Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Amazon Is Developing High-Tech Surveillance Tools for an Eager Customer: America’s Police
August 8th, 2019Via: NBC: Amazon, known mainly for its online consumer marketplace, is becoming a potent resource for federal, state and local authorities, peddling an array of tools that harness the power of cloud-based computing, artificial intelligence and video analysis. Some of the products seem mundane, offering agencies a relatively cheap method of storing, sharing and crunching […]
Air Force Set To Deploy Drone Killing Laser Weapon On Military Dune Buggies
August 7th, 2019Via: ZeroHedge: Raytheon published a company press release last week that detailed how it “will deploy two prototype high energy laser weapon systems” to the Air Force for a 12-month in-field operation against enemy drones. The $23 million contract for two of Raytheon’s High Energy Laser Weapons Systems (HELWS) will be used by the Air […]
Swiss Post Suspends Drone Delivery Service After Second Crash
August 5th, 2019Via: IEEE: For about a year, Swiss Post and Matternet have been collaborating on a drone delivery service in three different cities in Switzerland, with drones ferrying lab samples between hospitals far faster and more efficiently than is possible with conventional ground transportation. The service had made about 3,000 successful flights as of last January, […]
Power Restored After Tens of Millions Hit by Indonesia Power Blackout
August 4th, 2019Via: AFP: Power was mostly restored in Jakarta and Indonesia’s heavily populated Java island after a widespread electricity outage Sunday that the state utility PLN blamed on disruptions at several power plants. Tens of millions of people were affected by the blackout which plunged buildings in the sprawling capital — home to about 30 million […]
The Military-Style Surveillance Technology Being Tested in American Cities
August 4th, 2019Via: The Atlantic: In the eyes of the law, there’s no difference between a photo taken by a smartphone through an airplane window and one taken by an ultrapowerful camera in a helicopter hovering over your backyard. … Capitalizing on this gap, as some might call it, in standing privacy law, wide-area-camera manufacturers and users […]
Pentagon Testing Mass Surveillance Balloons Across the U.S.
August 2nd, 2019Via: Guardian: The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal. Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, […]
LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light
August 2nd, 2019Via: Planetary Society: Years of computer simulations. Countless ground tests. They’ve all led up to now. The Planetary Society’s crowdfunded LightSail 2 spacecraft is successfully raising its orbit solely on the power of sunlight. Since unfurling the spacecraft’s silver solar sail last week, mission managers have been optimizing the way the spacecraft orients itself during […]
California Farmers Are Planting Solar Panels as Water Supplies Dry Up
August 2nd, 2019In Blade Runner 2049, the California Central Valley looks like this: (In case you’re wondering, the solar concentrators in the opening scene of the film were inspired by the idiotic Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, which is based on concentrated solar thermal energy.) Nestled in among the heliostat fields are protein farms: They grow some variety […]
Tesla Announces Megapack: Utility-Scale Energy Storage
July 29th, 2019Big guns. Via: Tesla: Less than two years ago, Tesla built and installed the world’s largest lithium-ion battery in Hornsdale, South Australia, using Tesla Powerpack batteries. Since then, the facility saved nearly $40 million in its first year alone and helped to stabilize and balance the region’s unreliable grid. Battery storage is transforming the global […]
Capital One Data Breach Hits More than 100 Million People Applying for Credit
July 29th, 2019Via: CBS: Capital One said a hacker got access to the personal information of over 100 million individuals applying for credit. The McLean, Virginia-based bank said Monday it found out about the vulnerability in its system July 19 and immediately sought help from law enforcement to catch the perpetrator. The FBI has arrested the person, […]
