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Brando's Bombshell MP3 player gives the TSA something new to balk at
Nah, grenade and bomb-shaped PMPs aren't anything new, but we'll confess to never seeing anything quite like this. Hosted up at the always-unpredictable Brando website, the USB Bombshell MP3 Player acts as a portable speaker, a radio and a markedly volatile MP3 player. There's an inbuilt USB port and SD card slot for loading up your favorite Rise Against albums, and the integrated Li-ion battery pack should keep it ticking for an undisclosed amount of time. 'Course, sneaking this one past airport security could be an adventure unto itself, but those willing to live life with the pin pulled can get one headed their way for $43. [Thanks, Lawrence]
Bee venom used to create ultra-sensitive explosives sensor
We knew that well-trained bees were capable of sniffing out dynamite and other explosives, but researchers at MIT have now come up with a slightly less militant way to use our winged friends as bomb detectors. A team of chemical engineers at the school recently developed a new, ultra-sensitive sensor that's sharp enough to detect even one molecule of TNT. Their special ingredient? Bee venom. Turns out, a bee's poison contains protein fragments called bombolitins, that react to explosive compounds. To create the detector, researchers applied these bombolitins to naturally fluorescent carbon nanotubes. Whenever an explosive molecule binds with the protein fragments, the interaction will alter the wavelength of the carbon cylinder's fluorescent light. The shift is too small for the naked eye to pick up on, but can be detected using specially designed microscopes. If it's ever developed for commercial use, the sensor could provide a more acute alternative to the spectrometry-based detectors used at most airport security checkpoints. At the moment, however, the technology isn't quite ready to be deployed on a widespread basis, so feel free to keep on living in fear. Full PR after the break.
SRI unveils Taurus, DaVinci's bomb-defusing little brother
This is SRI International's Taurus. Brought to you by the minds behind the DaVinci robo-surgeon, the diminutive (14 x 5-inch) bad boy is used to detect and defuse IEDs. Piggy-backing on existing devices such as Talon or PackBot, the device delivers hi-def 3D images and haptic feedback (via gloves) to a bomb disposal tech operating from a safe distance. According to IEEE Spectrum, it works so well that users forget they're working remotely. Right now it's a prototype, but with any luck the system could be in the field as early as this summer.
iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million
iRobot may still be best known as the creator of the homely Roomba vacuum-cleaning drone, but savvy readers will know the company's endeavors span a pretty broad range of robot-related activities. One of those has now borne fruit in the shape of a multiyear agreement with the US Navy for the provision of "portable robotic systems" that can identify and dispose of explosives while also performing a bit of reconnaissance work in their spare time. The announcement doesn't tell us the particular model(s) or number of bots that will be provided, but there is clarification to say that iRobot will be responsible for providing spares, repairs, training, and accessories along with the hardware, with the total revenue for the company potentially swelling to $230 million over the full course of the contract, which lasts through 2015. Our guess is that the "throwable" robot shown off a couple of weeks back would be a good candidate for this task, though we doubt it'll be thanking us for endorsing it for such perilous work.
Sprint radar imaging system peeps inside walls, floors to detect bombs, tell-tale hearts
Back in 2005, we reported on a little something called the Prism 200, which allowed its holder to essentially see what folks were doing on the other side of a wall. Since then, we've seen plenty of devices that boast the same claims, but it wasn't until recently that the makers of the Prism 200 created a device that can actually see inside those walls. Looking something akin to an old school punch clock, Cambridge Consultants' Sprint in-wall radar imaging system provides 3D renderings of items embedded in walls, floors, and even ceilings. Where as existing X-ray systems require access to both sides of a wall, Sprint's radar setup allows users to see what's going on inside without dual access. As you might imagine, Cambridge is pushing this thing as a security tool, allowing for detection of bombs, drugs, dead bodies -- you know, the usual bad guy stuff. Sprint is currently undergoing testing. Full PR after the break.
Bomb threat at Apple's Elk Grove distribution center
A bomb threat was called in to Apple's Elk Grove, California distribution center today. The threat was called in around 8 AM PST. The Elk Grove distribution center is used for warehousing and human resources. According to AppleInsider, the threat caused the evacuation of buildings A, B and C on the campus. Elk Grove police officer Chris Trim told Fox 40 news that four bomb-sniffing dogs were sent in to search the 100,000-square-foot buildings. After five hours, the local police felt there was no real danger and gave the all clear for employees to return to the buildings. There is no word yet on any possible leads about the person or persons that called in the threat.
Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away
William Fox of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and John Vesecky, his colleague at UC Santa Cruz, are working on a modified radar gun that can identify suicide bombs worn under the clothing. To do this, they cataloged the most common arrangements of looped wires used to construct "suicide vests," and developed software that can identify the radar cross-section of each. So far, results have been pretty good: according to New Scientist, "telltale factors in the polarisation of the reflected signals" allowed them to correctly identify volunteers dressed as bombers up to ten meters away, roughly eighty-five percent of the time. Of course, even with a success rate this high, such a system would be prone to kicking up false positives. In order to minimize this, the devices would have to combined with other technologies, such as smart surveillance camera systems and infrared imaging.
Israel to activate SMS-CB missile alert system next year
This one's been talked about since the middle of last year (at least), but it looks as if the time for contemplating is over and done with. It's bruited that the Israel Defense Forces will be moving forward on a plan to light up a new cellular system that will blast out SMS-CB alerts to citizens if and when a missile is fired in the direction of Israel. Just over $7 million will be invested, with the application itself being jointly designed by eVigilo and Ericsson. If all goes well, it'll be operational in June of 2011, and it's just one aspect of the country's effort to consolidate all emergency alerts into one centralized system. We're told that the blasts would be sent in a variety of languages, and there's even potential to send 'em to TVs, radios, websites and "billboards." And unlike various other SMS emergency alert systems that have been implemented, these would actually differ based on how the threat was forecasted to affect different geographic regions. Something tells us eVigilo's going to become a multinational company in no time. Update: eVigilo pinged us with a few extra details surrounding the service. For starters, it'll be using SMS-CB (read: not standard SMS) in order to circumvent core networks that tend to collapse during emergencies. This will enable the messages to bypass any congestion and hit all users at around the same time. The alerts would be delivered geographically, not to a specific number of users, with tests proving that "millions" could be reached within 20 seconds over 3G. Besides broadcast over mobile networks, the company will also connect to the national TV network using DVB and offer also DAB reaching digital radio subscribers. Additional capabilities will be given through multicast over IP (Billboards, Variable Message Signs and social networks).
Atomic bomb tests make for pretty, if unnerving, photography
The things America got up to in the 50s, eh? The New York Times has this week published a gallery of arresting images from atomic bomb testing done by the US military in the middle of the 20th century. From nuking its own destroyers and airships while gauging out their "vulnerability" -- let's hope that vulnerability was categorized as "total" -- to producing atomic cannons like the one you see above, the USA really went to town with its nuclear warfare practice. The Times' story is about atomic cameramen and the crazy risks they took to document these events; we'd advise giving it a read, but if you're pushed for time, just hit the source for all the wild visuals.
Editorial: Thoughts on the Ensidia ban
Are you wondering what has caused all the ruckus in the raiding community the past few days? Have you been typing your fingers to the bone since Wednesday night, arguing for one side or the other in forums and chat channels? Whoever you are, or whatever side you're on, in the still-burning aftermath of Ensidia's ban, I feel some reflection is needed. Thus, I am going explain, to the best of my ability, what happened to cause such uproar in the raiding community this week. I am also going to, as the title implies, offer my speculations.
Apple's iPod touch tackling "networked warfare" for US military
While the British military has had a love-hate relationship with Apple's darling, the US armed forces are reportedly warming up quite well to the iPod touch. A fresh Newsweek report asserts that the touch is increasingly replacing far more expensive dedicated devices in the field, noting that it is being used to spearhead the future of "networked warfare." Equipped with a rugged shell and software developed by language translation firms (among others), the device is being used to aid communications and acquire information from databases. In fact, the US Department of Defense is "developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe," and snipers are already utilizing a ballistics calculator to add precision to shots. And hey, it's not like easy access to Tap Tap Revenge is really bad for morale, either.[Via CNET]
No pressure: D3 brings bomb disposal to the DS
D3's latest addition to the budget range of Simple games is devoted to a heroic but very niche vocation: the disarming of bombs. As part of an elite bomb disposal unit, THE Bomb Squad takes players all over a world consisting of fictional countries.While preventing bombs from exploding is, naturally, a major component of the gameplay, you'll have to play detective and locate the threat first, before whipping your stylus out and choosing between the red and the blue wire. This means chatting to locals (and apparently camels -- see after the break) to gather information, and assembling your clues from there.Simple DS Series: Vol. 41 - THE Bomb Squad will hit Japan (alongside Vol. 42 - The Abandoned Building) on July 10th, and the west ... well, it's likely never. Sigh. At least we have our own bomb disposal adventure to (possibly) look forward to.%Gallery-23303%
U.S. Military using Wiimote-controlled Packbot to disable bombs
We like the way the U.S. military thinks. One of the Wii's biggest flaws is the painful stretches of downtime between its bigger releases, causing dust to settle on Nintendo's minuscule console and cobwebs to form on our Wiimotes. What better way to get more mileage out of our neglected gyroscopic peripherals than to use them to blow up actual bombs and landmines?This must have been the thought process of those techno-wizards at iRobot, who have modified their Packbot model to be controlled by a standard Wii remote. It seems they discovered that Nintendo's motion-sensitive controller doesn't just lend itself to instinctive, natural interaction with games like Wii Tennis, but also with maneuvering rifle-mounted, explosive-detonating robots -- just remember to always use the wrist strap. Impaling a TV screen while hitting the Wii Bowling lanes is embarassing, throwing the reigns of a gun-toting war machine is just plain irresponsible.
Geocacher causes Auckland bomb scare, Bostonians find soul-mates
In a world gone mad with fear, another global city has ground to a halt in the wake of harmless fun. Like Boston's visceral aversion to Mooninites, Auckland New Zealand has demonstrated an armed distaste for Geocaching. Geochaching is a GPS treasure-hunting game where participants find hidden containers placed around this big blue planet. Unfortunately, security caught the gamer on CCTV strapping a package to a rail near Aotea Center; they then called in the bomb squad. Tip to geocachers: don't wear a bearded, ninja-suit when placing your cache in busy urban areas.Update: Tip 2: don't use a cache that looks like a bomb! Pics of the device after the break.
MEMS-based smart fuses could guarantee desired explosions
While we certainly hope the average (read: not GI) jane / joe isn't overly concerned about the rate at which homegrown explosions detonate as desired, we understand the Army's need to have more faith in their own munitions. Reportedly, a new "smart fuse" conjured up at Georgia Tech could soon prevent bombs from experiencing fuse failure by using "semiconductor fabrication equipment to make hundreds of ultra-high precision detonators on a wafer at the same time." In addition to cutting down on the use of toxic heavy metals and increasing the safety of weapon production, the intelligent MEMS fuse will supposedly "incorporate built-in arm and fail-safe mechanisms that virtually guarantee that munitions go off when they should, every time." Weapons that fire when needed -- now there's a concept. [Image courtesy of Rich's Incredible Pyro]
Void Reaver exploited, brought down in 53 seconds
Word's flying around about a Void Reaver exploit that involved mind-controlling a Tempest-Smith, and then blasting the heck out of him with the bomb ability. One guild, as seen above, has brought VR down within a minute-- apparently the ability has no cooldown, so VR can come down as fast as your mind-controlling Priest can click. However, Blizzard has said this is an exploit, and it is not recommended that you do this on the live realms. Blizzard will definitely be watching VR raids-- avoid the banhammer!But still, a fix has got to be incoming as fast as possible. The question is: how? The most obvious answer is that they have to simply make the Tempest-Smiths not be mind-controllable, but I'm not sure how it works-- in order for the groups to go down right, most raids will sheep or trap these guys, so they do have to still be vulnerable to some kind of CC. The other option is to put the bomb on a cooldown, but even then, that kind of DPS will still help the raid against VR.At any rate, Blizzard will think of something, and probably sooner than later. Interesting exploit, but an exploit just the same, and a definite no-no. [ via WoR ]
Talking lamp declares "I am not a bomb"
Installation artists / DIY'ers Rebecca Stern and Rees Shad came up with an intriguing response to a certain January 2007 Aqua Teen Hunger Force-related bomb scare in Boston you may have heard of -- talking lamps that innocently declare, "I am not a bomb". The lights, based on common solar powered garden lamp shells, contain temperature sensors and sound playback circuitry, and trigger automatically depending on air temperature, repeating the aforementioned phrase in one of twelve languages while flickering with varying intensity. No word yet on whether the city of Boston will implement these in high-paranoia areas. To see the whole process, check the video after the break.[Via MAKE]
Malfunctioning fax machine prints out bomb ClipArt, forces evacuation of area
In any normal town across America there are countless faxes sent and received which feature poorly chosen ClipArt: why then must a promotional fax like the one pictured above fail to print out correctly -- leaving only a picture of a bomb -- in the town of Ashland Massachusetts, not far from the recent high profile Boston bomb scares? This innocent fax caused the evacuation of a dozen nearby businesses after it was received at a Bank of America branch, coinciding with what police said was the delivery of a suspicious package by a customer. The package turned out to merely be "papers," and the fax turned out to be a promotion counting down to an explosion event called "Small Business Commitment Week." Maybe next time the company behind the fax will be a little more wary of the consequences of inappropriately using bomb imagery, and the staff that received the fax will stop to consider whether a potential bomber would use an off-center and badly stretched ClipArt image of a bomb to illustrate their intent. Or, if the Aqua Teen Hunger Force farce is anything to go by, then everyone will blame the person responsible for maintaining the fax machine, and he/she'll appear on TV talking about hairstyles from the 70s.[Thanks, George]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl tidbit roundup
For those not compulsively checking the official Smash Bros. website daily for bare snippets of information, we here at Wii Fanboy have decided to perform the service of coalescing tidbits into tidbigs. Over the past week, a few interesting details have surfaced.Most of the reveals are item-based: you may now move freely with projectile weapons (finally!), and as detailed earlier here, the new "Gooey Bomb" item was unveiled. The most interesting new item, however, is the Smash Ball, which activates character-specific "Final Smash" attacks. Mario's is entitled the "Mario Finale" attack, which unleashes a spread-fire explosion attack, and we've seen Link's Triforce blade attack in an earlier video. Since most competitive Smash Bros. players contend without the randomizing effect of items, it'll be interesting to see if this affects higher-level gameplay.Also unveiled are some of Pit's (of Kid Icarus fame) attacks, which include a controllable arrow of light and limited flight capabilities (most likely the Up+B special). Brawl looks like it's coming together nicely ... do you guys agree?
Wii Warm Up: Super Smash Cho Aniki?
A GoNintendo reader was looking very critically at the new Gooey Bomb item in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and discovered what is absolutely the origin of the item. And now that we've seen them together, it's so obvious that the Gooey Bomb is based on the Holy Protein from Cho Aniki Seinaru Protein Densetsu.You know, except it sticks to people and blows up instead of being orbited by two beefy dudes in Speedos, while shooting lasers. Too bad. If we were designing Smash Bros.-- okay, if I were designing Smash Bros. (I don't think I can speak for Wii Fanboy in this case) it would be heavy on Cho Aniki content.Now, something kind of looking like a thing from another game isn't strictly news, but Wii Warm Up is a discussion topic, and we can discuss whatever we feel like. And today we want to talk about the Cho Aniki series. So, if you've played any of the games, tell us why you loved them. If you haven't, go read about the series, then come back and express your shock.
