Brain-Scanning Binoculars Harness Soldiers' Unconscious Minds to Locate Threats

Soldiers scanning the battlefield for threats may soon get a new tool: a brain-scanning set of binoculars that can pick up on a soldier's unconscious recognition of a potential threat and bring it to his conscious attention. It's just one of many ways DARPA and other military research groups are looking to have soldiers mind-meld with their machines and materiel, and as the BBC reports, it demonstrates how remarkably close we are to deploying mind-control on the battlefield.

The specific binocular device that DARPA is developing is known as Sentinel (for System for Notification of Threats Inspired by Neurally Enabled Learning, because that's not an unwieldy acronym or anything), and it basically uses the power of the human brain to scan and filter imagery in realtime, picking up on both what the soldier recognizes consciously and what his unconscious might perceive as well. Through electroencephalogram (EEG), the device can pick up on a brain signal known as P300 that signifies an unconscious recognition of something visual.

 

It can take the brain some time to become conscious of things it sees, and when seconds are critical--say, in the case of a convoy barreling toward a buried IED--the Sentinel recognizes the P300 signal imparted by the unconscious perception of that threat and alerts the soldier that he has just seen something significant, trimming the time between his seeing something and actually perceiving the threat.

This isn't DARPA's or the military establishment's first foray into mind-control on the battlefield, but it's one of the first to actually be working well in practice--in the lab at least. The device itself is still too big for the battlefield at 15 pounds (eventually Sentinel's makers want to get it down to five pounds) and it requires the use of EEG sensors that need to be further developed so they can be taken on and off the head like a hat or helmet. But in simulations in both tropical and desert terrains, Sentinel helped spot 30 percent more simulated threats than the human brain could alone.

It's the first step toward a militarized brain-machine interface, something that could augment all kinds of soldier systems in the future, from visual recognition systems like Sentinel to mind-controlled aerial or ground-based drones. As we've reported here previously, breaking down the barrier between the brain could also turn the soldiers themselves into more efficient machines, stimulating the brain to lengthen a soldier's attention spans and sharpen his decision-making skills. Much more on this emerging technology over at BBC.

Who Or What Left This 60,000-Ton Ancient Artifact Under The Sea?

Put on your tin-foil hats and special anti-Illuminati underwear. A recently discovered mysterious ancient rock structure under the Sea of Galilee, possibly built in the same era as Stonehenge, has archaeologists stumped. To a certain slice of the population, any unexplained man-made rock pile is clearly evidence of an extraterrestrial visit.

Before we get too carried away, let's look at the actual data. The researchers, from Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University, University of Haifa and Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, all in Israel, describe the cairn as a cone of unhewn basalt rocks, measuring approximately 70 meters in diameter and 10 meters tall. The site itself rests near a now-defunct ancient outlet of the Jordan River, an area that has had economic importance in the area since the Bronze Age. Due to various contextual details, the researchers suspect that the cairn was constructed sometime between the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. Their findings were published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

 

The paper is relatively thin on details. To date, the only data the researchers have are their side-scan sonar images and new photographs from a dive team. No excavations have yet been undertaken, and thus the purpose, age and even how the thing was built are all currently up for debate. The researchers aren't even sure if the cairn was assembled on dry land, during a period of low water levels in the lake, or if it was purposefully build underwater. Nearby sites have yielded huts and hearths, indicating that at some point in the past, that whole area was above-water and inhabited. Other research points to earthquake-related subsidence of the land surrounding the Sea of Galilee, so it is quite possible that all of these archaeological sites in the area were built along the lakeshore, then submerged after an earthquake shifted the land.

These days, the cairn sits about 30 feet underwater, surrounded by schools of tilapia fish. Which brings us to the researcher's theory that this cairn is supposed to be an ancient fishery, a structure that attracts fish, making it easier to catch them and support a large settlement along the shore. Smaller fisheries have been found in the Sea of Galilee, so this theory isn't as far-fetched as one might think. But until the researchers excavate the cairn and determine if it was meant to be underwater, the purpose of the cairn remains pure conjecture.

Army Demonstrates a Weapon That Shoots Laser-Guided Lightning Bolts

Over at Picatinny Arsenal, the research and development facility and proving ground for the U.S. Army's weaponry, engineers are developing a device that shoots lighting bolts along a laser beam to annihilate its target. That's right: lighting bolts shot down laser beams. This story could easily end right here and still be the coolest thing we've written today, but for the scientifically curious we'll continue.

The Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) can be used to destroy anything that conducts electricity better than the air or ground surrounding it (unexploded ordnance seems a good candidate here). It works off of some pretty basic principles of physics, using a laser to carve an electromagnetic path through the air that accommodates a high-voltage beam. Create that path, crank up the voltage, and your target is toast.

 

It works like this: a high intensity, super-short duration (maybe two-trillionths of a second) laser pulse will actually use air like lens--surrounding air focuses the beam, keeping the laser pulse nice and tight rather than scattering it. If the pulse is strong enough, it actually creates an electromagnetic field around itself that's so powerful it strips electrons from air molecules, essentially creating a channel of plasma through the air. Since air is composed of neutral particles (that act as insulators) and the plasma channel is a good conductor (relative to the un-ionized air around it) the path of the laser beam becomes a kind of filament.

In other words, just as lightning arcs from cloud to ground via the path of least resistance, a high-voltage current will find its way down this filament rather than arcing unpredictably through the air. In other words, the laser just creates the path of least resistance between the power source and the target. Laser, lightning, destruction of target--in that order.

Of course, the LIPC requires a lot of hardware, like a laser capable of really short pulses and a power source to provide both laser and lightning. In other words, it's not very practical (as with most laser weapons, it suffers comparatively from the fact that bullets fly straight, have a long shelf life, are easy to carry, and are really cheap). But a laser-guided lightning weapon? It doesn't have to be practical to be amazing.

With Russian Help, Europe Prepares to Search for Life on Mars

The European Space Agency signed final contracts with Thales Alenia Space Italy for work on a pair of missions to assess if the planet Mars has or ever had life, officials said at the Paris Airshow this week.
 
Until last year, the ExoMars program was a joint project between ESA and the U.S. space agency NASA. But NASA dropped out, citing budget problems.
 
The Russian space agency Roscosmos stepped in to provide two Proton rockets to send an orbiting atmospheric probe and test lander to Mars in January 2016, and a follow-on rover in August 2018 that will drill below the planet's surface to look for spores and bacteria.
 
Roscosmos also is providing a landing system for the rover and scientific instruments.
 
"It took some time, some energy, some efforts from a lot of different parties. It was not easy to move from an ESA-NASA cooperation to an ESA-Roscosmos cooperation," Jean-Jacques Dordain, head of ESA, told reporters after signing a 230 million euros [$300 million] contract with Thales Alenia.
 
Thales Alenia, selected as the ExoMars prime contractor five years ago, plans to spend 146 million euros on the 2016 orbiter and lander. The satellite is being designed to search the thin Martian atmosphere for telltale gasses associated with biological activity. It also will serve as the key communications relay for the 2018 rover.
 
The lander primarily is intended to test the technologies needed to touch down on Mars, a notoriously difficult task that has bedeviled nearly all of Russia's previous efforts and has given NASA trouble as well. The United States currently has two operational rovers on Mars, Curiosity and Opportunity.
 
After pulling out of the ExoMars program, NASA said it would send a second Curiosity-type rover to Mars in 2020.
 
The rest of the ExoMars budget will be spent on the 2018 rover, a mission that will make the first direct search for life since NASA's 1970s-era Viking landers.
 
Instead of sampling the planet's radiation-blasted surface as the Viking probes did, the ExoMars rover will use a radar sounder to search for subterranean water and then drill down about six feet (two meters) for samples that will be processed through onboard laboratories.
 
"If there is any life and if we discover it, it will be unambiguous," said Vincenzo Giorgo, Thales Alenia's vice president of exploration and space. "On Viking everybody thought, 'We found it, we found it,' but then nobody could prove it."
 
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture owned 67 percent by France's Thales and 33 percent by Italy's Finmeccanica .

invisible soldiers

The camouflage fabric 'that can make soldiers INVISIBLE': Company claims it has Pentagon backing for miracle material

• Quantum Stealth camouflage bends the light around its wearer, its developer claims
• Company behind it says it has demonstrated the technology to the U.S. and Canadian military
• Following these 'Need to Know' access meetings development is now said to be 'moving forward'
  

The U.S. military is backing the development of camouflage fabrics that could one day make their soldiers completely invisible, it has been claimed.

The so-called 'Quantum Stealth' camouflage material is said to render its wearers completely invisible by bending light waves around them.

Its makers claim the material, which is in effect similar to the invisibility cloak worn by Harry Potter, can even fool night-vision goggles.

 

However, its development is apparently so secret the Canadian company behind it says it cannot even show the technology in action and offers only mock ups of its effect on their website.

Nevertheless, Guy Cramer, CEO of Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp, says he does not care that some observers remain sceptical as to his company's claims since 'the people that need to know that it works have seen it'.

Skyfall: Hundreds injured as meteorite wreaks havoc in Russia's Urals

Russian asteroid crater revealed to be filled with over $1 quadrillion of diamonds | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

Your friend davejc3@gmail.com has shared a link with you. Russian asteroid crater revealed to be filled with over $1 quadrillion of diamonds | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/russian-asteroid-crater-revealed-filled-over-1-quadrillion-013025163.html Call it the Soviet Union's most valuable cold war secret. This past weekend, Russia declassified the existence of what could very well be the richest diamond field in existence, located in the depths of a 62-mile diameter asteroid crater known … Continue reading → Read the full story   This email was sent to you at the request of one of our users. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.

Group Pic October 18th

 

Yugoslave Women Partisans

Yugoslave Women Partisans. Just the kind of women my mother warned me never
to date. Those that shoot instead of argue.

Group Pic 11/9

The aftermath of a beach landing.

landing party

 

Luftwaffe airstrip in North Africa

Luftwaffe airstrip in North Africa.Ju52 transports and
Me110 fighters

VT-8 on the USS Hornet

The next pictures have an interesting history.It seems
that a photographer was filming VT-8 on the USS
Hornet.After the battle Adm. Fletcher heard that John
Ford had filmed the battle from Midway Island in color
so he gave the film to Mr. Ford with instructions that
it was to be edited into a tribute to Torpedo Eight
and a copy given to each family of the men lost of
VT-8.Thus only about 30 copies of the film was made
and the guy that had posted these stills made from the
film was lucky enough to locate and obtain one of the
copies.The first one shows Ensign Gay,the sole
survivor of VT-8,and his gunner(although Gay did have
a different gunner in 6/4/42).I find interesting in
the picture the corrigated aluminum covering of the
wings of the TBD.Although very strong the drag had to
have a srtong effect on the performance of the TBD

USS Mt. Olympus AGC-8

USS Mt. Olympus AGC-8,the ship Frank Otto served on in WWII

Ta'qali Airfield

A Beaufighter taxiing from dispersal to the runway at
Ta'qali Airfield,Malta,1942

Seafire

A Royal Navy Seafire demonstrates the improper way to
come aboard a carrier.

stately Stringbag

A stately Stringbag(aka Swordfish) demonstrates the
proper and dignified method of alighting on an
aircraft carrier.

USS Borgue (CVE-9)

USS Borgue (CVE-9)reading dawn launch,South
Atlantic,1944
======================================================
Bogue was originally classified AVG-9, but was changed
to ACV-9, 20 August 1942; CVE-9, 15 July 1943; and
CVHP-9, 12 June 1955. She was launched 15 January 1942
by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Co., Tacoma, Wash.,
under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by
Mrs. W. Miller, Jr., wife of Lieutenant Commander
Miller; transferred to the Navy 1 May 1942; and
commissioned 26 September 1942, Captain G. E. Short in
command.

After an extensive shakedown and repair period Bogue
joined the Atlantic Fleet in February 1943 as the
nucleus of the pioneer American anti-submarine
hunter-killer group. During March and April 1943 she
made three North Atlantic crossings but sank no
submarines. She departed on her fourth crossing 22
April and got her first submarine 22 May when her
aircraft sank U-569 in 50°40' N., 35°21' W. During her
fifth North Atlantic cruise her planes sank two German
submarines: U-217 in 30°18' N., 42°50' W., 5 June and
U-118 in 30°49' N. 33°49' W., 12 June. On 23 July
1943, during her seventh patrol, her planes sank U-527
in 35°25' N., 27°56' W. George E. Badger (DD-126), of
her screen, sank U-613 during this patrol.

Bogue's eighth patrol was her most productive with
three German submarines sunk: U-86 by planes, 29
November 1943 in 39°33' N., 19°01' W., U-172 by
planes, George E. Badger,DuPont (DD-152), Clemson
(DD-186), and Osmond Ingram (DD-255), 13 December in
26°19' N., 29°58' W.; and U-850 by planes, 20 December
in 32°54' N., 37°01' W.

Bogue had a break from her anti-submarine operations
during January and February 1944 when she carried a
cargo of Army fighters to Glasgow, Scotland. The
carrier then returned to her anti-submarine role and
on 13 March her aircraft teamed with British planes,
Haverfield (DE-393), Hobson (DD-464), and HMCS Prince
Rupert to sink U-575 in 46°18' N., 27°34' W.

On 5 May 1944 Bogue and her escorts departed Hampton
Roads, Va., for a cruise that netted two more
submarines and lasted until 2 July. Francis M.
Robinson (DE-220), of the screen, sank the Japanese
RO-501 (ex-German U-1224) on 13 May and Bogue's planes
sank the Japanese I-52 in 15°16' N. 39°55' W., on 24
June. During the next cruise, 24 July-24 September
1944, Bogue's planes sank another German submarine,
U-1229, 20 August in 42°20' N., 51°39' W.

Following her return in September 1944 Bogue operated
on training missions out of Bermuda and Quonset Point,
R. I., until February 1945 when she made a trip to
Liverpool, England, with Army planes. In April 1945
she put to sea again as an anti-submarine vessel,
forming part of Captain G. J. Dufek's Second Barrier
Force. On 24 April success came as Flaherty (DE-135),
Neunzer (DE-150), Chatelain (DE-149), Varian (DE-798),
Hubbard (DE-211), Janssen (DE-396), Pillsbury (DE-133)
and Keith (DE-241) sank U-546. This was the last of 13
submarines sunk by Bogue or her escorts.

With the war in the Atlantic over, Bogue moved to the
Pacific, arriving at San Diego 3 July 1945. She then
steamed westward to Guam, arriving 24 July. She made a
trip to Adak, Alaska (19 August 6 September 1945), and
then joined the "Magic Carpet" fleet returning
servicemen from the Pacific islands. She was placed
out of commission in reserve 30 November 1946 at
Tacoma, Wash.

Bogue received a Presidential Unit Citation and three
battle stars for her World War II service.

Horsa Glider

A Horsa Glider with Polish Soldiers lands at Arnheim

North Carolina

North Carolina fires a salvo in the first naval
bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands in history