Free Republic

A suspension bridge is perilously close to collapse, but secret federal agents learn about the pending disaster on their Palm Pilots and dash to the site and are able to stop the catastrophe just in time. The real hero here, though? Miniature wireless sensors. Sensors embedded on bridges are helping authorities tell when there is a problem with the infrastructure; wireless nodes on fault lines can help forecast the next earthquake; and other technology can help cell phones communicate without cell towers over a distance, experts tell United Press International's Wireless World. By Gene Koprowski

Threads that think Dec 8th 2005From The Economist print editionMaterials: The incorporation of sensors and controls into clothing is the first step towards a new realm of “smart fabrics” IT COULD give the term “power suit” a whole new meaning. Getting dressed a few years from now, you may find yourself putting on more than mere fabric. Your clothes may by then sport electronic sensors and tiny computers. As you walk out of the door, you will be not just fashionably attired, but digitally enhanced—a living, breathing node on the internet. This prospect will delight some people and horrify others....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sensors and video cameras on Southern California freeways could begin recording pollutants spewing from tailpipes by early next year as part of a program to reduce smog levels in the nation's smoggiest region. The program, perhaps the largest of its kind, would measure vehicles entering freeways in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside. The sensors measure pollutants as vehicles accelerate and the cameras snap an image of the license plates. There's even an incentive to getting caught. Owners of smoky clunkers would receive letters informing them that the government would help pay...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA said on Friday it would be at least late next week before the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia accident can be launched, after Discovery's liftoff was postponed two days ago because of a fuel sensor problem. "The simple things did not provide us any resolution to the problem," said deputy shuttle program manager Wayne Hale. The sensors are designed to shut off the shuttle's three main engines before fuel runs out to avoid damaging them. A premature shutdown could force a shuttle to make an emergency landing or prevent it from reaching...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- The U.S. military is developing miniature electronic sensors disguised as rocks. The disguised sensors can be dropped from an aircraft and used to help detect the sound of approaching enemy combatants, the London Financial Times has reported. The devices, which would be no larger than a golf ball, could be ready for use in about 18 months, the paper said. They use tiny silicon chips and radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology that is so sensitive that it can detect the sound of a human footfall at 20 feet to 30 feet. RFID technology...

'Suspicious package' delays grand opening of new mail facility --- OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A parcel of sauerkraut passing through chemical-sensitive mail-scanning equipment in the new base post office here Friday triggered a “suspicious package” alert, forcing officials to call off the post office’s grand opening ceremony. They also evacuated the Osan Shopping Mall, which adjoins the post office. The incident occurred at 11:25 a.m., five minutes before the ceremony, at which 51st Fighter Wing commander Brig. Gen. Maury Forsyth was to make remarks. Officials did not immediately determine whether it was the sauerkraut or something in its...

WHAT'S NEXT MILLIONS of cargo containers full of toys, TV's and other consumer products stream into United States ports each year. But security experts fear the metal boxes could also be used to transport dangerous freight: terrorist weapons. Researchers are working on modifications to the rugged containers, adding electronic monitoring that can keep track of intrusions once the boxes are sealed at a factory and on their way by train, truck and ship. General Electric is testing a palm-size security device with a built-in microprocessor and radio. The device, which has been tried out on a handful of containers traveling...

While the death tolls are still mounting from last week’s catastrophe in the Indian Ocean, some prominent religious leaders haven’t wasted any time engaging in politicking and opportunism. Last Thursday, Rev. Sam Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, issued statements rebuking the United States, among other nations, for not signing on to the Kyoto protocol. Don’t see the link between a massive earthquake and global warming? Kobia and Noko certainly do. The results of the disaster are “a clear warning on what climate change could to...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Pentagon seeks ideas to fight 'urban' warsBy Jennifer HarperTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished September 12, 2004 Urban-canyon flying vehicles, persistent staring reconnaissance and perching machines may one day prove the weapons of choice among American troops doing battle in dim city streets far from home.     That is, if someone comes up with a workable design.     A public call for ideas to help soldiers on the unpredictable, unorthodox "urban battlefield" has been issued by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA -- the unabashedly inventive arm of the Defense Department that specializes in "revolutionary, high-payoff research," according to its...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Feb. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite, scheduled to be launched on Saturday, Feb. 14, from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station, will include sophisticated nuclear test detection sensors from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). NNSA's advanced nuclear detonation detection payload, a primary detection system for nuclear explosions in the upper atmosphere and space, will be the satellite's secondary payload. These space-based sensors, developed by NNSA's Office of Nonproliferation Research and Engineering, are used to monitor the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, and to deter proliferant nations from conducting nuclear tests. NNSA...

American Border Patrol is seeding a Huachuca Mountain canyon with ground sensors in final preparation for its first operational testing of a tracking system that will also use GPS-guided unmanned drones. In the testing, the private border-watch group will try to detect, document and then broadcast live images of the flow of illegal border crossers trekking across a sparsely populated canyon south of Sierra Vista. The area has become a major footpath for illegal border crossers. American Border Patrol founder Glenn Spencer said the location was selected after area residents approached his group seeking help in curbing the ongoing flow...

Federal scientists will soon blanket the heart of midtown and the West Village with high-tech sensors designed to track biological, chemical and radiological agents in the event of a terrorist attack. The security project is a first step toward creating a vast network of sensors that can predict how the fallout from a weapon of mass destruction might spread through the city. "We would like to work out what areas would be dangerous and, more importantly, what areas would be safe," said Bruce Hicks, director of the Air Resources Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The research is...

<p>DAYTON, Ohio - The 1999 Pontiac Trans Am had to be flying, said officer Robert Cairo, a traffic crash investigator with the police in Trotwood, Ohio.</p> <p>The car skidded sideways off the road on Feb. 11, went airborne for 110 feet, landed in a field and bounced "like a stone across a lake" before it struck a utility pole, according to police. The impact ejected the driver, who broke his neck, and a passenger, who broke his spine.</p>

Sonic Fusion Scientists have reported that by bombarding a liquid with sound they were able to produce nuclear fusion in a tabletop apparatus. But their colleagues doubt it. By W. Wayt Gibbs Image: Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Russian Academy of Sciences (Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, J. S. Cho, C.D. West, R.T. Lahey,Jr., R.I. Nigmatulin and R.C. Block)SIX-MILLIMETER BUBBLE CLOUD is about to implode in a glass chamber filled with acetone. The implosion produces light and shock waves. Donald Kennedy, editor of the prestigious journal Science, knew he was in for a row if he...