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Northrop Grumman acquires KillerBee UAV line from Swift
The KillerBees are blended wing-body UAVs offered in sizes ranging from 6.5 feet to 33.2 feet in wingspan; NG changes name from KillerBee to Bat
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Dutch flying car company, well, takes off
Dutch flying car company PAL-V is gearing up for market launch of its flying car; it is Europe’s response to Massachusetts-based Terrafugia’s Transition
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Current swine flu is the inevitable result of modern farming methods
The current swine flu outbreak is not yet two weeks old and conspiracy theorists already ascribe it to genetic engineering by clever bioterrorists; the truth is more prosaic: there are more than one billion pigs and more than 70 billion chickens raised every year for human consumption; modern, industrial animal farming methods make the creation of new virus types — what scientists call “reassortment” — inevitable
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Virulent H5N1 mistakenly mixed with H3N2
Austrian branch of vaccine company Baxter sent a batch of ordinary human H3N2 flu to Avir lab, also in Austria; a Czech affiliate of Avir conducted tests on ferrets, which died; investigation shows that the H3N2 batch contained live virulent H5N1 virus
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GE sells its Homeland Protection business to Safran for $580 million
Following 9/11, GE acquired Ion Track (2002) for an undisclosed sum and InVision Technologies for $900 million (2004); the Homeland Protection unit had revenue of $260 million last year, which GE saw as disappointing; CEO of French company Safran: We want to become “a pivotal player in the security market”
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U.K. government drops central database scheme
Burden of storing communication logs will now fall to ISPs
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A lost or stolen laptop costs companies nearly $50,000
A company may pay $1,000-$2,000 for a laptop computer for one of its employees; if the employee lost the laptop or it was stolen, the cost to the employer would average $49,246
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Financial crisis offers opportunities for start-ups
A world of failing corporate titans and changing government policy is chaotic, but chaos creates opportunity and leaner times bring focus; savvy and nimble start-ups are in a position to exploit the situation
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Growing problem: Private security companies pose risk to privacy
Government mandates in the U.K. now require more and more businesses to collect more and more information about individuals who use these businesses’ services; private contractors are hired to handled the collection and handling of the personal information collected; these contractors are not bound by the tight rules governing the government handling of such information (not that the U.K. government is doing a very good job following these rules)
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New detection devices from Smiths Detection
Smiths Detection shows three new devices for quicker and more reliable detection of biological and chemical agents; soldiers and first responders will also appreciate the light weight and the ability to operate the gear with only one hand
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Unstructured data search: Attensity Corp. forms Attensity Group
What with the mountains of information the Internet age allows, there is a need to search these vast haystacks for the few important needles; this is what unstructured data searches do; a leading player, Attensity Corporation, joins with Empolis GmbH and Living-e AG to form Attensity Group
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Self-healing concrete for safer, durable, and cheaper-to-maintain infrastructure
Wolverines researchers develop self-healing concrete; the concrete self-heals itself when it develops cracks; no human intervention required — only water and carbon dioxide
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U.K. government's budget proposal attracts lukewarm reaction
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s budget — described by the chancellor as “the world’s first carbon budget” — offers support to U.K.’s fast-growth technology sector, but some say it is not enough; EFF’s Gilbert Toppin: “The measures are helpful though he should have gone further to make a real difference”
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General Atomics shows latest entry in Predator UAV series
With a 41-foot long fuselage and 66-foot wingspan, the Predator C Avenger is capable of flying at over 400 KTAS and can operate up to 60,000 feet
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Russia to build new-generation nuclear icebreaker by 2015
Russia is locked in legal dispute with four other countries over rights to the mineral-rich areas in an under the North pole — areas which are slowly becoming accessible as a result of global warming; to make sure it gains ready access, Russia invests a new generation of nuclear ice breakers
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The long view
Even Out of China’s Hands, Mines Still Rely on Its Equipment
The landmark critical minerals agreement between Australia and the United States is vital to both nations’ security and sovereignty. But the agreement signed carries an inherent vulnerability. The very partnership designed to reduce China’s coercive leverage is increasingly relying on Chinese technology to give effect to its objectives.
Building Trust into Tech: A Framework for Sovereign Resilience
Governments are facing a critical question: who can be trusted to build and manage their countries’ most sensitive systems? Vendor choices, for everything from cloud infrastructure to identity platforms, are no longer just commercial; they are strategic.
Data Centers’ Insatiable Demand for Electricity Will Change the Entire Energy Sector
When the first large language models were unleashed, it triggered a headache for authorities around the world as they tried to figure out how to satisfy data centers’ endless demand for electricity.