Public Safety

  • USAF develops UAVs that fly themselves

    A U.S. Air Force project will allow UAVs to fly themselves — in multiple-aircraft formations — without colliding; the USAF is working to develop systems that unmanned aircraft can use to sense the presence of other aircraft and take action to prevent collisions that are safe enough so that UAVs can perform any Air Force mission

  • Giant blimps to ferry hospitals, buildings to disaster zones

    Giant airship will be able to lift up to 150 tons — more than seven times the weight that helicopters are able to carry; the airship, which will be able to move aid — or even portable hospitals and entire buildings — to remote areas or disaster zones, harnesses aerostatic lift, meaning it is able to fly using lighter-than-air (LTA) gases that keep it buoyant rather than aerodynamic lift

  • Skullduggery on a massive scale

    Stuxnet, the malware which attacked more than 30,000 computers used in industrial control systems in Iran, including that country’s nuclear weapons facilities, represents a new class and dimension of malware; it can reach into the physical world, allowing attackers to run motors so fast they burn out, to turn off alarms and safety cut-offs, open effluent valves and activate pumps — in the words of Paul Marks, it allows attackers to “carry out industrial sabotage and skullduggery on a massive scale”

  • Food delivery services boom as violence force people to stay home

    More than 4,000 jobs have disappeared in the restaurant industry and about 40 percent of dining establishments have closed due to the high levels of crime in the border city; as one industry declines, another emerges: more and more companies are now offering home deliveries of food from different restaurants to Juarez residents who fear going out

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  • Rocket-propelled life preserver saves victims from drowning

    A new rescue device ingeniously buys more time for a rescuer to ready a response and reach a drowning victim; borrowing the design of a rocket-propelled grenade, the new rescue system fires an expanding foam bullet up to 500 feet; once the bullet hits the water, it expands forty-times its original size into a life preserver; because the bullet is made of foam, even if it strikes the victim, it would do as much damage as a tennis ball

  • Number of extremist, hard-to-police Web sites skyrockets

    The number of extremist Web sites has skyrocketed, expanding from 12 in 1998 to 4,500 in 2006; Western authorities say that taking action to remove them remains difficult; different countries have adopted different approaches to the problem

  • The five fantastic flying machines from the Pentagon

    DARPA has given a Maryland-based company $3 million to develop a flying Humvee; the Pentagon’s restless research arm has an impressive track record when it comes to audacious flying machine ideas — some of which have never made it off the drawing board, while others are still being pursued

  • Daytime shotgun tracer ammunition developed

    Two companies collaborate to produce the world’s first non-pyrotechnic shotgun tracer; ChemiTracer creates a daytime visible trace that travels with the cloud of the shot allowing shooters instantly to determine how to correct their aim

  • USB thumb drive for cybersecurity missions

    New USB thumb drives designed for military, intelligence, and law enforcement cybersecurity missions; the device boots in less than three seconds, then automatically scans and copies data by prioritizing search criteria and securely partitions search results for analysis

  • Raytheon engineers show Iron Man suit

    The new robotic suit enables the wearer easily to lift 200lb several hundred times without tiring and repeatedly punch through three inches of wood; yet, the suit, which was developed for the U.S. Army, is also agile and graceful enough to let its wearer kick a football, punch a speed bag, or climb stairs and ramps with ease

  • Norway bans testing of Israel-bound submarines

    Israel is buying additional submarines for two purposes: first, move some of its nuclear second-strike capabilities to sea in order to enhance its deterrence posture; second, have more cruise missile-carrying submarines available to position off the Iranian coast for possible attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities; Norway, which is critical of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, has informed the German builder of the Israel-bound submarines that Norway will no longer allow deep-water testing of these submarines in the Norwegian submarine base the German company had leased

  • Mexican mayors: Returning criminal Mexicans to border towns increases violence

    A coalition of Mexican mayors say the United States is contributing to the increase in violence in Mexican border towns by busing repatriated Mexicans who committed crimes in the United States to these border towns — where they join the ranks of the drug cartels — rather than drive or fly them back to their home towns

  • Taser shotgun in legal trouble in U.K.

    Taser’s new, powerful eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, or X12, is being evaluated by the U.K. Home Office for possible adoption by U.K. police; before the evaluation has been completed, the British importer of the weapon sold it to the Northumbria police, in the north of England, which used it against fugitive Raoul Moat, who died as a result; the Home Office has now revoked the importer’s license

  • Brazil uses chemical "fingerprints" to trace trafficked cocaine

    Brazilian federal police have used chemical profiling to determine that cocaine is being trafficked into the country via new routes; they are now compiling the most comprehensive database of the chemical fingerprints of illicit drugs in South America, which will be used to pinpoint where the cocaine is originally made