• UAV can withstand severe weather by changing shape

    A newly designed UAV can adjust its shape according to wind gusts, with an advanced version of the prototype also allowing for its wings to morph, or twist, based on flight phase and weather patterns; the amphibious aircraft, which can be deployed for search and rescue, forest fire monitoring, and border control, is expected to be commercially available in 2011

  • Cloud computing addressing security issues

    With cloud improvements such as Google’s “sharding” — the dividing of an individual file among hundreds of systems to prevent someone from gaining a useful amount of information out of individual documents — being implemented and followed closely by competing providers, security and accessibility will become cloud facets continually improved upon

  • Is the U.S. military interested in a Kiwi Jetpack?

    Kiwi company claims the U.S. military is interested in its Jetpack (not really a jetpack, but personal ducted-fan aircraft too heavy to be lifted by its user); the company made the headlines in the spring by saying it was about the sell the first commercial jetpack for $75,000 a piece; the price has since gone up a bit, to $140,00 a unit, but the company says that 1,600 people have “expressed interest” in buying the Jetpack

  • Ford continuing launch schedule of new police-spec vehicles

    Ford is continuing its impressive launch schedule of police-specific vehicles; following the all new 2011 Explorer SUV and the new, Taurus-based Police Interceptor cop car, Ford has also presented the new police-spec SUV — the Police Interceptor Utility model

  • Use of crime-fighting ShotSpotter technology to be expanded in Nassau County

    For a year now Nassau County, New York, police department has been using the ShotSpotter system, and the country police commissioner says the department has been able to handle shootings much more swiftly, and that in certain instances lives might have been lost if it were not for the technology; the system records the number of shots fired, whether the shooter was stationary or moving, and provides audio playback of each gunshot event; this information not only provides situational awareness for law enforcement officers prior to arriving at the crime scene, but it is also offers valuable evidence for post crime analysis and legal proceedings

  • Obama to pare down list of export-controlled technologies

    For many years, academic institutions and businesses in the United States have complained about the long list of technologies that the U.S. government considers too sensitive to export without a license; last week, President Obama announced that administration would pare down the list of export-controlled item; businesses and universities are happy, but some in the arms-control community are not happy

  • Germany to extend life of nuclear reactors

    Germany said on Monday that it would extend the life of the country’s 17 nuclear reactors by twelve years on average — the lives of older plants will be extended by eight years and those of newer ones by fourteen years; Chancellor Angela Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schroeder had decided to mothball the reactors by around 2020, but Merkel said the extension was necessary to allow more time for renewable energy to become cost effective

  • India's spending on homeland security to double by 2020

    India currently accounts for 3.4 percent of expenditures in the global homeland security market, but during the next ten years India’s share of the market will nearly double, to 6 percent, driven by rapid GDP growth, growing terrorism problems, and the need to modernize antiquated police equipment

  • Technical problems grounds homemade Danish space rocket

    The launch of the first homemade rocket into space failed Sunday owing to technical difficulties; the two Danish inventors who used private funds to develop the 9-meter, 1.6-ton prototype hope to send a person into space within three or four years, which would make Denmark only the fourth nation to do so

  • Laser-powered, ground-charged UAV stays aloft for hours

    A UAV is only as good as its power source: if the drone cannot stay over target for long periods of time and must return to base to refuel, this not only adds to the costs of operating the drone but it also degrade its intelligence gathering capabilities; Seattle-based company demonstrates that it can use a laser beam to charge the UAV’s photovoltaic cells, generating enough power to keep the drone in the air for hours; the company has bigger plans for extending flight duration of military craft — and much more: in the longer term, it envisions lasers powering remote ground-based sensors, delivering power to forward military bases, or supplying emergency power during disasters

  • ITU chief supports governments' need to access BlackBerry communications

    In an interview with AP, ITU head Hamadoun Toure said RIM should provide law enforcement access to customer data; Toure characterized the governments’ needs as “genuine” concerns that cannot be ignored

  • Small thorium reactors could lead to fossil-fuel-free world within five years

    An argument is made that nuclear reactors which use thorium as an accelerator (hence the technical name: Accelerator Driven Thorium Reactors, or ADTR) could lead to fossil-fuel-free world within five years; thorium is an abundant mineral deposit, with 3 to 5 times more thorium in the world than uranium; more importantly, virtually all of the thorium mined can be used as fuel compared to only 0.7 percent of the uranium recovered in its natural state, this means, in energy terms, that one ton of thorium mined is equivalent to 200 tons of uranium mined, which is equivalent to 3.5 million tons of mined coal; ADTRs also enjoy proliferation resistance advantages compared to other reactor systems

  • Cisco buys Arch Rock, beefing up smart-grid business

    Cisco is beefing up its smart-grid and data center businesses by acquiring San Francisco-based Arch Rock, a maker of a system for collecting information from mesh networks of IP-based wireless sensors, routers, and servers; On Wednesday, Cisco announced a deal with meter maker Itron to develop communications products that use the Internet Protocol, rather than proprietary protocols for sending information from meters back to utilities

  • Seafood stewardship questionable: experts

    The world’s most established fisheries certifier — the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) — is failing on its promises as rapidly as it gains prominence, according the world’s leading fisheries experts; “The MSC is supposed to be a solution, but a lot of what they do has turned against biology in favor of bureaucracy,” says one expert

  • Illegal immigration to the U.S. dropped sharply since 2007

    Between March 2000 and March 2005, 850,000 illegal immigrants entered the United States annually; between March 2007 and March 2009, the number dropped to 300,000 annually; the flow of Mexicans, who represent 60 percent of all illegal immigrants in the United States, plummeted to 150,000 annually during the 2007-9 period, compared with the annual average of 500,000 during the 2000-5 period; experts say that the slowing economy and bleak job market for low-skill workers, not tighter border security, have played the biggest role in the drop in illegal entrants