Kennedy vs. the "Flying Hammer"

You all know how Bostonist loves its random news stories and this one definitely fits into this category. (Now we must preface that we just find the story a bit odd and once we saw that ABC News reported on it, we just had to talk about it.) It seems that U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (RI) took a hammer to the face today at the least likely violent environments, an economic meeting in lovely Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Poor Kennedy, who is the son of Senator Ted Kennedy, was attending a meeting to learn about Impact Gel, which is used as a shock absorber in sports equipment and athletic shoes. The Wisconsin-based owner of the Gel is thinking about moving the company to Rhode Island and decided that a demonstration with a hammer showing how durable the Gel is, would woo the Congressman. Unfortunately, a piece of the hammer flew off and hit Kennedy in the mouth; he had to get six stitches and is now good as new.

Of course the first thing we asked ourselves after reading this is: what the hell do they put in that Gel to be able to break a hammer?