• DHS's public Web sites vulnerable

    DHS’s Inspector General evaluated the nine most popular of the department’s 125 public-facing Web sites, and found that while the component agencies responsible for the Web sites followed DHS policies when setting them up, they left too much to chance afterward

  • Radioactive rabbit poo found at plutonium production site

    A clean-up survey at the Hanford site in Washington State, where military-grade plutonium was produced during the early years of the cold war, discovered radioactive jackrabbit droppings around the site; the rabbits burrowed in the area and discovered the tanks in which nuclear waste is stored; they liked the salty taste of the radioactive cesium and strontium salts, so they began drinking and licking them routinely

  • Oil production to peak before 2030

    New reports says that oil will become increasingly expensive and harder to find, extract, and produce; significant new discoveries, such as the one announced recently in the Gulf of Mexico, are only expected to delay the peak by a matter of days and weeks; to maintain global oil production at today’s level will require the equivalent of a new Saudi Arabia every three years

  • Home robots may be hackers' next target

    Home surveillance robots could be turned against their users, researchers say; few people have home robots now, but reliance on them grows for stay-at-home elderly and the sick

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  • Asteroid collision: How to defend Earth, I

    There are thousands of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) orbiting Earth; some of them are of a civilization-ending size, others are smaller — they will take out “only” a country or a city were they to collide with Earth; scientists say we should focus our minds on this danger

  • UN: Next world war may be in cyberspace

    Countries have become critically dependent on technology for commerce, finance, health care, emergency services, and food distribution; “Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack,” expert says

  • Water scarcity will create global security concerns

    Up to 1.2 billion people in Asia, 250 million Africans and 81 million Latin Americans will be exposed to increased water stress by 2020; over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries; as the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level

  • Large new dam construction moving ahead in California

    Environmental studies are due out today on a $409 million project to replace Calaveras Dam, a 210-foot-high structure east of Milpitas in the remote, oak-studded hills along the border between Santa Clara and Alameda counties

  • Negligence a factor in hydropower plant disaster that killed 75

    The massive 17 August accident in Russia’s biggest hydroelectric power plant was the result of negligence by officials; these officials may now face charges over the disaster

  • Indonesian experts: Dense soil, light materials vital for sturdier buildings

    In the wake of last Wednesday’s devastating earthquake in Indonesia, experts call for more care in choosing sites for new buildings and communities; key factor: the stability of the soil; “If you build the foundation 20 to 30 meters deep, then you need very dense soil,” an expert said

  • U.S. military jets, vehicles to run on biofuels and animal-corpse grease

    Honeywell says the U.S. Air Force will buy 400,000 gallons of algae/weeds/corpse-fat jet fuel, and the U.S. Navy will take 190,000 gallons

  • How far should government go to make the Web secure?

    If hackers take over a nuclear plant’s control system, should the president order the computer networks shut down? If there is a terrorist attack, should the government knock users off other computer networks to ensure that critical systems stay online? Should the government be able to dictate who companies can hire and what they must do to secure the networks that affect Americans’ daily life?

  • The day of military smart phones nears

    It is only a matter of time before we see military-related iPhone apps; the iPhone can use thousands of programs, and some of these are very useful for military personnel; officers see how useful the iPhone could be with software designed for military purposes; a military version of the iPhone, able to operate on a closed military network, would be a big help in the combat zone

  • The good vs the bad hackers

    Ethical hackers met in the 14th Hacker Halted global conference to discuss how best to thwart the nefarious activities of bad hackers

  • Is California's Big One coming?

    In 1992 and in 2004, remote earthquakes caused changes to the San Andreas fault; in both cases, there were distinct changes in the movement of fluids and an increase in the frequency of micro-earthquakes deep within the fault below Parkfield; what will be the effect on the fault of the recent Sumatra earthquake?