A team of Hungarian engineers have created jet powered fire extinguisher. The team of crazy engineers removed the gun turrets from an old Russian tank, replaced them with 2 turbines from a MIG-21 fighter jet and injected the whole thing with gallons of water. The result is the ultimate jet powered fire extinguisher. Whilst this may not be practical for most residential fires (imagine not only putting out the fire but blasting your whole home to smithereens) it will certainly help with large oil blazes that typically last for days. The concept is somewhat old and used in Australia mines and even back in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. However, this is a more powerful and effective system. It was originally known as the “The Great Wind” for obvious reasons.

A bionic hand that can also help restore the sense of touch to amputees could soon be developed thanks to new research that has enabled two patients to feel sensations.

Both patients Claudia Mitchell, 27, a former U.S. Marine who lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident three years ago, and Jesse Sullivan, 60, who lost both arms to electrical burns, were fitted with prosthesis by Dr. Todd Kuiken of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago this past year. These two patients are the first patients to receive this revolutionary new process that is leading the advancements in prosthesis.

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After our Email fiasco by Jerry Hart Creative Marketing Email Scam, we sent out our first internal newsletter. We focused it on delivering helpful and entertaining articles that made it big on our blog or on other websites that our Military customers may appreciate. Most of our customers do not realize we have a blog and was a double plus.

I will include a link on the home page to our newsletter archives that will catalog our Newsletter, not including Jerry Hart terrible Email. This will allow you to keep track of our Emails, submit your thoughts, and refer to links or articles later on. I think this will also be helpful for users who may accidentally delete or may not receive the newsletter due to spam filters.

Email boxes are constantly attacked and quickly filled from spam, so if you decide that you do not want one more newsletter added to your Email inbox, you can access it via the website. You can unsubscribe at anytime via a newsletter or from your 800HighTech customer account or when you register. We will announce all new Emails Newsletters here on the blog and post a link to it (See Below for this month’s newsletter link).

I have titled our new newsletter “HighTech Edge”. I was considering keeping it a consistent layout, so it would be easier to find the information you want but in the end decided against it. I will not feature ads, promotions, or products in the Email unless we are running a really hot deal. It is not our intent to use the newsletter to push our sales, but to increase our communication with our customers and give them the edge over other geeks on IT information that is actually useful!

We have a high ratio customers return and we have spent years improving our customer image. We depend on you all to help us improve, and keep us above the competition.

Click to View the HighTech Edge Newsletter Catalog

Click to View the HighTech Edge January 2008 Issue: 1-1

It has always been a goal to improve our military strength and skill over our soldiers. DARPA has been at the fore-front of technology that is taking this to a new level. A robotic exoskeleton that would let GIs run faster, leap further and carry more is starting to materialize and become reality. A very practical and ambitious idea that is allowing many more options for our military.

According to DARPA, the exoskeletons will be delivered for Army testing in 2008. After 14 companies and universities initially (circa 2001) came up with different designs, they have selected the firm that will build the beast: Sarcos of Salt Lake City in Utah, US.

Sarcos has come up with a system that uses just one engine instead of lots of them. The engine, and a tank containing a 24-hour supply of fuel, will be slung ‘beneath your rear end’ says Main. The engine (a turbine, two-stroke or four stroke - they haven’t decided yet) will then drive hydraulic fluid via high pressure lines to servo valves on each joint, amplifying the force used to move each limb when the wearer’s motion is sensed.

“It makes you feel really, really strong. You get the sensation that you have a lot of strength. I sort of felt like The Hulk and I’m a skinny guy. I wore a 100-pound weight on my back and it felt I was carrying nothing like that amount,”

In 2006, Engineers in Japan were perfecting a wearable power suit that amplifies human strength to help lift hospital patients or heavy objects. It was driven by portable batteries, micro air pumps and small body sensors that pick up even the slightest muscle twitch. Lead by project researcher Hirokazu Noborisaka, the Stand-Alone Wearable Power Assist Suit was designed to help nursing home workers lift patients of up to 180 pounds while cutting the amount of strength required in half.

However, that suit needed to be more flexible for easier movement and protective cover that shrouds the suit’s sensitive or sharp areas.

Sent to my Email that has by now I am sure cycle the globe of Email inboxes of many military members already, but if not I wanted to include them here.

During the WW I years, Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas made some incredible human pictures
by using thousands of sailors or soldiers in uniform to create the following images.

Click the photo to view the images:

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As a son of 2 Marines and who is still an active participant in the military community, I get to witness first hand the hard work, dedication, and honor that each one of these Marines exhibits day-in and day-out. Even when they are off duty they are still a Marine. Sacrifice of all types is made by each one and their families, with the majority of these tales going unnoticed and unrewarded.

The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War, formed at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, by a resolution of the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775, a date regarded and celebrated as the birthday of the Marine Corps. At the end of the American Revolution in 1783, both the Continental Navy and Continental Marines were disbanded, and although individual Marines were enlisted for the few American naval vessels left, the institution itself would not be resurrected until 1798. In preparation for the Naval War with France, Congress created the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The U.S. Marines’ most famous action of this period occurred during the First Barbary War (1801 - 1805), when William Eaton and First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon led seven Marines and 300 Arab and European mercenaries in an effort to capture Tripoli. Though they only reached Derna, the action at Tripoli has been immortalized in the Marines’ hymn and the Mameluke Sword carried by Marine officers.

On 1 November 1921, General Lejune, 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, issued Marine Corps Order No. 47, Series 1921. The order summarized the history, mission, and tradition of the Marine Corps, and directed that it be read to every command on 10 November each subsequent year in honor of the birthday of the Marine Corps. This order has been duly carried out and always been a wonderful opportunity to attend.

The celebrations were formalized by Commandant Lemuel C. Shepherd in 1952, outlining the cake ceremony, which would enter the Marine Drill Manual in 1956. By tradition, the first slice of cake is given to the oldest Marine present, and the second to the youngest Marine present.

“Semper Fidelis”

Spc. Channing Moss is lucky to be alive, after a fierce ambush and bloody firefight his buddies, a helicopter crew and a medical team would risk their own lives to save his.

On March the 16th, 2007 Alpha Company platoon had set out from Forward Operating Base Tillman around 8 a.m. for a meeting with tribal leaders in the village of Srah Kandah in Paktika province near the Pakistan border. Moss, then a private first class, was manning a Mark 19 machine gun in the turret of his up-armored Humvee when his unit, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division was attacked by Afghan Forces.

(Click Here To Read More…)

British defense researchers have invented a means to cloak tanks and make them invisible tank. London’s Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Sun all report on tests conducted by the Ministry of Defence last week in which a tank rolled across a field, completely invisible to observers standing at a certain point.

“This technology is incredible,” an unnamed soldier was quoted by the Daily Mail and Sun. “If I hadn’t been present I wouldn’t have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun.”

Although as you first heard this topic, it is not as mystical as it might seem. The technology relies on heavy use of camera and projectors. Basically, a camera films the background, which is then projected upon a special surface applied to something in the foreground in this case, a tank.

You can see the similar technology in the following video that has gained a lot of popularity on the internet

Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading experts on surface reflectivity and lead author of a widely reported paper last year that said:

“Cloak of invisibility is theoretically possible. The drawback at the moment is the dependence upon cameras and projectors,” the Sun quoted Pendry, who did not confirm an implied connection with the defense project. “The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them which is intricate and complicated, but possible.”

Ever since I was a little kid, I knew this type of technology would eventually surface if it hadn’t already. Below in the video by General Dynamics you can see Trophy Active Defense System in action. It offers an invisible force field for military vehicles that disables incoming RPG rounds.

The system can simultaneously engage several threats, arriving from different directions, is effective on stationary or moving platforms, and is effective against short and long range threats (such as RPGs and ATGM). Trophy was designed to be effective in open or closed terrain, including urban area and can be operated under all weather conditions

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are always pushing the boundaries; continuing to develop Defensive Technology, and their latest invention is no exception.

At some point in the not too distant future, a moth implanted with a computer chip will take flight into enemy territories in hope to spy and transmit a video feed as well as other information back to base. The computer chip implanted whilst the creature is still a pupa, in the cocoon, enables the moth’s entire nervous system to be controlled remotely. The moth will thus be capable of landing in the camp without arousing suspicion, all the while transmitting information back to its masters via what its developers refer to as a “reliable tissue-machine interface.” More importantly however, this Cyborg Moth will help bring down terrorist and thwart future terrorism plots.

(Click Here To Read More…)

The AC-130 gunship is a heavily-armed ground attack airplane. The basic airframe is manufactured by Lockheed, and Boeing is responsible for the conversion into a gunship and for aircraft support. It is a variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. The AC-130 Gunship II superseded the AC-47 Gunship I in Vietnam.

Well, the Spectre crew members have never been this HOT!

Mufasta Ali and Bin Ladin Better Watch Their Tails!

Vanessa Dobos is a gunner on a USAF AC-130 Gunship. She has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan. She likes long walks on the beach, men who are not afraid to cry and puppies.

Her dislikes include feed tray stoppages, tracer flareout of her NVGs and premature fixed-wing strikes scattering her high-value targets.

(Click Here To Read More…)

Over the weekend I was able to get sometime at the paintball courses out here in Thailand. The courses are actually just jungle with some forts and miscellaneous vehicles for reference points. Paintball is a huge hobby for military guys and a great way to hone your military skills. Most bases offer paintball courses, and of course you can always set up your own in your backyard. Today well list out where to get the latest paintball gear online.

Ultimate Paintball Gun Store, obvious by its name, carries a large selection of hot paintball manufactures such as: Tippmann, Spyder, Smart Parts, Dye, Draxxus. The list doesn’t stop there so you can easily compare prices, check out the latest styles, and research extreme paintball gear to find which is best for you.

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Making the rounds to an Email box near you! I just got it and found out that this has been circulating for some time. Below are photographs of a prototype aircraft known as the Talon. Reportedly it was taken onboard the USS George Washington CVN-73 for catapult fit checks. It noted that it was not exactly still Top Secret but certainly not yet made public.

The specs that were known were list to be a Mach 3.5 (top speed in the Mach 4 range), super-cruise stealth fighter / bomber / interceptor with approximately a 4,000nm range.

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During a family member’s, who is a former Marine, recent vacation in the Richmond area, he met a family who had pulled into the same motel. They had a Marine Corps sticker on their vehicles so obviously he was interested to learn when he had served. He said that he hadn’t but that his son had and was killed in Iraq recently. He then told him about what the program below, and then told me about it. Maybe you can send some small items maybe you can’t. But this is non-political and a small way to show support. Think about it anyway. It’s nice to live in relative safety and FREEDOM! Think about those that provide that for you!

At The Least, Please Help Get This Message Out To As Many People as Possible! It is A Wonderful Way to Support Our Troops and Provide Them With A Little Comfort From Home.

Remember there are two battle fields. The one overseas and the one here at home. It seems like we have to battle the media and the cowards in congress. The American’s of the World War II era helped shaped the great lives we share today by greatly helping the outcome of the War by sacrificing a little bit of their time and little bit of their luxuries.

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Mission Statement:

We are a non profit organization. We do not support nor oppose the war. Our only interest is in supporting the brave men and women who put their lives on the line everyday to protect our great country. Their mission in Iraq is a difficult one, both physically and mentally. Our goal is to show them how grateful we our for their service and sacrifice.

Our mission is to send some of the comforts of home to those who so diligently watch over and protect us.

We appreciate all the supply donations you have to offer. Please click here to learn more about where to send them. http://www.adamconboymemorialfund.org/

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Inspirational soldier rap video from a Marine expressing his patriotism for love for fellow troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan

UPDATE FROM BLACKFIVE:

Just in- Another co-worker of SSGT Dean’s forwards his have MySpace page In deference to accuracy and at the request of many of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, I have added a T to the SSG in SSGT Dean’s rank. Ooh rah, Eat the Apple……never mind. Semper Fi.

Most of you saw this video when we posted it earlier this week, and most of you wrote to say how wonderful it was. It contained many heartfelt sentiments about what being an American and an American fighting man means. The artist was unknown, until now. Ladies and Gentlemen I introduce you to SSGT Lawrence E. Dean II. A reader who may claim her kudos in the comments if she wants to, alerted us that SSgt Dean was the artist and he worked with her husband. She sent along B5 contact info and then let me know we needed to coordinate with the Cherry Point PAO and Mr. Mike Barton was very helpful and facilitated a phone interview w/ SSGT Dean. Here is the coolest thing, the piece is titled She Called, well She is his Grandma and the piece is his explanation to her of why he would go to war. WOW! It was great to talk with him and I wish him the best in what could be a second career. Semper Fi!

Visit http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/08/exclusive-inter.html For The Exclusive Interview