It's just crazy enough to work.

The Defense Department is almost unfathomably large and as such, small fiefdoms exist tucked away from prying eyes. Some are just idea generators, but others spend money, lots of money. In a new book called Imaginary Weapons, Sharon Weinberger looks at a weapons developer who chases after ideas that no else supports:

Weinberger's story centers around Carl Collins, a Texas scientist turned nuclear Don Quixote, who convinces Pentagon and Energy Department officials to spend millions on his jousts with the laws of physics. The fact his windmill-tilting relies on a second-hand X-ray machine, taken from a dentist's office, doesn't seem to matter. Or that his Romanian wife has a sketchy choke-hold over the hafnium supply. Or that every scientific panel the Pentagon assembles calls Collins' work bunk. Or that no reputable physicist can replicate his hafnium experiments. (Via Defense Tech)

Just the thing for your defense junkie friends.