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During a rock concert in Gera, East Germany, free rock shirts were handed out to right-wing rockers. What at first seemed like a nice gift, was not completely what they expected though.

The T-shirt that was handed out to the rockers had the text “Hardcore rebels” on it and the print of a skull. After washing the T-shirt however, it had a completely different message saying that people should break with extremism. It also included a phone number in case people would want to know more.

The organizers of the festival received of these 250 T-shirts and thought it was a good idea to hand them out to the concert-goers. They had no idea that there was a hidden message on the shirts.

It was an action organized by left-wing organization Exit that wants to eliminate right-wing extremism. The organization admitted to contacting the festival organizers under a false name to donate the T-shirts. Their goal was to raise more awareness under the, often young, people that attended the rock festival.

Exit feels like they still have a chance to change the minds of the right-wingers, especially those who have not completely committed to extreme right. It is unknown if any of them did actually contact Exit.

The organizers of the rock festival have not responded to the events, but there have been text messages circulating amongst the festival-goers saying the T-shirts were not what they seemed to be and that the shirts were fake.

Scientists from China, Switzerland and the US have proven that a normal T-shirt can be transformed into a bulletproof one, although it does take some work.

The scientists bought some T-shirts at Wal-Mart and by adding boron to the carbon in the T-shirt they created a light T-shirt of a very tough material, the same material that is used to protect tanks. It is expected that the research could help in designing lightweight armor for soldiers, police and even cars and aircraft.

Because the current form of boron carbide armor is very heavy and not very flexible the scientists tried to create a lighter and more flexible version of it. Because cotton is a light and flexible material the scientists used this as a starting point.

Boron carbide is a very hard material, totally different from cotton, which is very soft and breathable. The scientists dissolved boron with carbon fibers inside the cotton to form boron carbide.

The scientists cut several t-shirts into strips and put those strips in a boron solution. After about one hour they removed the strips and heated them for about an hour at a very high temperature (more than 1000^oC). The heat burned anything that wasn’t carbon or boron and combined the two elements.

The resulting fabric was not similar to the original ones, but it was still a very light and hard material that could be bent. Although the fabric is still being tested the results so far have been very promising.

If the new fabric would indeed be as strong and good as the scientist expect it to be, then there would be endless possibilities. Vehicles could be armored with the fabric and still be lightweight. It would save significant amounts of fuel and contribute to protect the environment. It could also be used to build body armor for soldiers and police to make their work safer.

Nicholas Kotov, a researcher from the University of Michigan who is working on the development of new materials for body, is very positive about the project and he thinks the project could definitely lead to great results.