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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightU.S. Space Force Will Get Next-Gen Missile-Warning Satellites From Lockheed Martin
The Pentagon has granted Lockheed Martin a $4.9 billion contract to build three missile-warning satellites for the U.S. Space Force. Parked in geosynchronous orbit, the next-generation satellites will warn of incoming threats from virtually anywhere in the world. Jokes about the Space Force are still very much in vogue, but this latest news reminds us … Continued
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Tech NewsGeneral Electric Finally Manages to Jettison Its Historic Lighting Business
General Electric is no longer in the light bulb business, the company announced on Wednesday. GE said that its 129-year-old lighting unit—which was formed in 1892 from the merger of Thomas Edison’s Edison General Electric Company with two other firms—will be sold off to smart home manufacturer Savant Systems in a deal with undisclosed terms. … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceSpace & SpaceflightThe Pentagon’s Plan to Pepper Space With Surveillance Satellites Is Taking Shape
New details have emerged about the Pentagon’s ambitious plan to build seven different defense constellations, the first of which will include hundreds of surveillance satellites that are expected to attain full global coverage in just six years. Known as the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA), it’s the first major initiative from the newly hatched Space … Continued
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Tech NewsReport: 51 Members of Congress and Their Spouses Collectively Own Millions in Defense Stocks
51 members of Congress or their spouses own between $2.8 million to $5.3 million worth of stock in the top 30 defense contractors worldwide, Sludge reported on Monday, thus placing them in a position to potentially profit from the U.S. military contracting process or wars waged with the firms’ equipment. According to Sludge, the data … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsArtificial IntelligenceNational Security Commission Warns Pentagon of Falling Hopelessly Behind in the AI Arms Race
An interim report compiled by a national security panel warns the U.S. government of falling too far behind China and Russia in the AI arms race, while calling for new investments to foster innovation. Released yesterday, the November interim report from the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) advises the U.S. government to get … Continued
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Tech NewsArtificial IntelligenceHenry Kissinger Warns That AI Will Fundamentally Alter Human Consciousness
Speaking in Washington, D.C. earlier today, former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger said he’s convinced of AI’s potential to fundamentally alter human consciousness—including changes in our self-perception and to our strategic decision-making. He also slammed AI developers for insufficiently thinking through the implications of their creations. Kissinger, now 96, was speaking to an audience … Continued
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Tech NewsRaytheon, United Technologies to Merge, Forming One of World’s Biggest Defense and Aerospace Firms [Updated]
Update: 6/9/2019 at 10:10 p.m. ET: Per a Raytheon press release on Sunday, this merger is now official (and announced slightly sooner than expected). Gizmodo’s original coverage follows below. Sometimes, when two major military contractors love money very much, they get together and reverse-mitosis into one larger military contractor. Defense contractor Raytheon, manufacturer of everything from … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityThe British Military Is Launching a Major Test of Unmanned Vehicles and Surveillance Drones
The British Army is carrying out a major, four-week test of 70 new technologies, “including unmanned vehicles and surveillance drones,” as part of its “Autonomous Warrior experiment,” the MIT Technology Review reported this week. A press release from the Ministry of Defense was light on specifics, but it said that the military will have over … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityTrump: What We Really Need Right Now Is a Lot More Nukes
The U.S. has had a brief respite from nuclear apocalypticism after that brief period when Donald Trump seemed pretty likely to start a war with North Korea via Twitter. But this being Trump, the power of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has never seemed very far from his mind, and on Saturday he announced the country … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech News
Google Drops Bid for Massive Military Cloud Computing Contract Amid Employee Pressure
Google has dropped out of the competition for a Pentagon cloud computing project that could be worth as much as $10 billion and last up to a decade, citing a possible clash with its corporate values, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project, which involves the mass transfer of data previously … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Trump Promises to Create Military Space Force
Earlier today, President Donald Trump said he’ll be directing the Pentagon to create the US Space Force, which would become the sixth independent branch of the US military. The move is meant to help the US keep pace with its rivals, but experts question the need for an entirely new military wing. Army, Navy, Marine … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
DARPA Is Funding Time Crystal Research
You probably scratched your head last year if you read about time crystals, likely 2017’s most esoteric, widely covered popular science story. Even if you understood how they worked, you might not have known what use they could have. Time crystals, systems of atoms that maintain a periodic ticking behavior in the presence of an … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
US Air Force Chief Warns of Space War ‘in a Matter of Years’
Speaking to an audience of active-duty airmen, US Air Force Chief of Staff General David L. Goldfein predicted it’ll only be a “matter of years” before American forces find themselves “fighting from space.” To prepare for this grim possibility, he said the Air Force needs new tools and a new approach to training leaders. Oh, … Continued
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Tech News
Palmer Luckey Is Apparently a Prepper Who Now Wants to Build a Virtual Border Wall for Trump
Remember Palmer Luckey? You know, the disgraced Oculus founder and cosplay enthusiast who left Facebook in the midst of a $2 billion lawsuit? Well, it looks like Luckey is ready to wreak more havoc upon the world, this time in the form of a virtual border wall that he might sell to the Trump administration. … Continued
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Tech NewsUS Forces Just Dropped Their Largest Non-Nuclear Bomb for the First Time
Citing military sources, CNN reports the United States just dropped a 30-foot-long bomb with a blast yield equivalent to 11 tons of TNT on suspected ISIS targets in Afghanistan. Nicknamed MOAB (short for “Mother of All Bombs”), the weapon is the largest non-nuclear bomb in America’s arsenal. This is the first time a MOAB has … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
The Army’s New 3D-Printed Grenade Launcher Is Straight Out of Science Fiction
Building a gun out 3D-printed parts is so 2013. Now, the United States Army has managed to 3D-print an entire grenade launcher, and it looks roughly like an assault rifle in the popular video game Halo. Also, the new weapon is named RAMBO. RAMBO is an acronym for Rapid Additively Manufactured Ballistics Ordnance. Along with … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Trump’s Plan to Expand the Military Sucks
Hey America, do you ever think to yourself, “Boy, I sure do wish we spent less money protecting the environment and more on guns and bombs and stuff.” You don’t? Well, Donald Trump does, and he’s got a plan to make it happen. It’s going to cost us, though. The president told a group of … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityThis Feature-Length Film About Iran Destroying the US Military Freaks Me Out
My appetite for goofy propaganda is nearly endless. Old Soviet videos about capitalist sharks? Hilarious! Anti-communist cartoons from the 40s? Silly stuff! But the new movie about to hit theaters in Iran hits a little too hard. It’s called Battle of Persian Gulf 2. The 88-minute-long animated feature shows Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard handily beating … Continued
