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New reactor design solves waste, weapon proliferation problems
A new nuclear reactor design — called Traveling-Wave reactor — is noteworthy for three things: it comes from a privately funded research company, not the government; it would run on what is now waste, thus reducing dramatically the nuclear waste and weapon proliferation problems; and it could theoretically run for a couple of hundred years without refueling
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Researchers develop plutonium which is good for power but not for weapons
Israeli researcher finds that adding the rare-earth isotope Americium-241 in due proportion during reprocessing “declaws” plutonium, making suitable for power generation but not for weapons
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Ejector-seat ambulance design
U.K. design students produce a novel concept: an ambulance with ejector seats; when paramedics arrive on the scene of the disaster, they and their equipment are “hurled” toward the victims to ensure faster treatment
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Designing the world's first purpose-built law enforcement vehicle
Yellow Jackets researchers help an Atlanta-based start-up design the world’s first vehicle designed specifically to meet the patrol needs of law enforcement agencies
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Mexican drug cartels employ more foot soldiers than Mexican army
Mexico is spinning out of control; narco-terrorists have infiltrated the Mexican government, creating a shadow regime that complicates efforts to contain and destroy the drug cartels; Mexico ranks behind only Pakistan and Iran as a top U.S. national security concern — but above Afghanistan and Iraq
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CDW-G shows Mass Notification Toolkit
New Web site offers guidance on emergency alert system implementation, marketing, and sign-up
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Edged weapon defenses in extremely close proximity
Defending against an edged weapon is always difficult — even more so in small and confined spaces such as elevators or bathrooms; often injury cannot be avoided, only minimized
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Barry Manilow as the ultimate weapon
Two small cities — one in Australia, the other in New Zealand — found the perfect solution for hundreds of unruly youth who roam the cities’ malls, covering walls with graffiti, and disrupting commerce: Piping Barry Manilow’s music through the mall district
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India's private security companies flourish
As a result of the Mumbai attacks, the Indian private security industry has been growing by leaps and bounds; already the country’s private security force numbers 5 million, 1.3 million more than India’s police forces
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Historic sample of bomb-grade plutonium discovered
Scientists stumble upon, then identify, the oldest batch of weapon-grade plutonium; methods used in identification can help in anti-proliferation efforts
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Super-strength gear competition heats up
Berkeley Bionics-Lockheed Martin team challenges the Sarco-Raytheon team for the super solider suit of the future; suit will allow soldiers the wearer to carry up to 200 pounds without much effort — and sprint up to 10 miles per hour in short bursts
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Schneier: Perverse incentives drive bad security decisions
Many security-related decisions are less than optimal because those who have to make the decisions face perverse incentives; in the post-9/11 era, we have to make sure the incentives driving security decisions are the right incentives
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Intelligence, law enforcement face another hurdle: encrypted VoIP
The intelligence community and law enforcement already are concerned about the difficult they have eavesdropping in Skype communications; a U.K. start-up is going to make life more difficult for them by encryption VoIP communications and concealing more conversations
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EU may investigate VoIP eavesdropping
Italian anti-crime authorities have asked the EU to look into regulating VoIP communication encryption; the Italian authorities presented evidence that crime rings and prostitution networks use Skype for the specific purpose of frustrating police investigators
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Random antenna arrays boost emergency communications
When first responders rush to a disaster scene, they are often met with large amount of rubble; the vast amount of metal and steel-reinforced concrete in buildings and rubble often interferes with or blocks radio signals; a new antenna array solves this problem
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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.”