• Rhode Island prison deploys new inmate eye scanners

    This summer a Rhode Island prison inmate was able to walk out of prison by posing as another inmate who was up for parole; the state Department of Corrections has deployed an eye scanner in the prison that checks inmates’ eyes to ensure identity

  • 2010's world weather extremes: quakes, floods, blizzards

    Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides, and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a generation; more people were killed worldwide by natural disasters in 2010 than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past forty years combined; disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes “are pretty much constant,” said Andreas Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re. “All the change that’s made is man-made.”

  • WikiLeaks: Yemen radioactive stocks "easy al-Qaeda target"

    Yemeni official told U.S. diplomats that the lone sentry standing watch at Yemen’s national atomic energy commission (NAEC) storage facility had been removed from his post, and that the facility’s only closed circuit TV security camera had broken down six months previously and was never fixed; “Very little now stands between the bad guys and Yemen’s nuclear material,” the official warned, in a cable dated 9 January this year sent from the Sana’a embassy to the CIA, the FBI, and the department of homeland security; when told of the Yemeni nuclear storage problem, Matthew Bunn, a Harvard University nuclear terrorism expert, said: “Holy cow. That’s a big source. If dispersed by terrorists it could make a very nasty dirty bomb capable of contaminating a wide area”

  • White House held up regulation to stop gun flow to Mexico

    Tens of thousands of semi-automatic rifles are smuggled from the United States to Mexico every year, increasing the level of violence of the war among the drug cartels and creating a situation in which the cartels often out-gun the Mexican police and military; on Friday, the ATF published an emergency proposal in the Federal Register; the proposal requires dealers to report to the ATF anytime they make two or more sales over a 5-day period of semiautomatic rifles that have a caliber greater than .22 and a detachable magazine; it would be valid for six months; Justice wanted the proposal to be placed in the Register in the summer, but the White House held it up — some say because of election considerations

  • Critics: Trusted Traveler will allow Mexican cartels to bypass airport security

    Two weeks ago DHS announced plans the roll out of Trusted Traveler program with Mexico; under the program, Mexicans who have undergone background checks and are deemed low security risks will be able to fly into major U.S. cities and breeze through customs without being questioned by U.S. Customs agents; critics say Mexico’s drug cartels will quickly learn how to exploit loopholes in the plan by recruiting Mexicans with clean backgrounds to attain trusted traveler status, and then use them to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the United States; Mexican citizens are already eligible for expedited land border crossings through another trusted traveler program, Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI); last week, two SENTRI trusted travelers were caught trying to bring contraband across the border into the U.S. through the SENTRI-only express border passage

  • More companies shun Mexico as violence spirals

    Growing numbers of companies are deciding to limit their investments in Mexico because of spiraling drug-related violence in one of the world’s most important emerging markets; Mexico continues to lure foreign investment with its low wages, location next to the United States, and the advantages of the North American Free Trade Agreement; for some companies, particularly those that do not yet have operations south of the border, the violence has become daunting

  • Software enables swifter justice

    A system from the Eagan, Minnesota, company Intertech speeds the process of filing criminal complaints, eliminating steps that used to require paper; this summer, it received approval for its eCharging Web-based system, which cuts down on the time to process the complaints because officials sign off electronically through a password or fingerprint reader

  • Measuring carbon monoxide levels in bloodstream at the scene

    Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and nonirritating toxic gas that can cause severe health problems or even death; communities in western Massachusetts use DHS grants to buy specialized devices that can quickly measure the level of carbon monoxide in a person’s bloodstream at a fire scene

  • U.S. rules that Virginia Tech violated Clery Act during 16 April 2007 massacre

    Virginia Tech may be fined $55,000 and lose some federal student aid over the way it alerted — or failed to alert — students on campus of the unfolding massacre on 16 April 2007; a federal report notes that a continuing education center and the university’s veterinary college were locked down, an official directed that the doors to his office be locked, and campus trash pickup was suspended after word traveled of the shootings — and that all of these actions took place before e-mails were sent to students, faculty, and staff on campus

  • PatriotApp allows citizens to alert feds

    A new iPhone app — the PatriotApp — allows people to report criminal or suspicious activity to several federal agencies, including the FBI, EPA, CDC, and GAO, the office responsible for investigating public funds; it also includes RSS feeds for the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and the Department of Homeland Security’s threat level, and allows people to report workplace harassment and discrimination

  • Israel shoots down motorized, unmanned balloon near Dimona nuclear reactor

    Israel Defense Force spokesperson says that Israel Air Force warplane shot down an object — a motorized unmanned balloon — in the south of Israel; the balloon was shot down as it approached the Dimona nuclear reactor; the area is a strict no-fly zone; planes or other objects entering it are shot down first, with questions being asked later; during the 1967 Six Day war, an Israeli surface-to-air missile downed a crippled Israeli fighter-bomber that strayed into the restricted zone while returning from action on the Egyptian front; its pilot was killed

  • Mexico cannot control border: WikiLeaks documents

    The Mexican government has no control of its 577-mile border with Guatemala, where arms, drugs, and immigrant smugglers appear to have free rein, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable disclosed recently by WikiLeaks; the document says that Mexico does not have enough resources to patrol the border; in another recent document, U.S. diplomats voiced concerns that Mexican drug dealers could end up buying certain high-tech weapons that Russia had sold to Venezuela; such weapons are capable of shooting down U.S. combat helicopters

  • BAE develops vehicles for ground war of the future

    A range of technologies could improve the effectiveness and fuel efficiency of current military vehicles, while laying the groundwork for future fighting vehicles; BAE looked at 567 technologies and 244 vehicle concepts, which had to fit only two criteria — the vehicle could weigh no more than 30 tons, and had to carry an equivalent punch to a Challenger 2 tank; the company settled on seven future vehicles

  • General Atomic says its Blitzer rail gun already "tactically relevant"

    Last Friday the U.S. Navy tested a rail gun with muzzle energies of 64 megajoules; the gun aims to deliver a projectile to a target 200 miles away at speeds of up to Mach 7+; not to be outdone, General Atomics has just released information about how, back in September, it tested its own rail gun — dubbed the Blitzer; while the Navy researchers are still preoccupied with the velocity of the projectile and muzzle energy, GA says it is farther along in weaponizing its system, which it describes as already “tactically relevant”

  • DoE report warns of U.S. vulnerability to China's rare-earth supplies

    A U.S. Department of Energy report draws attention to the need to diversify the supply of rare Earth metals needed for clean technology and defense; China currently supplies 97 percent of the world’s rare Earth elements; the largest U.S. producer of rare earths last week announced a $130 million funding deal with Japanese company Sumitomo that promises the financier “substantial quantities of rare-earth products”