http://www.metafilter.com/tags/youcantmakethisup Posts tagged with 'youcantmakethisup' at MetaFilter. Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:13:06 -0800 Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:13:06 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/53649/The%2Dproblem%2Dwith%2Dthe%2Dtwo%2Dkiloton%2Dhand%2Dgrenade <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&amp;contentId=A22099-2004Mar24&amp;notFound=true">The two kiloton hand-grenade and the dental x-ray machine.</a> For several years, the military spent well over $30 million on a new kind of bomb, based on an <a href="http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-5/p21.html">isomer of hafnium</a> that would have an explosive power just shy of a nuclear weapon, despite the fact that physicists said it was impossible. Sharon Weinberger (the author of the article in the main link) wrote a book about this project, with <a href="http://imaginaryweapons.com/index.html">a related website</a>. In response, the scientist behind the isomer bomb effort created an <a href="http://www.imaginaryweapons.net/">oddly childish parody website to mock her book</a>. And, if that isn't strange enough, people have been arrested in the UK for <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5176382.stm">attempting to obtain an imaginary substance</a>, that <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1315466,00.html">may or may not be</a> linked to the concept of the isomer bomb. tag:metafilter.com,2006:site.53649 Sun, 06 Aug 2006 00:13:06 -0800 DARPA halfnium isomerbomb military redmercury weapons youcantmakethisup blahblahblah