Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 21, 2010 from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 21, 2010 --------

Germany’s Artificial Cornea Ready To Restore Sight To Thousands

An expansive EU project to produce an artificial cornea has found success thanks to the work of Joachim Storsberg of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Germany. Storsberg helped develop a new version of an opthalmological polymer which the eye will bond to and still allow to function properly. The new polymer could help restore sight to thousands waiting for corneal transplants around the world. The artificial cornea has passed clinical trials and is ready to see expanded use in patients this year. Very soon those with corneal blindness may find a ready cure in the form of the new implant. Corneal blindness affects millions around the world. According to the WHO, about 5 million cases of blindness in the world (as of 2001) were a result of corneal damage or dystrophy. We’ve seen several high-tech approaches to fighting corneal blindness including the application of embryonic stem cells to generate new tissue. For most of those affected around the world, however, corneal transplants represent the surest and most accessible treatment for their condition. A readily accessible, easily made artificial cornea is a huge boon to corneal transplants.

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Scientists Tweak Subjects' Brains to Alter Their Moral Choices

Changing someone's moral response to a situation could be as easy as manipulating a piece of their brain, a new study finds. Previous research has shown that a brain region called the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) located at the brain's surface above and behind the right ear, is highly active when someone thinks about another person's intentions, thoughts and beliefs. In this new study, neuroscientists led by Rebecca Saxe of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology disrupted activity in volunteers' right TPJ by inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp. This impaired the participants' ability to make moral judgments that require an understanding of other people's intentions. For example, they were more likely to judge someone's failed attempt to harm another as morally permissible.

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Blinded soldier now able to 'see' with his tongue

Lance Corporal Craig Lundberg, 24, from Walton, Liverpool, can read words, identify shapes and walk unaided thanks to the BrainPort device, despite being totally blind. The BrainPort converts visual images into a series of electrical pulses which are sent to the tongue. The different strength of the tingles can be read or interpreted so the user can mentally visualize their surroundings and navigate around objects. The device is a tiny video camera attached to a pair of sunglasses which are linked to a plastic ''lolly pop'' which the user places on their tongue to read the electrical pulses. L/Cpl Lundberg explained: ''It feels like licking a nine volt battery or like popping candy.

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 24, 2009 --------

Mind-reading brain implant could allow paralyzed to turn their thoughts into instant speech

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  November 12, 2009 --------

Drone Race to a Known Future

Not long ago -- 2006 to be exact -- the Air Force could barely get a few armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the air at once; now, the number is 38; by 2011, it will reputedly be 50, and beyond that, in every sense, the sky's the limit.

Better yet, for the latest generation of armed surveillance drones -- the ones with the chill-you-to-your-bones sci-fi names of Predators and Reapers (as in Grim) -- whole new surveillance capabilities will soon be available.

Their newest video system, due to be deployed next year, has been dubbed Gorgon Stare after the creature in Greek mythology whose gaze turned its victims to stone.

Gorgon Stare will offer a "pilot" back in good ol' Langley, VA, headquarters of the CIA, the ability to "stare" via 12 video feeds (where only one now exists) at a 1.5 mile square area, and then, with Hellfire missiles and bombs, assumedly turn any part of it into rubble.

Within the year, that viewing capacity is expected to double to three square miles. What we're talking about here is the gaze of the gods, updated in corporate labs for the modern American war-fighter -- a gaze that can be focused on whatever runs, walks, crawls, or creeps just about anywhere on the planet 24/7, with an instant ability to blow it away

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  November 10, 2009 --------

Meet Aida, the in-car robot who will take the stress out of driving

Driving could soon be a far more pleasant experience thanks to a personal in-car robot being developed by researchers.

The Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA) will be able to tell you the best route home based on traffic reports, remind you to pick up gas and suggest places you may like to visit.

The robot, which sits on the dashboard, is being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with Volkswagen.

Aida communicates with the driver through an expressive robot screen and will even appear sympathetic if you're having a bad day.

Cynthia Breazeal, director of MIT's Personal Robots Group, said: 'We are developing Aida to read the driver's mood from facial expression and other cues and respond in a socially appropriate and informative way.'

Aida works by analysing the driver’s mobility patterns, keeping track of common routes and destinations.The creators say the robot should be able to work out home and work locations within a week of driving.

Soon afterwards, the system will direct the driver to their preferred supermarket, suggesting a route that avoids traffic-clogged roads. Aida might recommend a gas stop en route if the fuel tank is nearly empty.

The robot will also incorporate real-time information about traffic jams, the weather report, commercial activity, tourist attractions, and residential areas.

'Aida embodies a new effort to make sense of these great amounts of data, harnessing our personal electronic devices as tools for behavioral support,' said Professor Carlo Ratti, director of MIT's SENSEable City Lab.

'In developing Aida we asked ourselves how we could design a system that would offer the same kind of guidance as an informed and friendly companion.'

'Aida can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behavior,' Assaf Biderman from SENSEable City Lab added.

Over time, the project envisions a kind of symbiotic relationship developing between the driver and Aida, where both parties learn from each other and establish an affective bond.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  October 16, 2009 --------

Scientists hail a thoughtful future with ‘brain-to-brain communication’

Ever wanted to read minds? Ever wanted to communicate your thoughts without speaking a word? It may become possible after claims by British scientists that they have created a system that allows “brain-to-brain communication”, sending messages formed by one person’s brain signals though an internet connection to another person’s brain many miles away. Christopher James, who worked with colleagues at the University of Southampton, said that his experiments were “the first baby steps” towards technologies..

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 28, 2009 --------

Cooker that 'grows' meat in your kitchen wins design prize

A controversial cooker that 'grows' meat and fish by heating animal cells in your kitchen claimed first prize in the Electrolux design competition. The invention, called Cocoon, could develop food with the make-up and nutrients of real meat.

Mr Hederstierna, 27, said: 'This will create 100 per cent pure meat without the need for animals to be killed and with no risk of contamination. It will change everything.'

A food generator is a popular concept in science fiction programmes such as Star Trek.

Swedish industrial design student Rickard Hederstierna, 27, said it could tackle food shortages as the world's population spirals.

And the glass cooker, which would heat pre-mixed food packets containing muscle cells, oxygen and nutrients, would put an end to messy and time-consuming preparation.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 11, 2009 --------

Robot to be controlled by human brain cells

A robot controlled by human brain cells could soon be trundling around a British lab, New Scientist has learned. Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley at the University of Reading, UK, have already used rat brain cells to control a simple wheeled robot Movie Camera. Some 300,000 rat neurons grown in a nutrient broth and producing spikes of electrical activity were connected to the output of the robot's distance sensors

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 7, 2009 --------

'TELEPATHIC' MICROCHIP COULD HELP PARAPLEGICS CONTROL COMPUTERS

A 'telepathic' microchip that enables paraplegics to control computers has been developed by Dr Jon Spratley, a British scientist.

The chip is implanted onto the surface of the brain, where it monitors electronic 'thought' pulses.

While paraplegics may be unable to move their limbs, their brains still produce an electronic signal when they try.

The new chip captures this 'thought' and transmits it wirelessly, via Bluetooth-style technology, to control a range of simple devices.

It means paraplegics, amputees or those with motor neurone disease, such as Stephen Hawking, could be able to operate light switches, PCs and even cars by the power of thought alone.

The technology is the idea of British engineer Dr Spratley, who developed it while studying for a PhD at Birmingham University.

Dr Spratley, 28, from Stevenage, Herts., said the main aim of his research is to ‘help patients communicate.’

‘We are just trying to help people with severe communication problems or motor neurone disease - like Dr Stephen Hawking or Christopher Reeve,’ he said.

‘What we have designed would allow them to control a computer with their thoughts - if they imagine their muscles moving that could flick a light switch for example

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 4, 2009 --------

'TELEPATHIC' MICROCHIP COULD HELP PARAPLEGICS CONTROL COMPUTERS

A 'telepathic' microchip that enables paraplegics to control computers has been developed by Dr Jon Spratley, a British scientist.

The chip is implanted onto the surface of the brain, where it monitors electronic 'thought' pulses.

While paraplegics may be unable to move their limbs, their brains still produce an electronic signal when they try.

The new chip captures this 'thought' and transmits it wirelessly, via Bluetooth-style technology, to control a range of simple devices.

It means paraplegics, amputees or those with motor neurone disease, such as Stephen Hawking, could be able to operate light switches, PCs and even cars by the power of thought alone.

The technology is the idea of British engineer Dr Spratley, who developed it while studying for a PhD at Birmingham University.

Dr Spratley, 28, from Stevenage, Herts., said the main aim of his research is to ‘help patients communicate.’

‘We are just trying to help people with severe communication problems or motor neurone disease - like Dr Stephen Hawking or Christopher Reeve,’ he said.

‘What we have designed would allow them to control a computer with their thoughts - if they imagine their muscles moving that could flick a light switch for example.’

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 2, 2009 --------

Google 'evangelist' sees web, brain implant link

The man is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the internet is in the country - and he says the future of the web is in our bodies and in outer space. Vint Cerf, vice-president and "chief internet evangelist" of the tech giant Google, foresees the introduction of internet capability to existing neural interface technology such as cochlear implants, allowing, as an example, web radio played direct from computer to brain. He is also involved in work to send internet infrastructure into space to create "a communications backbone between space-faring nations". Cerf predicts the falling cost and rising sophistication of programmable devices will allow the internet to be widely embedded in inanimate objects.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 27, 2009--------

RESEARCHERS GROW EYE CELLS FROM SKIN CELLS

Researchers have succeeded in growing light-sensing eye cells from human skin cells, opening the possibility of restoring sight to patients blinded by certain diseases.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have grown retinal cells from skin cells, a development that could be used to treat degenerative eye diseases.

A number of genetic disorders involve the degeneration of the retina, the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye. The disorders cause the cells to die, and vision is gradually lost, resulting in blindness.

The researchers manipulated human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells, which can be coaxed to grow into any tissue in the body. The development suggests that doctors may someday be able to repair damage to the retina with new cells generated from the patient's own skin.

Lead researcher David Gamm, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Wisconsin, says his research could benefit people with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. In both diseases, the visual field gradually narrows, eventually leading to blindness.

‘In particular these diseases are quite devastating to the patients who are affected by them,’ he said. ‘They rob them of their vision either when they are younger in the case of retinitis pigmentosa or when they are older in the case when they are older in the case of macular degeneration. And there are no cures and very few if any treatments for them. So it is a big need, especially from the macular degeneration standpoint, as the population ages.’

An estimated one million people worldwide are affected by macular degeneration alone.

Gamm says the laboratory process of creating human retinal cells helps researchers better understand how eyes develop, so diseases that lead to vision loss may someday be treated or even cured with retinal stem cells

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 21, 2009--------

Army Tests Drones & Robots For Soldiers

“When I was in Iraq, we couldn’t see what we were busting into,” said Specialist Randall Thompson, who operates the robots. “But with this equipment, we can at least get a peek.” Army officials are trying to distance the relatively small-scale effort, which still faces some technical hurdles, from the shadow of a much broader program recently canceled that was to have created a truly modern military, with a new generation of combat vehicles and a vast wireless network. The changes also illustrate a shift in Pentagon contracting toward more incremental upgrades and a greater use of commercial technologies. For instance, iRobot, a Massachusetts company that has developed robots for home vacuum-cleaning and industrial uses, is building the Army’s robots. Officials say the new devices will help transform basic infantry brigades, which have shouldered the bulk of the fighting in both wars even though they have far less protection and firepower than armored units.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 20, 2009--------

Nanotech and biological hybrid could speed computers

Researchers are working on integrating nanotechnology with biological materials to create more powerful computers, medical tools and even prosthetics. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced this week that they have built a hybrid platform out of a mixture of biological and manmade materials. The platform is enabling them to build prototypes of what they're calling bio-nanoelectronic devices. "Electronic circuits that use these complex biological components could become much more efficient," said Aleksandr Noy, a lead scientist on the project, in a statement.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 14, 2009--------

Scientists fear a revolt by killer robots

Advances in artificial intelligence promise many benefits, but scientists are privately so worried they may be creating machines which end up outsmarting — and perhaps even endangering — humans that they held a secret meeting to discuss limiting their research. “These are powerful technologies that could be used in good ways or scary ways,” warned Eric Horvitz, principal researcher at Microsoft who organized the conference on behalf of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. According to Alan Winfield, a professor at the University of the West of England, scientists are spending too much time developing artificial intelligence and too little on robot safety.

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‘Pain Ray’ First Commercial Sale Looms

The so-called “Active Denial System” works by heating the outer surface of the target’s skin using millimeter waves — short wavelength microwaves. The effect is painful, but generally harmless, and forces the target to get out of the beam. Recently, it’s been proposed as a possible defense against pirates; last month, Raytheon gave a presentation on Active Denial at a NATO workshop on anti-pirate equipment and technologies. This presentation mentions an “Impending Direct Commercial Sale” of a commercial version of the Active Denial system known as Silent Guardian. This is Active Denial in a box, a 10,000-pound containerized system that can be mounted on a ship, a truck, or a fixed installation. It’s got an effective range of about 250 meters. The beam has a power of around 30 kilowatts.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 12, 2009--------

Are we on the brink of creating a computer with a human brain?

There are only a handful of scientific revolutions that would really change the world. An immortality pill would be one. A time machine would be another. Faster-than-light travel, allowing the stars to be explored in a human lifetime, would be on the shortlist, too. However, the creation of an artificial mind would probably trump all of these - a development that would throw up an array of bewildering and complex moral and philosophical quandaries. Amazingly, it might also be within reach.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 10, 2009--------

Cyborg suit multiplies human strength

The latest robot science ingenuity from Japan is a cyborg suit designed to help weak people move like they are strong. The Six-Million-Dollar Man-On-The-Outside suit is called HAL for "Hybrid Assistive Limb" and it's the product of Cyberdyne Corp. The company created the cyborg suit to "upgrade the existing physical capabilities of the human body," and give those with weak limbs or limited physical range the walking and motion abilities of an able-bodied person. The robo-suit is for people with physical disabilities, such as stroke-induced paralysis or spinal cord injuries, but Cyberdyne believes the technology can also be used in physical training and rehabilitation, to add extra "muscle" for heavy lifting, and aid in rescue and recovery operations.

***WATCHMAN...Think of the MILITARY USES...

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  August 4, 2009--------

BEWARE MARCH OF THE KILLER ROBOTS, EXPERT WARNS

Action on a global scale must be taken to curb the development of military killer robots that think for themselves, a leading British expert said today.

Terminator-style machines that decide how, when and whom to kill are just around the corner, warned Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield.

He fears that, far from helping to reduce casualties, their use is likely to make conflict and war more common and lead to a major escalation in civilian deaths.

‘I do think there should be some international discussion and arms control on these weapons but there’s absolutely none,’ said Professor Sharkey.

‘The military have a strange view of artificial intelligence based on science fiction. The nub of it is that robots do not have the necessary discriminatory ability. They can’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. It’s hard enough for soldiers to do that.’

Iraq and Afghanistan have both provided ideal ‘showcases’ for robot weapons, said Professor Sharkey. The ‘War on Terror’ declared by President Bush spurred on the development of pilotless drone aircraft deployed against insurgents.

Initially used for surveillance, drones such as the Predator and larger Reaper were now armed with bombs and missiles.

The US currently has 200 Predators and 30 Reapers and next year alone will be spending $5.5 billion (£3.3 billion) on unmanned combat vehicles. Britain had two Predators until one crashed in Iraq last year.

At present these weapons are still operated remotely by humans sitting in front of computer screens. RAF pilots on secondment were among the more experienced controllers used by the US military, while others only had six weeks training, said Professor Sharkey. ‘If you’re good at computer games, you’re in,’ he added.

But rapid progress was being made towards robots which took virtually all their own decisions and were merely ‘supervised’ by humans. These would be fully autonomous killing machines reminiscent of those depicted in the ‘Terminator’ films.

‘The next thing that’s coming, and this is what really scares me, are armed autonomous robots,’ said Professor Sharkey, speaking to journalists in London

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 30, 2009--------

Possible embryonic stem cell option

Sperm cell precursors can be converted into other cell types, providing a possible alternative to the medical use of embryonic stem cells, U.S. researchers say. The University of Illinois research, described in the journal Stem Cells, improves on earlier research that showed that a kind of germ cell that leads to the production of sperm could eventually give rise to a few cells that looked and acted like embryonic stem cells. In their new research, Simon placed spermatagonial stem cells from inbred mice on the connective tissue in embryos and grafted the combination into living mice. They found that the spermatagonial stem cells, under the right conditions, formed new tissues that had all the physical characteristics of prostate, skin or uterus and produced the telltale markers of those tissue types, they said.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 28, 2009--------

New power system spells the end of wires

The days of wires powering electronic devices could soon be at an end, with the development of a new system that will allow laptops, mobile phones and televisions to be left unplugged in the home while being recharged. The new technology exploits a recent breakthrough in physics, according to the US company WiTricity. It has shown that it can send electricity “wirelessly” through the air and can switch on a light bulb or keep a computer running. The new system has the potential to do away with mountains of disposable batteries and miles of wiring. “There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power,” Mr. Giler said. The system is able to operate safely because the energy is largely transferred through magnetic fields. Mr. Giler was keen to emphasize safety during the demonstration. “There’s nothing going on — I’m OK,” he said as he walked around a television running on wireless power.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 20, 2009--------

Monkey Moves Robot Using Mind Control

A monkey fitted with a hi-tech brain chip has learned to move a complex robotic arm using mind control. The chip implant allows the monkey to manipulate the arm by thought. The animal can operate the robot with such dexterity that it can reach out to grab, and turn a handle. The mechanical arm has an arm, elbow, wrist and simple hand, which the monkey controls with the power of thought.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 16, 2009--------

Powerful Ideas: Military Develops 'Cybug' Spies

Miniature robots could be good spies, but researchers now are experimenting with insect cyborgs or "cybugs" that could work even better. Scientists can already control the flight of real moths using implanted devices. The military and spy world no doubt would love tiny, live camera-wielding versions of Predator drones that could fly undetected into places where no human could ever go to snoop on the enemy. Developing such robots has proven a challenge so far, with one major hurdle being inventing an energy source for the droids that is both low weight and high power. Still, evidence that such machines are possible is ample in nature in the form of insects, which convert biological energy into flight.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 24, 2009--------

BOEING ADVANCED TACTICAL LASER FIRES HIGH-POWER LASER IN FLIGHT

Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have successfully fired the high-power laser aboard the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) aircraft for the first time in flight.

During the test, ATL took off from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., and fired its laser while flying over White Sands Missile Range, N.M., successfully hitting a target board located on the ground. ATL, which Boeing is developing for the U.S. Air Force, is a C-130H aircraft equipped with a chemical laser, a beam control system, sensors and weapon-system consoles.

‘This successful test is a major step toward bringing directed energy capability to the war fighter,’ said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems.

‘We have demonstrated that an airborne system can fire a high-power laser in flight and deliver laser beam energy to a ground target. ATL's ultra-precision engagement capability will dramatically reduce collateral damage.’

More tests are planned to demonstrate ATL's military utility. The system is designed to destroy, damage or disable targets with little to no collateral damage. These demonstrations support development of systems that will conduct missions on the battlefield and in urban operations

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 17, 2009--------

The Navy's New 100 Kilo Watt Laser Weapons

The Office of Naval Research has awarded Raytheon a year-long contract to develop the preliminary design of a 100 kilowatt experimental Free Electron Laser (FEL) for naval warships. A FEL uses super conducting electron accelerators to produce high-power laser beams that could target cruise missiles, airplanes or boats. FEL operators can adjust the laser's wavelength by adjusting the energy of the electrons in the accelerator, something conventional lasers can't do. This allows them to be used on ships without suffering disturbances from the water vapor-rich environment. Raytheon has 12 months to create a preliminary design, the first step in the $150 million, three-phase ONR program.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 16, 2009--------

Future Warbot Powered by Xbox Controller

The military has long been interested in unmanned ground vehicles that can haul soldier equipment or scout perimeters. Equally important, the vehicles must be simple and intuitive to operate. Lee Brimelow has an interesting scoop on how an XBox 360 interface was designed for the R-Gator, an unmanned vehicle prototype John Deere and iRobot first unveiled in 2004. In addition to hauling gear or supplies, the R-Gator could also be used as a sentry. Brimelow says the vehicle could be equipped with a system called REDOWL, or Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers, a sniper detection system that uses acoustic sensors and cameras to zero in on hostile gunfire.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 15, 2009--------

IDF developing battlefield robot snake

A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is on the way to join the the IDF's hi-tech arsenal. The spying robot, which is about two meters long and covered in military camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of real snakes, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, while at the same time sending images and sound back to a soldier who controls the device through a laptop computer. Able to bend its joints so well that it can squeeze through very tight spaces, the new device will be used to find people buried under collapsed buildings. The snake is also able to arch its body, allowing it to see over obstacles through its head camera. Researchers studied the movements of live snakes in order to create the most natural and realistic robotic version. Besides recording multimedia, the snake may also be used to carry explosives.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 9, 2009--------

Israel military developing battlefield robot snake

A robot snake, capable of recording video and sound on the battlefield, is the latest addition to the IDF's technological achievements. The new IDF robot snake is about two meters long and covered in army camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of a real snake, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, sending images and sound back to a soldier controlling the device through a laptop. The snake has a single camera on the front end.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 9, 2009--------

Microwave Missiles: High-Energy Weapons in the Air Force

New research into high-power microwaves could make them a crucial tool of electronic warfare.

The U.S. Air Force's newest directed-energy weapon program, the Counter-Electronics High-Powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP),

would create a weapon that fires powerful bursts of high-power microwaves (HPM), frying the electronics of multiple targets without harming people or other infrastructure

2 PETER 3:12...Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

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Radio-controlled bullets leave no place to hide

The U.S. Army has developed the XM25 rifle to give its troops an alternative to calling in artillery fire or air strikes when an enemy has taken cover and can't be targeted by direct fire.

The rifle's gunsight uses a laser rangefinder to calculate the exact distance to the obstruction. As the 25-millimeter round is fired, the gunsight sends a radio signal to a chip inside the bullet, telling it the precise distance to the target.

The Army plans to field-test prototypes of the rifle soon, possibly in Iraq or Afghanistan, and hopes to begin using it by 2012.

The Pentagon calls it the XM-25 Individual Air Burst Weapon, which uses a laser rangefinder to precisely measure the distance to a target, then primes a fuse on a timed grenade so that the projectile explodes exactly where it should

2 TIMOTHY 3:1...This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 8, 2009--------

Radio-controlled bullets leave no place to hide

The U.S. Army has developed the XM25 rifle to give its troops an alternative to calling in artillery fire or air strikes when an enemy has taken cover and can't be targeted by direct fire. The rifle's gun sight uses a laser rangefinder to calculate the exact distance to the obstruction. As the 25-millimeter round is fired, the gun sight sends a radio signal to a chip inside the bullet, telling it the precise distance to the target. The Army plans to field-test prototypes of the rifle soon, possibly in Iraq or Afghanistan, and hopes to begin using it by 2012.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 3, 2009--------

Robot farmhands prepare to invade the countryside

From ploughs to seed drills to tractors, evolving technology has brought about radical changes to agriculture over the years. Now the sector is poised for another shift as robotic farmhands gear up to make agriculture greener and more efficient. Three things now make mobile agricultural robots a real possibility in the near future, says Tony Stentz, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University's robotics institute. Firstly, mobile robots have now proved able to cope with complex outdoor environments; secondly, the price of production has fallen; and, finally, society should now see robot laborers as a benefit not a curse.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JUNE 1, 2009--------

U.S. lab debuts super laser

A U.S. weapons lab in California has revealed a super laser with the power to burn as hot as a star. The National Ignition Facility's main purpose is to serve as a tool for gauging the reliability and safety of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal but scientists say it could deliver breakthroughs in safe fusion power. NIF is touted as the world's highest-energy laser system. Equipment connected to a house-sized sphere can focus 192 laser beams on a small point, generating temperatures and pressures that exist at cores of stars or giant planets.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 29, 2009--------

Portable device can detect viruses in minutes

Imagine being able to detect in just a few minutes whether someone is infected with a virus. This has now become a reality, thanks to a new ultra-sensitive detector that has been developed by Ostendum, a spin-off company of the University of Twente, Netherlands. The company has just completed the first prototype and expects to be able to introduce the first version of the detector onto the market in late 2010. Not only does the detector carry out measurements many times faster than do standard techniques, it is also portable, so it can be used anywhere.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 27, 2009--------

Europe's fastest supercomputer unveiled in Germany

A new supercomputer with the power of 50,000 home PCs -- the fastest in Europe and the third worldwide -- was unveiled in Germany. 

The "Jugene," capable of 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion) calculations per second, ranks behind the "Roadrunner" and "Jaguar" computers in the United States, said Kosta Schinarakis from the Juelich research centre, where the computer is located. 

Jugene will be used for a wide variety of operations, including research on fuel cells for electric cars, weather forecasting and the origins of the universe, the center said. 

The machine is no ordinary PC, requiring 295,000 processors located in 72 lockers each the size of a telephone box.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 26, 2009--------

Microchip-sized digital camera to provide vision for U.S. military’s insect-sized aircraft

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a microchip-sized digital camera that can provide vision for the U.S. military’s insect-sized aircraft.

The researchers say that the tiny camera is so light that it can be easily carried by the tiny surveillance drones. They also say that the camera uses very little power.

DANIEL 12:4 "even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 20, 2009--------

Robot warriors

Lethal military robots are currently deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ground-based robots like the MAARS robot, are armed with weapons to shoot insurgents, appendages to disarm bombs, and surveillance equipment to search buildings.

A Georgia Tech computer science professor is developing a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire.

DANIEL 12:4 "even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 15, 2009--------

The Origin of Artificial Species: Creating Artificial Personalities

Recently, a team of researchers in South Korea has designed computer-coded genomes for artificial creatures in which a specific personality is encoded. The ability to give artificial life forms their own individual personalities could not only improve the natural interactions between humans and artificial creatures, but also initiate the study of “The Origin of Artificial Species,” the researchers suggest.

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 12, 2009--------

WHAT ROBOTS TEACH US ABOUT LIFE

The field of robotics is making great strides, and some claim that robots are “getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-flood people”

Justin Rattner, chief technology officer for Intel, said that it is conceivable that “machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason in the no-so-distant future.”

Rodney Brooks, a robot designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says, “One day we will create a human-level artificial intelligence.”

Futurist Ray Kurzweil claims that robots will match human intelligence by 2029.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 7, 2009--------

They know what you're thinking: brain scanning makes progress

Adam Wilson wrote “Go Badgers,” in a message posted on Twitter. He then wrote “Spelling with my brain,” 20 minutes later. Wilson had become the first person to post electronic messages just by thinking about them. He was in a lab at the University of Wisconsin hooked up to a brain scanner.

Scientists have used brain scanning technology to watch the formation of emotions, decisions being made, measured academic ability, spotted the mental signature of psychopathy and seen invisible advance signs of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 29, 2009--------

Robots are narrowing the gap with humans

Robots are gaining on us humans.

Thanks to exponential increases in computer power — which is roughly doubling every two years — robots are getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-blood people.

Robots guided by their own computer "brains'' now can pick up and peel bananas, land jumbo jets, steer cars through city traffic, search human DNA for cancer genes,

play soccer or the violin, find earthquake victims or explore craters on Mars

DANIEL 12:4 "even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."

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Killer robots could revolutionize warfare

They have no fear, they never tire, they are not upset when the soldier next to them gets blown to pieces.

Their morale doesn't suffer by having to do, again and again, the jobs known in the military as the Three Ds - dull, dirty and dangerous.

They are military robots and their rapidly increasing numbers and growing sophistication may herald the end of thousands of years of human monopoly on fighting war.

"Science fiction is moving to the battlefield.

The future is upon us," as Brookings scholar Peter Singer put it to a conference of experts at the U.S. Army War College

DANIEL 12:4 "even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL23, 2009--------

Robots are narrowing the gap with humans

Thanks to exponential increases in computer power, robots are getting smarter, more capable, more like flesh-and-blood people. At the recent "Robobusiness" conference in Boston, MA., companies demonstrated a robot firefighter, gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard. "The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago...It's conceivable that "machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason in the not-so-distant future" says Intel's chief technology officer.

***WATCHMAN...WELCOME to the TERMINATOR REALITY...Where's Arnie???

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 15, 2009--------

Virtual reality via nanobot injection? Ray Kurzweil says it’s the future

Virtual reality has long promised a way to create an immersive illusion so convincing you can’t tell the fake from the real.

Futurist Ray Kurzweil says it’s that kind of virtual reality will make virtual travel possible by injecting nanobots into your brain.

An injection of nanobots could trick your neurons into thinking that you’re really traveling someplace you aren’t.

If it sounds a bit like taking psychedelic drugs, it is.

You get pretty much the same effect, but these nanobots are technically robots, not drugs.

As for virtual travel, Kurzweil estimates that flawless virtual travel will be doable around 2030.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 6, 2009--------

ROBOT ACHIEVES SCIENTIFIC FIRST

A laboratory robot called Adam has been hailed as the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators.

Adam formed a hypothesis on the genetics of bakers’ yeast and carried out experiments to test its predictions, without intervention from its makers at Aberystwyth University.

The result was a series of ‘simple but useful’ discoveries, confirmed by human scientists, about the gene coding for yeast enzymes. The research is published in the journal Science.

Professor Ross King, the chief creator of Adam, said robots would not supplant human researchers but make their work more productive and interesting.

‘Ultimately we hope to have teams of human and robot scientists working together in laboratories,’ he said.

Adam is the result of a five-year collaboration between computer scientists and biologists at Aberystwyth and Cambridge universities.

The researchers endowed Adam with a huge database of yeast biology, automated hardware to carry out experiments, supplies of yeast cells and lab chemicals, and powerful artificial intelligence software.

Although they did not intervene directly in Adam’s experiments, they did stand by to fix technical glitches, add chemicals and remove waste.

The team has just completed a successor robot called Eve, which is about to work with Adam on a series of experiments designed to find new drugs to treat tropical diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis

***WATCHMAN...With the recent announcements of military robots that can fight and kill without humans telling us TERMINATOR robots are on the way???

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Japan child robot mimics infant learning

The creators of the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, say it's slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship. 

One of Japan's most sophisticated robots, processors record and evaluate information. 

The four-foot, four-inch humanoid is designed to learn just like a human infant. 

The team is trying to teach the pint-sized android to think like a baby who evaluates its mother's countless facial expressions and "clusters" them into basic categories, such as happiness and sadness.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 1, 2009--------

New robot 'steered by human thought'

Japan's Honda said it had developed a robot steered by human thought, thanks to a helmet-like device that measures a person's brain activity and sends signals to the machine.

The latest version of ASIMO -- the celebrity robot of Honda Motor Co. that can already dance, run and guide guests through an office floor -- has now been fitted with a so-called "brain machine interface" (BMI), the company said.

The state-of-the-art technology means the humanoid can perform four basic movements with its arms, legs and tongue based on the non-verbal instructions a person sends to it by concentrating on performing the action themselves.

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World's largest laser built in California

"Completion of the National Ignition Facility is a true milestone that will make America safer and more energy independent by opening new avenues of scientific advancement and discovery," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino.

"NIF will be a cornerstone of a critical national security mission, ensuring the continuing reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile without underground nuclear testing, while also providing a path to explore the frontiers of basic science and potential technologies for energy independence."

The Energy Department said the stadium-sized NIF is capable of focusing all of its 192 individual beams onto a spot about two-hundredths of an inch in diameter at the center of its 32-foot diameter target chamber in billionths of a second.

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 25, 2009--------

Robot killers might be allowed to fire on their own

The unmanned bombers that frequently cause unintended civilian casualties in Pakistan are a step toward an even more lethal generation of robotic hunters-killers that operate with limited, if any, human control.

The Defense Department is financing studies of autonomous, or self-governing, armed robots that could find and destroy targets on their own. On-board computer programs, not flesh-and-blood people, would decide whether to fire their weapons.

"The trend is clear: Warfare will continue and autonomous robots will ultimately be deployed in its conduct," Ronald Arkin , a robotics expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta , wrote in a study commissioned by the Army.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 24, 2009--------

Robots Take Center Stage in U.S. War in Afghanistan

The BigDogs, which are four-legged robots that can navigate the country's treacherous terrain and pilotless helicopters than can transport tons of supplies to very remote bases are just two of the new weapons being tested in Afghanistan.

The BigDog robot brain, a sophisticated computer, controls locomotion sensors that adapt rapidly to the environment. The entire control system regulates, steers and navigates ground contact.

The K-MAX is a remote-controlled helicopter designed to transport heavy loads, even in Afghanistan's high altitudes. The K-MAX currently requires some visual contact, in which ground controllers to launch and retrieve the aircraft.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 11, 2009--------

Astronomers search skies for doomsday asteroids

Conrad Jung and Gerald McKeegan are two most of most unassuming people you'll ever meet.

They're quiet. They're geeky. And oh yeah, they're here to save our planet.

These two astronomers spend their nights in the observatory at Oakland's Chabot Space and Science Center policing the skies for doomsday asteroids; those wider than roughly 3,000 feet.

None have been spotted so far, which is probably not a good thing.

The men are part of a worldwide network of volunteer astronomers tracking 5,000 known asteroids, a thousand of which could cause some serious damage.

One named Apophis is one such headache.

This enormous chunk (700 - 1000 feet in diameter) is much bigger than the one that created a quarter-mile wide crater in Arizona.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 6, 2009--------

"Virtual Cocoon" will mimic all five senses

A virtual reality helmet that recreates the sights, smells, sounds and even tastes of far-flung destinations has been devised by British scientists.

The device will allow users a life-like experience and will also enable users to greet friends and family on the other side of the world as though they were in the same room.

The scientists say it stimulates the senses so convincingly they have called the experience Real Virtuality.

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Tokyo school to host first robot teacher

Students at a Tokyo primary school will soon be learning from the first robot teacher. University of Tokyo Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi has created a robot capable of teaching human students while also expressing a limited range of emotions, including anger in case of unruly children.

The robot is named Saya and has been under development for 15 years leading up to the scheduled school trial. The robot's 18 facial motors are what give it the ability to mimic certain human emotions while the humanoid's other inner workings allow it to speak multiple languages and set tasks.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MARCH 4, 2009--------

Small Asteroid Flies Close To Earth

An asteroid the size of a 10-story building flew past Earth, about twice the distance as the highest Earth-orbiting satellites.

The space rock was about 115 feet wide, perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres of forest.

Asteroid 2009 DD45 was closest to Earth March 2nd at about 8:40 a.m. ET. It was some 44,740 miles away. Astronomers had known the asteroid was coming and said there was no risk of collision.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 23, 2009--------

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 16, 2009--------

Televisions to be fitted in contact lenses within ten years

It sounds like science fiction - contact lenses that transmit TV shows and tattoos that let us feel the emotions of the actors on screen.

Yet experts believe both could be reality within ten years. They say the constant miniaturisation of technology will lead to TV sets being shrunk to the size of contact lenses and powered by body heat.

Channels could be changed by voice commands or a wave of the hand, says a report on the future of home entertainment.

Ian Pearson, a 'futurologist' who advises companies on new technologies, said of the TV contact lens: 'You will just pop it into your eye in the morning and take it out at the end of the day.'

Digital tattoos, meanwhile, will pick up on the emotions portrayed by actors in TV shows and create impulses allowing us to feel the same emotions.

This would allow James Bond fans to feel the thrill of outdoing the enemy or sports fans to experience the elation of jubilant players, the report, commissioned by elec trical retailer Comet, predicts.

While the wearer's eyes might seem a bit tinted to onlookers, they wouldn't be able to tell what programme was being viewed, a report on the future of home entertainment states.

It states: 'We could even get to the point where we'll be able to immerse ourselves in a football game, making it feel like you're running alongside your favourite player or berating the ref.'

Miriam Rayman, of the Future Laboratory consultancy, which compiled the report, said that while the predictions may sound pie in the sky, most of the know-how already exists.

She said: 'The technology is getting smaller and smaller and people are trying to work out how to make it more immersible. They are trying to bring it closer and closer to the eye.'

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 10, 2009--------

US military develops anti-aircraft laser

The latest weapon developed by US engineers is a Humvee jeep mounted with a giant laser capable of shooting down aircraft.

The Laser Avenger successfully shot down a series of unmanned aerial vehicles during recent tests and is being hailed as a revolutionary weapon for future warfare.

The experiment was the first time that a ground vehicle has used a laser to destroy moving aircraft and marks a watershed moment in the development of lasers for battlefield use.

Invented by Boeing, the laser is fitted to a Humvee off-road vehicle, allowing it to be moved into the most remote locations to shoot down enemy planes.

Laser Avenger, unlike a conventional weapon, can fire its laser beam without creating missile exhaust or gun flashes that would reveal its position.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January January --------

Radio-controlled live flying beetle

Researchers at the University of California, Berkley, have managed to create a live remote-control beetle by using 6 electrodes hooked up to the beetle's brain and muscles. This is the first time it has been done wirelessly.

The U.S. military agency DARPA is looking to making them suitable for covert investigations and search & rescue missions in areas too small or dangerous for humans.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 20, 2009--------

Invisibility cloak moving closer into view?

That cloaking device we've been dreaming of appears to be one step closer to actual cloakdom, so start pondering the mischievous possibilities.

Scientists from Duke University have improved on their earlier efforts at producing an invisibility cloak,

coming up with a new type of device they say is significantly more sophisticated at cloaking an object (and eventually a person?) from visible light.

The device is made from a light-bending composite material that can detour electromagnetic waves around an object

and reconnect them on the other side. That creates an effect similar to a distant mirage you'd see hovering above a road on a hot day.

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World’s first flying car prepares for take-off

Is it a car? Is it a plane? Actually it’s both. The first flying automobile, equally at home in the sky or on the road, is scheduled to take to the air next month. If it survives its first test flight, the Terrafugia Transition, which can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds, is expected to land in showrooms in about 18 months’ time.

Its manufacturer says it is easy to keep and run since it uses normal unleaded fuel and will fit into a garage. Carl Dietrich, who runs the Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, said: “This is the first really integrated design where the wings fold up automatically and all the parts are in one vehicle.”

The Transition, developed by former Nasa engineers, is powered by the same 100bhp engine on the ground and in the air. Terrafugia claims it will be able to fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of petrol at a cruising speed of 115mph.

Up to now, however, it has been tested onl y on roads at up to 90mph. Dietrich said he had already received 40 orders, despite an expected retail price of $200,000 (£132,000). “For an airplane that’s very reasonable, but for a car that’s very much at the high end,” he conceded.

There are still one or two drawbacks. Getting insurance may be a little tricky and finding somewhere to take off may not be straightforward: the only place in the US in which it is legal to take off from a road is Alaska.

Dietrich is optimistic. He said: “In the long term we have the potential to make air travel practical for individuals at a price that would meet or beat driving, with huge time savings.”

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 14, 2009-------

Military Automated killer robots

Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey, a top expert on artificial intelligence.

But up to now, a human hand has always been required to push the button or pull the trigger.

If we are not careful, he said, that could change.

There is a subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 13, 2009--------

Life As We Know It Nearly Created in Lab

Specifically, the researchers synthesized RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components, and the process proceeds indefinitely.

"Immortalized" RNA, they call it, at least within the limited conditions of a laboratory.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 9--------

SCIENCE FICTION A REALITY

U.S. scientists learn how to levitate tiny objects

They said they had detected and measured a force that comes into play at the molecular level using certain combinations of molecules that repel one another.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 26, 2008--------

**Underwater robot** working on severed internet cables

Engineers are trying to fix cables at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea in an attempt to restore internet and telephone access to millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

A seabed earthquake or trawler net are believed to be responsible for damaging three fibreoptic cables, leaving at least 15 countries with slow or no internet access and poor-quality telephone lines.

A team of specialist engineers, aided by an underwater robot nicknamed Hector, are working on the problem, which they hope will be fixed by Thursday.

The cables, which carry more than 75 per cent of all communication traffic between Europe and the Middle East, were broken last week.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 18, 2008--------

The Damage Tolerance technology has moved to "Phase Three" now.

This includes integration and flight demonstration of the technology.

The objective of the flight demonstration is to show the utility of these technologies on an operationally representative killer robot.

The US military already operates a large, five-ton aerial robot armed with target-seeking missiles and smartbombs.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 8, 2008--------

WORLD'S FIRST PERSONAL SUPERCOMPUTER UNVEILED

The world's first personal supercomputer, which is 250 times faster than the average PC, has been unveiled.

With its £4,000 price tag, the Tesla supercomputer is beyond the reach of most consumers, but is expected to revolutionize the way scientists and medical professionals carry out their work.

The gadget's power will allow doctors to process the results of brain and body scans much more quickly. This would allow them to tell patients within hours instead of days whether they have a tumor.

Scientists also believe that the supercomputers could help them discover cures for diseases, such as cancer and malaria, much more quickly than using traditional research methods.

This is because the device lets them run hundreds of thousands of simulations to create a shortlist of the drugs that are most likely to offer the potential for a cure.

Until now, supercomputers were massive systems made up of thousands of machines taking up entire rooms, which cost millions of pounds to build and maintain.

By contrast, Tesla personal supercomputers will cost between £4,000 and £8,000 and look much like an ordinary PC.

David Kirk, chief scientist at NVIDIA, the American company which has designed the new technology, said: ‘Pretty much anything that you do on your PC that takes a lot of time can be accelerated with this.’

‘These supercomputers can improve the time it takes to process information by 1,000 times.

‘If you imagine it takes a week to get a result [from running an experiment], you can only do it 52 times a year. If it takes you minutes, you can do it constantly, and learn just as much in a day.’

The new computers make innovative use of graphics processing units - a technological breakthrough, which the company claims could bring lightning speeds to the next generation of home computers.

They went on sale to British customers yesterday and will initially be sold to universities and to the scientific and research community.

The PC maker Dell, however, said that it would soon be mass producing them for the general consumer market

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  December 5, 2008--------

BOEING AIRBORNE LASER SUCCESSFULLY ACTIVATES HIGH-ENERGY LASER

The company said the test was the final stage of the first full ground test of the entire weapon system integrated aboard the aircraft.

Boeing is the prime integrator for the ABL program. The company said the test was carried out at Edwards Air Force Base in California by its industry teammates and by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

In the test, the laser beam traveled through the beam control/fire control system before exiting the aircraft through the nose-mounted turret. The beam control/fire control system steered and focused the beam onto a simulated ballistic-missile target, the company said.

This test is significant because it demonstrated that the Airborne Laser missile defense program has successfully integrated the entire weapon system aboard the ABL aircraft, said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems.

With the achievement of the first firing of the laser aboard the aircraft in September, the team has now completed the two major milestones it hoped to accomplish in 2008, keeping ABL on track to conduct the missile shoot-down demonstration planned for next year, Fancher said.

Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ABL program director, stated that the next goal for the ABL project would be to conduct several longer-duration laser firings through the beam control/fire control system.

Once we complete those tests, we will begin demonstrating the entire weapon system in flight, Rinn said. The team is meeting its commitment to deliver this transformational directed-energy weapon system in the near term.

Boeing said the latest success followed a series major breakthroughs in the formerly troubled program. It noted a 2005 test that confirmed the high-energy laser could be fired with deadly levels of duration and power in the System Integration Laboratory at Edwards AFB.

Last year the Airborne Laser was subjected to many flight tests that confirmed its ability to monitor, target, hit and destroy airborne targets, including taking offset readings to allow for atmospheric conditions, and then firing an effective high-energy laser's simulated lethal beam on the target…”

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  JULY 9, 2008--------

      Kostner's "Water World" Fast becoming a Reality

The floating cities that could one day house climate change refugees

At first glance, they look like a couple of giant inflatable garden chairs that have washed out to sea

But they are, apparently, the ultimate solution to rapidly rising sea levels.

This computer-generated image shows two floating cities, each with enough room for 50,000 inhabitants.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  MAY 21, 2008--------

Monster carnivorous mice overrun British Island

A British owned island in the South Atlantic has been overrun by hundreds of thousands of monster mice which have evolved into carnivores.

A Gough mouse crouches over the remains of a seabird chick

The mice of Gough Island have grown to two or even three times the size of an ordinary house mouse.

They have developed from eating insects and seeds and are now devouring young birds, including albatross chicks, in huge numbers.

Birds on the island had been used to having no predators and are unable to fend off the mice which attack in groups at night.

Gough Island is regarded as one of the most important seabird colonies in the world.

It is thought to have around 700,000 mice all descended from a few that escaped from on a whaling boat.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 18, 2008--------

New security camera can 'see' through clothes

New technology that can "see" through clothing and detect what's underneath can now be used to scan crowds, making it a potentially effective tool to prevent terrorist attacks in public places.

The camera can see through people's clothes from up to 25 meters away, detecting objects.

The ThruVision T5000 camera picks up Terahertz rays, or T-rays, which are naturally emitted by all objects and can pass through fabric or even walls.

The camera can then image metallic and non-metallic objects hidden under clothing on still or moving subjects without revealing any body detail, according to its British manufacturer, ThruVision Limited.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 15, 2008--------

'NOW WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN MAKE A CLONED CHILD'

A new form of cloning has been developed that is easier to carry out than the technique used to create Dolly the sheep, raising fears that it may one day be used on human embryos to produce ‘designer’ babies.

Scientists who used the procedure to create baby mice from the skin cells of adult animals have found it to be far more efficient than the Dolly technique, with fewer side effects, which makes it more acceptable for human use.

***WATCHMAN... FEWER??? WHAT KIND??? HOW MANY??? DEFORMITIES???...

The mice were made by inserting skin cells of an adult animal into early embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Some of the resulting offspring were partial clones but some were full clones – just like Dolly.

Unlike the Dolly technique, however, the procedure is so simple and efficient that it has raised fears that it will be seized on by IVF doctors to help infertile couples who are eager to have their own biological children.

***WATCHMAN... OR HOMOSEX who want PLAT TOYS...

One scientist said this weekend that a maverick attempt to perform the technique on humans is now too real to ignore. ‘It's unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today,’ said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of American biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology.

‘Cloning isn't here now, but with this new technique we have the technology that can actually produce a child. If this was applied to humans it would be enormously important and troublesome,’ said Dr Lanza, whose company has pioneered developments in stem cells and cell reprogramming.

‘It raises the same issues as reproductive cloning and although the technology for reproductive cloning in humans doesn't exist, with this breakthrough we now have a working technology whereby anyone, young or old, fertile or infertile, straight or gay can pass on their genes to a child by using just a few skin cells,’ he said.

***WATCHMAN... THERE what did I tell you that is HOMOSEX language if I ever heard it...

The technique involves the genetic reprogramming of skin cells so they revert to an embryonic-like state. Last year, when the breakthrough was used on human skin cells for the first time, it was lauded by the Catholic Church and President George Bush as a morally acceptable way of producing embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy human embryos

***WATCHMAN... It is playing GOD and by my experience as a genetic research scientist it could produce VERY DANGEROUS NEW DISEASE POSSIBILITIES...

ROMANS 1:28 "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient"

***WATCHMAN COMMENT... That verse is speaking DIRECTLY to PERVERSION...

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 9, 2008--------

GM Files: Horrifying New Disease Contains Identical Material to GM "Food"

GM =s GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS!...thewatchman

Nightmare on Elm the Dinner Table. Thank you, Monsanto!

Now it appears that the increasingly prevalent nightmare of a disease called "Morgellon's Disease" may be a result of GM crops and food.

Morgellon's Disease was first described when a woman's 3 year old son developed rashes and intensely itchy sores which produced weird multicolor fibers emerging from his skin.

She put up a website about the condition in 2001 and named it "Morgellons Disease" after a 17th century report of a similar affliction.

It is now known that Morgellon's Disease is no longer rare, nor is it mysterious any longer.

A study of the fibers shows that they contain DNA from *both* a fungus and a bacterium

which are used in the commercial preparation of genetically modified foods and non-food crops (such as cotton).

The fibers themselves are primarily cellulose, which the human body cannot breakdown or manufacture.

So GM technology apparently has, like Professor Frankenstein, found a way to animate the non living.

These fibers twist and twine, grow and divide.

In short, living beneath the skin of people, they form parasitic lesions out of what should be non-living material but which, through the horror of genetic modification, has taken on the characteristics of a living thing.

The symptoms are so unbearable that a number of people suffering from the disorder have committed suicide rather than deal with the unbearable pain, constant feeling of something very much like an insect crawling without stop beneath the skin and unbearable itching any longer.

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  APRIL 7, 2008 -------------

SCIENCE FICTION A REALITY

Laser plane could destroy tanks from 10 miles

The United States Defence Department has developed a prototype of an aircraft armed with a laser gun that could destroy tanks 10 miles away.

The weapon is capable of destroying targets up to 15km (10m) away, according to Defense Update online magazine.

The ten-centimetre-wide beam will heat targets almost instantly to thousands of degrees and will slice through metal even at maximum range.

It is intended both for battlefield use and for missile defense. It is anticipated the beam will be adjustable, allowing the gunner to choose between, for example, targeting a vehicle's fuel tank to destroy it utterly, or slice through a track to bring it to a halt without injuring the driver.

The laser will be housed in a rotating turret attached to the underside of the aircraft and will be aimed independently of the plane.

Early tests have focused on testing the rotation of the laser housing.

So far the laser itself has not been tested in flight, but first trials are expected during 2008.

Tests on a laser for destroying vehicles will be carried out on the prototype based on the C-130 "Hercules" transport aircraft

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  March 11, 2008 -------------

New security camera 'sees' under clothes

A BRITISH company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25m away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry.

The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls passive imaging technology to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays, known as Terahertz or T-rays, that they emit.

The high-powered camera can detect hidden objects even when people are moving.

It does not reveal physical body details and the screening is harmless, the company said.

The technology, which could could be used in crowded airports, shopping malls or sporting events, will be unveiled this week.

"Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally," said Clive Beattie, the chief executive of ThruVision.

"The ability to see both metallic and non-metallic items on people out to 25m is certainly a key capability that will enhance any comprehensive security system."

ThruVision came up with the technology for the T5000 in collaboration with the European Space Agency and from studying research by astronomers into dying stars.

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  March 3, 2008 -------------

Move Over Mark Of The Beast!

Subcutaneously Implanted Touch-Screen Runs On Blood, Could Replace Cell Phones, Calculators, Credit Cards

Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art.

At the recent Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin.

The basis of the 2x4-inch "Digital Tattoo Interface" is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone.

It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and muscle.

Through the same incision, two small tubes on the device are attached to an artery and a vein to allow the blood to flow to a coin-sized blood fuel cell that converts glucose and oxygen to electricity.

After blood flows in from the artery to the fuel cell, it flows out again through the vein.

On both the top and bottom surfaces of the display is a matching matrix of field-producing pixels.

The top surface also enables touch-screen control through the skin.

Instead of ink, the display uses tiny microscopic spheres, somewhat similar to tattoo ink.

A field-sensitive material in the spheres changes their color from clear to black, aligned with the matrix fields.

The tattoo display communicates wirelessly to other Bluetooth devices - both in the outside world and within the same body.

Although the device is always on (as long as your blood´s flowing), the display can be turned off and on by pushing a small dot on the skin.

When the phone rings, for example, an individual turns the display on, and "the tattoo comes to life as a digital video of the caller," Mielke explains.

When the call ends, the tattoo disappears.

Could such an invasive device have harmful biological effects? Actually, the device could offer health benefits.

That´s because it also continually monitors for many blood disorders, alerting the person of a health problem.

The tattoo display is still just a concept, with no word on plans for commercialization.

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 28, 2008 -------------

KILLER MILITARY ROBOTS POSE LATEST THREAT TO HUMANITY

A robotics expert at the University of Sheffield issued stark warnings over the threat posed to humanity by new robot weapons being developed by powers worldwide.

In a keynote address to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Professor Noel Sharkey, from the University's Department of Computer Science, expressed his concerns that we are beginning to see the first steps towards an international robot arms race. He warned that it may not be long before robots become a standard terrorist weapon to replace the suicide bomber…

Over 4,000 robots are currently deployed on the ground in Iraq and by October 2006 unmanned aircraft had flown 400,000 flight hours. Currently there is always a human in the loop to decide on the use of lethal force. However, this is set to change with the US giving priority to autonomous weapons - robots that will decide on where, when and who to kill.

Others are now embarking on robot weapons programs in Europe and other allied countries such as Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Singapore and Israel. China, Russia and India are also embarking on the development of unmanned aerial combat vehicle. The US DoD report is unsure about the activity in China but admits that they have strong infrastructure capability for parallel developments in robot weapons.

Professor Sharkey, who is famously known for his roles as chief judge on the TV series Robot Wars and as onscreen expert for the BBC´s TechnoGames, said: ‘The trouble is that we can't really put the genie back in the bottle. Once the new weapons are out there, they will be fairly easy to copy. How long is it going to be before the terrorists get in on the act’’

‘With the current prices of robot construction falling dramatically and the availability of ready-made components for the amateur market, it wouldn't require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons.’…

The robotics expert is also concerned with a number of ethical issues that arise from the use of autonomous weapons. He added: ‘Current robots are dumb machines with very limited sensing capability. What this means is that it is not possible to guarantee discrimination between combatants and innocents or a proportional use of force as required by the current Laws of War

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 21, 2008 -------------

DNA strings could become the template for nanotubes and nanowires by 2028

February 21, 2008 (Computerworld) Looking for a way to continually shrink computer chips while still squeezing more transistors onto them, IBM scientists are working on a whole new way to build processors -- using DNA.

Greg Wallraff, a staff scientist at IBM, explained that the researchers are laying single molecules of DNA onto the chip's surface and using them as a template for assembling electronic components, like nanotubes and nanowires.

The DNA used by the researchers comes from a virus, he added.

"People say DNA is the blueprint for life," said Wallraff.

"The specific structure of DNA has unique features.

It's basically programmable.

You can design DNA into unique shapes, with specific attachment sites.

Then we pour this DNA solution onto a silicon substrate, and the DNA assembles itself exactly where we want it to.

***WATCHMAN... CYBORGS A REALITY???...

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 21, 2008 -------------

Ministry of Homeland Security’s “LED Incapacitator”

One company has received an $800,000 contract from the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new “non-lethal” method of human incapacitation for use by law enforcement.

By 2010, Intelligent Optical Systems hopes to be selling a sort of high-powered flashlight, the “LED Incapacitator,” which would act by not only effectively blinding its target,

...by overloading his or her brain, with rapidly flashing lights at varying colors and frequencies.

In addition to disorientation, headache and nausea are also likely.

The device, designed with help from the Los Angeles Police Department, could end up in the hands on the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Secret Service and air marshals.

DANIEL 12:4 "even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased."

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 18, 2008 -------------

MACHINES 'TO MATCH MAN BY 2029'

Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.

Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people's brains to make them more intelligent said engineer Ray Kurzweil.

He said machines and humans would eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.

‘It's really part of our civilization,’ Mr. Kurzweil said.

‘But that's not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us.’

Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.

‘I've made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029,’ he said.

Humans and machines would eventually merge, by means of devices embedded in people's bodies to keep them healthy and improve their intelligence, predicted Mr. Kurzweil.

‘We'll have intelligent nanobots go into our brains through the capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons,’ he told BBC News.

The nanobots, he said, would ‘make us smarter, remember things better and automatically go into full emergent virtual reality environments through the nervous system’

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 8, 2008 -------------

RAILGUN ANOTHER REPORT

Navy Tests Incredible Sci-Fi Weapon

The U.S. Navy yesterday test fired an incredibly powerful new big gun designed to replace conventional weaponry aboard ships. Sci-fi fans will recognize its awesome power and futuristic technology. The big gun uses electro

magnetic energy instead of explosive chemical propellants to fire a projectile farther and faster.

The railgun, as it is called, will ultimately fire a projectile more than 230 miles (370 kilometers) with a muzzle velocity seven times the speed of sound (Mach 7) and a velocity of Mach 5 at impact.

The Navy's current MK 45 five-inch gun, by contrast, has a range of less than 23 miles (37 kilometers).

The railgun has been a featured weapon in many science fiction universes, such as the new "Battlestar Galactica" series.

The Navy's motivation? Simple destruction. The railgun's high-velocity projectile will destroy targets with sheer kinetic energy rather than with conventional explosives

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  February 4, 2008 -------------

Navy Tests High-Powered Electromagnetic Railgun

A futuristic weapon getting a trial run by the Navy demonstrated its destructive power at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren.

In the demonstration Thursday, engineers fired the electromagnetic railgun at what they said was a record power level: 10 megajoules.

The previous railgun power-use record was about 9 megajoules of muzzle energy.

Railguns use electromagnetic energy to launch projectiles long distances — more than 200 nautical miles.

Because the railgun uses electricity and not gunpowder to fire projectiles, it eliminates the possibility of explosions on ships.

The Navy hopes the railgun will eventually replace the standard 5-inch gun on its ships. The weapon isn't expected to be deployed until at least 2020.

A joule is defined as the energy needed to produce one watt of electricity for one second.

The railgun tested Thursday actually has a capacity of 32 megajoules, but the Navy is slowly building up the energy level in a series of tests.

That's a lot of power, but with a new series of electrically-powered ships coming on line, the Navy figures generating capacity will not be a problem.

According to the Navy, the railgun, when fully developed, will be able to launch solid projectiles at Mach 5, or about 3,700 mph.]

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FINNISH PATIENT GETS NEW JAW FROM OWN STEM CELLS

Scientists in Finland said they had replaced a 65-year-old patient's upper jaw with a bone transplant cultivated from stem cells isolated from his own fatty tissue and grown inside his abdomen.

Researchers said on Friday the breakthrough opened up new ways to treat severe tissue damage and made the prospect of custom-made living spares parts for humans a step closer to reality.

‘There have been a couple of similar-sounding procedures before, but these didn't use the patient's own stem cells that were first cultured and expanded in laboratory and differentiated into bone tissue,’ said Riitta Suuronen of the Regea Institute of Regenerative Medicine, part of the University of Tampere.

She told a news conference the patient was recovering more quickly than he would have if he had received a bone graft from his leg.

‘From the outside nobody would be able to tell he has been through such a procedure,’ she said.

She added, the team used no materials from animals -- preventing the risk of transmitting viruses than can be hidden in an animal's DNA, and followed European Union guidelines.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and they can be found throughout the blood and tissues. Researchers have recently found that fat contains stem cells which can be directed to form a variety of different tissues.

Using a patient's own stem cells provides a tailor-made transplant that the body should not reject

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Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  January 25, 2008 -------------

Prince Charles Debuts 'Image Of The Beast' Hologram Tech

Prince Charles beamed all the way to Dubai

The Prince of Wales was beamed in Star Trek-style for his first appearance as a hologram when he delivered a powerful speech on the environment to the world's leaders before vanishing into thin air.

A life-size, three-dimensional image of the Prince was projected onto the stage of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

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Archived from News & Views page

Coming soon, an X-ray vision gun

The superhero power to see through walls will soon be within the grasp of ordinary mortals, thanks to a new hand-held X-ray scanner.

Inventors hope the gadget could revolutionize police work and Customs searches by allowing officers to seek out contraband, weapons, bombs or hidden people.

The LEXID device sends out low-level X-rays which are collected in a lens based on the design of a lobster's eye.

Rick Shie, senior vice-president of its American inventors, Physical Optics Corporation, said that lobsters' eyes, which are able to see in deep, murky water, use thousands of tiny squares to focus by reflection rather than the bending or refraction of light like human eyes.

Mr. Shie said: "The LEXID works by emitting a low-level X-ray and then the lobster eye interprets what is returned and the image is produced on a screen.

"We are still in the research stage but have conducted successful trials and the government iskeen to test it. "It can detect bombs, contraband or people and will show up anything within a couple of meters."

America’s Department of Homeland Security is already understood to be interested in the device for use in its war on terror.

While the images produced by the scanner are not crystal-clear, they are sharp enough to reveal a cache of weapons or parts of a bomb.

Mr. Shie said: "Down the line we hope that these will be available to anyone and are likely to cost several thousand pounds. "They could be used to find wires within walls and they have a variety of security uses.

"It could find drugs or arms hidden in containers, and a robotic version could be used to see whether there are bombs in car boots.

"We think we will be able to improve the image by four or five times and although we are still in the research stage we hope it can be trial led by the government in a year."

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Archived from News & Views page

Researchers create new rat heart in lab

Medicine's dream of growing new human hearts and other organs to repair or replace damaged ones received a significant boost Sunday

when researchers at the University of Minnesota reported success in creating a beating rat heart in a laboratory.

Archived from News & Views page

Scientists create machine that knows what you are thinking

Scientists have developed a machine which is capable of reading our mind and revealing our most private thoughts.

American researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, found that, with the aid of a sophisticated scanner and computer program, they were able to determine how the brain lights up when thinking about different subjects.

Using an advanced form of MRI scanner, they analyzed how the brain reacted to ten drawings of tools and buildings.

They then used a computer program to work out whether a person was thinking about a tool or a building.

The researchers' analysis was found to be 97 per cent accurate but they went on to show that they could distinguish between two similar objects, such as two different tools, almost as successfully.

This is the first time the technique has been fine tuned to distinguish between similar objects.

The brain scans also showed many different brain regions are involved in processing information even in the case of something as simple as a line drawing of a hammer.

Thinking about how a hammer is used activated the areas involved in movement, while thinking about the shape of a hammer and what it is used for lit up other regions.

Despite being limited to picking up the thoughts behind just ten pictures, the researchers are confident that they will soon be able to identify entire sentences.

One of the team, Dr Svetlana Shinkareva, said: "We hope to progress to identifying the thoughts associated not just with pictures but also with words and eventually sentences."

The technique could also have medical applications by, for example, providing valuable insights into conditions such as autism.

Study leader Professor Marcel Just said: "People with autism perceive others in a distinctive way that has been difficult to characterize.

"This approach offers a way to discover that characterization." The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, also showed that different people think about the same thing in the same way.

"This part of the study establishes, as never before, that there is a commonality in how different people's brains represent the same subject," the study said.

"There has always been a philosophical conundrum as to whether one person's perception of the color blue is the same as another person's.

"Now we see that there is a great deal of commonality across different people's brain activity corresponding to familiar tools and dwellings."

The device's possibilities can, however, be extended and the team envisage a time when it will be used to conduct infallible lie detector tests, while the accurate interpretation of a person's intentions could allow police to arrest criminals before they break the law, as seen in the film Minority Report.

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Archived from News & Views page January 8, 2008 ------

NASA To Find Most Earth-Threatening Asteroids By End Of 2008, But Wormwood Is Only One Worry

January 03, 2008 (Computerworld) By the end of this year, NASA hopes to find about 90% of the largest asteroids that could potentially strike Earth, a blast that could throw dust into the atmosphere and cause firestorms and acid rain.

These asteroids can be as large as mountains but are at least 1 kilometer (3,280.8 feet) in diameter. NASA estimates that 900 of these objects are in potentially hazardous range of Earth.

But the more immediate threat is from much smaller asteroids, such as the asteroid that has a 1-in-25 chance of hitting Mars on Jan. 30. The asteroid, which has the unglamorous name of 2007 WD5, is only 50 meters (164 feet.

Small, yes, but such an asteroid has the explosive force of a 10-megaton nuclear weapon.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page January 3, 2008 ------

Military Use of Unmanned Aircraft Soars

The military's reliance on unmanned aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, largely in Iraq.

And new Defense Department figures show that the Air Force more than doubled its monthly use of drones between January and October, forcing it to take pilots out of the air and shift them to remote flying duty to meet part of the demand.

The dramatic increase in the development and use of drones across the armed services reflects what will be an even more aggressive effort over the next 25 years, according to the new report.

The jump in Iraq coincided with the build up of U.S. forces this summer as the military swelled its ranks to quell the violence in Baghdad.

But Pentagon officials said that even as troops begin to slowly come home this year, the use of Predators, Global Hawks, Shadows and Ravens will not likely slow.

"I think right now the demand for the capability that the unmanned system provides is only increasing," said Army Col. Bob Quackenbush, deputy director for Army Aviation. "Even as the surge ends, I suspect the deployment of the unmanned systems will not go down, particularly for larger systems."

For some Air Force pilots, that means climbing out of the cockpit and heading to places such as Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, where they can remotely fly the Predators, one of the larger and more sophisticated unmanned aircraft.

About 120 Air Force pilots were recently transferred to staff the drones to keep pace with demands, the Air Force said.

The increased military operations all across Iraq last summer triggered greater use of the drones and an escalating call for more of the systems - from the Pentagon's key hunter-killer, the Predator, to the surveillance Global Hawks and the smaller, cheaper Ravens.

In one recent example of what they can do, a Predator caught sight of three militants firing mortars at U.S. forces in November in Balad, Iraq.

The drone fired an air-to-ground missile, killing the three, according to video footage the Air Force released.

The Army has a total of 361 unmanned aircraft in Iraq alone - including Shadows, Hunters and Ravens.

And in the first 10 months of 2007, they flew more than 300,000 hours.

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Archived from News & Views page December 31, 2007 ------

Chance of Asteroid Hit on Mars Increases

The chance of a football field-sized asteroid plowing into Mars next month has been increased to 4 percent, scientists said Friday after analyzing archival data.

Though still a long shot, some researchers are hoping for a cosmic smash.

"I think it'll be cool," said Don Yeomans, who heads the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Usually when an asteroid is headed toward Earth, I'm not rooting for an impact."

The space rock, known as the nondescript 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. Based on the latest information available, scientists said last week there was a 1-in-75 chance the asteroid could hit Mars on Jan. 30.

The odds were increased to 1-in-25 this week after a Ph.D. student pored through the archives and plotted the asteroid's motions before its official discovery. The new information allowed scientists to improve their calculations of the asteroid's orbit and flight path.

Scientists will continue to monitor the asteroid to better predict the possibility of a Martian impact. Yeomans said he expects the odds to decrease with new observations gathered early next year.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page December 20, 2007 ------

Caught on Tape: Death Star Galaxy

The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope: A black hole in a "death star galaxy" blasting a neighboring galaxy with a deadly jet of radiation and energy.

A fleet of space and ground telescopes have captured images of this cosmic violence, which people have never witnessed before, according to a new study released Monday by NASA.

"It's like a bully, a black-hole bully punching the nose of a passing galaxy," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who wasn't involved in the research.

But ultimately, this could be a deadly punch.

The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size. Both are about 8.2 billion trillion miles from here, orbiting around each other.

The larger galaxy has a multi-digit name but is called the "death star galaxy" by one of the researchers who discovered the galactic bullying, Daniel Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Tens of millions of stars, including those with orbiting planets, are likely in the path of the deadly jet, said study co-author Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

If Earth were in the way - and it's not - the high-energy particles and radiation of the jet would in a matter of months strip away the planet's protective ozone layer and compress the protective magnetosphere, said Evans. That would then allow the sun and the jet itself to bombard the planet with high-energy particles.

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Archived from News & Views page December 18, 2007 ------

U.S. Eyes 'Pain Beam' for Home Security, Law Enforcement

Burglars break into an apartment, hoping to pick up some expensive electronics or jewelry. But they're out again, empty-handed, within seconds, howling with pain and surprise. They've been driven back by waves of intolerable heat: Entering the apartment is like stepping into a furnace. It's the Active Denial System, or ADS, at work, the ultimate in home protection ... among other uses.

Also known as the "pain beam," ADS is a revolutionary non-lethal weapon that uses microwaves to cause burning pain without injury. The 95-GHz waves only penetrate a fraction of an inch, heating the outer surface of the target's skin. According to the Air Force, nobody can tolerate the beam for more than five seconds, and improvised protection such as wrapping yourself in wet towels or tin foil is useless.

There have been repeated calls for ADS to be deployed in Iraq, but the military is bogged down in reviews of the technology. However, now that ADS exists, the pain beam's manufacturer is exploring domestic U.S. uses, like industrial- and home-security systems.

The Department of Energy is looking at employing the technology to protect America's nuclear stockpile. Meanwhile, some U.S. law enforcement officials are eager to get their hands on the pain weapon, and the Department of Justice is funding a multimillion-dollar research project to give it to them.

"We seem to have no qualms about dropping bombs on people, but are afraid of being embarrassed if we accidentally hurt someone while trying to save their lives," says Charles "Sid" Heal, a commander at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department "Those restrictions do not apply to the Department of Justice and we are zealously looking for ways of resolving confrontations without having to kill or seriously hurt our adversary."

A former Marine, Heal has tested Active Denial and believes it could be invaluable in situations like jail riots, where the searing pain could cow rebellious prisoners. His biggest problems are the system's size and price tag; it's currently mounted on a Hummer and costs millions of dollars, putting it far beyond the reach of police departments.

That's where the U.S. Justice Department comes in. The National Institute of Justice, the department's R&D branch, believes police need a cheaper, lightweight Active Denial system with shorter range. NIJ tested a prototype of such a system earlier this year, but the results of testing have not yet been revealed.

A working device is expected to be delivered towards the end of 2008. A handheld ADS would deliver an intermediate level of force, between verbal commands and more drastic means such as pepper spray or Tasers.

But some have concerns that it could be used to punish or torture suspects rather than control them. Pepper spray and Tasers have caused plenty of debate, and any police use of "pain compliance" methods invites controversy.

A device that causes intense pain but leaves no physical or chemical traces could easily be abused.

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Archived from News & Views page November 15, 2007 ------

US plans new space weapons against China

The Pentagon is spending billions of dollars on new forms of space warfare to counter the growing risk of missile attack from rogue states and the "satellite killer" capabilities of China.

Congress has allocated funds to develop futuristic weapons and intelligence systems that operate beyond the Earth's atmosphere as America looks past Iraq and Afghanistan to the wars of the future.

The most ambitious project in a new $459 billion (£221.5 billion) defense spending Bill is the Falcon, a reusable "hypersonic vehicle" that could fly at six times the speed of sound and deliver 12,000lb of bombs anywhere in the world within minutes.

The bombs' destructive power would be multiplied by the Earth's gravitational pull as they traveled at up to 25 times the speed of sound towards their target.

The cost of the vehicle has not been revealed, but a spokesman for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) said a first test flight was scheduled for next year.

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Archived from News & Views page Archived from News & Views page November 12, 2007 ------

Army tests James Bond style tank that is 'invisible'

New technology that can make tanks invisible has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence.

In secret trials last week, the Army said it had made a vehicle completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012.

The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank.

The result is that anyone looking in the direction of the vehicle only sees what is beyond it and not the tank itself.

A soldier, who was at the trials, said: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it.

I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."

How the technology works in a combat situation is very sensitive, but the MoD is believed to be testing a military jacket that works on the same principles.

It is the type of innovation normally associated with James Bond, and the brains behind the latest technology is the MoD's very own "Q" - Professor Sir John Pendry, of Imperial College London.

He said the only drawback was the reliability of the cameras and projectors.

But he added: "The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them - which is intricate and complicated, but possible".

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Genetic Modification - the path to becoming superhuman

Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified "supermouse" with extraordinary physical abilities – comparable to the performance of the very best athletes – raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people's capacities.

The mouse can run up to six kilometers (3.7 miles) at a speed of 20 meters per minute for five hours or more without stopping.

Scientists said that this was equivalent of a man cycling at speed up an Alpine mountain without a break.

Although it eats up to 60 per cent more food than an ordinary mouse, the modified mouse does not put on weight.

It also lives longer and enjoys an active sex life well into old age – being capable of breeding at three times the normal maximum age.

American scientists who created the mice – they now have a breeding colony of 500 – said that they were stunned by their abilities, especially given that the animals came about as a result of a standard genetic modification to a single metabolism gene shared with humans.

They emphasized that the aim of the research was not to prepare the way to enhance the genes of people.

However, they accepted that it may be possible to use the findings to develop new drugs or treatments that could one day be used to "enhance" the natural abilities of athletes.

The professor of biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University at Cleveland in Ohio, Richard Hanson, said that the physical performance of the super mouse can only be compared to supremely fit athletes like the cyclist Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005.

The genetic alteration to a gene involved in glucose metabolism appears to stimulate the efficient use of body fat for energy production.

At the same time, the mice do not suffer from a build up of lactic acid – which causes muscle cramps – a feature also seen in the best endurance athletes.

Professor Hanson said yesterday: "They are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees. They utilize mainly fatty acids for energy and produce very little lactic acid.

They are not eating or drinking and yet they can run for four or five hours. They are 10 times more active than ordinary mice in their home cage.

They also live longer – up to three years of age – and are reproductively active for almost three years.

In short, they are remarkable animals.

"On the downside, they eat twice as much as control mice, but they are half the weight, and are very aggressive.

Why this is the case, we are not really sure."

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The High Tech Future of Warfare

What will soldiers be wearing on the battlefield by the year 2025? According to the 24th Army Science Conference, future warriors will be equipped with high-tech uniforms of "liquid body armor" now under development using nanotechnologies.

The battledress would also be equipped with 360-degree situational awareness technology, plus virtual reality screens that enable troops to navigate an environment by projecting maps on the ground—sort of like R2-D2 on Star Wars.

The new form-fitting suit is being developed through the wonder of nanotechnology, which involves manipulating atoms and molecules to create things at the nanometer scale. That's about 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a strand of hair. The suit would also have the ability to match background colors.

Soldiers wearing the suit would have the ability to blend into any environment, like a chameleon. In this prototype uniform, the helmet is the main hub where "all of the action happens," Staff Sgt. Raul Lopez said.

A tiny video camera in front provides 360-degree situational awareness. A series of sensors inside give the Soldier three-dimensional audiological hearing and the ability to amplify specific sounds, while lowering the volume of others.

Complete voice translation is also provided, for what the Soldier hears and what he or she says. Night vision sensors, minimized to the size of pencil erasers, are also in the helmet. 

Maps and other situational awareness information are projected on the inside of the visor, while everything the Soldier sees and hears is sent in real time up to higher headquarters.

"It's all voice activated," Lopez said. "I can tell it to show me where my buddies are, and it projects it on the visor."

Thermal sensors weaved into the fabric of the uniform control its temperature, based on the Soldier's environment.

An on-board respirator, tethered to the Soldier's back, provides a continuous supply of fresh air – eliminating the need for a protective mask.

Should the Soldier have the visor up, or the helmet off, and breath in some kind of harmful agent, the uniform sensor will immediately detect it, release tiny embedded capsules to counter it and inject treatment into the Soldier's body.

From the waist down, a skeletal system allows the Soldier to carry two or three times his or her body weight, feeling only the weight of their own body through the technology of an XO muscle, which augments a Soldier's strength.

The more advanced features of the uniform may not be ready for battle until around the year 2025.

But when the time comes, this new conceptual uniform could virtually turn an ordinary person into an invincible sci-fi superhero.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page October 2Archived from News & Views page October 2

SCIENTISTS GENERATE POWERFUL ANTIMATTER RAY

Researchers at North Carolina State University have produced the world's most powerful antimatter beam.

‘There is a reactor in Munich, Germany, that has been generating those types of radiation beams for some time now, and our analysis of the data shows that we have exceeded what they have reported,’ Dr. Ayman Hawari, director of the Nuclear Reactor Program at North Carolina State, told the university's Web site.

The beam, consisting of an intense burst of positrons, was generated at the school's PULSTAR campus nuclear reactor, which first went online in 1972.

A positron is the ‘mirror image’ of an electron — it has the same weight and properties of the most basic atomic particle, but is positively rather than negatively charged.

Theoretical physicists believe there are equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe, but few antimatter particles have been found ‘in the wild.’

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page October 23

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month. "I heard someone say, 'Oh my gosh, look at those,' the college senior from New York recalled.

"I look up and I'm like, 'What is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."

Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too. "I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?'

That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York.

Some suspect the insect like drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.

No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying.

Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spy ware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.

The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.

The technical challenges of creating robotic insects are daunting, and most experts doubt that fully working models exist yet.

...................

U.S., British Militaries May Deploy Flying Saucers

Researchers in England have developed their own flying saucer — and it might be going to work for the U.S. and British militaries.

GFS Projects' unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can soar high in the air, hover, bank and fly over any terrain, making it ideal for military surveillance.

It uses an aerodynamic principle known as the Coanda effect to take off vertically from any solid surface.

A propeller mounted atop the two-foot-wide aircraft pushes air down over the saucer-shaped body, creating a broad cone of thrust extending outward.

"The key to it is that it's very stable," explains David Steel, a director at GFS Projects in Peterborough, a medium-sized English city about 75 miles north of London.

"You have a large base of air extending downward supporting the craft, looking something like a woman's skirt.

"The current model, the GFS 13, is made of plywood and plastic and powered by electric batteries driving a regular automotive radiator fan.

"It can travel at 30 or 40 miles per hour over an open area," says Steel, "but that's not really important.

What matters is that it can move in any direction over a large area, and is difficult to knock out of the air.

"Since the underside of the craft is an aerodynamic "dead zone," a camera, cargo or payload could easily be mounted there without affecting the UAV's flight performance.

At the moment, a human operator controls the craft, which is about two feet across and weighs 15 pounds, via radio signals.

Steel says future models will be made of carbon composites, be powered by gasoline or diesel engines driving a much more efficient propeller and be guided by GPS-based autonomous flight-control systems.

"You would input coordinates via a laptop or PDA," says Steel, "and the craft would navigate itself. Best of all, those systems are now off the shelf as well."

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from News & Views page October 16, 2007 ------Archived from News & Views page October 1, 2007 ------

Archived from News & Views page October 12, 2007 ------Archived from News & Views page October 12, 2007 ------

US accused of making insect spy robots

The US government has been accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies amid reports of bizarre flying objects hovering in the air above anti-war protests.

No government agency has admitted to developing insect-size spy drones but various official and private organizations have admitted that they are trying.

But official protestations of innocence have failed to kill speculation of government involvement after a handful of sightings of the objects at political events in New York and Washington.

Vanessa Alarcon, a university student who was working at an anti-war rally in the American capital last month, told the Washington Post: "I heard someone say, 'Oh my God, look at those.'

"I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?'. They looked like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."

Bernard Crane, a lawyer who was at the same event, said he had "never seen anything like it in my life". He added: "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical or is that alive?'"

The incident has similarities with an alleged sighting at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York when one peace march participant described on the internet seeing "a jet-black dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th Avenue".

Entomologists suggest that the objects are indeed dragonflies. Jerry Louton, an expert at the National Museum of Natural History, said Washington was home to large, impressively-decorated dragonflies that "can knock your socks off".

However, he admitted that the dragonfly theory did not explain claims made independently by three people at the Washington event.

They all described seeing a row of spheres the size of small berries attached along the tails of the "dragonflies".

They also reported seeing at least three together. Mr Louton said that dragonflies never fly in a pack.

The CIA secretly developed a petrol-powered dragonfly drone back in the 1970s but the "insectothopter" was considered a failure as it couldn't handle crosswinds.

The Last Days Signs - The End Times - Are Upon The Earth!

Archived from NEWS+VIEWS page  September 17, 2007 ---------

Robot Maker Builds Artificial Boy

David Hanson has two little Zenos to care for these days. There's his 18-month-old son Zeno, who prattles and smiles as he bounds through his father's cramped office. Then there's the robotic Zeno.

It can't speak or walk yet, but has blinking eyes that can track people and a face that captivates with a range of expressions.

At 17 inches tall and 6 pounds, the artificial Zeno is the culmination of five years of work by Hanson and a small group of engineers, designers and programmers at his company, Hanson Robotics.

They believe there's an emerging business in the design and sale of lifelike robotic companions, or social robots.

And they'll be showing off the robot boy to students in grades 3-12 at the Wired NextFest technology conference Thursday in Los Angeles.

Unlike clearly artificial robotic toys, Hanson says he envisions Zeno as an interactive learning companion, a synthetic pal who can engage in conversation and convey human emotion through a face made of a skin-like, patented material Hanson calls frubber.

"It's a representation of robotics as a character animation medium, one that is intelligent," Hanson beams.

"It sees you and recognizes your face. It learns your name and can build a relationship with you."

He plans to make little Zenos available to consumers within the next three years for $200 to $300.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

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Implanted Brain chip reads man's thoughts

A paralyzed man in the US has become the first person to benefit from a brain chip that reads his mind.

Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001.

The pioneering surgery at New England Sinai Hospital, Massachusetts, last summer means he can now control everyday objects by thought alone.

The brain chip reads his mind and sends the thoughts to a computer to decipher.

He can think his TV on and off, change channels and alter the volume thanks to the technology and software linked to devices in his home.

Scientists have been working for some time to devise a way to enable paralyzed people to control devices with the brain.

Posted August 23, 2007 -------------------------------

We have broken speed of light

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second. However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunneling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

....................................

Robot Wars -a Reality?

Increasingly, the military wants to hand over the responsibility of killing to conscienceless machines. 

Some say it’s a great way to protect our troops and others are calling it a cold-hearted cop-out.

In either case, the US military hopes to dehumanize military operations as quickly as possible.

The US National Research Council advises "aggressively exploiting the considerable war fighting benefits offered by autonomous vehicles".

They are cheap to manufacture, require less personnel and, according to the navy, perform better in complex missions.

One battlefield soldier could start a large-scale robot attack in the air and on the ground.

The US military already has unmanned aerial vehicles armed with hellfire missiles.

"At present they require a human to give, by remote, permission to fire," says Owen Holland, professor of computer science at the University of Essex, "but it will not be long before they can take the human out of the loop."

South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are also increasingly using military robots.

But so far the biggest player is the US, which is putting $230bn into a future combat systems project, an ambitious plan to develop unmanned vehicles that can strike from the air, water and land.

Congress has already set a goal of having one-third of ground combat vehicles unmanned by 2015.

Fully autonomous robots that make their own decisions about lethality are high on the US military agenda

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted August 16, 2007 -------------------------------

Giant Robotic Spy Blimp Creeps Forward

Imagine a blimp so huge, you could fit an entire, 1000-foot aircraft carrier inside. And the radar at heart of that monster zeppelin? Well, that would be as big as the 15-story hotel where DARPA, the Pentagon's mad science division, is holding its conference.

DARPA first proposed a king-sized, robotic airship, four years ago. The idea was to have the blimp is at nearly 65,000 feet in the sky, spotting enemies up to 180 miles away, and watching out for incoming cruise missiles 350 miles in the distance.

During down times, ISIS might even serve as a cell tower in the sky, relaying communications to U.S. troops. It didn't take long, though, to realize that such a ginormous undertaking was going to be tough to pull off -- even for a group was way-out as DARPA.

So, instead, the agency refocused its "Integrated Sensor is Structure" (ISIS) blimp effort, looking at component technologies instead: stuff like solar panels, fuel cells, and flexible radar arrays. Fast forward a few years.

Now, ISIS program manager Tim Clark says, those components are starting to prove out. Clark set a goal of 400 kilowatt hours per kilogram for the blimp's power structure -- everything from the fuel cells to the solar panels to the cables in between.

DARPA-funded researchers are likely to hit 700 kilowatt hours in upcoming tests. DARPA wants to build a prototype, third-scale model of the blimp -- one that'll be a mere football-field long, and stay up for 90 days at a time.

Assuming they can get, say, the Air Force to play ball -- and assuming that first prototype works -- the eventual goal is to get a carrier-sized, unmanned zeppelin that would stay up for 10 years at a time, keeping watch on everything below.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted August 13

This pic of a SWORD was from Feb 5, 2005 click HERE 

First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq

Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time -- the first time in any war zone -- the machines are carrying guns.

After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns.

The 'bots "haven't fired their weapons yet," Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager.

"But that'll be happening soon."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted August 8, 2007 -------------------------------

PHYSICISTS HAVE 'SOLVED' MYSTERY OF LEVITATION

Levitation has been elevated from being pure science fiction to science fact, according to a study reported today by physicists.

In earlier work the same team of theoretical physicists showed that invisibility cloaks are feasible.

Now, in another report that sounds like it comes out of the pages of a Harry Potter book, the University of St Andrews team has created an 'incredible levitation effects’ by engineering the force of nature which normally causes objects to stick together.

Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, have worked out a way of reversing this phenomenon, known as the Casimir force, so that it repels instead of attracts.

Their discovery could ultimately lead to frictionless micro-machines with moving parts that levitate But they say that, in principle at least, the same effect could be used to levitate bigger objects too, even a person.

The Casimir force is a consequence of quantum mechanics, the theory that describes the world of atoms and subatomic particles that is not only the most successful theory of physics but also the most baffling.

The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a ‘dry glue’ effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling.

Now, using a special lens of a kind that has already been built, Prof Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin report in the New Journal of Physics they can engineer the Casimir force to repel, rather than attract.

Because the Casimir force causes problems for nanotechnologists, who are trying to build electrical circuits and tiny mechanical devices on silicon chips, among other things, the team believes the feat could initially be used to stop tiny objects from sticking to each other

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted July 30, 2007 -------------------------------

Saucer shaped drone makes first flight

A futuristic plane made its first flight over California's high desert last week.

Boeing sent the unmanned X-45B Blended Wing Body, or BWB, experimental aircraft into the sky last week at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base for a 31-minute flight that reached an altitude of 7,500 feet.

The flight was announced by Boeing Thursday. It marked what could become a major step forward in aircraft design. The aircraft has a tailless design and wings that blend seamlessly into a wide and flat fuselage. The result is a futuristic flying machine with the classic UFO look.

"We've successfully passed another milestone in our work to explore and validate the structural, aerodynamic and operational efficiencies of the BWB concept," said program manager Bob Liebeck. "We already have begun to compare actual flight-test data with the data generated earlier by our computer models and in the wind tunnel."

Engineers at Boeing Phantom Works see BWB as leading the way to high-flying military aircraft that is virtually silent in flight and very low in its fuel consumption.

The X-48B weighs in at 500 pounds and has a 21-foot wingspan. It is powered by three turbojet engines and will be put through its paces in a series of low-speed flights at around 140 miles per hour.

***WATCHMAN... Looks like there might have been some truth about the sightings over AREA 51 after all!...

Posted July 17, 2007 -------------------------------

Advanced polymer could revolutionize industries

Its rock-hard surface can take a full- on assault from a baseball bat, yet remains flexible enough to allow you to kick, leap and roll with perfect ease.

Crafted from cutting-edge science, its unique molecular structure means that while providing armored protection against crude concrete and even barbed wire, it remains light enough to allow you to run at high speed.

It sounds like the stuff of Batman comics - but the superhero suit is here. Identified as a major breakthrough that could impact on every sector from the military to motor sports, the revolutionary shock-absorbent material d3o is taking the world by storm.

Blessed with the kind of properties your average costumed crime fighter would kill for, it is being hailed as an invention with the potential to change entire industries and save real lives.

***WATCHMAN... WHAT IF crooks get this???...

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted April 6-8, 2007 -------------------------------

Heart valve grown from stem cells

British scientists have grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time.

Heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, who led the team, said doctors could be using artificially grown heart components in transplants within three years.

His researchers at Harefield hospital managed to grow tissue that works in the same way as human heart valves.

Sir Magdi said a whole heart could be produced from stem cells within 10 years…

Researchers will see their achievement as a major step towards growing entire organs for transplant.

Stem cells have the potential to turn into many different types of cell.

Many scientists believe it should be possible to harness the cells' ability to grow into different tissues to repair damage and treat disease.

Sir Magdi, professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, had been working on ways to address a shortage of donated hearts for patients.

He said he hoped that soon an entire heart could be grown from stem cells…

His team extracted stem cells from bone marrow and cultivated them into heart valve cells.

After they were placed in scaffolds formed from collagen, 3cm-wide discs of heart valve tissue were formed.

Later in the year, these will be implanted into animals such as sheep or pigs to see how well they fare.

Dr Stephen Minger, a stem cell expert at London's King's College, said Sir Magdi's team were at the forefront of tissue engineering for cardiac disease.

‘If the valves they've engineered prove successful in experimental animals, this could open the door to generating complex tissues from stem cells for a wide variety of clinical application

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 23-25, 2007 -------------------------------

Israeli 'Drones' Fly Over Iraq

Pilot less

Elbit Systems, one of Israel's leading defense electronics companies, said its little "Skylark" can cover an area within a range of 6 miles day or night. It is about 7 feet long with a wingspan of nearly 8 feet, the company said.

"Skylark is operational and currently deployed in the global war on terror in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan," the statement said. It described the Skylark as suited for "close range, beyond-the-next hill, counter-terror missions."

Lt. Col. Matthew McLaughlin of CENTCOM, the American command that handles Iraq and Afghanistan, said the military "would not confirm the use of the drone," but is always looking for aircraft with such capabilities.

The U.S. relies heavily on pilot less planes of all shapes and sizes for surveillance, launching missiles and other missions in the region.

Elbit said the Skylark, one of several items of Israeli defense hardware deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be unveiled to the public at the March 20-25 Australian International Airshow.

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Scientists Fear Asteroid Heading 'Uncomfortably Close'

Circle your calendar. April 13th, 2036 could be a really, really bad day on planet Earth.

A group of astronauts and engineers warns that an asteroid may pass uncomfortably close to Earth that day. The chances it will actually hit are just one in 45,000, but even at those odds, the scientists warn, the United Nations should consider a response.

Most feared is Apophis, a large asteroid that will pass within 10,000 miles of Earth around 2029 and even closer in 2036.

Dr. Dan Barry, a retired astronaut said, "Even if the probability is low of an asteroid hitting Earth, if it has the potential to have a significant impact, then it has to be looked at. It is the absolutely responsible thing to do. In fact, it would be irresponsible not to do so."

Barry said more research is needed so that when a potentially dangerous asteroid is found, there is a plan in place. He said it is therefore important to start the search for asteroids now, to allow enough time to effectively deal with them.

Scientists believe that if advance warnings of dangerous asteroids like Apophis can be made decades in advance, there will be enough time to try and knock them off course.

Suddenly, Bruce Willis on a mission to stop a devastating asteroid from destroying Earth, as he did in the movie "Armageddon," does not seem as far-fetched.

Nobody knows for sure what it would take to push a massive asteroid off its course, but the theoretical possibilities include detonating weapons on an asteroid's surface or using gravitational pull to alter a possible collision course.

But it could also break an asteroid into many pieces, all still headed toward Earth.

Some scientists say a better option could be to launch a large satellite to rendezvous with an asteroid. The mass of the satellite alone could produce enough gravitational pull to change the asteroid's course.

Another suggestion is to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in the hopes of changing its direction.

"Done far enough away, only a small deflection would be needed and it is kept in one piece," said Barry.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 20, 2007 -------------------------------

Teraflops Micro chip points to future

A chip with 80 processing cores and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second (teraflops) has been unveiled by Intel.

The Teraflops chip is not a commercial release but could point the way to more powerful processors, said the firm.

The chip achieves performance on a piece of silicon no bigger than a fingernail that 11 years ago required a machine with 10,000 chips inside it.

The challenge is to find a way to program the many cores simultaneously.

Current desktop machines have up to four separate cores, while the Cell processor inside the PlayStation 3 has eight (seven of them useable). Each core is effectively a programmable chip in its own right.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 13, 2007 -------------------------------

Israel unveils portable hunter killer robot

An Israeli defense firm on Thursday unveiled a portable robot billed as being capable of entering most combat zones alone and engaging enemies with an onboard armory that includes a machine-pistol and grenades.

The VIPeR, roughly the size of a small television, was invented as part of Israel's efforts to develop weaponry that could reduce the risks to its forces from hand-to-hand fighting against Palestinian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

The manufacturer, Elbit Systems Ltd, said that the VIPeR's small size and dual treads enable it to move "undeterred by stairs, rubble, dark alleys, caves or narrow tunnels". As well as bomb-sniffing and bomb disposal equipment, the VIPeR can carry an Uzi machine-pistol or plant a grenade. The weapons would be aimed using an onboard video camera.

According to Elbit, which has close links with the Defense Ministry, Israel plans to deploy the VIPeR among its infantry units after field tests. The robot could also be of interest to foreign police units or U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 5, 2006 -------------------------------

Battlefield laser almost ready

A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon.

The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory.

It could take only a further six to eight months to break the "magic" 100kW mark required for the battlefield, the project's chief scientist told the BBC.

Potentially, lasers could destroy rockets, mortars or roadside bombs.

The US military has been researching laser weaponry since the 1960s. But the technology has struggled to live up to high hopes; directed energy weapons projects have failed to enter the battlefield, for a variety of reasons.

Chemically powered lasers have been able to achieve megawatts (one megawatt=one million watts) of power. But they are large and heavy, and require a constant supply of chemical fuel.

Solid state lasers may lack this power potential, but they tend to be more compact and lightweight, holding promise for the eventual development of a mobile, vehicle-mounted weapon.

"We have a lot of power coming out considering this is a very small system," said Dr Yamamoto.

"In our 25kW configuration and our 2.5 sq cm spot size on a one-inch thick steel target, we blow a hole through it in seven seconds."

SSHCL uses an array of many diodes - not dissimilar to the LEDs used in bicycle lights and remote controls - to generate a beam.

Chilled water is piped through the diode array and other components of the laser to cool it down during operation.

SSHCL generates a pulsed beam which fires 200 times a second at a wavelength of one micron. However, other experts place more stock in a continuous wave (CW), or "always-on", beam format.

Dr Yamamoto said the power required of directed energy weapons depended very much on the task: "If you have an improvised explosive device (IED), exposed by the roadside in Baghdad, detonating that device in five seconds or 15 seconds is not such an issue," he said.

"You could have - for example - a 25kW laser and have it dwell a little longer on the target.

"Conversely, if you have a katyusha rocket that you are trying to engage three or four kilometres away, having more power is a useful thing. Maybe 100kW in that application is exactly what you want.

He added: "More power on one level equates to a quicker response on the target you are trying to destroy."

On a good day, said Dr Yamamoto, a 100kW solid state laser with reasonable beam quality could have a range of several kilometers.

The team believes that a 100kW mobile version of the laser could be contained in a 9m- (30ft-) long trailer.

The effectiveness of directed energy systems is affected by many variables. These can include atmospheric conditions, turbulence (changes in air density as the result of heating and cooling), humidity, clouds, the time of day, and, of course, the nature of the target.

Perhaps the most successful of the US military's laser projects has been the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL), which has shot down a small arsenal of mortars and rockets in live tests.

THEL uses a highly focused, high-power laser beam to engage and destroy aerial targets.

Another high-profile system currently under development is the US Air Force's Airborne Laser (ABL), which is designed to destroy enemy missiles shortly after they have been launched.

The megawatt class chemical laser is to be carried aboard a modified Boeing 747 freighter aircraft.

One of the biggest hurdles to surmount for solid state lasers is achieving a sufficient beam quality. This is a measure of how tightly a laser beam can be focused under certain conditions.

Dr Yamamoto said improving the beam quality was one of the current goals for his team. The Livermore group is one of a number working on solid state lasers and is looking for further funding.

In 2005, Massachusetts-based Textron Systems won a $40m grant from the US Department of Defense to build a 100kW laser by 2009.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted March 1, 2006 -------------------------------

Shooting Pain The Future of Heat Beaming Weapons

If you're worried about terrorism, upset about the war in Iraq, and depressed by global chaos, violence, and death, cheer up. We've just invented a weapon that fires a beam of searing pain.

Three weeks ago, the U.S. armed forces tested it on volunteers at an Air Force base in Georgia. You can watch the video on a military Web site. Three colonels get zapped, along with an Associated Press reporter.

The beam is invisible, but its effects are vivid. Two dozen airmen scatter. The AP guy shrieks and bolts out of the target zone. He says it felt like heat all over his body, as though his jacket were on fire.

The feeling is an illusion. No one is harmed. The beam's energy waves penetrate just one-sixty-fourth of an inch into your body, heating your skin like microwaves. They inflame your nerve endings without actually burning you. This could be the future of warfare: less bloodshed, more pain.

Military technology has always sought greater precision from longer range. In the Gulf War, Kosovo, and Afghanistan, we exploited the increasing accuracy of laser-guided bombs. In the post-9/11 terrorist hunt and the occupation of Iraq, we've sent hundreds of remotely piloted aerial drones to spy and kill.

But the lives protected by drones are ours. The pain beam is more ambitious: It can spare civilians and even the enemy. Precision isn't just the ability to kill. Sometimes, it's ability to disperse and deter without killing.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 28, 2006 -------------------------------

Security Scanner Can See Through Clothes

The Phoenix airport on Friday became the first in the United States to test new X-ray technology that can see through people's clothes and show the body's contours with blush-inducing clarity.

Critics have said the high-resolution images created by the "backscatter" technology are too invasive. But the Transportation Security Administration adjusted the equipment so the pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still detecting concealed weapons.

During the testing, the machine will be used only as a back-up screening measure. Passengers who fail the standard screening with a metal detector will be able to choose between the new device or a pat-down search.

"It's 100 percent voluntary, so if the passenger doesn't feel comfortable with it, the passenger doesn't have to go through it," TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.

***WATCHMAN... OH SURE it is RIGHT NOW -BUT- NOT FOR LONG!...

Passengers selected for screening by the device are asked to stand in front of the closet-size X-ray unit with the palms of their hands facing out. Then they must turn around for a second screening from behind. The procedure takes about a minute.

Passenger Kristen Rodgers, 22, of Little Rock, Ark., who did not go through the screening, likened it to going to the doctor.

"If you tell yourself they have to look at that all day long, it makes yourself feel better," Rodgers said. "If it's just for security, just for 45 seconds, I think it would be worth catching somebody with something harmful."

The machine will be tested for up to 90 days at a single checkpoint at Sky Harbor's largest terminal, which hosts US Airways and Southwest Airlines, the two busiest airlines in Phoenix.

The technology could be left in place after the trial period, and the TSA hopes to roll out similar machines at the Los Angeles airport and New York's Kennedy Airport by the end of the year.

The security officer who works with the passenger going through the screening will never see the images the machine produces. The pictures will be viewed by another officer about 50 feet away who will not see the passenger, the TSA said.

The machine cannot store the images or transmit them.

"Once we're done screening the passenger, the image is gone forever," Melendez said.

The device at Sky Harbor costs about $100,000 but is on loan from the manufacturer, AS&E of Boston, Melendez said.

==================

Distant Planets: Warm, Weird, Waterless

The first "sniffs of air" of two huge far-away planets reveal that they seem to be missing water, a surprising finding amid weather unlike any planets in our solar system with blast furnace-like gusts amid supersonic winds.

The absence of water from the atmosphere of both these Jupiter-sized gaseous bodies upsets one of the most basic assumptions of astronomy.

One of the researchers, Harvard University astronomy professor David Charbonneau, called the planets "very different beasts ... unlike any other planets in the solar system."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 26, 2006 -------------------------------

Security Scanner Can See Through Clothes

The Phoenix airport on Friday became the first in the United States to test new X-ray technology that can see through people's clothes and show the body's contours with blush-inducing clarity.

Critics have said the high-resolution images created by the "backscatter" technology are too invasive. But the Transportation Security Administration adjusted the equipment so the pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still detecting concealed weapons.

During the testing, the machine will be used only as a back-up screening measure. Passengers who fail the standard screening with a metal detector will be able to choose between the new device or a pat-down search.

"It's 100 percent voluntary, so if the passenger doesn't feel comfortable with it, the passenger doesn't have to go through it," TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.

***WATCHMAN... OH SURE it is RIGHT NOW -BUT- NOT FOR LONG!...

Passengers selected for screening by the device are asked to stand in front of the closet-size X-ray unit with the palms of their hands facing out. Then they must turn around for a second screening from behind. The procedure takes about a minute.

Passenger Kristen Rodgers, 22, of Little Rock, Ark., who did not go through the screening, likened it to going to the doctor.

"If you tell yourself they have to look at that all day long, it makes yourself feel better," Rodgers said. "If it's just for security, just for 45 seconds, I think it would be worth catching somebody with something harmful."

The machine will be tested for up to 90 days at a single checkpoint at Sky Harbor's largest terminal, which hosts US Airways and Southwest Airlines, the two busiest airlines in Phoenix.

The technology could be left in place after the trial period, and the TSA hopes to roll out similar machines at the Los Angeles airport and New York's Kennedy Airport by the end of the year.

The security officer who works with the passenger going through the screening will never see the images the machine produces. The pictures will be viewed by another officer about 50 feet away who will not see the passenger, the TSA said.

The machine cannot store the images or transmit them.

"Once we're done screening the passenger, the image is gone forever," Melendez said.

The device at Sky Harbor costs about $100,000 but is on loan from the manufacturer, AS&E of Boston, Melendez said.

==================

Distant Planets: Warm, Weird, Waterless

The first "sniffs of air" of two huge far-away planets reveal that they seem to be missing water, a surprising finding amid weather unlike any planets in our solar system with blast furnace-like gusts amid supersonic winds.

The absence of water from the atmosphere of both these Jupiter-sized gaseous bodies upsets one of the most basic assumptions of astronomy.

One of the researchers, Harvard University astronomy professor David Charbonneau, called the planets "very different beasts ... unlike any other planets in the solar system."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 23-25, 2006 -------------------------------

Robot driven cars on roads by 2030

Scientists are developing the next generation of robot driven cars and predict they could be shuttling humans around by the year 2030, a conference was told.

The first wave of intelligent robot cars, capable of understanding and reacting to the world around them, will be tested this November in a competition run by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Scientists are developing vehicles which will not only be driven by robots independently, but will be able to operate in a simulated city environment.

"In the past it was sufficient for a vehicle just to perceive the environment, said Sebastian Thrun, an associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University.

"The new challenge will be to understand the environment. The robot must be able to recognize another car, to understand that it is moving and that it will interact with it as it gets closer."

Thrun, who was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Francisco, is a member of the Stanford team participating in the DARPA competition, which will take place on November 3.

Stanford's entrant "Junior" is a converted 2006 Volkswagen Passat whose steering, throttle and brakes all have been modified by engineers to be completely computer-controllable.

An array of lasers fitted on the car bumpers, radar and global positioning systems feed data into the on-board computer to determine its location and position.

Thrun predicted that leaps in artificial intelligence would lead to driverless cars on the roads by 2030.

"Today we can drive about 100 miles (160 kilometers) before human assistance is necessary, by 2010 I expect this to go 1,000 miles (1,160 kilometers), by 2020 up to a million miles (1.6 million kilometers)," he said.

"By 2030 you'll be able to see them on the highway, with a driving reliability that will exceed humans by orders of magnitude.

"We believe this technology will affect all of us. It is going to have enormous significance for people who can't drive because of disabilities or because they are ill or impaired."

Thrun said he believed robot-driven vehicles would be deployed in war zones before they are seen in everyday civilian environments.

"I think they'll be on the battlefield by around 2015," he said. "It is going to make sense to use them in situations such as convoys, or in hostile environments where there is danger to personnel."

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 21, 2006 -------------------------------

Scientists prepare way for Bionic man

Researchers aim within five years to restore natural arm and leg movements to people who are completely paralyzed, using the power of neurotechnology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Francisco heard on Friday.

John Donoghue of Brown University and Hunter Peckham of Case Western Reserve University, neurotechnology pioneers, are to collaborate on the project with funding from the US National Institutes of Health.

The goal is to give quadriplegic patients an electronic brain implant, linked to an electrical system of muscle stimulation, enabling them to move their limbs by thought alone – just like healthy people. ‘This system will represent a quantum leap in rehabilitation technology,’ said Prof Donoghue, ‘and it will fundamentally alter the lives of people with spinal cord injury.’

Prof Donoghue’s lab has developed the world’s most advanced brain-computer interface, called BrainGate. This neural implant, a silicon chip with 100 ultra-fine electrodes, sits on top of the brain and relays thought patterns to a computer, which then carries out the appropriate actions. The experimental system has already enabled paralysed patients to operate a cursor on a computer screen, control a wheelchair and operate a robotic hand.

Meanwhile Prof Peckham has developed a Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) system. This enables people who are largely but not completely paralyzed to move their limbs, by activating muscles that would otherwise be immobilized through spinal injury. Patients have electrodes implanted in their back and legs – but not their brain, so they must have enough residual movement to operate switches

====================

Navy May Deploy Anti Terrorism Dolphins

SAN DIEGO - Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.

LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers. When a Navy dolphin detects a person in the water, it drops a beacon. This tells a human interception team where to find the suspicious swimmer.

Dolphins also are trained to detect underwater mines; they were sent to do this in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr in 2003. The last time the animals were used operationally in San Diego was in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.

Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.

The Navy is seeking public comment for an environmental impact statement on the proposal.

====================

Teraflop Micro-Chip hints at the future

A chip with 80 processing cores and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second (teraflop) has been unveiled by Intel.

The Teraflop chip is not a commercial release but could point the way to more powerful processors, said the firm.

The chip achieves performance on a piece of silicon no bigger than a fingernail that 11 years ago required a machine with 10,000 chips inside it.

The challenge is to find a way to program the many cores simultaneously.

Current desktop machines have up to four separate cores, while the Cell processor inside the PlayStation 3 has eight (seven of them useable). Each core is effectively a programmable chip in its own right.

But to take advantage of the extra processing power, programmers need to gives instructions to each core that work in parallel with one another.

There are already specialist chips with multiple cores - such as those used in router hardware and graphics cards - but Dr Mark Bull, at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Center, said multi-core chips were forcing a sea-change in the programming of desktop applications.

...the same computing power required 2,000 square feet

"It's not too difficult to find two or four independent things you can do concurrently, finding 80 or more things is more difficult, especially for desktop applications.

"It is going to require quite a revolution in software programming.

"Massive parallelism has been the preserve of the minority - a few people doing high-performance scientific computing.

"But that sort of thing is going to have to find its way into the mainstream."

The first time teraflop performance was achieved was 11 years on the ASCI Red Supercomputer built by Intel for the Sandia National Laboratory.

It is going to require quite a revolution in software programming-Dr Mark Bull

That machine took up more than 2,000 square feet, was powered by almost 10,000 Pentium Pro processors, and consumed more than 500 kilowatts of electricity.

"Our researchers have achieved a wonderful and key milestone in terms of being able to drive multi-core and parallel computing performance forward," said Justin Rattner, Intel Senior Fellow and chief technology officer.

"It points the way to the near future when teraflops-capable designs will be commonplace and reshape what we can all expect from our computers and the internet at home and in the office."

The Teraflop chip uses less electricity than many current high-end processors, making the design attractive for use in home computers.

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

Posted February 19, 2006 -------------------------------

Bionic eye implants look ahead

A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years.

U.S. researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients.

The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye.

Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement.

‘What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise blind eye and allow patients to see,’ said Professor Mark Humayan from the University of California…

The new devices work by implanting an array of tiny electrodes into the back of the retina.

A camera is used to capture pictures, and a processing unit, about the size of a small handheld computer and worn on a belt, converts the visual information into electrical signals.

These are then wirelessly sent to a receiver just under the surface of the skin, which in turn feeds them to the electrodes.

The whole process happens in real time

The Last Days SIGNS - The End Times - ARE - Upon The Earth!

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