A Maritime Vasectomy?

Perhaps the Merchant Marine should best prepare for a maritime vasectomy where the supply of seamen is no longer required.

Ship designers, their operators and regulators are gearing up for a future in which cargo vessels sail the oceans with minimal or even no crew. Advances in automation and ample bandwidth even far offshore could herald the biggest change in shipping since diesel engines replaced steam.

[...]British engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC is leading the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications initiative involving other companies and universities. It foresees technologies long used to improve commercial airline operations migrating to ships. The group also is tapping know-how from those working on driverless cars to adapt for safe at-sea autonomous operations.

A future unmanned ship could resemble some of the most advanced combat drones. It would sport infrared detectors, high-resolution cameras and laser sensors to monitor its surroundings. The vast troves of data would be transmitted to command centers where staff do little more than monitor progress and ensure ships are operating at optimum speeds.

The consortium completed a study this year that concluded such vessels are feasible and offer savings.

Apparently the first of new advanced GPS satellites have already been placed in orbit; these devices could support the bandwidth needed for remote piloting of oceanic merchant vessels. I'm also thinking that missiles, sonar and signal intelligence equipment could also be placed on board. With no crew there'd less chance of security breaches.

Story here.

US Navy Sub Hunter Drone

Cyber Economics

Chinese Apple iPhone factory

The South Koreans are working on a project to mass produce robots at a price that will make it economically feasible to replace even cheap Chinese workers. A Chinese factory worker's minimum wage can be as low as $200 a month (1250 yuan at $0.16 per yuan).

As of 1 July 2015, the monthly minimum wage in the Pearl River Delta manufacturing centres of Dongguan, Foshan and Zhongshan was 1,510 yuan, while the rate in the sprawling inland metropolis of Chongqing was only 1,250 yuan per month.

I would hate to see what would happen if suddenly millions and millions of Chinese laborers lost their jobs. The government would have to distract their attention by starting a war or some-such.

In the future, we will all be on benefits, while rich people use robots to make even MORE money.

That’s the dark future hinted at by Samsung’s new ‘big project’ – a plan to build robots cheaper even than the miserably underpaid humans who work in Chinese factories.

The project, in collaboration with South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, has been funded to the tune of 6.75 billion won – and aims to create factories which will undercut Chinese ones, according to The Register.

If the plan works, South Korea could pick up lucrative contracts assembling products such as new iPhones – currently made in huge Chinese factories.

If so, it marks a dark day for the future of human employment – as so far, many jobs have been protected simply because humans are cheaper than machines.

About 3 million jobs manufacturing jobs have left the US for China despite the American worker being far more productive. But no matter how productive you are, $2,400 a year is a  hard number to beat.

Story here:

Look! Up In The Sky!

"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" ~ Chicken Littovich

Relax, it's just the Russian air force.

From The Week:

The flights began last year. The government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, eager to send a message, began flying nuclear bombers on training missions near the United States and its allies around the world.

The message was one of intimidation and defiance: Russia is still a power to be reckoned with, and meddling in the Ukraine, Syria, and Russia itself — particularly on human rights issues — is not appreciated.

Now, after months of aggressive flying, Russia's overworked air force is falling out of the sky. On July 5, a Su-24M tactical bomber crashed during takeoff at Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. The plane banked sharply after takeoff and hit the ground. Both pilots were killed.

Five Russian combat planes have crashed in the past month. Russia's attempt to demonstrate strength has backfired spectacularly and demonstrated weakness instead.

[...]The vast majority of Russia's Air Force was built and operated by the Soviet Union, making the youngest of these planes 24 years old. The Tu-95 "Bear", MiG-29 "Fulcrum," and Su-24 "Fencer" fighters and bombers that crashed in the last month were all inherited from the Soviet Union.

More here and here and here.

Game On

Bring it.

It's the moment we've all been waiting for: two giant fighting robots - one Japanese and one American - will square off in a melee one year from now.

That is, if the robots' two owners keep their word.

Last week, MegaBots, an American engineering company, challenged Japan's Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a duel.

In this corner - six tons of 'Murica

The battle would pitch the 12,000 lbs (850-stone) MegaBots Mark II against Suidobashi's Kuratas, which weighs 9,000 lbs.

Now, Suidobashi has responded, saying it accepts the challenge - on one condition.

And in this corner - 4.5 tons of Kuratas-san

The Japanese don't want the American robot to be armed, they want a hand-to-hand combat match - no guns. Wusses.

Source

More Credit Card Security

Gold Nanoparticles
Finally, A Credit Card Fraud Ebola?

About a year and a half ago our credit card number was hacked from a department store where I had just purchased a Christmas gift for my wife. Over $5k in electronics was charged to my account; mostly charges to California-based internet sites. Like millions of other card holders, insurance covered this theft. We reported this to the police and to our credit union and never heard another thing about it.

The security officer at the credit union told us that in North America we do not use credit cards that utilize microchip technology to minimize theft, as in Europe, but that it was finally coming to the US. Until then we would be stuck with the old magnetic strip technology that the Russians love to break.

"If you look at the quantity of malware attacks, the leaders are China, Latin America and then Eastern Europe, but in terms of quality then Russia is probably the leader," said Vitaly Kamluk, a cyber security researcher in Moscow.

Two of the five most wanted men in the United States for cyber crime are Russian, and one is from Latvia, which used to be part of the Soviet Union.

Russians were also behind the biggest cyber crime case in U.S. history. Federal prosecutors named four Russians and a Ukrainian in a banking card fraud spree that cost companies including J.C. Penney Co, JetBlue Airways Corp and French retailer Carrefour SA more than $300 million.

We just got our first cards with this technology in the mail yesterday. It should serve to reduce credit card fraud.

The technology is not totally bulletproof (paywall) and other problems exist that lead to credit card fraud. But it’s pretty telling that the adoption of EMV chip-and-pin technology in the UK, which began all the way back in 2003, has led to a 70% reduction in counterfeit fraud in the UK over the past decade, according to Barclays.

There is more security technology on the way.

A team of researchers led by Dr Roderick Davidson II of Vanderbilt University has created nano-spirals with unique optical properties that would be almost impossible to counterfeit if they were added to credit cards and other important objects.

Most other investigators who have studied the remarkable properties of microscopic spirals have done so by arranging discrete nanoparticles in a spiral pattern: similar to spirals drawn with a series of dots of ink on a piece of paper.

By contrast, the nano-spirals created by Dr Davidson and co-authors have solid arms and are much smaller: a square array with 100 nano-spirals on a side is less than 0.01 mm wide.

“They are certainly smaller than any of the spirals we’ve found reported in the scientific literature,” said Dr Davidson, first author of the paper reporting the results in the journal Nanophotonics.

When these spirals are shrunk to sizes smaller than the wavelength of visible light, they develop unusual optical properties.

When exposed to different kinds of light, the nanoparticles generate unique patterns that can be used for identification purposes.

“The combination of the unique characteristics of their frequency doubling and response to polarized light provide the nano-spirals with a unique, customizable sign.

Like everything else, what was created by man can be defeated by man. Especially if there is a buck to be made ... or stolen.

Technology Gone Wild

I dunno about this.

On the P1000 models, if you slide a $20 bill into the tassels of its dorsal vertical actuator while the piston is retracting you could lose a finger.

Chevy Concept - The FNR

The car was unveiled at the Shanghai General Motors Gala Night this week.

It was developed in Shanghai by GM’s Pan Asia Technical Automotive Centre (PATAC) joint venture.

Chevrolet said the car offered a ‘glimpse at mobility of the future.

It almost hurts your eyes to look at it with the doors open.

Story here.

Locusts To The Rescue

From the Office of Naval Research:

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — A new era in autonomy and unmanned systems for naval operations is on the horizon, as officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today recent technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — part of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program.

LOCUST can launch swarming UAVs to autonomously overwhelm an adversary. The deployment of UAV swarms will provide Sailors and Marines a decisive tactical advantage.

“The recent demonstrations are an important step on the way to the 2016 ship-based demonstration of 30 rapidly launched autonomous, swarming UAVs,” said ONR program manager Lee Mastroianni.

The LOCUST program includes a tube-based launcher that can send UAVs into the air in rapid succession. The breakthrough technology then utilizes information-sharing between the UAVs, enabling autonomous collaborative behavior in either defensive or offensive missions.

Since the launcher and the UAVs themselves have a small footprint, the technology enables swarms of compact UAVs to take off from ships, tactical vehicles, aircraft or other unmanned platforms.

Hunting Diesel Subs

From the UK Daily Mail:

The US Navy is set to unleash an army of 'ghost drones' to scour the coasts for enemy submarines. They hope to end the growing threat of quiet, diesel powered enemy submarines enters American waters undetected.

The robot boats will go to sea for us to three months at a time.

The project began in 2010, when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced that they were building a 132-foot autonomous boat to track quiet, diesel-powered submarines.

The program was dubbed Anti-submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV.

In six weeks of tests along a 35-nautical mile stretch of water off of Mississippi earlier this year, testers at engineering company Leidos and DARPA put the ACTUV's systems through 100 different scenarios.

The test boat was able to tail a target boat at 1 kilometer's distance, something military bosses say is a major step forward.

More at DARPA and here.

I wonder how easy it is to detect and destroy these 'ghost drones'? Are they capable of evasion or self defense? It sounds like the technology is not mature and will take a bit more development before it is truly mission capable.

More Creepy Sex

Even Robot Sex Has It's Down Side

I was yanked out of patrol and worked street prostitution details for a little while back in the 80's. The PD needed "fresh blood" every few months or so to go after the hookers who were at times out of control downtown. They stopped cars and propositioned male drivers even if their wives were in the front seat with them.

The girls were mostly pitiful and not too bright, some were vicious; one in particular was psychotic, bonkers - a screaming loony named Carmen. Of course that was the one I had a run in with on a busy Friday night in the middle of traffic - no gun, no badge (the whores would check you for them), the walkie-talkie left in the car, a half naked crazy whore and a carload of football players ... story some other time maybe.

But technology changes things. And of course it now seems on the brink of changing the way men rent a woman for pleasure.

It’s 2020, and Roger, a recent divorcé from New York, decides to pay for some female company. So he turns on his computer, connects a robotic vagina to it and starts having sex with Cinnamon, a college student in Sydney with a computer and a remotely controlled robotic penis.

Creeped out yet? Welcome to the future of prostitution.

If you're a guy, the way it works is like this.

1. You rent/buy a USB device that slips over your male member and then plug it into your computer/tablet/smart phone while working behind the counter at McDonald's, driving a school bus or babysitting your grandchildren. 
2. You contact a virtual prostitute over the interwet tubes.
3. It could be a real woman - or guy -  or neither - you won't know, even with a webcam.
4. The prostitute/program is interfaced with a device that reproduces the action of a vagina, mouth, chicken or lawn mower when a penis is inserted into it.
5. Enter your credit card number and prepare to have your greased-up, latex world rocked.

In a completely immersive virtual reality environment you could pay to find yourself in an airplane over the Pacific doing Amelia Earhart, under the desk of the Oval Office channeling Monica or mid-field of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium wearing a tutu and sniffing Jesse Owens' track shoes.


Your dollar, your fantasy.

To be sure, technology alone is not going to remove crime or exploitation from the sex work equation. So while technology can make a difference, some experts say, it depends on the position of the sex worker to begin with. “The Internet is still out of reach for the most vulnerable, those who work on the streets,” says Samantha Majic, an assistant political science professor at the City University of New York who specializes in the politics of sex work. So, less than a democratizing tool, virtual sex may just evolve as the guilty pleasure of lonely, wealthy, sci-fi lovers. Working online also has its own risks. It can make it harder to detect abusive clients or undercover cops and isolate workers who would otherwise naturally share tips and advice.

Every twisted desire that the human mind can dredge up will be available in the comfort of your livingroom with a WiFi whore.

At least you won't find out that crazy Carmen is double jointed as she slams her knee into your balls.

Story here.
H/T Drudge.

Next, SpideySense™

Once this becomes commercially available, it will no longer be safe to walk the streets in major cities. The fools will be falling like rain off the sides of buildings.

Stanford University researchers emulating Spider-Man's wall-crawling abilities turned to a different animal, the gecko, to inspire their sticky technology.

The researchers, working with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, took inspiration from the toes of geckos to create the silicone pads that allowed a 154-pound man to scale an 11.5-foot glass wall.

Each pad is worn on a climber's hand and is attached to a harness for the climber's foot.

Gecko toes - tastes like chicken.

Story here.

Bad Ass Bots

H/T Daily Time Waster

If You See It, You Can Hit It

A new sniper system called the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance has been successfully tested.

From the Washington Times:

DARPA had a promising prototype for its Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance (EXACTO) .50-caliber bullets in 2012, but the new video confirms that the agency has perfected the technology.

“The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance system seeks to improve sniper effectiveness and enhance troop safety by allowing greater shooter standoff range and reduction in target engagement timelines,” DARPA’s website stated.

More on EXACTO here.

GOOGLE WIFI OPTICS

Google glass wifi technology is also being incorporated into new firearms optics.

TrackingPoint Inc., the Texas company that specializes in creating precision guided firearms, has harnessed Google Glass technology to create a firearm that can hit targets that are behind corners. It’s called the the first precision-guided firearm (PGF).

“When paired with wearable technology, PGFs can provide unprecedented benefits to shooters, such as the ability to shoot around corners, from behind low walls, and from other positions that provide exceptional cover,” TrackingPoint claimed in a press release. “Without PGF technology, such positions would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fire from.”

At another demonstration this past January, the Department of Defense is testing another computerized targeting system for small arms.

While at the nation’s largest gun show in Las Vegas, Nev., the SHOT Show, the U.S. Army is said to have purchased six “smart” rifles after witnessing the product’s performance in the hands of novice shooters. Each rifle can cost up to $27,000, according to Military.com — but the rifle’s performance won them over.

[...] TrackingPoint Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jason Schaubie told the defense website that military snipers have a fire-shot success rate from that range of between 20 percent to 30 percent (which jumps to 70 percent on their second attempt). 

“That is a better day than usual,” said Schaube. “I would say we’re at about 70 percent first-shot success probability at 1,000 yards … with inexperienced shooters.”

TrackingPoint ... you might want to buy stock in this company.

Future Ground Warfighters

Some new technology for ground pounders. I wonder long long before we see this issued?

Invisible cloaking and more future technology here.

The Invisible Hood

New technology from Land Rover probably creates another distraction while driving.

Just What We Need, Invisible Gubmint Spooks

Invisibility Beam

A research team from the University of Singapore has developed a device that can make objects invisible by bathing them in a beam of darkness.

The system takes the conventional approach to optics -- which generally aims to make images as sharp and clear as possible -- and turns it completely on its head. Usually imaging systems focus light into a pattern known as a point spreading function, which consists of a spiked central region of high intensity (the main lobe) surrounded by a concentric region of lower intensity light and a higher intensity lobe after this. In order to achieve the best resolution, the central region should be narrowed and intensified, while the outer lobe is suppressed. This makes sure that the image is very bright and sharp with well-defined edges.

The researchers' beam can hide macroscopic objects by taking the opposite approach: intensifying the outer lobes suppressing the central region. This means that the central region has a field intensity of light that is pretty much zero. They did this using special lenses that could smear out the central spike while increasing the intensity of the concentric lobes. Objects in this 3D region cannot be resolved and so are hidden from sight. The effect has been named "anti-resolution".

You just know the first application of this technology will be directed against US citizens.