Popular Science isn't anything close to the tabloids. I also get Scientific American and a few IEEE publications. Off the top of my head I remember a few months ago an article about nonlethal weapons R&D for the military. One of these included what looks like a satellite dish on a small U-Haul trailor. This thing is pointed at a person, spends two seconds focusing a beam of microwaves at them to make them want to get out of the way before that spot on there body begins to boil. What is pathetic about this thing is it can only acquire one target at a time, it can not hit moving targets and continue to focus at the same time, and it would be completely ridiculous to drag it into a terrain like Iraq. It would be completely useless in warfare or even riot control for that matter. i've actually seen several articles in the news about the army trying to equip the segway for battle duty. There is no way in the world you could make the segway durable enough to withstand the environments all over the world. Now the army is looking into creating what would amount to mechwarriors to fight in the place of soldiers. I'm sorry but if I'm fighting the US and they send mechwarriors instead of troops for me to put my army up against why on earth would i fight? At the sight of them I'd laugh and then launch every nuke in my arsenal at the US. Human sacrifice is what makes war something not to be desired, but something to learn from in the end to avoid it in the future. Looking at these few things how ridiculous do you think that scooter sounds now?