A shaft of green laser light spears out from a cargo ship, targeting a small skiff bobbing in the ocean almost a mile away. The armed miscreants aboard the skiff take one look at the dazzling light and shield their eyes with cries of distress. How can these pirates attack if they can’t see?

That’s the idea behind an anti-pirate laser cannon being developed by a UK defense company in response to the increase in hijackings off the coast of Somalia. The laser would be used in conjunction with ships’ high-frequency surface radars that detect the small vessels used by Somali pirates, and it would function as a kind of warning shot across their bow. New Scientist reports that the laser isn’t intended to fry pirates to a crisp, nor even to blind them forever:

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The best way to make a point about privacy and “invasive” body scanners at the airport–is to strip down to your underwear and then publish that video to YouTube so the whole world can see you in your nearly naked glory. Might sound strange at first, but we are covering it in Discoblog, so I guess it worked.

Warning: This video has mild nudity and so may be NSFW.

German activists from the Pirate Party thought organizing a “fleshmob” of people to strip down to their skivvies and converge on the Berlin-Tegel airport was a great idea. The activists were protesting the use of what the Germans call the Nacktscanner, or naked scanner–a body scanner that may increasingly be used for airport security, in the wake of the botched underwear bombing on Christmas Day.

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The development of a new shotgun-fired long-range Taser, called the Taser XREP, is, er, sparking a fierce debate over its safety—and rightfully so.

One reason: The guns can be fired 20 meters away from the target, whereas the old Taser X26 had to be within five meters of it. Perhaps more frightening, however, is that tests have shown that the Taser XREP can deliver a stunning shock for more than five minutes, even though the shock was designed to only last for 20 seconds (which is still four times longer than older Taser guns).

The XREP also can be hard to aim, increasing the risk of lingering injury.

New Scientist reports:

In test firings, [the Taser XREP] proved difficult to aim, as the aerodynamics of the projectile caused it to fall below the aiming point at a range of 20 metres. “Any lack of accuracy means a greater risk of hitting an unintended part of the body and therefore greater risk of injury,” says security researcher Neil Davison.

A representative from Taser International said that the guns used in the tests were pre-production models, and that further experiments (which were funded by Taser) resulted in no permanent damage when the guns were fired at cadavers—meaning that no dead people were harmed by them. Understandably, experts worry about the threat electric shock weapons can pose to the mental health of the living. New Scientist says:

Shooting cadavers is one thing. But what happens when the weapons are fired at pregnant women, people with health problems or the very young, [electric shock weapons expert Steve] Wright asks.

The goal of the new Taser is to enable law enforcement officers to temporarily incapacitate people from farther away. But because the weapon would likely be used in a crowd setting, let’s hope the guns can take aim better than they did in the initial tests.

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Discoblog: Live from CES: Don’t Tase Me Sis!

Image: flickr / hermanturnip

Not all animals have fun during the mating process. Seed beetles can get pretty beaten up, and fruit flies can even get sick from it.

When female fruit flies mate, their immune system responds to the sperm the same way it does to germs. University of California, Santa Barbara evolutionary biologist Andrew Stewart sees the immune system as a battleground, a place where the sexes can compete—a female’s immune system will rev up so it can fight off the proteins in the ejaculate, so she can live longer and have more babies.

But the exact reason for this immune response is still up in the air. It’s possible the male knows that the female has mated with other male flies, and uses the pathogens in his sperm to beat the other males in fertilizing eggs. Regardless, females still pay a heavy price: Most females mate with several partners, even though if they mate just once, their life span is shortened significantly.

But the beetles have it worse, because their mating is so brutal: When a female decides to mate, she repeatedly gets jabbed by the male’s sexual organ, which looks more like a medieval weapon than pleasure tool. But the females put up with the roughness, apparently because they are so thirsty.

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