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Robots perform fire-fighting duties in London
The robots, built by defense contractor QinetiQ, have been in use for a year; London’s fire brigade has been impressed by the robots’ performance
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Chinese city sealed off after outbreak of bubonic plaque
Pneumonic plague, a virulent variant of the bubonic plaque, has killed two and infected 10 in a Chinese city; authorities have sealed off the city
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Anthrax attack on a U.S. metropolitan area could affect more than 1 million
No matter how well-organized and prolonged a treatment program is, it must be quickly implemented; a campaign of powerful antibiotics initiated two days after exposure would protect as many as 87 percent of exposed individuals from illness
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70,000 evacuated amid Texas chemical facility fire
Fire at a chemical storage warehouse in Bryan, Texas has prompted the evacuation of about 70,000 people; officials plan for the evacuation of students at Texas A&M University in nearby College Station
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Coast Guards interdicts smugglers' semi-submersible
Latin American drug lords now rely on semi-submersibles to smuggle drugs into the United States; the other day, the USCG interdicts one semi-submersible in the Eastern Pacific
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NYPD to receive stimulus money -- after Justice funds were denied
New York City officials were livid earlier this week after the Justice Department excluded NYC from law enforcement grants it gave cities that “needed it most” (among these cities: Caribou, Maine; Greybull, Wyoming; and Bayou La Batre, Alabama); DHS will now give NYPD $35 million in federal stimulus money
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Soldiers, first responders will self-power their gear
Soldiers and first responders will soon power electronic devices such as personal radios using just their own movements
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Life-saving location device to help in rescuing trapped disaster victims
There is usually a 24-hour window when people that are injured and trapped can be saved, followed by a three-day window for those that are unhurt; by analyzing the levels of carbon dioxide and ammonia, chemical sensors could detect whether a trapped person is still alive faster than traditional methods
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Israel's now more likely to attack Iran's nuclear facilities
The test of Arrow 2 — Israel’s defense against Iran’s ballistic missiles — was aborted three times; Hillary Clinton says the United States would extend a “nuclear umbrella” to Arab countries: these two events combine to increase Israel’s anxiety about Iran’s nuclear weapons, and make an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities more likely
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Taser shows multi-shot stun gun
The new device is capable of shocking three people without having to reload
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Republicans try to keep Yucca Mountain project alive
The Obama administration has signaled its intention to bring the curtain down on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project, but Republicans have not given up on it
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Cops tasered three kids, threatened one with sodomy
Police officers use tasers repeatedly on three youth in Illinois; a girl who tried to intervene is choked and locked in a closet
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The business aspects of get-tough immigration policy
The post-9/11 get-tough policy toward immigration has meant booming business for private prison-management companies; the building of prisons and detention centers is now a much-needed source of income for cash-strapped rural communities
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Chance of nuclear war is greater than we think
Stanford engineer makes risk analysis, saying the risk of a child born today suffering an early death due to nuclear war is at least 10 percent
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Houston computer forensics lab accredited
Newly accredited Houston lab expands Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory Network (RCFL), a national network of sixteen FBI-sponsored digital forensics laboratories and training centers devoted entirely to the scientific examination of digital evidence in support of criminal investigations
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More headlines
The long view
Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence
Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.
Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires
Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.
Testing Cutting-Edge Counter-Drone Technology
Drones have many positive applications, bad actors can use them for nefarious purposes. Two recent field demonstrations brought government, academia, and industry together to evaluate innovative counter-unmanned aircraft systems.
European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
How Climate Change Will Affect Conflict and U.S. Military Operations
“People talk about climate change as a threat multiplier,” said Karen Sudkamp, an associate director of the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the RAND Homeland Security Research Division. “But at what point do we need to start talking about the threat multiplier actually becoming a significant threat all its own?”
The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies
From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.