Cody Taylor

An anonymous reader writes with news that IBM has filed a patent for “Bionic body armor” that would protect a wearer from long-range gunfire by detecting the incoming bullets and administering small shocks to the appropriate muscles required for moving out of the way. Quoting the patent: “When a marksman (such as a sniper) is attempting to fire a projectile from a firearm, the marksman typically prefers to be as far away from the target as possible, thus giving him or her a head start for the escape after the firing. As an example, the longest reported sniper hit was from a distance of about 2500 meters, resulting in a time of flight of about 4 seconds for the projectile/bullet. Had the target been aware of the inbound projectile, avoiding it by simply walking away would have been possible.” After detecting the projectile, the armor would calculate the trajectory and “stimulate the target to move in a predefined manner … sufficient to avoid any contact with the approaching projectile.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

IBM continued its major push into cloud computing with announcements today that ranged from the launch of global “overflow clouds” to a testing ground for cloud apps – all part of a Blue Cloud Initiative for businesses.

The powerful supercomputer will perform at speeds 20 times faster than the runner-up, also from IBM.

Some of the workers being let go by IBM have a chance to remain with the company — if they’re willing to move to Brazil, India, China or a dozen other low-wage countries. But the expatriate employees would likely be paid local wages as they begin their new lives overseas.