Infinite Unknown

From the article:

“The system is totally broken and everybody knows it”
– Sherman Mullin, retired former Lockheed F-22 program chief

The F-35 is also a total disaster:

- Test Pilots: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’

- Pentagon Grounds F-35 Fighter Jet Fleet After Engine Crack Found

- F-35 (Ironically Known As ‘Lightning II’) Fatal Flaw: Lightning!

- Trillion-Dollar F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet Has Thirteen Expensive New Flaws

Delays, technical glitches and huge cost overruns in the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet program highlight the Pentagon’s broken procurement process.

A Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in flight during flight tests. (Lockheed Martin)

- F-22 program produces few planes, soaring costs (LA Times, June 16, 2013):

When the U.S. sought to assure Asian allies that it would defend them against potential aggression by North Korea this spring, the Pentagon deployed its top-of-the-line jet fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

But only two of the jets were sent screaming through the skies south of Seoul.

That token show of American force was a stark reminder that the U.S. may have few F-22s to spare. Alarmed by soaring costs, the Defense Department shut down production last year after spending $67.3 billion on just 188 planes — leaving the Air Force to rely mainly on its fleet of 30-year-old conventional fighters.

“People around the world aren’t dumb,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). “They see what we have. They recognize that our forces have been severely depleted.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Air Force, F-22, Global News, Government, Lockheed Martin, Military, Pentagon, Politics, U.S.

- Police want ‘kill switch’ to disable stolen mobiles as phone crime soars (Daily Mail, June 8, 2013):

• Smartphone manufacturers under pressure to create a ‘kill switch’
• Stolen mobiles would be rendered worthless
• Thefts of phones stolen rockets to rate of 300 a day

Smartphone manufacturers are under pressure from police to create  a ‘kill switch’ to render stolen handsets worthless. Continue reading »

Tags: Cell Phone, Global News, Government, Mobile Phone, Police, Politics, Smartphone, Technology

- Revealed: £2bn cost of failed Sellafield plant (Independent, June 9, 2013):

Internal review deals blow to the Government’s hope of commissioning new mixed-oxide facility

A controversial nuclear fuel plant that was closed down two years ago left taxpayers with a £2.2bn bill instead of turning a healthy profit, an government report has admitted.

An internal report revealing the full extent of the failure of the SellafieldMixed-Oxide (MOX) plant concluded that the facility was “not fit for purpose” and its performance over a decade was “very poor”.

The report is embarrassing for the Government which is proposing to build a new MOX plant at Sellafield to deal with Britain’s civil plutonium stockpile – the biggest in the world.

Campaigners and MPs claimed yesterday that the report’s account of the events at Sellafield fatally undermined the case for any further attempts to profit from the MOX process, which uses reprocessed plutonium to make fuel for civil nuclear power plants.

Continue reading »

Tags: Global News, Government, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Plutonium, Politics, Taxpayers, Technology, U.K.

- To improve today’s concrete, do as the Romans did (UC Berkeley, June 4, 2013):

BERKELEY – In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, an international team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the ancient Romans, whose massive concrete structures have withstood the elements for more than 2,000 years.Using the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, examined the fine-scale structure of Roman concrete. It described for the first time how the extraordinarily stable compound – calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (C-A-S-H) – binds the material used to build some of the most enduring structures in Western civilization.The discovery could help improve the durability of modern concrete, which within 50 years often shows signs of degradation, particularly in ocean environments.

Continue reading »

Tags: Concrete, Construction, Global News, Science, Technology

- The CIA’s Latest Investment: Robot Writers (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 6, 2013):

I’ve covered the CIA’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, before (yes the CIA has a venture capital arm.  In that instance, I raised concerns about Palantir, a company started by Peter Thiel in 2004 and in which I-Q-Tel was an early investor. The post was titled:  Is Peter Thiel Assisting the Government in the Creation of an Authoritarian State? I hadn’t seen much regarding the CIA’s investment activities since then, until yesterday when I read about their latest investment in a company called Narrative Science.  The company specializes in computers turning data into news stories.  The negative implications of something like this in the hands of the CIA are endless.  I’d call it HFP:  High Frequency Propaganda.

From Mashable:

Chicago-based Narrative Science got its start by turning baseball box scores into readable accounts of games — not unlike a piece you might see in your local newspaper’s sports pages.

Naturally, Narrative Science raised many questions about the impact on journalism: Will we still need writers to pen rote accounts of the day’s events if robots can do the job just fine? Should more journalists move away from the “here’s what happened” to the “here’s why it matters”? And so on.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Dictatorship, Fascism, Global News, Government, New World Order, Politics, propaganda, Robots, Technology, U.S.

New Jersey teenager Justin Beckerman has constructed a working one-man submarine out of spare parts and discarded objects.

- High-school teen builds one-man submarine for $2,000 (CNN, May 29, 2013):

The submarine’s body may be constructed from drainage pipes and the hatch from a recycled skylight, but according to its 18-year-old inventor, this single-person U-boat can plunge to a depth of 30 feet and has already completed three successful dives.The Nautilus took high school inventor Justin Beckerman just six months and $2,000 to put together — all while keeping on top of his homework.

“He has been building things since he was two years old,” says his mother, Jess Beckerman. “If we tried to help him we would just get in the way and mess things up.”

Continue reading »

Tags: Global News, Submarines, Technology

An electronic WristBand will track people around Disney World; contactless wallets like Google’s allow similar data collection in the real world.

Disney’s MagicBand can be used to “tag” into rides, hotel rooms and pay in stores (Credit: Disney)

- Disney’s Electronic Wristband Illustrates Why Big Companies Push Contactless Wallets (MIT Technology Review, May 31, 2013):

Disney just announced an electronic wristband for visitors to its theme parks that neatly illustrates why companies like Google and cellphone networks are pushing the idea of using contactless technology in phones for payments, tickets, boarding passes and more. The short answer? They want data.Disney’s MagicBand, an ID tag that uses Bluetooth and contactless NFC technology, is being introduced at Walt Disney World in Florida. It replaces a person’s ticket and can be used to tag into rides and other attractions at the park. It can also be used to open a guest’s hotel door, and to pay in stores at the resort. In the future, the Bluetooth link will make it possible for you to wander up to an attraction or Disney character and be greeted using your first name.

Continue reading »

Tags: Disney World, Global News, Society, Technology, U.S., Walt Disney

- U.S. senator reveals “truly shocking” information about California nuclear plant — “Restart of San Onofre reactors is now off the table” (ENENews, May 29, 2013):

Title: San Onofre: Internal letter reveals Edison knew of defects at crippled
reactors but misled federal regulators to get expedited license
Source: Friends of the Earth News Release
Date: May 28, 2013

“Restart is dead”

Continue reading »

Tags: California, Global News, Government, Nuclear, Nuclear reactors, Politics, San Onofre, Technology, U.S.

Exposed: The Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex is seen Saturday in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. As many as 30 scientists are feared to have suffered internal radiation exposure when an experiment at the facility went awry Thursday. | JAPAN ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY/KYODO

- Researchers hurt at Ibaraki nuclear facility (Japan Times, Kyodo News, May 26, 2013):

At least six researchers suffered internal radiation exposure when an experiment involving elementary particles went awry and up to 24 more are feared to have been similarly exposed, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday.

Radioactive substances leaked following the accident Thursday in the Hadron Experimental Facility of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the government-affiliated agency reported.

Officials from the Ibaraki Prefectural Government raided the complex Saturday afternoon to investigate the delay in reporting the incident. A malfunction occurred at 11:55 a.m. Thursday during an experiment to produce elementary particles by aiming a proton beam at a target made of gold, the agency said.

An alarm went off shortly afterward and the experiment was halted. But a researcher in charge of the equipment restarted it at 12:08 p.m., despite not having pinpointed the cause of the alarm, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Continue reading »

Tags: Global News, Ibaraki, J-PARC, Japan, Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, Nuclear, Radiation, Science, Technology, Tokai

- Infrared sensors used along ‘entire border of the United States,’ says CBP (Government Security News, May 20, 2013):

In a procurement document in which it disclosed its plans to purchase additional GS-100 Passive Infrared Sensors for use along the U.S.-Mexican border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) indicated that the existing surveillance system that deploys these PIR sensors spans “the entire border of the United States.”

That disclosure may constitute greater specificity about the widespread use of these infrared sensors, which can detect a pedestrian passing up to 100 feet away, than CBP has previously made public.

“GS-100 PIR sensors and extension cables are needed for replacement of unserviceable surveillance sensors or other areas needed for coverage,” explains CBP in a notice it released on May 20.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Technology, U.S.