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Compressed-air gun stops terrorist boats in their tracks
Compressed air is used on the shoulder-held device to propel a line from a pursuing boat which drags with it a high-tech, high tensile net to disable the target craft’s propulsion system
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Police to use DNA "mugshots" as a predictive tool to narrow search
Scientist say that rather than simply try to match DNA to individuals already in their database, DNA should be used to suggest what a suspect might look like
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A Delaware chemical ID startup earns a state grant
AlphaSense is working on developing a prototype, which will look like a shoebox; the user will put a swab of the material into the box and the device will sense emissions in the terahertz range to identify the chemical compound
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Georgia cat awarded online high school diploma
A Macon, Georgia-based cat won a GED from Jefferson High School Online; all the cat needed to do to earn her sheepskin was answer fourteen questions — but it could nit have been too difficult: each question offers four possible answers, and you have four tries — with hints — to get each of them correct; there is no time limit
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Officials look for a place for Gitmo detainees
Standish Maximum Correctional Facility in Michigan and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas are the two finalists to host the remaining Gitmo prisoners
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Pentagon asks Congress for funds for 30,000 bunker-busting bombs
Intensifying the preparations for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Obama administration has asked Congress for funds to accelerate production of a 30,000-pound “ultra-large bunker-buster” bomb designed to destroy deeply buried installations
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International conference on piracy to meet in December
Scheduled to take place 6-9 December in Dubai, the International Quality and Productivity Center says the conference will host a forum and feature case studies to address complex issues surrounding piracy
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Teenager passes grueling "getting on bus" test
A 15-year old Briton was surprised to be awarded “Using Public Transport (Unit 1)” certificate; it turned out he had successfully met the challenge by catching a bus while on a summer outdoor activities scheme at the city of Bury
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The cat did it: man blames cat for child porn downloads
A Florida man who was arrested for possessing child pornography says his cat jumped onto his computer keyboard while he was in another room; according to the man, the cat’s walking back and forth on the keyboard resulted in 1,000 images of child porn being downloaded from the Web and stored on the PC’s hard drive
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Second part of Secure Flight is phased in beginning Saturday
Starting Saturday, some travelers will begin providing their birth date and sex when booking their airline reservations; Secure Flight aims to match passengers’ names against the government’s terrorism watch list
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Pakistani jihadists attacked Pakistani nuclear sites three times since 2007
When Pakistan was developing its nuclear weapons infrastructure in the 1970s and 1980s, its main concern was that India would overrun these nuclear weapons facilities in an armored offensive; Pakistan thus chose to locate much of its nuclear weapons infrastructure to the north and west of the country — but this decision means that most of Pakistan’s nuclear sites are close to or even within areas dominated by Pakistani Taliban militants and home to al-Qaeda
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Power companies seek federal funds for smart grid
The Obama administration has placed a priority on smart grid technology, and Congress has approved $3.4 billion in federal grants for smart grid projects nationwide
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Study highlights air cargo security failings
New study: “these weak spots [in air cargo security] increase the security risk of worldwide transport, which can result in the disruption of logistical processes with considerable economic losses”
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Kemesa: Solving the identity theft problem
The ideal solution to the online identity theft problem is to not transmit personal information to Web sites in the first place; with Kemesa’s Shop Shield, personal information can not be stolen because it is never revealed during the online transaction process
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University of Detroit Mercy receives cyber security research contract
The aim of the $551,500 federal contract is to develop and disseminate the knowledge necessary to ensure that the software that enables America’s business and critical infrastructure is safe and secure
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The long view
Kinetic Operations Bring Authoritarian Violence to Democratic Streets
Foreign interference in democracies has a multifaceted toolkit. In addition to information manipulation, the tactical tools authoritarian actors use to undermine democracy include cyber operations, economic coercion, malign finance, and civil society subversion.
Patriots’ Day: How Far-Right Groups Hijack History and Patriotic Symbols to Advance Their Cause, According to an Expert on Extremism
Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.
Trump Aims to Shut Down State Climate Policies
President Donald Trump has launched an all-out legal attack on states’ authority to set climate change policy. Climate-focused state leaders say his administration has no legal basis to unravel their efforts.
Vaccine Integrity Project Says New FDA Rules on COVID-19 Vaccines Show Lack of Consensus, Clarity
Sidestepping both the FDA’s own Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), two Trump-appointed FDA leaders penned an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine to announce new, more restrictive, COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. Critics say that not seeking broad input into the new policy, which would help FDA to understand its implications, feasibility, and the potential for unintended consequences, amounts to policy by proclamation.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”