sound money

Blind juggling robot keeps balls in the air for hours

"Researchers at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich have created a juggling robot, the so-called 'blind juggler,' which, in spite of its lack of visual sensors, is capable of flawlessly juggling a ball or balls for hours. The robot was designed by Philipp Reist and Raffaello D’Andrea and uses only mechanical sensors in its paddle, which is slightly curved. The robot registers nine different aspects of each bounce of the ball, including speed, angle and spin." Continue reading →

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Double-barrelled 50 kW German laser weapon shoots down drones and mortar rounds

"German defense contractor Rheinmetall has shown off a new two-part laser system with a combined output of 50 kW, capable of shooting down drones and intercepting mortar rounds in mid-flight. The high-energy laser (HEL) weapon consists of a 30 kW primary laser mounted on a rotating turret and a 20 kW secondary beam for targeting stationary objects. In tests conducted in late November, the beams combined to slice through a 15mm steel girder at a distance of roughly 1,000 yards, while the 30 kW laser on its own was able to intercept a drone moving at more than 110 mph." Continue reading →

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‘Citizen Drone Warfare’: Hobbyist explores a frightening scenario

"Less than a month ago, rumors that celebrity news and gossip website TMZ was interested in obtaining a paparazzi drone prompted privacy concerns and public debate about the appropriate personal and commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles. Now, a new online video poses a more troubling question: What if civilian drones are equipped to shoot more than just pictures? Titled 'Citizen Drone Warfare' and posted to YouTube last week anonymously, a video shows a hobbyist drone equipped with a custom-mounted paintball pistol flying over a grassy field and peppering human-shaped shooting-range targets with pellets." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Citizen Drone Warfare’: Hobbyist explores a frightening scenario

An American Stasi

"America is building its American Stasi openly. Some parts of its operations will be open, and critical parts will be secret. Many Americans will support it. No matter whether the American Stasi is open or secret, each isolated American will face a powerful foe, even more powerful than the Stasi, in a one-sided contest whose outcome is predetermined. The captured Stasi files on East Germans are 65 miles long, excluding 16,000 sacks of shredded documents that are being reconstructed. The American Stasi's files will be, for all practical purposes, infinite, because of the advances in technology and information storage." Continue reading →

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I Met the Enemy

"I recently had an opportunity to visit Iran. Family and friends warned me not to go because everyone knows the people in Iran all hate Americans. I found the Iranian people to be among the friendliest I have ever met anywhere in the world. I have new friends there that I will hold dear to my heart for the rest of my life. Oh how I wish a million Americans would visit Iran and meet the people there. If more Americans could see for themselves what I saw, they would demand our government change its policies toward these wonderful people. I met the enemy ... and I love them." Continue reading →

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Tunisian president stoned by protesters

"Protesters on Monday hurled rocks at Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar in Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the revolution that erupted exactly two years ago. The police held back, after violent clashes over the past few months, which have often followed attempts to disperse protesters angry over the Islamist-led government’s failure to improve living conditions in the poor region. Clashes and strikes, as well as attacks by hardline Islamists, have multiplied across Tunisia in the run-up to the second anniversary of the start of Tunisia’s revolution." Continue reading →

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Paula Was Not the Only One in Bed With Petraeus

"Petraeus got what he wanted from the relationship with the Kagans as well. Each time Petraeus descended on Capitol Hill he was treated like a god by lawmakers. That was the Kagans' doing. They rushed home from their extended stints 'running' the war in Afghanistan to pen saccharine pieces on the glories of Patraeus, just the kind of hero the pro-war faction in Congress (as in the entire Congress minus a handful) needed. This, in a nutshell, is why the desperate race to solve the 'fiscal cliff' is in reality a desperate race by Congress and the president to avoid any cuts in the military budget. Otherwise the Fred Kagans of the world will sic their think tank brigades on you." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaula Was Not the Only One in Bed With Petraeus

Drones Are Like Structured Finance

"What happened with structured finance and what's happening with drones is that the adoption and increased use of the technologies come to have an independent effect on the underlying phenomena, the housing bubble and the war on terror's killing bubble. Being effective and low-cost technologies, they heighten the bubbles as people use them intensively. The indiscriminate use or broad use or overuse of these technologies cause problems all their own and, in the hands of their users, who were investment bankers and now U.S. government officials, they become contributory causes of new problems." Continue reading →

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Deputy pepper sprays, beats man with Down Syndrome

"His eyes stinging with pepper spray, a developmentally disabled 21-year-old man was hit and forced to the ground before being taken into custody by California sheriff's deputies. Antonio Martinez was taken to a hospital and detained for possible obstruction of justice, but there was no citation or charge filed on that or other counts. While trying 'to gain compliance and prevent a possible escape,' the deputy used pepper spray on Antonio Martinez. The deputy began using a baton as an agitated crowd approached. The deputy hit Antonio Martinez with it, forcing him to the ground, then levied 'a couple more strikes to get his hands free'." Continue reading →

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Occupy activists sue Los Angeles over harsh treatment from police

"Activists with Occupy Los Angeles have filed suit against the city for what they allege was harsh police treatment as they were swept off City Hall grounds over a year ago. An estimated 1,400 officers drove about 300 demonstrators off the grounds on November 30, 2011; the activists had been camping out for eight weeks to support the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality and wealth disparities. The activists claim they were denied food and water for hours while being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center, at a jail in Van Nuys or on a bus to the detention center. Others allege they were refused access to bathroom facilities." Continue reading →

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