in BackPacks."

BackPacks are modules that can attach to (yes) the back of a SwitchBack PC for added functionality that can have equally ruggedized certification. Some BackPacks will be standard. The first includes "all the ports you would get on a PC," says Einck: PC card, USB 2.0, serial port, VGA, audio in and out. But Einck says the real point is to customize BackPacks for specialized needs: "You could have a BackPack with a 3-megapixel camera, iPod dock, and temperature probe to check the weather," he says.

Although the target for SwitchBack today is military and on-site heavy-duty commercial work, Einck sees the BackPacks as a way to integrate work and (rough) play, with BackPack style docking at home, at work, and in your car:

"Pop it in your desk, it handles all your work stuff, then take it home, put it in your dock at home. When you go hiking, you use the built-in GPS to get yourself out of whatever quagmire you got into, then pop it back in your jeep and go."
SwitchBack has a few other hardcore technologies up its sleeve:
• Its "black box" software combines accelerometer data with time stamps to provide a blow-by-blow account of all the crap that happens to it. Even if the SwitchBack ends up totally annihilated, you can find out what the hell happened.
• An optional second CE-strength processor (in addition to its 1GHz Celeron or 1.6GHz Core Duo) could be used to run a less battery draining interface out in the field, then take a back seat once you are in a less hostile environment and want to boot up Windows XP. [Roper Mobile
ROPER MOBILE TECHNOLOGY ACQUIRES BLACK DIAMOND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY; ANNOUNCES SHIPPING OF SWITCHBACK RUGGED ULTRA MOBILE PC

Shipments of SwitchBack PC Commence for Customers in
Military and Industrial Markets

October 29, 2007—Tempe, AZ—Roper Mobile Technology today announced the acquisition of technology development firm Black Diamond Advanced Technology. Roper Mobile Technology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roper Industries (NYSE: ROP), is a leading provider of fully rugged, highly customizable mobile computing solutions for challenging environments. With this acquisition, Roper Mobile Technology announces the commercial availability of its flagship product, the SwitchBack PC. Debuted last fall as the world's first rugged UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer), the SwitchBack is a powerful Windows XP-based PC in a lightweight, rugged form factor.

"Over the last year, we have experienced an overwhelmingly positive market response to the SwitchBack PC and its unique modular design. With the completion of this acquisition, the SwitchBack is exploding onto the market and our first customers have been pleased with the technology and service we are providing," said Justin Dyster, former President of Black Diamond Advanced Technology and current Vice President of Engineering at Roper Mobile Technology. "Our BackPack initiative is already a success, with many customers placing orders for the Standard BackPack and with several more in military markets ordering Custom BackPacks or working with us to develop their own."

"The UMPC is emerging as a highly viable form factor for use in vertical applications currently supported by rugged mobile computers," said David Krebs, Practice Director, Venture Development Corporation. "The SwitchBack is uniquely positioned to support many of these applications and its design emphasizes the need for more platform-based modular computing solutions."

"The strength of Black Diamond's highly talented Research and Development team combined with Roper Mobile's established global resources in sales and service will greatly accelerate SwitchBack's market success," said Gene Yazbak, President of Roper Mobile Technology. "Roper Mobile is pleased to expand our capabilities in order to retain our fierce focus on innovating disruptive technologies, like the SwitchBack, that go the extra step to anticipate customer needs in harsh environments."

The latest version of the SwitchBack PC is the most powerful version yet. Operating on a Windows XP or Windows Vista platform, it utilizes a 1.0 GHz Intel® Celeron® M processor, 2GB of 400 MHz DDR2 and up to 120GB of optional storage. It has passed rigorous environmental testing and meets military specification MIL-STD-810F and IEC 60529 standard IP-67 for operating in conditions of extreme shock, vibration, temperature and immersion.

The standard SwitchBack PC is equipped with a condensed QWERTY keyboard, removable hard drive, hot swappable battery and a 5.6-inch WSVGA sunlight viewable touch screen with stylus. Wireless capabilities like Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi b/g and GPS can be integrated. The newest SwitchBack also has a patent-pending Status & Control feature that enables remote diagnostics for automatic troubleshooting in the field. This first of its kind diagnostic tool intelligently manages and controls vital functions of the PC including:

Primary & secondary battery levels
Temperature fluctuation
Accelerometer to measure drops
Power consumption
Input and output shortages

The BackPack Program
The SwitchBack's patent-pending BackPack Technology allows the user to incorporate multiple devices into a single BackPack such as a digital camera, biometric security, an RFID reader or any combination of I/O options.
The BackPack (standard or custom) attaches onto the back of the SwitchBack and interfaces to the computer through a special ultra-wide, high-speed connection to the Switchback. This design is so flexible almost any electronic peripheral can be designed to interface with the SwitchBack.

Today, customers can order the Standard BackPack which includes:

Type II PCMCIA
USB 2.0 Port
Serial Port
VGA output
Audio Line In
Audio Line out

Roper Mobile also works closely with its customers to design customized BackPacks that are right for them. In addition, customers can choose to utilize Roper Mobile's BackPack Development Kit which allows them to build their own BackPacks.

Pricing & Availability
The SwitchBack PC and the Standard BackPack are available immediately through Roper Mobile Technology. For pricing and information on custom BackPack Modules or a BackPack Development Kit, contact Roper Mobile at 480-705-4200 x 230 or at sales@ropermobile.com


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<![CDATA[With BackpackShield, I Could Take A Bullet for Giz]]>
I had the pleasure of trying on the BackpackShield bulletproof bookbag insert tonight at ShowStoppers, and it was amazing. Made from 13 layers of K-29 Kevlar, this thin, lightweight plate fits in most backpacks and can stop every bullet from a 9mm all the way to Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum. It doesn't just deflect them, either. As you will see in the gallery below, bullets that try to penetrate the BackpackShield end up with its "fishnet" imprint on themselves.

According to the inventor, this was designed for "college students, high school students, concerned parents, and commuters." In his mind, there's surely someone on your shopping list who could use a little extra protection this holiday season. At only $249, it's a small price to pay to make sure that little Bobby makes it through the mean streets of the biology wing safely. Available now in 10 assorted colors, but you can also customize it with any JPEG just in case you think your ex would make for a good target shield. [BackpackShield]

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<![CDATA[Ballistic Bookbag, Bullet-Proof Back-Pack]]> These bullet-proof backpacks are claimed to offer as much protection from a shooting as police armor, but at one tenth of the weight. They're aimed at kids, to protect them from all the dangers that 21st-century schooling entails. One immediate problem I see is that it will only protect you if you're shot in the back, at just the right height. Check out a video after the jump.


It's suggested that they could be used as shields, but this will only work if you are faster than a moving bullet—there's only one man who is, and he doesn't need to worry about being shot. Perhaps the only way to be truly safe is for kids to climb totally into the bags. The range start from $175, and should calm even the most paranoid parents, if they can get their kids to carry the fugly things, that is. [Popgadget]

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<![CDATA[Are Bulletproof USB Thumb Drives Actually Bulletproof?]]> Finnish computer-magazine Tietokone aims to find out. Most fail at small handguns, but Pretec's round drive actually shrugged off a .357 Magnum with no problems.

It got dented with a .44, but totally disintegrated when they shot a .500 at it. That's probably as strong as you're gonna get with a "bulletproof" thumb drive, so we wouldn't recommend stringing up a bunch of them and wearing them as a bandolier, Worf-style.

Pretec [Tietokone - Thanks Lauri!]

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<![CDATA[Dragon Skin Bulletproof Vest Repels AK-47 Rounds]]> v1921.jpgThese bulletproof vests are the first to stop armor piercing rounds without using some bulky plate. They work better than traditional shit beat cops use because the fibers are woven tighter; and they're woven in a way that actually tightens up the weave upon impact by bullet or blade. They're soft enough to roll up into a ball, and are certified for dives, so they're appropriate for amphibious missions. It's what all the fashionable mercenaries are going to be wearing in 2007, trust us. Geek uses: Probably does not have a pocket for your gameboy, but will most likely stop shrapnel from exploding laptop batteries.

SOV 3000 Dragon Skin Bulletproof Vest [Defense Tech]

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<![CDATA[Bullet-Proof iPod Case]]> We've all been there at one time or another. You are in the middle of a gunfight and that iPod sitting in your pocket take a hit. Sure the bullet may have gone straight through the iPod and penetrated your leg. But a gushing bullet wound is the least of your concerns. Your $300 iPod has now been rendered useless. Enter the bullet-proof iPod case.

Actually the designer of this case wasn't protecting against bullets with this design (although it can stop a small bullet), rather it is used to prevent the iPod from getting crushed on overcrowded Japanese commuter trains. It is constructed of 5mm aluminum A5052 casing held together with M3 hex bolts and it weighs a hefty 446 grams, or roughly one pound. Nice craftsmanship, buddy.

Information Page (Japanese) [Mac]

Update: Yeah it's kind of old, but still neat. Don't hate me. :(

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<![CDATA[Bulletproof USB Flash Drive, True Security]]> Pretec announced its bulletproof USB flash drive last week at Computex in Taipei. In addition to being bulletproof this flash drive is also waterproof and fireproof. So essentially there is no way to destroy the data, unless of course, someone plugs in the drive and simply deletes the files. The Pretec i-Disk Bulletproof is made of double-layered sealed protective metal. The drive also includes all of the standard features of flash drives such as password protection and encryption. This drive will be available in capacities from 32MB up to 2GB.

Press Release [Via I4U]

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