Economist Technology Quarterly, Dec 2010 (III)

choi

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(1) air cushion

Airships of the Sea. Naval architecture: Blasting a cushion of air bubbles under a moving vessel’s hull can reduce its fuel consumption.
http://www.economist.com/node/17647555?story_id=17647555&CFID=157412668&CFTOKEN=55365492

Note: Damen Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damen_Group
(a Dutch shipbuilding company which was founded in 1927 by Jan and Marinus Damen in a self-built workshop)


(2) liquid armor

Fluid Defences. Military technology: Body armour can be made lighter and stronger by incorporating an unusual sort of liquid into its design.
http://www.economist.com/node/17647547?story_id=17647547

Note:
(a) Kevlar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevlar
(the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber; Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires)

(i) aramid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramid
(a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers; The name is a portmanteau of "ARomatic polyAMIDe")

(ii) portmanteau (n; Middle French from porter to carry + manteau mantle):
"a word or morpheme whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms (as smog from smoke and fog)"
www.m-w.com

(b) Vicotria Gill, ShareEmail Print Liquid armour 'can stop bullets.' BBC, July 9, 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10569761
(video clip)


(3) Endangered Birds. Space technology: Concern over anti-satellite weapons is changing the way satellites are designed, built and launched
http://www.economist.com/node/17647639?story_id=17647639

My comment: search the article with the term "China." Pay attention to the two sentences that started with "In an exercise earlier this year."


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