Free Republic

The U.S. Army's Buffalo boasts a robotic arm tipped with a pitchfork-like hand and a camera for seeing into hard-to-reach areas during the search for improvised explosive devices. BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 10, 2005 — Looking like a creation from the TV show “Monster Garage,” 1st Battalion, 64th Armor’s Buffalo lumbers down the streets of Baghdad, searching for improvised explosive devices. The Buffalo stands far taller than a tank and boasts a robotic arm tipped with a pitchfork-like hand and a camera for seeing into hard-to-reach areas. “We travel slowly along our routes, looking out the windows for anything suspicious,” said...

"So maybe it wasn't a suicide attack after all?" I had finally gotten a decent connection through the ouija board with the late James Jesus Angleton, once our leading counterspy, and I didn't want to waste time with the usual chitchat about fly fishing-whose fascination, frankly, I have never understood — and Renaissance furniture. JJA: "Why would anybody think it was a suicide operation?" ML: "Well, officially they seemed pretty confident. I think the main thing was that the three bombs in the subways went off more or less at the same instant, and that suggested there were timers. And...

Recently, Wolf Blitzer of CNN was interviewing new Prime Minister Jalal-Talibani of Iraq about the situation that the newly formed government council is facing now that Iraq is a democracy. Blitzer asked Jalal-Talibani when he thought the United States would bring the troops home. Jalal-Talibani told him that he forsees that U.S troops will be in his homeland for at least another two years. When the pime mnister said this, the look on Blitzer's face seemed to say: "You must be kidding." He looked as if he couldn't believe his ears. But I exclaimed to myself: "Another two years!" That...

Futuristic microscopic devices may be able to store energy, raise farm output and purify water to help the world reach 2015 goals of curbing poverty. According to scientists at the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JBC), nanotechnology - the design and use of molecule-sized devices - is also likely to have wide uses in diagnosing disease and cutting air pollution. "This is the most educated of educated guesses," JCB director Peter Singer said of the most likely applications for nanotechnology in 10 years, predicted in the JCB poll of 63 experts from around the world.

Distilled Spirits Council Urges Ban of Alcohol Vapor Devices; Senate Committee on Regulated Industries Hears Bill Today Mon Mar 21,12:48 PM ET To: State Desk Contact: Sarah Rosen of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, 202-682-8840; Web: http://www.distilledspirits.org WASHINGTON, March 21, /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Distilled Spirits Council today urged swift passage of legislation introduced in Florida banning "alcohol without liquid" (AWOL) devices that allow consumers to inhale alcohol by mixing alcohol with pure oxygen. The bill, SB 794, sponsored by Senator Mike Haridopolos, would prohibit the sale or use of these devices and make its sale a...

US Court Rejects Appeal on Ban on Sex Toy Sale WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) rejected on Tuesday a constitutional challenge to an Alabama law that makes it a crime to sell sex toys. The high court refused to hear an appeal by a group of individuals who regularly use sexual devices and by two vendors who argued the case raised important issues about the scope of the constitutional right to sexual privacy. The law prohibited the distribution of "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs."...

GENEVA: The United Nations European headquarters, where a listening device was discovered in a ministerial meeting room, is probably rife with secret spying equipment, a UN security source said yesterday. "It's like Swiss cheese," a UN security source said, referring to the Swiss Emmenthal cheese which contains holes. If we had the technnical means and staff for thorough searches, I'm certain that we would find one microphone after another. The UN in New York and Vienna are the same," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Marie Heuze, chief UN spokeswoman in Geneva, on Thursday confirmed the report by...

Since the September 11 attacks, a new consensus appears to have developed on the need for tighter immigration enforcement and border controls. Gone are the days when the Wall Street Journal repeatedly called for a constitutional amendment declaring that “there shall be open borders.” Knowledgeable Americans have come to understand that our welcoming immigration policies are easily exploited by terrorists and that porous borders and lax immigration enforcement are no longer an option. With at least 8 million illegal aliens living in the United States and nearly one million new aliens arriving each year, the potential for terrorists entering the...

BOSTON (AP) - For years, futurists have dreamed of machines that can read minds, then act on instructions as they are thought. Now, human trials are set to begin on a brain-computer interface involving implants. Cyberkinetics Inc. of Foxboro, Mass., has received Food and Drug Administration approval to begin a clinical trial in which four-square-millimeter chips will be placed beneath the skulls of paralyzed patients. If successful, the chips could allow patients to command a computer to act - merely by thinking about the instructions they wish to send. It's a small, early step in a mission to improve the...

U.S. Central Command says terrorist devices have been found in Iraq. At a briefing Tuesday morning, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks offered up examples of coffee tables laden with explosives and "suicide vests." Brooks also described the progress in the search for weapons of mass destruction. "The most important part of it frankly, is that with every day that goes by, we get more and more information, we have more pieces of the puzzle being revealed to us and given some of the players we are currently taking into our custody and those we continue to seek. We remain confident that...