Tired of waiting for "the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement," the Pentagon has decided to take matters into its own hands: military scientists will create "synthetic organisms" that can live forever. But don’t fear – they can be killed with a molecular kill-switch. What could go wrong?
As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”
Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch
Katie Drummond of Wired’s Danger Room has more: Link
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Don’t throw away that used subway ticket! You could be holding a potential starfighter in your hands.
Artist Hubert de Lartigue was playing with his Paris Métro ticket between stops, folding it this way and that, wondering how he could give it a cool shape. He did this for six months, and discovered that with a scalpel and a folding tool, but no glue, he could transform two subway tickets into an X-wing fighter.
Lartigue says:
“I’m very proud of how it turned out and I feel like I am the author of a little masterpiece. I got to the point where I asked myself whether the Parisian metro tickets hadn’t actually been designed to enable me to one day use it as a canvas for this ‘work.’ Their proportions and even the patterns and drawings on them take part in the whole of the work. I’m not kidding, I find that there is a great underlying mystery here…”
He gives step-by-step directions for making an X-wing starfighter here.
More about Paris subway tickets and the history of the Paris Métro here.
Photo by Hubert de Lartigue
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The context of the photo is explained at the White House’s Flickr photostream:
June 6, 2009
“After his speech in Normandy, a crush of people tried to get close to the President to shake his hand. I noticed this guy waiting patiently and then literally being pushed back into the crowd. I felt bad for him, and mentioned the incident to the President’s trip director, Marvin Nicholson. Marvin pulled the guy out of the crowd, found him a wheel chair, and brought him over to meet the President. He was a French veteran. The man’s face shows his emotion.”
Official White House photo by Pete Souza, via Reddit.
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Fifty-nine years ago today was the first time a television audience got to watch an atomic blast broadcast live as it happened. KTLA in Los Angeles hid a crew on the roof of a hotel in Las Vegas, waiting for the top secret Ranger Easy bomb test in Frenchman Flats, Nevada. The blast went off at 5:30AM on February 1st, 1951. Viewers got up early to see their TV screens go white.
We stayed on the air, they waited for the right time, and all of a sudden there was the flash. The people watched it, Gil described it, Lane talked about it, and that was our telecast. That one flash. You just see this blinding white light. It didn’t seem real. We didn’t have videotape. You couldn’t say, “Let’s look at it again.”
A year later, all the networks carried live coverage of nuclear tests. Link
Wired also has a collection of nuclear bomb videos. Link
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Put that shotgun away. This Australian beer commercial proposes a new sport: skeet shooting with a tank.
Previously on Neatorama: skeet fishing.
via Wandering Goblin
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Flickr links: Mustard Gas | Phosgene
Yes, Minnesotastan has posted about the Otis Historical Archives of the National Museum of Health and Medicine’s photo collection on Flickr before on Neatorama, but I found these posters telling the public how to distinguish various poison gases through their distinct smells to be utterly fascinating!
I mean, whodathunk that mustard gas would smell like garlic? (Shouldn’t they just call it garlic gas?). Or that phosgene can result in "increased dopey feeling"? Link
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Photo by Luna
It’s quite the coincidence that Roadside America has a list of America’s Stonehenges today, as I took a daytrip yesterday to the one here in Washington at Maryhill. It’s true that the ancient stone monument in Wiltshire County, England has inspired people all over, and the efforts to recreate the magic of Stonehenge are many.
Photo by Luna
As for the one I visited, it was the first of the American replicas, built to honor those Klickitat County soldiers killed in World War I. Started in 1918 by entrepreneur Sam Hill, it’s situated right on a steep cliffside overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
Sam Hill’s Stonehenge, built to scale out of reinforced concrete, was dedicated in 1918 — the first World War I monument in America — but it wasn’t finished until twelve years later. By then, Maryhill, an experimental Quaker community, had been abandoned, and Sam Hill, who was known for his erratic bursts of manic energy, was in a deep depression. He died in 1931, living just long enough to see his Stonehenge completed. He is buried at the base of the bluff because he didn’t get along with his family, and there is no easy path to his grave because he wanted to be left alone.
Photo by Luna
My daughter and I had a pickup game of baseball in the center of the “Henge. Note the large sacrficial altar-looking slab. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to look like, because Hill incorrectly concluded that the original Stonehenge was a place of human sacrifices, and his aim was to remind us that “humanity is still being sacrificed to the god of war.” The plaque reads:
In memory of the soldiers of Klickitat County who gave their lives in defense of their country. This monument is erected in the hope that others inspired by the example of their valor and their heroism may share in that love of liberty and burn with that fire of patriotism which death can alone quench.
See more Stonehenge replicas (including one made out of cars, natch) at the link, and if you’re ever in the area, check out this one… it’s pretty neat!
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Lockheed Martin’s Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) is an actuated exoskeleton that helps a soldier carry up to 200 pounds of weight on its frame. It senses the direction that the user wants to move, and then moves in it. In the links, you find a video from the company showing the HULC in action.
Link |YouTube Video | Image: Lockheed Martin
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The V-1 “Buzz Bomb” was the first practical cruise missile in military history. Nazi Germany fired many at Allied population centers in the last year of World War II. One of two brought back to the United States at the end of the war ended up as a war memorial to the veterans of Putnam County, Indiana, dedicated in 1947. Today, it’s on display at that outdoor memorial in the town of Greencastle. Deidre of Wandering Goblin visited it recently and took some excellent pictures, including the one above.
Link | More Information about the Memorial | More Information about the V-1
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A new “anti-rape” condom could protect women in dangerous areas from being attacked. The device is a female condom filled with sharp, microscopic barbs that will attach themselves to flesh. The theory is that while the attacker is stunned and doubled-over with pain, the woman will have a chance to flee the scene before the rapist has a chance to do further damage to her. Once it latches on to the skin, the condom can only be removed surgically, which will mean that attackers will have to go to the hospital and risk getting caught.
While I can certainly see value in this device, I can’t help but think of all those situations where things could go wrong. What do you think readers? A great idea or a huge mistake waiting to happen?
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A (presumably) abandoned ship near a US nuclear test is swamped by the resulting massive wave. The video is courtesy of Atom Central, a site filled with pictures, videos, and information about nuclear weapons.
via Urlesque | Atom Central
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Photo: Pat Shannahan/Wired.com
What do you get when you cross a taser with a machine gun? Behold the Taser Shockwave, a weapon that fires 24 electrified probes at the same time in a single direction.
It’s one example of Aaron Rowe’s Danger Room Blog gallery of 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist: Link
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All that most of us know about a sling is that David slew Goliath with one. Maybe our fathers made one for us when we were kids (mine did). But what else do you know about the sling as a weapon?
The sling was likely mankind’s first, true projectile weapon. It generally consists of two cords and a pouch. These cords are held in one hand and a projectile is placed in the pouch. The length of the sling provides greater mechanical advantage than one’s arms. Projectiles can be slung over 1500 feet (450m) at speeds exceeding 250 miles per hour (400 kph). The sling is unique in that the movement of the weapon is merely an extension of the user’s body. The power and accuracy of the weapon is not by technological means, but rather user skill. The connection between slinger and sling is an intimate one, a relationship rarely found in modern weaponry.
Slinging.org has the history of the sling, information on different kinds of slings, and advice on making and using a sling. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Dogs have been used in warfare since war began and the last ten years have been no exception. Used these days primarily to seek out IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) the Military Working Dog has seen a great deal of action both in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is, then, a homage to the fidelity, tenacity and sheer exuberance of the Military Working Dog – the MWD.
It is a fact easily overlooked that dogs are used by the military in war zones – many people do not realise that they are used at all. They have made significant contributions where they have been deployed. A fitting point at which to start is to pay our respects to those dogs that helped win wars in the past. Here, Military Working Dog (from here on in referred to as MWD but sometimes called K9) Rico accompanies Petty Officer 2nd Class Blake Soller to salute the dogs who helped to liberate Guam in 1944. The inscription on the memorial says “25 Marine War Dogs gave their lives liberating Guam in 1944. They served as sentries, messengers, scouts. They explored caves, detected mines and booby traps. -SEMPER FIDELIS” (always faithful).
From the Upcoming 
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The US Navy has the frigate Constitution, launched in 1797. The British Royal Navy has the Victory, which dates even further back — to 1765. But both of these vessels are museum ships, rather than truly active vessels.
The oldest naval vessel in active service is the VMF Kommuna, a Russian Navy salvage ship built in 1915. James Dunnigan writes for Strategy Page:
This 2,500 ton catamaran was built in the Netherlands and entered service in 1915. Kommuna began service in the Czar’s navy, spent most of its career in the Soviet (communist) Navy, and now serves in the fleet of a democratic Russia. Originally designed to recover submarines that had sunk in shallow coastal waters, Kommuna remains in service to handle smaller submersibles, does it well and has been maintained over the decades to the point where it cheaper to keep the old girl operational, than to try and design and build a replacement.
Link via Hell in a Handbasket | More Pictures | Image: Warfare.ru
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Spc. Matthew Mortensen is a combat medic, charged with providing aid to wounded front line soldiers, but that was no protection against harm. He was shot by a sniper while on patrol in Baghdad on December 10th.
“After I was shot, I had my platoon sergeant examine for a wound and he found one on my right shoulder blade,” said Mortensen. “Then I jumped into the truck, threw off my kit because I couldn’t reach my right side with my kit on. After I took it off, I started cleaning up some of the blood with gauze then I used the package for the gauze and created a pressure dressing over the wound just in case it penetrated my chest cavity. I didn’t know what happened to the bullet so that was the only thing I was really worried about”
Mortensen even directed his own medical evacuation. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Combat Medical Badge the next day. Mortensen is now recovering in the US and expects to be back in Iraq in February. Link -via Digg
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We’ve seen space wars fought in movies and TV shows for almost a hundred years now, but what would a real-life space battle be like? It wouldn’t be like the movies, that’s for sure!
In principle, yes, your enemy could come at you from any direction at all. In practice, though, the Buggers are going to do no such thing. At least, not until someone invents an FTL drive, and we can actually pop our battle fleets into existence anywhere near our enemies. The marauding space fleets are going to be governed by orbit dynamics – not just of their own ships in orbit around planets and suns, but those planets’ orbits. For the same reason that we have Space Shuttle launch delays, we’ll be able to tell exactly what trajectories our enemies could take between planets: the launch window. At any given point in time, there are only so many routes from here to Mars that will leave our imperialist forces enough fuel and energy to put down the colonists’ revolt.
That’s just the beginning of the difference we would see between a movie battle and what would happen in the outer space we have. Read more at Gizmodo. Link -via Digg
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You might be forgiven for thinking that the first day of April has come early but, yes, rats are being used to locate unexploded mines in an attempt to ease the issue of discarded military ordnance scattered across the globe. And they are pretty good at their job too.
The Giant Pouched Rats used in this project are only a distant relative of the common rat we hold in such great esteem. It is an intelligent species and easy to train – with many new recruits straightforward to breed. The female of the species can produce up to ten litters a year. Although this is a scary fact, only one to five arrive with each litter, despite the mother having eight nipples. In many African countries they are kept as pets but also are predominantly used as a food source. Perhaps the mine field is a better option than the casserole dish after all.
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After a football injury at the age of sixteen, Jamie Cap became paralyzed from the neck down. Now, thirty years later, he controls a shotgun attached to his wheelchair with a breathing tube. Getting legal permission was a substantial struggle, but now he’s been cleared by a court to start shooting:
Cap, 46, recently won a 2 1/2-year legal battle to allow him to use, with the help of a partner, a 12-gauge shotgun fitted with a battery-powered machine that is operated by a breathing tube.
He described firing that first shot last week with a combination of wistfulness and enthusiasm another person might use to describe rekindling a decades-old romance.
“I don’t know if there are words,” he said. “I’m so happy. When you find you can do something again after 30 years, you can’t put a price on that. Some people think it’s nothing, but try being paralyzed for 30 years and then come talk to me.”[...]
Cap might not have embarked on his bureaucratic odyssey had he not found Indiana-based Be Adaptive Equipment during a random Internet search. The company, which has made wheelchair mounts for shotguns since 2002, sells about 20 per year, according to owners Brian and Renee Kyler. Cap’s model cost about $1,600; a new 12-gauge shotgun starts at about $250.
For a quadriplegic, firing a shotgun requires help from a companion. In Cap’s case, a friend sets up the contraption, safety on, on Cap’s wheelchair and Cap aims the shotgun by moving the toggle switch with his mouth. Once his partner releases the safety, Cap fires by sipping on the breathing tube.
Link via Geekologie | Photo: AP
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As the Curtiss Candy Company explained during World War II:
“A non-energetic body is like an LCT without fuel.”
Unfortunately, this ad is somewhat of a teaser because during the war, it was hard to find a Baby Ruth for sale:
“Men in foxholes, cockpits, or aboard ships call for more and more Baby Ruth, so civilians sometimes must wait until Uncle Sam is supplied.”
James Lileks has lots more vintage ads from comic books here.
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Birmingham, Alabama-based artist Walt Creel creates illustrations by firing guns at aluminum sheets. He calls his collection “Deweaponizing the Gun”, and sees it as an exploration of guns in U.S., and in particular, Southern culture:
The terms gun and weapon are practically interchangeable. From hunting to war, self defense to target practice, the gun has been a symbol of power and destruction. Art and entertainment have both taken the same approach to he gun. Traveling Wild West shows had gunslingers that shot crude silhouettes and names, but this was done to illustrate the shooters prowess. Some artists have used high speed film to capture a bullet slicing through its target, while other artists have melted guns into sculptures.
Link via Say Uncle | Artist’s Website | Image: Walt Creel
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You’re familiar with historical re-enactment groups who get together to stage battles from history. Here’s one with a twist: a group of woman who portray the German Red Cross, or Deutches Rotes Kreuz (DRK) of World War II. Aachen Stadt I does not endorse the politics of the Nazi party; in fact they say right up front that they will not tolerate racist ideology. They participate in WWII battle re-enactments and attend educational events to tell about the role of the Red Cross. And they have a 2010 calendar for sale as well! Link -Thanks, Erin!
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A fellow who calls himself “The Duckman” built an electrically-powered automatic crossbow. His objective was to have a usable crossbow now that arthritis prevents him from cocking each arrow, as he would on a conventional bow. The Duckman built the weapon with a magazine of 15 arrows and the battery allows him to fire 100 before replacement. I don’t see his trigger finger move while he’s firing, so it appears to be fully auto, rather than semi. More pictures and specifications at the link.
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The tumblr blog We Love Data Visualizations has all sorts of fascinating maps and charts. This one lists every nuclear explosion, the setting, the year, and the responsible party. Once you’re at the link, click on the image for a larger view.
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Perhaps a dozen of these specialized guns were made in Nazi Germany. They fired either a .32 caliber or .22 rimfire cartridge and had a four-round magazine. At the link, you’ll find a copy of a short article from a 1954 issue of American Rifleman about two such guns that had come into the possession of the then-Governor of Alabama.
Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Photo: James R. Rummel
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The Canadian firm K9 Storm offers sophisticated physical protection for dogs out in the field. In Popular Science, Clay Dillow writes:
The Intruder not only protects canines with a sturdy flak jacket enveloping their vital organs, but it sports a wireless camera so the handler can see what the dog sees, as well as speakers so the handler can issue audio commands. As a result, dogs can operate up to 300 yards from their handlers, a big advantage in emergency situations where dogs are often sent into areas deemed too unsafe for humans to operate.
Although the suits cost $20,000 per unit, the enormous expense of training and maintaining a high-end military or police dog may justify the expenditure.
Link | Photo: K9 Storm
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With a flight lasting twenty-six hours and one minute, the US Navy experimental unmanned aerial vehicle Ion Tiger broke a flight endurance record. Michael Barkoviak writes for Daily Tech:
The U.S. Navy’s Ion Tiger flew over the Aberdeen Proving Ground on November 16 and November 17 for more than one day, as the 37-lb. aircraft carried its fuel-cell engine, 9.5-lb. compressed hydrogen tank, and a five-pound payload.
Ion Tiger has a a day-night camera capable of surveillance and reconnaissance for future missions, said representatives from the Naval Research Laboratory. The recent test flight was meant as an endurance test, and researchers were quick to point out that much work is left to be done.
Link via CrunchGear | Image: Naval Research Laboratory
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Yes, all kinds of Facebook parodies have already been created, including the excellent Hamlet version by Sarah Schmelling, and even a Star Wars edition, as John Farrier pointed out recently.
But if you haven’t seen this one by Brian Sack of Banterist I think you will enjoy it, particularly if you are interested in 20th c. world history.
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Suppose you are a clandestine service agent for the CIA and you need to tell another agent that you have important information for him, but you suspect the walls have ears. Well, you could tie your shoelaces in a pattern like the one shown below, and your message would come out loud and clear without your speaking a word.
CIA shoelaces
The illustration is from a new book called “The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception,” based on two manuals written by professional stage magician John Mulholland. During the Cold War, the CIA hired Mullholland to teach their covert operatives sleight-of-hand tricks and secret signals they could use in the field.
The manuals explained tricks like how to drop something or pick something up without arousing suspicion, or how to pass a pin or a pill concealed in a matchbook while pretending to be simply offering a light. For a trick to be good, said Mulholland, it “must be simple in its basic idea”, and if you practiced relaxing your facial muscles, “the greater the effect.”
Mulholland’s classified manuals were supposed to have been destroyed in 1973, but a copy was discovered in 2007 among declassified CIA archives by intelligence historian H. Keith Melton and retired CIA officer Robert Wallace, who wrote the historical overview for the book. Rather than a dashing, James Bond-type figure, Mulholland described the ideal agent as anonymous, bland, and “so normal in manner, and his actions so natural, that nothing about him excites suspicion.”
At least until his Russian counterpart glanced at his shoes.
Hat tip Kottke.org. From the Boston Globe article by Tom Scocca; illustrations by Javier Zarracina/Globe Staff Graphic
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As a British soldier in World War II, Denis Avey was captured by the Germans and sent to a prison camp, which was connected to the Auschwitz camp. While most inmates were concerned with getting out, Avey was trying to get in to the death camp to find out about the conditions. He made friends with Auschwitz prisoner Ernst Lobethall and swapped uniforms with him for overnight visits to each other’s camps. Lobethall got needed rest and food in the POW camp, and Avey gathered information from the death camp.
Mr Lobethall told him he had a sister Susana who had escaped to England as a child, on the eve of war. Back in his own camp, Mr Avey contacted her via a coded letter to his mother.
He arranged for cigarettes, chocolate and a letter from Susana to be sent to him and smuggled them to his friend. Cigarettes were more valuable than gold in the camp and he hoped he would be able to trade them for favours to ease his plight – and he was right.
Mr Lobethall traded two packs of Players cigarettes in return for getting his shoes resoled. It helped save his life when thousands perished or were murdered on the notorious death marches out of the camps in winter in 1945.
Avey never spoke of his Auschwitz experience after the war, and didn’t know what became of Lobethall until recently. Lobethall moved to the US and lived a long life.
But before he died Mr Lobethall recorded his survival story on video for the Shoah Foundation, which video the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses. In it he spoke of his friendship with a British soldier in Auschwitz who he simply called “Ginger”. It was Denis.
The BBC brought the 91-year-old Avey and Lobethall’s sister Susana Timms together to watch Lobethall’s testimony and captured their meeting on video. Link -via Arbroath
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