US Military to Test Lasers for Warplanes in 2014

 

A mockup photo of how a B-1 bomber might deploy a laser weapon.

Laser weapons small enough to fit aboard fighter jets could begin ground-based firing tests aimed at shooting down threats to U.S. military warplanes in 2014.

The 150-kilowatt lasers would represent a new class of weapons 10 times smaller and lighter than current lasers of similar power, according to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The Pentagon agency issued a special notice on Jan. 17 for General Atomics - Aeronautical Systems Incorporated to build a second laser weapon so that both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy could carry out laser tests by 2014.

For the rest of the story: http://www.livescience.com/26668-military-lasers-warplanes.html

Towers Collapsing In Slow Motion

For the rest of the story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip45GkOy9iA&feature=youtube_gdata

China's Giant Transport Plane Takes Off

The successful maiden flight of the Y-20, China’s first domestically developed heavy air freighter, marks a step in the country’s goal of building a strategic air power, according to military experts and observers.

"A genuine strategic air power must possess a strong power projection capability, which is highly reliant on large aircraft, namely a strategic air freighter and a strategic bomber," Wang Yanan, deputy editor-in-chief at Aerospace Knowledge magazine and a military analyst, said.

"The long-range power projection capability of the Chinese air force still lags behind. But the Y-20 means we have made strides toward building a strategic air power."

He said the breakthrough in the technology of large military aircraft will substantially accelerate the development of China’s aviation industry and boost the drive to modernize the People’s Liberation Army.

On Saturday, China conducted a test flight of the Y-20, a large, multi-function air freighter that can perform various long-distance transportation tasks.
 

For the rest of the story: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-01/28/content_16178675.htm

The EU-funded plan to stick a “flag this as terrorism” button in your browser

 

Under CleanIT's rules, the Irish ultra-nationalist "32 County Sovereignty Movement" site (an alias of the terrorist group the "Real IRA") couldn't be touched, as it's hosted in the US. 

Terrorists, beware! The European Union-funded "CleanIT" project has just wrapped up its work, aimed at preventing online terrorist propaganda and recruitment within Europe.

In the run-up to the final CleanIT conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the group published its final report, (PDF) a 30-page document outlining its final recommendations. This document and the conference are the culmination of a two-year, €326,000 ($440,000) study grant from the EU's Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme (PDF). (Ars editor Cyrus Farivar will be moderating this conference, and his travel and lodging have been paid for out of CleanIT's budget.)

The final report has shed some of its earlier outrageous ideas—such as OS and browser-level monitoring as a condition of selling software products in the EU.

For the rest of the story: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/the-eu-funded-plan-to-stick-a-flag-this-as-terrorism-button-in-your-browser/

Navy Wants Odor-Sniffing Robot Swarms to Haul Bombs on Ships

  

Aircraft carrier crews are likely to get rather pungent as they perform the hard tasks of assembling, loading and hauling the massive weaponry that gives the U.S. Navy its edge. To make their lives easier, the Navy’s exploring the idea of developing a “robotic semiautonomous swarm on a ship” that can actually smell its way to weapons prep, thanks to an artificial pheromone.

Conceptually, the project is somewhat similar to existing warehouse robots, which use optical navigation systems that recognize markings on floors and walls. Except this research concept is a bit smellier. The Navy wants its defense-industry partners to “identify [a] chemical capable of meeting environmental and health requirements” which can act as a pheromone. Next, the Navy needs a system that can encode the chemical with data, and a system for decoding it. Eventually, the plan is to “fully develop and test modules, for a leader and follower robots, capable of operating for duration of one complete week.”

For the rest of the story: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/navy-swarms/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The First Panorama From the Top of the Tallest Building in the World

 

Gizmodo friend Gerald Donovan has sent us an amazing 2.6 GB, 360-degree panorama from the very top of the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. You know, where Tom Cruise perched to be closer to Xenu and look out over all of us lousy, pill-popping humans. It'll take your breath away. 

To put things in perspective—if the view itself isn't enough—the Burj Khalifa is so tall that you can watch two sunsets in the same day: 2,722 feet (830 meter) of glass, concrete and steel.

Now you can feel like Tom by looking into the interactive panorama here. And, until China builds its 2,749 feet (838 meters) prefab Sky City building in 90 days, this is the tallest man-made point of view you're going to get. Not that you could possibly ask for anything more. [Interactive Panorama—Thanks Gerard!]

For the rest of the story: http://gizmodo.com/5979456/the-first-panorama-from-the-pinnacle-of-the-highest-building-in-the-world

Why It's So Rare for a Wife to Be Taller Than Her Husband

It's not just because women are, on average, shorter than men.

   

Men are bigger and stronger than women. That generalization, although true, doesn't adequately describe how sex affects our modern lives. In the first place, men's and women's size and strength are distributions. Strong women are stronger than weak men, so sex doesn't tell you all you need to know. Otherwise, as retired colonel Martha McSally put it with regard to the ban on women in combat positions, "Pee Wee Herman is OK to be in combat but Serena and Venus Williams are not going to meet the standard."

Consider height. The height difference between men and women in the U.S. is about 6 inches on average. But Michael J. Fox, at five feet, five inches, is shorter than almost half of all U.S. women today. On the other hand, at five-foot-ten, Michelle Obama is taller than half of American men. So how do people match up romantically, and why does it matter?

For the rest of the story: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/why-its-so-rare-for-a-wife-to-be-taller-than-her-husband/272585/