• DARPA holds $40,000 competition to test social media in disasters

    To better understand how emergency responders can leverage social media tools, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is holding the$40,000 CLIQR Quest Challenge

  • Anonymous retaliates, takes down Interpol site

    In retaliation for the arrest of twenty-five suspected members of the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, the group briefly took down Interpol’s website on Tuesday

  • FBI increasingly concerned with “sovereign citizen” movement

    Over the past decade, the FBI has grown increasingly concerned with the “sovereign citizen” movement; since 2000, sovereign citizens have killed six police officers and violent battles with law enforcement agents are on the rise; the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center classified the movement as a major threat alongside Islamic extremism

  • Snake-emulating search-and-rescue robot

    An all-terrain robot for search-and-rescue missions must be flexible enough to move over uneven surfaces, yet not so big that it is restricted from tight spaces; it might also be required to climb slopes of varying inclines; researchers say the solution would be a search-and-rescue robot which emulates the locomotion of a certain type of flexible, efficient animals: snakes

  • Taser rolls out redesigned wearable cameras

    Last week Taser, the manufacturers of the electric stun guns, unveiled its newly remodeled wearable camera system which is sleeker and more advanced than its predecessor; the Axon Flex, introduced less than a year after the company rolled out its first wearable cameras, represents a significant upgrade

  • U.S. Navy tests electromagnetic railgun launcher

    The electromagnetic railgun launcher is a long-range weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants; magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500 mph to 5,600 mph; the new railgun will allow the U.S. Navy to conduct precise, long-range naval surface fire support for land strikes, ship self-defense against cruise and ballistic missiles, and surface warfare to deter enemy vessels

  • Trinity University students help raise bomb sniffing dog

    With the help of students at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Jjurgens is being trained to fight against terrorism; Jjurgens, a four-month old yellow Labrador retriever, is the only dog in the United States being fostered at a university or school under the Transportation Security Administration Canine Breeding and Development Center program

  • N.Y. senator pushes to streamline industrial fire regulations

    Last week Senator Charles Schumer (D – New York) urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make it easier for first responders to contain industrial fires at chemical facilities by streamlining the agency’s reporting process

  • Detecting explosives from a distance with laser beams

    Scientists have found a way to detect chemicals over long distances, even if they are enclosed in containers; the scientists tested the system by trying to detect frequently used explosives, such as TNT, ANFO, or RDX from a distance – and the tests were successful

  • New York overhauls emergency response capabilities post-Irene

    Last week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a series of major initiatives to bolster the state’s emergency response capabilities; the proposals specifically incorporate lessons learned from the state’s response to Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee

  • Rats trained to detect explosives

    Bomb sniffing dogs could be a thing of the past thanks to explosives seeking rats; unlike dogs, when rats detect sensitive explosives like land mines they rarely set them off as they weigh less than pound

  • London holds massive Olympic security drill

    Last week, in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games, more than 2,500 government officials, local police, and emergency responders participated in a two-day long emergency drill that simulated a terrorist attack on the city’s transportation network

  • Anthrax-decontamination foam used in meth lab cleanup

    The meth cleanup problem in the United States is a big one; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lists thousands of locations where law enforcement agencies have found chemicals or paraphernalia indicating the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites; Sandia’s decontamination foam, originally developed to deal with anthrax, is now also a meth eraser

  • SOUTHCOM deploys radar that sees through foliage, rain, darkness, and dust storms

    Lockheed Martin’s TRACER is a light weight, low-frequency synthetic-aperture radar that can peer through foliage, rain, darkness, dust storms, or atmospheric haze to provide real-time, high-quality tactical ground imagery; U.S. Southern Command has just deployed the penetrating radar to support the Command’s counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance missions, and disaster relief operations

  • Study finds use of GPS jammers across U.K.

    A new study by Chronos Technology reveals that GPS jamming devices are relatively common in the United Kingdom