No, It’s a … camera? Israel’s Rafael Armament Development Authority, or Israel Military Industry’s Reconnaissance Rifle Grenade has developed a new camera that is deployed like a rifle grenade. Once in the air it will transmit images back to a pocket computer.
Cool, now I just have to wait for my local Wal-Mart to start carrying them!
[via Defense Tech]
Big brother is also watching from above:
‘Eternal planes’ to watch over us
By Jo Twist
BBC News science and technology reporterUnmanned surveillance vehicles are increasingly evident in a world that relies on knowing what people and places are doing.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) patrol innocuous-looking skies and silently report back streams of strategically important data, video, and images from locations around the world.
They are the ultimate Earth watchers.
Physics students: They came up with an environmentally friendly, economical air conditioner
By Jessica Ravitz
The Salt Lake TribuneBLUFFDALE - The code name, Space Beast, was one they came up with in the wee hours of the night.
Tyler Lyon, Daniel Winegar and Chad Thornley were overtired and giddy as they tackled a science fair project. Their idea: Eliminate the use of Freon in automobile air-conditioning systems by relying on the Peltier effect - of course.
“We aren’t planning our lives around making air conditioners,” Lyon explained. “We wanted to do something to help the environment and the economy.”
So, since they just announced that we have or are close to having these weapons, that means we’ve really had them for years, right?!
Beam It Right There, Scotty
Associated Press
08:39 AM Jul. 10, 2005 PT
ARLINGTON, Virginia — For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and almost inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. “Directed-energy” pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on Star Trek could be set to kill or merely stun.
Killer Drone Construction Begins
Northrop Grumman engineers have spent the last couple of years designing a killer drone for the Navy. Today, the company announced that it’s starting to build the X-47B Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems plane. It’s the first attack drone “that can operate from both land bases and aircraft carriers,” according to a Northrop press release.
Or, at least, the X-47B will be the first, once it’s completed. Putting the prototype robo-plane together should take about 18 months. A second X-47 should roll off of the assembly line about three to six months after that. And a third… well, we’ll wait and see. Northrop wants the Defense Department to evaluate the first two before it builds another.
The Pentagon is giving Northrop a billion bucks for the three vehicles, which are designed to “suppress enemy air defenses, perform electronic attack, conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and perform precision strike attacks,” according to the company. The drones will each have a pair of 2,000 pound, satellite-guided bombs to help in the missions. The military wants to test flights to start by the end of 2007.
[via Defense Tech]
The quake felt ’round the world:
Post-Tsunami Earthquakes Rumbled Around the Globe
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: May 24, 2005The shock waves from December’s giant earthquake set off devastating tsunamis. They also set off a series of temblors nearly 7,000 miles from the epicenter in the Indian Ocean.
One hour after the earthquake struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Dec. 26, seismometers that keep watch over Mount Wrangell in Alaska recorded an unusual pattern: 14 earthquakes over 11 minutes.
