The Vortex Gun Coming Soon To a Protest Near You 295
An anonymous reader writes "Vortex technology has been used in everything from rocket-powered fire extinguishers to Nerf guns, but neither of those things are capable of giving the beat-down to hapless protesters. By giving spinning vortices an electric charge, though, pepper spray can be sent over 150 feet at between 60 and 90 mph. A vortex gun uses a pressure wave and a carefully designed barrel to fire donut-shaped rings of air that can hold themselves together over long distances. The military (starting with the German military during World War II) has been running experiments with using vortex canons to knock things over, but it's not a particularly efficient or effective way to go. What the gas rings can be used for is transporting other gasses (like pepper spray or tear gas or pesticide) long distances with a decent amount of accuracy, holding their cargo inside the calm center spinning vortex."
Re:"Starting with the Nazi military during WWII" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"Starting with the Nazi military during WWII" (Score:2, Informative)
Gotta' love the attempted spin there by tying it to the Nazis... except that pretty much ALL of the tech in use today was also researched by the Nazis. You know: jet engines, radar, rockets, remote guidance, computers, cryptography, etc etc etc lol
Re:free speech (Score:5, Informative)
Keep poking it with a stick and eventually it will stop hiding in the corner and come sink its claws and teeth into you. And why? Because it didn't have a choice.
"Terror" is the strategy for those with no other options. The best weapon against terror is blind and principled justice for all.
Re:"Starting with the Nazi military during WWII" (Score:5, Informative)
Didn't he also kind of screw the pooch on the whole D-Day thing?
No, he didn't. The Germans had several Panzer units stationed only a few miles from the coast in France. However, Hitler would not allow them to be released because he was convinced the invasion would be at Calais, where the Channel is actually the thinnest. By the time he allowed the tanks to be released, the Allies had already established a beachhead and moved inland. Had they been released when the request was made, the landings would have failed.
Re:Great, what we really needed (Score:5, Informative)
Actually university police often are sworn police officers, making them peers to your municipal police department and giving them the ability to pursue, detain, and arrest. Many universities also operate security guard branches as well, and they are typically not sworn officers. However, those guys you see driving around in school-colored vehicles with CAMPUS POLICE emblazoned on the side are typically, in every respect, real police officers. Additionally, they almost universally have an understanding with municipal departments to work together cooperatively, so if they find themselves in a corner case (occurred on campus, detained off campus) they can simply contact dispatch and request a municipal officer.
Re:Great, what we really needed (Score:3, Informative)
The cops are usually undercover when they promote violence as the idea is to make groups such as the OWS protesters to look bad. You've seen them and been suckered in by it judging how you're treating the OWS protesters,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_provocateur [wikipedia.org]