Archive for the 'War' Category
Qatar Sends 1,000 Troops Into Yemen
September 7th, 2015Via: BBC: Qatar has reportedly deployed troops to Yemen for the first time, according to the Doha-based al-Jazeera news. One-thousand ground troops, supported by armoured vehicles and helicopters, are reportedly headed for the province of Marib. Last week, 60 soldiers from the Saudi-led coalition were killed at a base in Marib.
17,500 Refugees Arrived in Germany Over Weekend
September 7th, 2015Via: CNN: The massive flood of refugees in Europe is pushing Germany and Austria to a tipping point. Thousands of refugees have poured into the two countries in just the past two days, trying to escape the bombings, terrorists and dire conditions ravaging their homelands. More than 16,000 have streamed into Austria since Saturday, Burgenland […]
Pentagon Halts Work with Bioterror Germs at 9 Labs
September 4th, 2015Via: USA Today: The discovery of live anthrax outside a containment area at a military lab in Utah prompted military officials to order an immediate freeze on operations at nine biodefense laboratories that work with dangerous viruses, toxins and bacteria, the Pentagon announced Thursday. The moratorium, first reported by USA TODAY, came after officials took […]
Refugees Pour Into Budapest Train Station
September 3rd, 2015If you’re going to run for your life, it’s best to do so before everyone else tries to do the same thing. Via: Reuters: Hungarian police allowed hundreds of migrants to pour into Budapest’s main railway station on Thursday but authorities canceled all trains to western Europe, triggering chaos and confusion. Hundreds of people, many […]
Boeing: Portable Drone-Killing Laser
August 29th, 2015Via: The Verge: Boeing has been researching ways to disable drones with lasers for a while now, and this week, the defense contractor released new footage (below) of its Compact Laser Weapons System: a portable, tripod-mounted device that can burn a hole in a UAV or a quadcopter in seconds. The system is essentially a […]
Pentagon Teams Up with Apple, Boeing to Develop Wearable Tech
August 28th, 2015Via: Reuters: U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter awarded $75 million on Friday to help a consortium of high-tech firms and researchers develop electronic systems packed with sensors flexible enough to be worn by soldiers or molded onto the skin of a plane. Carter said funding for the Obama administration’s newest manufacturing institute would go to […]
Afghanistan Has Cost the U.S. More Than the Marshall Plan
August 23rd, 2015Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. has now spent more on the reconstruction of Afghanistan than it spent on the Marshall Plan, which resuscitated Europe after World War II, according to a special inspector general. The Marshall Plan delivered $103 billion in today’s dollars to 16 European countries between 1948 and 1952. That has now been topped […]
Is a Cambrian Explosion Coming for Robotics?
August 20th, 2015“Gill A. Pratt will be stepping down next month from his position as a Program Manager of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Arlington, Virginia…” Via: American Economic Association (.pdf): About half a billion years ago, life on earth experienced a short period of very rapid diversification called the “Cambrian Explosion.” Many theories have […]
IBM: Digital Rat Brain
August 19th, 2015Via: Quartz: In August 2014, IBM announced that it had built a “brain-inspired” computer chip—essentially a computer that was wired like an organic brain, rather than a traditional computer. These chips are designed to work like neurons—the brain’s nerve cells. Wired reported on Aug. 17 that the team working on the brain chips recently hit […]
First Almost Fully-Formed Human Brain Grown in Lab, “For Military Research”
August 19th, 2015Via: Guardian: An almost fully-formed human brain has been grown in a lab for the first time, claim scientists from Ohio State University. The team behind the feat hope the brain could transform our understanding of neurological disease. Though not conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful […]
