From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #555 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Tuesday, 5 December 1995 Volume 05 : Number 555 In this issue: Re: Titanium Re: A dangerous, tasteless, practical joke. See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Zenox Orenthal Z Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 18:21:05 +1030 (CST) Subject: Re: Titanium |> The main point was a subsequent study done by RAND, also in |> the late 40's, on the use of beryllium. It seems the only admitted |> current use is for small part structural items in the space |> program. That is incorrect - Beryllium is used extensively (and there is no appropriate substitute) as a neutron reflector in fusion weapons (H-bombs). I can dig up further details if you like, but it's off charter. Zoz - -- ______ _____________ ______________________ ______ /\####/\ / / / / /\####/\ / \##/ \ /_______ / / _ ______ / / \##/ \ /____\/____\ / / / / \ \ / / /____\/____\ \####/\####/ / /____\ \_/ / / /_______ \####/\####/ \##/ \##/ / / / / \##/ \##/ \/____\/ /_____________________/ /____________/ \/____\/ zoz@cs.adelaide.edu.au If you see a blind man, run up and kick him. Why should you be kinder than God? -- Old Iranian Proverb ------------------------------ From: Zenox Orenthal Z Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 18:27:56 +1030 (CST) Subject: Re: A dangerous, tasteless, practical joke. |> A really dirty trick for Christmas shoppers: |> ... |> |> I would never actually try this, especially on aviation enthusiasts. |> It's fun to talk about electromagnetic deception, though. I have tried this, on my brother, during a recent trip Australia-Britain via Amsterdam and back. On no occasion did the detector operator notice it. Becoming quite irritated, I snuck a look at their screen while my brother's bag was going through, and it didn't even show up. I came to the conclusion that the machine is powerful enough to go right through thin pieces of metal, and to make the device thick enough to be picked up it would have to get pretty close to the thickness of a real gun and therefore be unsuitable for concealment between the pages of a book. Don't forget that the high power of these devices also prevents people from concealing weapons with thin sheets of metal cut to look like other things. These people don't fall for *every* trick in the book. Zoz - -- ______ _____________ ______________________ ______ /\####/\ / / / / /\####/\ / \##/ \ /_______ / / _ ______ / / \##/ \ /____\/____\ / / / / \ \ / / /____\/____\ \####/\####/ / /____\ \_/ / / /_______ \####/\####/ \##/ \##/ / / / / \##/ \##/ \/____\/ /_____________________/ /____________/ \/____\/ zoz@cs.adelaide.edu.au If you see a blind man, run up and kick him. Why should you be kinder than God? -- Old Iranian Proverb ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #555 ********************************* To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu" or, if you don't like to type a lot, "prm@mail.orst.edu A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest" in the commands above with "skunk-works". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from mail.orst.edu, in /pub/skunk-works/digest/vNN.nMMM (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM" is the issue number).