The XM25: A Future Weapon Killing Bad Guys Right Now


Come get some! The XM25 is bringing a world of hurt to Afgan baddies right now. The Army is apparently field testing the (ready for the street name?) Punisher in very limited numbers right now. You must click through to see the very first demo of the weapon in action. It shows the fancy targeting system that guides the 25mm burst rounds to their targets, which then penetrates barriers to explode behind enemy combatants. DefenseTech states the Army just signed a $65 million check to ATK for a bunch of XM-25s at an estimated price of $25,000 each. Who says America doesn’t make anything cool anymore?

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The XM25: A Future Weapon Killing Bad Guys Right Now

Mitsubishi Chemical To Commercialize Printable Solar Cells Next Year

Another small step ahead in solar energy: Mitsubishi Chemical has developed printable solar cells with a conversion rate of 9.2% and now plans to commercialize the cells as early as next year, according to Japanese business daily The Nikkei.

The cells are reportedly 90% lighter than the products currently out there and just “several hundred nanometers” thick. Because they are mainly based on carbon, Mitsubishi expects their cells to eventually cost 90% less than their silicon-based counterparts.

Developed in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, the cells can be attached to a variety of objects, but Mitsubishi is already cooperating with Japanese car makers in order to explore ways to use them for electric cars and hybrids.

By 2015, the company wants to see the 9.2% conversion rate of their cells to grow to 15%.

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Mitsubishi Chemical To Commercialize Printable Solar Cells Next Year

Expect YouTube to be Full of 360-Degree Videos Shot on iPhones Soon [IPhone]

Judging by the amount of money invested in the GoPano Micro project on Kickstarter, a load of people have been biding their time, just WAITING for an opportunity to film panoramic videos using their iPhone 4s. As the video above shows, the viewpoint can be controlled just by swiping the screen—but that doesn't mean the other perspective is lost for good. More

NASA Mars Science Laboratory + Curiosity Rover: first look (photo gallery)

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This week, Boing Boing was invited to visit NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the first and only opportunity for media to enter the Pasadena, CA clean room where NASA’s next Mars rover, Curiosity, and other components of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft have been built for launch in late 2011 from Florida.

Shipment from the clean room to Florida will begin next month. Curiosity rover recently completed tests under simulated space and Mars-surface environmental conditions in another building and is back in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for other tests. Spacecraft assembly and testing specialists showed Boing Boing the rover and the other spacecraft components, including the descent stage “sky crane.”

Photographer Joseph Linaschke visited on behalf of Boing Boing (he donned a bunny suit for the occasion) and shot this series of photos. More below.

About the photographer:


Joseph Linaschke is a photographic storyteller and educator, and runs ApertureExpert.com, a leading site for Apple Aperture users. He has traveled the world representing various technologies and companies on stage, including MetaCreations, Wacom, Corel, and Apple, where he was part of the marketing team for Aperture and produced and shot several productions for iLife, Aperture and Final Cut Studio.

You can purchase prints of any images in Joseph’s JPL Mars Curiosity Rover photo gallery here.


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NASA Mars Science Laboratory + Curiosity Rover: first look (photo gallery)