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East Africa emerges as important front in war on terror
Deteriorating security situation along the east Africa coast leads U.S. government to issue strong warning about travel, shipping in the region
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China to work harder to clean up its act in space
China is now the most polluted — and most polluting — country on Earth; at least the Chinese government has now committed to clean up its activities in space — which is good news for U.S. commercial and military intetrests
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NIST's enhanced PIV Data Generator
NIST releases an improved version of its Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Data Generator — and it can be downloaded from the organization’s Web site
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U.S. military increasingly interested in diretced energy
Directed-energy weapons were initially conceived as a possible defense against ballistic missiles; now they are being developed for tactical military applications — and law enforcement
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Atomic-level data storage theoretically possible
In a major breakthrough, IBM researchers show that it should be possible to use individual atoms, or groups of atoms, to store data or act as a transistor; insight to lead to incredibly tiny chips, storage devices, sensors —and to applications yet to be imagined
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U.K. cabs to be equipped with CCTVs
A taxi company in Peterborough had an idea: Why not install a CCTV on the dashboard to record everything in and around the can, so if something untoward happens, there is a record
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Two companies partner on public-safety computer-aided dispatch
The technology of dispatching law enforcement quickly to disaster zones is a growing business, and two specialists will market their solutions jointly to U.S. localities
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Terrorism threatens Indian economy
Deteriorating internal security conditions in India — one expert says “India is one of the most under-policed states in the world” —offer lucrative opportunities for homeland security companies
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Shoes-on shoe inspection system comes to U.S.
IDO Security introcues a high-speed shoes-on portable footwear weapons detection system
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Scientists gain better understanding of physics behind invisibility cloaks
Perfect invisibility cloaks are difficult to achieve, but for many military, law enforcement, and civilian uses, imperfect cloaks may do; one intriguing use of cloaks: Making cities more beautiful by hiding ugly industrial facilities for aesthetic reasons
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Power amplifier to enhance electronic warfare capabilities
BAE and partners will develop a 160-watt solid-state, gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifier for communications, electronic warfare, and radar applications
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U.S. redesigns currency to add security
$776 billion in U.S. currency —70 percent of which in $100 bills — is in circulation, two-thirds of which is held overseas; to make counterfeiting more difficult, a new security thread is approved for the bill
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New tire deflating device obviates need for police car chases
Car-chasing a fleeing criminal at high speeds is dangerous to the police and to innocent bystanders; a Wisconsin company, with help from NASA, designs a “throwable” tire deflating device allowing law enforcement to force fleeing car to stop without giving chase
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U.S. product imports exceeded exports for the first time in 2002
NSF: “The comparative advantage held by U.S. advanced technology producers has narrowed considerably in a matter of a few short years”; U.S. loses ground to China
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New protective clothing options for U.K. school-bound kids
Back to school: U.K. clothing manufactures offer school uniforms with embedded satellite tracking devices — and stab-proof t-shirts, hooded tops, and school blazers
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The long view
China Will Dominate High-Tech Unless the United States Takes Off the Gloves
The U.S.-China trade war has affected businesses from Apple to American cherry growers and shows no signs of halting, but the profuse debate around Huawei and the Trump administration’s trade war reveals a fundamental weakness in the American economy: its lack of competitiveness. The United States should continue to defend against potential security threats posed by Chinese firms, but it should not rely on these protections only as a strategy to maintain competitiveness. The erosion of U.S. dominance in other key high-tech, high-value sectors – automobiles, consumer electronics, robotics, AI, energy, biotechnology, electric vehicles —suggest that there are more fundamental problems. “If the United States wishes to maintain its high-tech leadership, it must be willing to invest in the industries critical to success in the twenty-first century,” three experts write.
Retreating from Rising Seas Isn’t a Win or a Defeat — It’s Reality
“Managed retreat” is a controversial response to climate change. It’s the idea that communities and governments should be strategic about moving people away from areas that have become too waterlogged to live in safely. Retreating from coastlines and riversides might have once been considered unthinkable. But across the world, it’s already happening — in Australia, Colombia, Vietnam, and here in the United States. And Indonesia just found itself a new capital. The country’s president, Joko Widodo, announced on Monday that the new seat of government will be on the island of Borneo, hundreds of miles to the northeast of the current capital, Jakarta. The Java Sea threatens to swallow 95 percent of the city over the next 30 years.
Coming Soon to a Battlefield: Robots That Can Kill
A Marine Corps program called Sea Mob aims to develop cutting-edge technology which would allow vessels to undertake lethal assaults without a direct human hand at the helm. A handful of such systems have been deployed for decades, though only in limited, defensive roles, such as shooting down missiles hurtling toward ships. But with the development of AI-infused systems, the military is now on the verge of fielding machines capable of going on the offensive, picking out targets and taking lethal action without direct human input.
China May Have Used a Recent Massive iPhone Hack to Target Uighur Muslims
A recent massive iPhone hack discovered by Google researchers may have been a campaign to target Uighur Muslims, an oppressed ethnic minority living in China, TechCrunch and Forbes report. The hack came to light last week, when researchers at Google’s cybersecurity wing Project Zero reported they had found a handful of websites which had been secretly injecting spyware into iPhones over the course of two years.
Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change
Research indicates that we need to go beyond observing the wreckage of major storms and pondering trillion-dollar plans to attempt to mitigate carbon. Businesses, homeowners, and local governments must focus on what can be done today to address these direct threats to people and property. There are three major tools in the “what to do next” approach: probability, selection, and migration.
Bill Gates Is Funding a Chemical Cloud That Could Put an End to Global Warming
Whether you agree or not, global warming is happening. As reported by the minds at NASA, human activity continues to exacerbate the problem. Currently, there is more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than in all of human history. Two-thirds of extreme weather events from the past 20 years can be tied back to human activity, while both our summers and winters are getting much warmer. Bill Gates is currently backing a potential solution to global warming that centers around the technology of solar geoengineering.