MQ-9 Reaper, revisited

The first unmanned attack squadron in aviation history will arrive in Iraq today looking to deliver 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles to the enemy - all from the comfort of a US Air Force base in Nevada.

Go to war without leaving home.

We are no longer on top

The National Academies of Science produces regular reports on the state of scientific research in the US... The report identifies six key questions that will represent the grand challenges that materials science will face over the coming decade, the ones most likely to produce the next revolution. But it also raises fears that those challenges will be met by researchers outside of the US. It highlights the fact that government funding has not kept up with the rising costs of research at the same time that the corporate-funded research lab system has collapsed. As a result, US scientific productivity has stagnated at a time when funding and output are booming overseas. The report makes a series of recommendations that it hopes will get US physics research booming again.

"booming again"... I think it's time for a regime change.

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

...the world is warming, this warming is due to human activity increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with increasingly serious consequences.

So for those who are not sure what to believe, here is our round-up of the 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.

There is also a guide to assessing the evidence. In the articles we've included lots of links to primary research and major reports for those who want to follow through to the original sources.

MQ-9 Reaper

The availability of high performance sensors and large capacity of precision guided weapons enable the new Predator to operate as an efficient "Hunter-Killer" platform, seeking and engaging targets at high probability of success.

You can run, but you can't hide. This weapon requires human operators, but the next version can operate autonomously. Anyone remember Terminator 3?

[ADDED 16/05/2007]      To make it even more apocalyptic the control system is called SkyNet.

Recognizing "Hinky" vs. Citizen Informants

This kind of thing isn't easy to train. (Much has been written about it, though; Malcolm Gladwell's Blink discusses this in detail.) You can't learn it from watching a seven-minute video. But the more we focus on this -- the more we stop wasting our airport security resources on screeners who confiscate rocks and snow globes, and instead focus them on well-trained screeners walking through the airport looking for hinky -- the more secure we will be.

Technical ways to get around censorship

The decision to use circumvention technology should be taken seriously, carefully analyzing the specific needs, available resources and security concerns of the end-user. There is a wide variety of technologies available for users who want to circumvent Internet filtering. However, using them for successful and stable circumvention service depends on a variety of factors, including the user’s level of technical skill, potential security risk, and contacts available outside the censored country. Governments may also take counter-measures to effectively block specific circumvention technologies.

In other news today, Wikipedia has begun blocking TOR.

Dell Brings Back Windows XP

"We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said on the Idea Storm portion of its Web site, dedicated to implementing customer feedback.

This is almost funny! They are trying to put a positive spin on what has been a failure and make it look like they are being responsive to their customers.

A customer of mine purchased a brand new dual-core Dell with Vista on it, and the sound card would not work properly -- failed DRM. It defaulted to 16-bit stereo rather than delivering the promised surround sound. I suspect it works just fine under XP, however.