16. mars 2006

Bloody tourists There are no kangaroos in Austria. You may have to read that twice. At any rate, it is no longer strictly true, and the Austrian police lacks the experience of their down under collegues when it comes to catching the darned animal. My headline refers to the amusing spat between Britain and Australia over the Aussies' language in the tourism advertising campaign "So where the bloody hell are you?" 10:21:41 PM    comment []  trackback []

DARPA does research into using cyborg insects in war DARPA, the ultra-advanced Pentagon research agency that once invented the internet, is planning to use insects in the war on terror: DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable bio-electromechanical interface to insects, as compared to adhesively bonded systems to adult insects. Once these platforms are integrated, various microsystem payloads can be mounted on the platforms with the goal of controlling insect locomotion, sense local environment, and scavenge power. Multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, and biologists are expected to work together to develop new technologies utilizing insect biology, while developing foundations for the new field of insect cyborg engineering. The HI-MEMS may also serve as vehicles to conduct research to answer basic questions in biology. The cyborg bee-swarm is not expected to hunt down Bin Laden anytime soon, since this is a long-term project. The guys at the Register and Winds of Change says this is way cool, and I can't argue with that. 9:43:17 PM    comment []  trackback []

US national security strategy stresses preemption and threatens Iran confrontation John Bolton ups the rhetoric on Iran (I think to "up the rhetoric" is part of his job description): The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, on Wednesday compared the threat from Iran's nuclear programs to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. "Just like September 11, only with nuclear weapons this time, that's the threat. I think that is the threat," Bolton told ABC News' Nightline program. "I think it's just facing reality. It's not a happy reality, but it's reality and if you don't deal with it, it will become even more unpleasant." It's not part of Condi Rice's job description, but she is not that far behind: Rice called Iran a "troublesome state" and the "central banker of terrorism," though she didn't elaborate on that, and said it was time for the country to "heed the international community's call" to resume negotiations on its nuclear program. Rice said she was "quite certain the (U.N.) Security Council will find an appropriate vehicle for expressing again ... the desire of the international community ... that Iran return to negotiations." Fair enough. But it is becoming increasingly clear what is Plan C, if not B, if (well, when) negotiations and sanctions fail. An updated version of the Bush administration's national security strategy, the first in more than three years, gives no ground on the decision to order a pre-emptive attack on Iraq in 2003, and identifies Iran as the country likely to present the single greatest future challenge to the United States. The strategy document declares that American-led diplomacy to halt Iran's program to enrich nuclear fuel "must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided," a near final draft of the document says. But it carefully avoids spelling out what steps the United States might take if diplomacy fails, and it makes no such direct threat of confrontation with North Korea, which boasts that it has already developed nuclear weapons. North Korea, dangerous and unpredictable as it may be, is reasonably well contained. Iran is doing all it can to mess up the world already as the world's #1 exporter of terrorism. With a nuclear deterrence, it will be able to increase its export of extremism and violence many-fold, and also act with near-total impunity. And that is without even thinking about the remote, but disastrous, possibility of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad planning to turn Iran into a massive suicide bomb. 9:04:18 PM    comment []  trackback []

Largest air assault since 2003 underway in Iraq US and Iraqi forces have launched a major operation near Samarra north of Baghdad, including what is described as the largest air attack since the 2003 invasion. The US military says it has launched a major air offensive against insurgents near the central Iraqi city of Samarra. More than 50 aircraft and 1,500 Iraqi and US troops have been deployed in the operation, according to a military statement. The air assault is the biggest since the 2003 invasion, the military said. A bomb attack on the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, last month sparked widespread sectarian violence. There are no independent reports of Thursday's offensive so far. The US military said the assault, dubbed Operation Swarmer, was intended to "clear a suspected insurgent operating area" north-east of Samarra. The operation is expected to last several days "as a thorough search of the objective area is conducted".  Much of the same from CNN. 5:51:25 PM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.04.2006; 13:22:23.