convore.json/groups/socal-martial-law-alerts/technology-tuesday-83011/messages.json

[{"user_id": 11626, "stars": [], "topic_id": 44657, "date_created": 1314689041.225657, "message": "TECHNOLOGY TUESDAY 8/30/11\r\n\r\nWecome to the \"Technology Tuesday\" edition of SCMLA's newsletter!\r\n\r\nMerry-Glow-Round: Theme Park Built In A Nuclear Reactor Promises A Fun-Fuelled Day\r\nDaily Mail\r\nAugust 29, 2011\r\n\r\nThese extraordinary images show what could be the world\u2019s most bizarre theme park \u2013 built around an abandoned nuclear power station. Wunderland near Kalkar, Germany, cleverly combines a never-been-used multi-million-pound reactor with classic fair rides, including a merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, carousel and log flume. A swing ride has even been fitted inside the old cooling tower, while a 130ft-high climbing wall features on the outside. When it was originally built in 1972 the construction \u2013 dubbed the SNR-300 \u2013 was destined to be the world\u2019s most technologically advanced nuclear power plant and Germany\u2019s first fast breeder nuclear reactor.\r\nhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029137/Wunderland-theme-park-built-nuclear-reactor-promises-fun-fuelled-day.html\r\n\r\nWeird, Birdlike Mystery Drone Crashes in Pakistan\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 29, 2011\r\n\r\nIt looks a bit like silver bird. It probably was used to spy on insurgents. And now it\u2019s in the hands of the Pakistanis. WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson flags pictures of an unusual, unfamiliar drone that reportedly crashed crashed over southwestern Pakistan late last week. It\u2019s a surveillance drone, with a camera attached \u2014 recovered from the crash but not apparently visible in this photo \u2014 rather than the larger, deathly flying robots that shoot missiles. This one looks tiny, with a wingspan not much longer than a man\u2019s outstretched arms, and clearly light enough for a grown man to carry. The Pakistani Frontier Corps in Baluchistan province recovered the drone. And they confidently declare it to be an \u201cAmerican surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle.\u201d But as Anderson points out, it doesn\u2019t look like anything the U.S. flies \u2014 or at least acknowledges flying. What\u2019s the deal?\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/weird-birdlike-mystery-drone-crashes-in-pakistan\r\n\r\nUFO Sightings Increase 67 Percent In 3 Years, History Channel Investigates Unexplained Aerial Phenomena\r\nHuffington Post\r\nAugust 28, 2011\r\n\r\nUnemployment, gas prices, and fear over global warming aren\u2019t the only things skyrocketing \u2014 so are mysterious objects rocketing through the sky. The Mutual UFO Network \u2014 the largest privately funded UFO research organization in the world \u2014 tells The Huffington Post that more people than ever are reporting unidentified flying objects, mostly in the United States and Canada. \u201cOver the past year, we\u2019ve been averaging 500 sighting reports a month, compared to about 300 three years ago [67 percent],\u201d MUFON international director Clifford Clift said. \u201cAnd I get one or two production companies contacting me every week, wanting to do stories on UFOs.\u201d So far this week, mysterious aerial lights in Laredo, Texas, and Kansas City, MO., lived up to, at least initially, the strict definition of UFOs, namely \u201cUnidentified\u201d Flying Objects. That, of course, doesn\u2019t mean that little green men are watching us. It\u2019s generally accepted that 95 percent of all sightings are easily dismissed. Some turn out to be conventional aircraft, others are satellites or weather balloons \u2014 and then there are the hoaxers with Photoshopped concoctions. In the case of the Kansas City sighting, the UFOs turned out to be the Army Golden Knights parachuting team, performing a nighttime jump. But the explanation for the blinking light over Laredo is still up for grabs. However, the remaining 5 percent of all UFO reports aren\u2019t as easily explained. And many of them are reported by commercial and military pilots. These were examined on Secret Access: UFOs On The Record, a new History Channel documentary that premiered on Thursday.\r\nhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/ufos-pilots-history-channel_n_935847.html\r\n\r\nCanada Seeks Stealthy Snowmobile, For No Good Reason\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\n August 26, 2011\r\n\r\nThe Canadian government wants a stealth snowmobile. Just, apparently, because. It\u2019s not as if Canada has any alpine enemies to sneak up on with shadowy, frigid cavalry. But that\u2019s not going to stop the Canadian Department of National Defence from spending a half million dollars on a prototype. The secret to the intended stealth capabilities of the snowmobile: a hybrid engine and a quieter electric motor. According to a solicitation from the department, the vehicle has to be able to travel 15 kilometers in its electric mode at an average speed of 20 kilometers per hour. Alas, hybrid snowmobiles aren\u2019t commercially available yet, but the department wants a prototype model by March 31.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/canada-seeks-stealthy-snowmobile-for-no-good-reason\r\n\r\nFukushima caesium leaks \u2018equal 168 Hiroshimas\u2019\r\nLondon Telegraph\r\nAugust 25, 2011\r\n\r\nJapan\u2019s government estimates the amount of radioactive caesium-137 released by the Fukushima nuclear disaster so far is equal to that of 168 Hiroshima bombs. Government nuclear experts, however, said the World War II bomb blast and the accidental reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, which has seen ongoing radiation leaks but no deaths so far, were beyond comparison. The amount of caesium-137 released since the three reactors were crippled by the March 11 quake and tsunami has been estimated at 15,000 tera becquerels, the Tokyo Shimbun reported, quoting a government calculation. That compares with the 89 tera becquerels released by \u201cLittle Boy\u201d, the uranium bomb the United States dropped on the western Japanese city in the final days of World War II, the report said. The estimate was submitted by Prime Minister Naoto Kan\u2019s cabinet to a lower house committee on promotion of technology and innovation, the daily said.\r\nhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8722400/Fukushima-caesium-leaks-equal-168-Hiroshimas.html\r\n\r\nPentagon Isn\u2019t Sweating China\u2019s New Weapons of Doom\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 24, 2011\r\n\r\nWhile China\u2019s new mega-missile, aircraft carrier and stealth fighter have made for pants-pooping media panic, the Pentagon is affecting the blase posture of the Brooklyn hipste \u201cThere\u2019s nothing particularly magical about any one particular item,\u201d Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Michael Schiffer told reporters in a Wednesday briefing. And key sections of the report verge on the passive aggressive. The ultimate Chinese goal is a \u201cregionally focused\u201d military, (.pdf) not one that challenges the United States everywhere around the planet. \u201dChina has made less progress on capabilities that extend global reach or power projection,\u201d the report, released Wednesday, reads. \u201cOutside of peacetime counter-piracy missions, for example, China\u2019s Navy has little operational experience beyond regional waters.\u201d Apparently, it takes more than new stealth jets, early-stage missiles and a souped-up Ukrainian carrier to get a rise out of the U.S. military.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/chinas-new-weapons-of-doom\r\n\r\nTongue-Tied Troops Can Dial a Translator for War-Zone Chats\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 24, 2011\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s been almost a decade since the United States began its wars in countries that most Americans can\u2019t find on a map, let alone understand the native language. The military\u2019s tried nearly everything to get around its language barriers, from spending big bucks trying to ape Star Trek\u2019s Universal Translator to hiring expensive contractors who speak Arabic, Pashto and Dari. One defense giant thinks it\u2019s got a better idea: war-zone conference calling. Lockheed Martin is rolling out a Dial-a-Translator system it calls LinGO Link. The gist of it is that troops needing to talk to locals in real time can call into a \u201cbank of interpreters\u201d that the company will maintain somewhere near the front lines. Using a specialized smartphone operating on a proprietary data network, a soldier using LinGO Link would dial himself and his local interlocutor into the call center so a native speaker can translate. \u201cLinGo Link serves as a force multiplier by allowing interpreters, skilled in multiple languages and dialects, to be used in different areas without the need to be physically present at each location,\u201d promises Lockheed in a statement rolling out the new service. All of which sounds fine. Except that LinGO Link is only going to be as good as the translators who work in the call center, and as powerful as the broadband that can let troops call in to have their conversations relayed. Everyone who\u2019s been on a conference call knows how annoying it can be even in your native language. Setting up a three-way call in order to speak with someone you\u2019re standing in the same room with could easily become a frustrating game of telephone \u2014 except this one could potentially be a life-or-death situation.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/dial-a-translator\r\n\r\nLibyan Rebels Are Flying Their Own Minidrone\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 23, 2011\r\n \r\nThe Libyan revolutionaries are more of a band of enthusiastic amateurs than experienced soldiers. But it turns out the rebels have the kind of weaponry usually possessed by advanced militaries: their very own drone. Aeryon Labs, a Canadian defense firm, revealed on Tuesday that it had quietly provided the rebel forces with a teeny, tiny surveillance drone, called the Aeryon Scout. Small enough to fit into a backpack, the 3-pound, four-rotor robot gave Libyan forces eyes in the sky independent of the Predators, Fire Scout surveillance copters and manned spy planes that NATO flew overhead. Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s not armed. So far, the rebels have just one Scout among them, according to Marni McVicar, Aeryon\u2019s vice president for business development. Working with a Canadian private security company called Zariba, Aeryon delivered the Scout \u201cseveral weeks\u201d ago to rebels in the Western port city of Misurata who used it, according to McVicar, to hasten their surprisingly rapid march to Tripoli. The rebels needed barely a day of training to use a technology that many national armies would love to acquire. \u201cWe like to joke that it\u2019s designed for people who are not that bright, have fat fingers and break things,\u201d McVicar told Danger Room in a phone interview.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/libyan-rebels-are-flying-their-own-mini-drone\r\n\r\n\u2018Stealth\u2019 warships to test China\u2019s nerve\r\nAustralian\r\nAugust 22, 2011\r\n\r\nTHE US is deploying a new generation of high-speed stealth warships to the disputed waters of the South China Sea, in a move that is bound to raise tensions with Beijing. The vessels, which cost $US440 million ($422m) each, will be deployed in the shipping lanes between Hong Kong and Singapore, where four nations are at odds with China over who owns vast areas of ocean rich in oil and gas. The ships are designed to fight in shallow waters. They carry three helicopters and special forces units with armoured vehicles that can roll off a ramp into action, while fast gunboats can be launched from the stern. The latest version, built by General Dynamics, is an aluminium-hulled trimaran, the USS Independence. Launched last year, it is protected by Mk 110 57mm guns made by BAE Systems, plus missiles for air, land and underwater targets. The warships\u2019 sleek silhouettes reflect their stealth technology, while the stable trimaran design suits the South China Sea, which is swept by typhoons every summer.\r\nhttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/stealth-warships-to-test-chinas-nerve/story-e6frg6so-1226119196472\r\n\r\nU.S. Spies Totally Confused by Wall Street, Too\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 22, 2011\r\n\r\nIn the last few weeks the stock market has gone ballistic, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average swinging up and down by 400 points seemingly every day. Top-notch economists are scratching their heads; Wall Street traders are hysterical. Even the U.S. intelligence community is flummoxed. So those spies have decided to take matters \u2014 or markets \u2014 into their own hands. Iarpa, the intelligence community\u2019s way-out research division, thinks it can make sense of the stock market. But first, it needs some help. At a recent conference, Iarpa introduced a new program to develop tools to help analysts \u201cquickly and accurately assess petabytes of complex anonymized financial data.\u201d\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/spies-confused-by-wall-street\r\n\r\nTiny Pocketbots Prepped for Combat\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\n August 19, 2011\r\n\r\nWhen the U.S. military first got serious about ground robots, it bought up a bunch of 42-pound machines called PackBots. The name implied that infantrymen would just throw the robots in their rucksacks. In reality, the things were too heavy for already-overloaded troops to carry around on the regular. The PackBot\u2019s main competitor, the Talon, was even more of a burden. It weighed a whopping 125 pounds. Now, there\u2019s a new wave of reconnaissance bots being prepared for combat. And they are radically smaller than the previous generation; the tiniest of them weighs less than a pound-and-a-half. Which means they\u2019ll not only fit inside a backpack, they might even squeeze inside a jacket or a pair of pants. Call them pocketbots. Both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps are expected shortly to issue \u201curgent\u201d battlefield requests for 3,500 to 5,000 of the micro machines. The idea that these new models can be tossed into a building or over a wall, allowing an infantryman to get a sense of what\u2019s inside a room before he kicks down the door. Three different bot-makers showed off their pocketbot models at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Washington this week. If they work as advertised, they could be the next big leap forward for military robotics. Ground robots were originally issued to a specialized few, like explosive ordnance disposal technicians. That eventually grew to an unmanned force that\u2019s now 2,000 strong in Afghanistan. These machines are so small, the military could potentially expand the robotic army even further. \u201cWe can provide this capability to every soldier on the battlefield,\u201d says retired Navy Captain Robert L. Moses. He\u2019s an executive with iRobot, maker of the original PackBot \u2014 and a new, nine-inch \u201cthrowable\u201d machine.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/pocketbots\r\n\r\nTwo Targets, One Bullet: How the Ultimate Sniper Rifle Was Made\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 18, 2011\r\n\r\nIn 2007, when the Navy SEALs went looking for an alternative to the Barrett weapons system it already used \u2014 an ultra-high-caliber rifle capable of firing .5-inch cartridges at distances beyond 1,200 meters \u2014 it talked to the best weapons manufacturers across the globe. Eventually it contacted a small company with 50 employees, who, it had heard, could make a weapon suitable for its tactical and operational demands. It didn\u2019t buy American; it skirted around the excellence of German and Scandinavian weapons design; and, unsurprisingly, it didn\u2019t call the Russians. It went British. It approached an enterprise that embodies a high-tech, design-focused approach, blending traditional British engineering with the latest technological innovation. The Portsmouth company, Accuracy International (AI), equips the British Special Boat Service and Special Air Service with sniper rifles. In 2008, it signed a 3.7 million-pound contract to supply almost 600 sniper weapons to the UK Ministry of Defence. What came out of the SEALs\u2019 approach to AI was a new gun. \u201cThe fact that such a small company can be a world-beater in the manufacture of quality weapon systems in a market dominated by huge American and European companies is a huge achievement,\u201d says Color Sergeant Lee Chevenix, a British Army sniping-team instructor. \u201cI know from first-hand experience how revered the AI product is, even in the States, where traditionally U.S. producers are favored.\u201d AI\u2019s weapons are now part of long-range sniping lore. Craig Harrison, a British Army sniper from the Household Cavalry, hit two Taliban machine-gunners with two consecutive shots at a range of 2,475 meters in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2009. Inadvertently he had taken the world sniping record using an L115A3, the 0.338-inch caliber military sniper-rifle system made by AI that is now standard issue for the British Army.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/ultimate-sniper-rifle\r\n\r\nAfter Libya Shootdown, U.S. Robo-Copter Will Weaponize\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\n August 18, 2011\r\n\r\nAmerica\u2019s only combat casualty in Libya had no way of defending itself, when it was taken out by a heavy anti-aircraft weapon in late June. But that\u2019s about to change. After spending the last few months chasing pirates in the Indian Ocean, watching over troops in Afghanistan, and flying into a pro-regime stronghold in Libya, the U.S. Navy\u2019s Fire Scout robotic helicopter is poised to start test-firing rockets. By the end of next year, the drone should be fully weaponized, and ready to shoot back if it gets attacked. It\u2019s another step forward for the Fire Scout, the once star-crossed robo-copter that\u2019s quickly becoming a favorite tool of the Navy, despite years of uneven history and despite a recent Pentagon test report which said the drone was missing its missions as often as it was completing them. On June 21st, the U.S.S. Halyburton dispatched one of its two Fire Scouts to a known stronghold of forces loyal to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The unmanned helo flew over the hostile zone, snapping video as it went and beaming the footage back to the ship. The Fire Scouts had flown as many as 15 such missions over Libya before. But this one was different. This time, the video suddenly stopped. The robo-copter\u2019s wreckage was quickly paraded on Al Jazeera.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/after-libya-shootdown-u-s-robo-copter-will-weaponize\r\n\r\nBad Eyes Keep Unmanned Infantry Out of the Fight\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\n August 17, 2011\r\n\r\nThe robots were ready. Their weapons were primed. The battle was raging, and in need of new infantrymen \u2014 even if those troops weren\u2019t necessarily human. But in the summer of 2007, the U.S. Army decided not to send its trio of armed robots onto the streets of Baghdad. Partially, the decision came from fears for safety: No one wanted the blue screen of death to actually become lethal. Partially, it was a nod to appearances: A robot grunt shooting a little kid would have been a public relations disaster. But there were technical reasons, too \u2014 reasons that continue to plague U.S. development of ground robots, and may hamper the development of the unmanned infantry for years to come. Communications between the robot and its human operator remain spotty, at best. The machine still isn\u2019t particularly good at executing orders on his own. Perhaps most importantly, the robots have poor eyesight; the machines still can\u2019t see as far as they can shoot. \u201cIf I\u2019ve got a robot with a machine gun that\u2019s got a max range of 800 meters, and a camera that can only see a couple meters, well, that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Lt. Col. Stewart Hatfield, chief of the lethality branch of the U.S. Army Capabilities Integration Center, told an audience at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Washington on Tuesday. (Full disclosure: I moderated a panel of my own there.) \u201cAre we gonna get to the point of a Terminator in the [infantry] squad?\u201d Hatfield asked. \u201cMaybe. But we\u2019ve got a long way to go in terms of trust and confidence and autonomy.\u201d\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/bad-eyes-keep-unmanned-infantry-out-of-the-fight\r\n\r\nRunning Robot Breaks Speed Records (Now All It Needs Is a Head)\r\nDangerRoom (via Wired.com)\r\nAugust 17, 2011\r\n\r\nAfter three years of \u201ctraining\u201d, including broken limbs, the gold medal for \u201cthe world\u2019s fastest bipedal robot with knees\u201d is to be hung around the neck of a robot called MABEL. The creation of a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, MABEL has just clocked a record of 6.8 miles per hour, but it\u2019s been a tough training regime to get the robot from walking smoothly to running like a human. She was originally built by Jessy Grizzle, a professor in the University\u2019s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Jonathan Hurst, who was then a doctoral student at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Doctoral students Koushil Sreenath and Hae-Won Park have since joined the project working on the feedback algorithms that allow MABEL to balance even when faced with uneven ground. The team says in a release that the robot \u201ctook its first jog\u201d in July. MABEL is designed to have almost a human physiology \u2014 her weight is distributed like a human\u2019s namely she has a heavier torso and \u201clight, flexible legs with springs that act like tendons\u201d. Grizzle adds that MABEL is in the air for 40 percent of each stride, \u201clike a real runner\u201d. In other running robots, claims the team, this \u201cflight phase\u201d lasts for less than 10 percent of each step.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/running-robot\r\n\r\nLockheed Drone is Inspired by Sycamore Seeds, Flies Like a Boomerang\r\nDangerRoom (via  Wired.com)\r\nAugust 15, 2011\r\n\r\nMaple seeds, sycamore seeds, whirlybirds or \u2014 if you live up north \u2014 spinning jennies. Whatever you call them, winged samara seeds are the helicopters of the natural world, whipping their blades around in the wind to travel great distances. That\u2019s why defense contractor Lockheed Martin has been building an unmanned drone that mimics the movement of sycamore seeds. It\u2019s called the SAMARAI, and Lockheed is showing it off at this year\u2019s convention of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International in Washington. The one-winged drone is a foot long, and flies using a cyclic lift motion like a helicopter. It has just two moving parts (making it perfect for 3D printing), a camera and it can be piloted with a remote control or an app on a tablet. It can be tossed like a boomerang for instant deployment, dropped from a plane to collect ground-level images, or it can take off vertically and hover in place. It\u2019s one versatile little machine. Lockheed Martin\u2019s New Jersey-based Intelligent Robotics Laboratories has been working on the idea of a samara seed-inspired bot for five years \u2014 funded, at times, by Darpa. At one point, the robot was going to be literally seed-size, and could deliver a tiny two-gram payload. Over the years it\u2019s grown to the big boomerang you see today.\r\nhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/lockheed-sycamore-seeds", "group_id": 3920, "id": 2001508}]