It would be incredible if they called it "fuligin", the color from Gene Wolfe's New Sun novels that's darker than black.

For some reason all I can think of are the t-shirts that say "I wear black until they make something darker." Never thought I'd see the day.

@mjdurall: YES! I was just thinking that.

So, black is the new black.

i could use this stuff on my bedroom walls to make it even more difficult to get up in the morning.

Or worse, who needs waterboarding if you just make a prison out of this stuff and never turn on any lights, and make the guards completely silent with soft clothes and shoes while outfitting them with nightvision (that is if it would work in there)

Actually, I wonder what kind of room would use this and also LitrCon, which is the concrete that allows light in.

Anyways, the USAF now can make their black projects even blacker.

"Awwwwwww . . .

I'm black y'all, and I'm black y'all, and I'm blacker than black, and I'm black y'all.

I'm blickedy black blacker than black, black I'm blacker than black, yo! Because I'm black and I'm BACK!

Yo, I'm black and I'm black, y'all, and I'm blacker than black and I'm black y'all. I'm black black black black black black black black black and I'm black, and I'm black because I'm BACK!"

@ Deathbytheremin: no. BLACKblack is the new black. not just "black" but REALLY black. maybe "true black"? i do like the fuligin idea... but how many scientists actually read science FICTION? that's a survey i'd like to see. what are we talking about again?

does one have to be super-goth to waer this?

"It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black."

So I guess it gets pulled over 30 times as often?

@SuperUnison: Ba-Dum-Bum-Psh.

@notquiteunderground: They should make those out of old black and the the text will be "I'll wear black until they come out with something" in grey and then "darker than black" in new black.

My boss is 30 times blacker than black. . . .

er...
"It's also 30 times darker than the standard we currently use to measure what counts as "black."
shouldn't we be using a reflectivity value of 0.0 percent to measure what counts as black?
what have we been using all this time to compare things to? "almost black"?

none more black.

Came to post the Gene Wolfe comment but got beat. Added bonus, though: my user pic is Severian in his fuligan cloak. The executioners wear it because blood doesn't show on it.

I didnt look it up, but wasn't Ultra Black in one of the Hitchhikers Guide books? A band name? With the dead lead guitarist? at the Restaurant At the End of the Universe?

Hmmm, hope they figure out how to make car paint with this.

You're thinking of Hotblack Desiato of the band Disaster Area. There were some cool colors in Hitchhiker's Guide, though: ultraviolent, infradead, gangreen. And, of course, there's the Hooloovo, a super-intelligent shade of the color blue.

@mgoldfarb: Well, we've never made clothes that were actually black. If we used 0.0 to measure whether or not a coat was black, then we wouldn't ever wear anything that was called black.

..so it looks like my high school yearbook photo.

Spinal Tap would be proud.

I'll be satisfied when they invent something with negative reflectivity.

"Old black" has some kind of scar through it's bottom right ... is that just an element of the color I never noticed before, or are these scientists just trying to hoax us, again?!?

@Eac_O_System: I think it's a disc of material, like the thickness of a hockey puck. Don Rickles would love it.

I think that is just a thick specimen, and the view is slightly angled.

@arditty: Dang it, I need to refresh my page more often.

Pratchett wrote about 'Infrablack' if I remember correctly...
Be nice to get some of this as paint for my new 'hangover room'.

...darker than a steer's tuchus on a moonless prarie night...

There was nooooo bottom...

@CSX321: That was my first thought. In the radio play, doesn't Ford burble over HotBlack's ship and how utterly, completely *black* it is? This is before they end up on the planet with the eternally delayed flight, not to mention the Crisis Inducer.

Love alterna-Hitchhiker.

Hotblack's ship was black with a black interior. Looking at it was difficult because it was so dark that your eyes kind of slid past it.

Damn, you can't even see the edges. Here come the Vindicare cosplay badassery.