-
California police employs nonlethal weapon used against pirates
ATC’s long range acoustic device (LRAD) blast sounds at 150 decibels — 50 times the human threshold of pain — to fend off approaching pirates or massing insurgents; California law enforcement is now using the device at local political events
-
-
NRC moves to allow more heavily armed nuclear facility guards
The U.S. Nuclear regulatory Commission (NRC) has moved to allow guards at U.S. nuclear facilities to be equipped with more “enhanced weapons,” including machine guns, short-barreled shotguns, or short-barreled rifles
-
-
Troy, N.Y. police uses biometrics system to secure weapons
Police personnel in Troy, New York, will have to provide a a thumbprint for identification before checking out a Taser or a rifle to take on patrol
-
-
Telecoms endorse EU's eCall system for accident notification
The EU wants new cars to be equipped with a device that would automatically call for help in the event of an accident; the GSM Association endorses the idea
-
-
ShotSpotter, Inc. says its technology saves lives
The Mountain View, California-based company says that in the first half of 2009 its technology saved the lives of 57 gunshot victims; this represents a 138 percent increase from the first half of 2008
-
-
U.S. to increase reliance on private security contractors
Scandals involving activities of private security firms in Afghanistan notwithstanding, the U.S. government is increasing its reliance on these firms; last week five firms were awarded contracts totaling $485 million
-
-
Exoskeletons ready for troop tests in 2010
Designer of the exoskeleton demonstrates invention for journalists; a wearer can hang a 200 lb backpack from the back frame and heavy chest armor and kit from shoulder extensions
-
-
Ohio to train EMTs to give flu vaccine
Ohio has about 41,000 EMTs and paramedics; the state wants them trained in giving swine flu shots if needed
-
-
NYC rabbi teaches synagogue self-defense
Fearing jihadists will attack synagogues during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a group of rabbis has developed a program to turn your average shul-goer into a lean, mean fighting machine
-
-
Los Angeles councilman wants ATM "duress code" system
In the wake of Lily Burk’s slaying, Councilman Greig Smith urges citywide anti-robbery effort; under one system, ATM users could enter their PIN backward to covertly notify police that they were being robbed
-
-
Mexico's Ciudad Juarez is the world's most violent city
With 130 murders for every 100,000 residents per year on average last year, Ciudad Juarez, a manufacturing city of 1.6 million people across from El Paso, Texas, is more violent than any other city in the world
-
-
How effective is CBP in keeping U.S. borders safe?
According to DHS, the vast majority — more than 70 percent — of illegal aliens and contraband attempting to move across our border through official ports of entry will succeed
-
-
Understanding nuclear ignition better
The U.S. nuclear warheads are aging; researchers looking for new ways to figure out safe and reliable ways to estimate their longevity and to understand the physics of thermonuclear reactions in the absence of underground testing currently prohibited under law
-
-
Handwriting analysis offers alternate lie detection method
Israeli researchers discover that with the aid of a computerized tool, handwriting characteristics can be measured more effectively; they have found that these handwriting characteristics differ when an individual is in the process of writing deceptive sentences as opposed to truthful sentences
-
-
CCTVs do not help U.K. cut crime
The United Kingdom has around four million CCTVs installed (one camera for every fourteen people); it takes 1,000 CCTV cameras to solve a single crime, London’s Metropolitan Police has admitted
-
The long view
Why Was Pacific Northwest Home to So Many Serial Killers?
Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, George Russell, Israel Keyes, and Robert Lee Yates were serial killers who grew up in the Pacific Northwest in the shadow of smelters which spewed plumes of lead, arsenic, and cadmium into the air. As a young man, Charles Manson spent ten years at a nearby prison, where lead has seeped into the soil. The idea of a correlation between early exposure to lead and higher crime rates is not new. Fraser doesn’t explicitly support the lead-crime hypothesis, but in a nimble, haunting narrative, she argues that the connections between an unfettered pollution and violent crime warrant scrutiny.
Bookshelf: Smartphones Shape War in Hyperconnected World
The smartphone is helping to shape the conduct and representation of contemporary war. A new book argues that as an operative device, the smartphone is now “being used as a central weapon of war.”