They claim this is the first time anybody has video Skyped from a submarine to anyone, let alone Her Oprahness. If you get past the commander's canned speech at the beginning, and the obvious advertorial nature of the promo, you actually get a cool glimpse of life aboard a submarine, with 146 dudes, no ladies and just six toilets. They connect to the internet via their periscope antenna, which sticks up above the water and grabs some network (presumably satellite, but that close to Hawaii, it could be cellular). It's crazy stuff, so have a listen. [Oprah]

Gizmag says Free Electron Lasers move at the speed of light and are capable of outputting a megawatt of power, which the military requires for adequate defense. FELs differ from gas or solid state lasers because they're not atomically bound. Instead the electrons are contained in a magnetic-based structure that lets the particles move freely. The FEL will be part of the foundation for the Navy's plan to develop an all-electric ship, which would be as capable as current Naval ships. [Gizmag] (Image Courtesy of the NYT)

More info at CNN. And as if there was any doubt, when we said Navy before, we meant the SEALs.

Update: More from Reuters as additional details emerge throughout the day:

President Barack Obama gave authority to kill the Somali pirates holding U.S. cargo ship captain Richard Phillips, and a commander acted when he concluded the pirates were about to kill the hostage, a U.S. Navy official said on Sunday.

"They were pointing the AK-47s at the captain," Vice Adm. William Gortney, head of the U.S. Naval Central Command, said in a Pentagon briefing from Bahrain.

[CNN]

Apparently Papagno was stealing in such volume he had to stash lots of it in the homes of his neighbors, because his own house was quickly stuffed full. The game was up when, after a domestic violence arrest (surprise!), Mrs. Papagno called up Victor's employer, saying she wanted all of his work gear out of the house. "Um, what work gear?" was the response. The rest is history.

Our recommendation is to avoid attempting such a large-scale heist if your employer is the US Navy—apparently no secrets or strategically sensitive information was ever taken, or else Victor would be facing a lot more jail time than the two years proposed currently. [WTOP via Network World via /.]

The Navy is researching rail guns because they would weigh less than conventional ones, and since they rely on electromagnetics to fire rounds, you wouldn't need a big, dangerous pile of explosives stored in a magazine. All of that means a lighter ship, and a much more deadly ship: a combat-ready rail gun would be able to fire Mach 5 projectiles over 200 miles with pinpoint accuracy, hitting 5 meter targets.

Yesterday's test firing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division used just some of the potential 32-megajoules the laboratory test gun is capable of, and that's only half the 64-megajoules the Navy is aiming at for the final weapon. Expect even more dramatic videos, sometime soon. [Navy Times and Danger Room]

With their special blunt noses, they easily travel through 12 feet of water or 2 feet of sand, and a 60-foot-wide cloud of these darts can be released from 1000 feet up, far out of harm's way if anything should explode. Sounds like the equivalent of sending a pig through a minefield.

We've heard rumblings of the military studying the concept of releasing clouds of nanotech devices to do similar damage or report data back to the mother ship. Anybody have anything to add to that? – Charlie White

Navy's Deadly New Darts [Defense Tech]

This railgun monster, propelling its 7-pound projectile with electric current along parallel rails, has a range of 250 nautical miles and packs the same punch as a more-expensive Tomahawk cruise missile. It could take down an entire building with one shot. Plus, dangerous explosives aren't necessary, because this beast does the equivalent of throwing big rocks at 11,500fps. That's gotta hurt. An even more powerful version will be delivered in June. – Charlie White

A missile punch at bullet prices [The Free Lance-Star]