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io9Iran’s Giant Batmobile Is Just The Latest Of Its Embarrassing Weapons
Every year, Tehran commemorates the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War with “Sacred Defense Week,” when it’s become a tradition to theatrically unveil the country’s newest, most sophisticated weaponry. Western military analysts, though, are often more amused than impressed. As the blog War Is Boring observes, “Tehran is eager to project an image of strength. But … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
io9
Happy 10th Birthday, Missile Defense! Too Bad You Still Don’t Work.
Members of Congress and conservative lobbyists have been celebrating a very special birthday: President George W. Bush’s official activation of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system. But the sad truth is that they’re celebrating 10 years of self-delusion. The project is broken, despite the $40 billion spent on it. Missile defense advocates chose to swallow … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
io9
The Pentagon’s New Climate Change Report Won’t Change A Damn Thing
A report released by the Defense Department warns that climate change threatens to intensify global instability, disease and poverty, while undermining U.S. military readiness. But judging from the events of the past year, Congress will not only disregard the report’s findings, but actively block its recommendations. The 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap anticipates that rising … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
The Air Force’s Mysterious Spy Plane Is Landing After 2 Years in Space
For nearly two years, the Air Force’s X-37B autonomous space plane has been circling around the Earth doing who knows what. Now it’s finally coming back to Earth, carrying all its secrets with it. The X-37B has been the subject of intense speculation ever since it was launched on its very first mission in April … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
How Fighter Jets Lock On (and How the Targets Know)
The primary technology that a military aircraft uses to lock and track an enemy aircraft is its onboard radar. Aircraft radars typically have two modes: search and track. In search mode, the radar sweeps a radio beam across the sky in a zig-zag pattern. When the radio beam is reflected by a target aircraft, an … Continued
Tim Morgan - Quora -
io9
The British Military Spread Rumors Of Satanic Cults In Northern Ireland
During the early 1970s, amid increasing violence in Northern Ireland, British military intelligence agents deliberately sought to create panic about Satanic cults, black masses and witch covens as a way to discredit paramilitary groups. The years 1972-1974 were among the bloodiest of the “Troubles,” and Northern Ireland seemed on the brink of civil war. It … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech News
A Teenage Hacker Ring Stole $100 Million in Army and Xbox Tech
The U.S. Department of Justice just charged a group of four young hackers with a doozie of a crime. They’re accused of breaking into both Microsoft and U.S. Army servers and stealing $100 million worth of everything from unreleased games to military training software. Two of the hackers have already pleaded guilty. This is interesting … Continued
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Tech News
Why No One Used Camouflage Until WWI
The general idea behind visual camouflage, which is to make distinctive, recognizable shapes difficult to pick out against a background, was nothing new in 1914. The point of camouflage isn’t necessarily to make oneself totally invisible, which isn’t practical for a large army. Instead, a substantial advantage can be conferred simply by reducing the time … Continued
Kyle Murao - Quora -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
A Beginner’s Guide to Cyberwarfare
Simply put, cyberwarfare is the use of hacking to conduct attacks on a target’s strategic or tactical resources for the purposes of espionage or sabotage. That’s neat—but also full of buzzwords. Let’s break it down even further. THE BASICS Strategic or Tactical Resources This is a bit of military mumbo-jumbo that basically means “things that … Continued
Andy Manoske - Quora -
io9
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) recently said members of Congress have privately urged generals to resign “in a blaze of glory” if they disagree with Obama’s handling of Middle East conflicts. Amid criticism, Lamborn’s office later claimedhe was referring to earlier policy disputes such as the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
By Mark Strauss -
ScienceHealth
Old SARS Iso-Tubes Are Keeping Ebola Patients Alive On Planes
When doctors are stricken by the infectious disease they are fighting—the recent and ongoing West African Ebola outbreak, for example—you can’t very well stick them on a commercial flight back to the states for treatment. Instead, highly infectious disease (HID) patients must instead be transported under complete biological isolation inside one of these portable, personal … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidVideos: US Navy launches Tomahawk missiles against ISIS in Syria
The attack against ISIS in Syria has begun, according to the Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby: “US military & partner nation forces have begun striking ISIL targets in Syria using mix of fighters, bombers and Tomahawk missiles.” The US Navy has released these videos to prove it. Here are some F-18 and Growlers … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsHow Close Are We to a Real Iron Man Suit?
If we are just talking about an armored suit that augments a human’s strength and weaponry, then we’re extremely close. But if we’re talking about something with all of the primary abilities of Iron Man’s character (i.e. flight, clean infinite power, and repulsor beams), that may never become a reality. The current version in the … Continued
Ariel Williams - Quora -
Tech News
LA Schools Are Giving Back Grenade Launchers (But Keeping the Tank)
Los Angeles School Police Department announced this week that it would be sending some controversial surplus military equipment back to the federal government. Specifically, the school police will send back three grenade launchers. In related news, LA school police had grenade launchers. What the protectors of the LA Unified school district are sending back is … Continued
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Tech News
Why Military Tech (Sometimes) Doesn’t Evolve
Consider the SR-71 Blackbird. It was meant to be used as a high altitude, high velocity recon aircraft. It was, and still is, one of the Air Force’s greatest accomplishments, technologically speaking. Military technology, like any other technology, becomes outdated when newer systems improve upon them greatly, either in capability or in resource requirements to … Continued
Jon Davis - Quora -
io9
Is The Military Developing Banned Laser Tech To Blind Enemy Soldiers?
Until the mid-1990s, the U.S. Air Force funded research on how to destroy human eyeballs at a distance with lasers. There were at least 10 such programs with names like BOSS, Nighthawk and Y-Blue. An international treaty banned these weapons, but, according to one report, the research has continued. Writing in the Bulletin of the … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
io9MoviesWearing the Suit from Edge of Tomorrow Would Basically Kill You
Those guns… would rip right off those armatures. Weapons, especially heavy weapons, cause a lot of recoil. I mean a lot of recoil. For comparison, I am going to consider the machine gun farthest back to be comparable to the US military’s 240-G. Do you see the way he is directly behind the weapon with … Continued
Jon Davis - Quora -
io9
Declassified Documents Reveal US Plan for Alaska in a Russian Invasion
In 1950, Cold War tensions ran high and government officials were terrified that Soviets would invade Alaska. Recently-declassified documents reveal the details of “Operation Washtub”—a joint FBI-Air Force plan to recruit Alaskans as “stay-behind” agents to gather military intelligence. Sounds like the plot to a movie called White Dawn, but it was real. The event … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech NewsYep, That’s a Jetpack For Runners
If you stop and think about it, it’s kind of unfair that some athletes get to compete using marvels of engineering like incredibly light and streamlined bikes and some don’t. Instead, we should be assigning every 100-meter dash runner this backpack jetpack developed by Arizona State University. Called the 4MM because the ultimate goal is … Continued
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Tech News
Why China’s Building a Military Base in the Middle of the Ocean
After flying a surveillance plane over the South China Sea last February, the Philippine government saw how China was constructing islands in order to bolster its claim to the territory. (See above.) It even suspected that China might plan to build a military air strip to protect them. Looks like they were right. The BBC … Continued