Now Lockheed is saving the planet? WTF?

[paulbot24]

WASHINGTON — A defense contractor better known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce clean water at a time when scarcity has become a global security issue. The process, officials and engineers at Lockheed Martin Corp. say, would enable filter manufacturers to produce thin carbon membranes with regular holes about a nanometer in size that are large enough to allow water to pass through but small enough to block the molecules of salt in seawater.

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/weapons-maker-finds-way-to-desalinate-water-using-graphene

Does anybody else find this ironic? So, according to current news, Lockheed will save us from an impending global drinking water crisis, and Halliburton (who owns most of the patents involved in fracking) will solve our energy crisis! I know this is supposed to be good news, but.....well, does it have to be THEM? My question is this: Do these "organizations" actually invent these breakthroughs or do these kinds of patents get "massaged" over to them to keep the MIC rich?

[acptulsa]

Halliburton is an energy company based in Oklahoma, and Oklahoma once had two of history's richest oil deposits, but now mainly has shale oil lining the huge caverns that used to be the infamous Glenn Pool and Cushing Pool. Hardly surprising that they'd come up with fracking.

As for Lockheed, no doubt that was a fat military contract. The logistics of being able to come up with clean fresh water is of obvious benefit to the Army, and of considerably more obvious benefit to the Navy. Just goes to show that if the Pentagon throws enough money at something, they tend to get a little bit of a return. The closest thing to a surprise about this is that they condoned to take it off the 'top secret' list already so someone else can benefit.

I'd rather have a 'Peace Dividend', but I guess we'll have to take what we can get.

The Moon Race cost us how much? Lord knows we should have gotten a hell of a lot more for that price than Mylar and Tang...

[paulbot24]

+rep for info. I love innovation, but does it have to come from THEM?:)