It's no secret that rashes of violent crime in London have been plaguing the city for some time now, but some parents are going to Kevlar-lined extremes in order to protect their offspring whilst away from home. Reportedly, orders for Kevlar-infused school uniforms and casual wear have skyrocketed of late, as school-aged stabbings seem to be on the rise. Notably, plenty of orders are coming in from the States as well, and while Deputy Asst. Commissioner Al Hitchcock claimed that merely "one-percent" of crimes around London involved a knife, mums and dads would seemingly rather be safe than sorry.

[Via Wired]

One very serious problem facing American and other armed forces in the field is the threat of being attacked by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). These big guns are difficult to defend against, unless you've got some very fast moving and precise weaponry. So how's a soldier supposed to defend against a volley of one or more RPGs? Well, Control Products' freshly patented idea is to use a serious of smaller low-altitude rockets equipped with Kevlar parachutes form a slow moving curtain, which would reduce add drag to and the speed of the speeding RPG. While this sounds like a good and inexpensive countermeasure, we're not yet convinced by the cocktail napkin patent filing sketches, but hey, that hasn't stopped harebrained government check-writers from funding all other manner of whacked out technologies.

[Via NewScientistTech]

Police in Scotland have begun field-testing a pair of tactical gloves that sport built-in metal detectors for identifying sharp objects during routine pat-downs -- and should they fail to detect a hidden weapon, they're made out of Kevlar to protect the wearer during the ensuing knife fight. Although not specifically mentioned in the source article, it seems the Scottish cops are trying out seven pairs of the HF-1 from Adams Electronics, which are powered by regular 9-volt batteries and vibrate inconspicuously at the wrist to signify that an object has been detected. Available in either "passive active" or "dual active" configurations (depending on whether one or both of the gloves sport a detector), the HF-1s deployed for the trial cost about $370-a-pair, and are being used to supplement the 1,000 or so FriskerPRO-like handheld detectors that are already in use. Overall these seem like a good way for officers to protect themselves without getting too touchy-feely with suspects, but on the other hand, they may just encourage enterprising criminals to step up their game and begin carrying around undetectable weapons like ceramic knives and filed-down toothbrushes.