In
a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the
communist country lashed out at Tokyo's standing orders to destroy any
missile heading toward Japan, threatening such actions will result in a
nuclear attack against the island nation.
If
Japan executes its threat to shoot down any North Korean missile, such a
“provocative” intervention would see Tokyo — an enormous conurbation of
30 million people — “consumed in nuclear flames”, KCNA warned.
“Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our
revolutionary army and if Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war
will touch Japan first,” the report added.
An
official at Japan’s defence ministry said that the country “will take
every possible measure to respond to any scenario”, while the US
Secretary of State John Kerry warned that a North Korean missile launch
would be a “huge mistake”.
“The
rhetoric that we are hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable by
any standards,” he told a news conference in Seoul alongside South
Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se.
“The
United States, South Korea and the entire international community… are
all united in the fact that North Korea will not be accepted as a
nuclear power,” Kerry added.
However, the North has declared it is "confident of final victory" against its enemies.
"The
enemies should know that it is the era of the great Marshal Kim Jong
Un, leader of the most powerful country and invincible great Paektusan
nation," KCNA stated.
"The
DPRK has won victories in confrontation with the U.S. in spirit and is
waging an all-out action with it, with confidence in final victory."
The
torrent of war cries is seen outside Pyongyang as an effort to raise
fears and pressure Seoul and Washington into changing their North Korea
policies, and to show the North Korean people that their young leader is
strong enough to stand up to powerful foes.
South Korea fears Pyongyang could launch now launch multiple missiles after weeks of threats, according to local reports.
Observers
believe a launch is most likely in the build-up to Monday’s anniversary
of the birth of late founder Kim Il-Sung, for which celebrations are
already well under way in Pyongyang.
The
Korean Peninsula has "been reduced to the biggest nuclear hotspot in
the world", the North said in more fiery rhetoric today, "making the
outbreak of a nuclear war on this land unavoidable."
The
reclusive state is dedicated to "defending the sovereignty and dignity
of the country with its own strike mode and means," it said.
"No force on earth can block the just cause of the army and people of the DPRK," the chilling message concluded.
|
A
new report on three of the first patients in China to contract a novel
strain of bird flu has U.S. officials worried about a grim scenario that
includes severe illness with pneumonia, septic shock, brain damage and
multi-organ failure.
All three of the patients died, according to a Thursday report by a group of Chinese scientists in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“It
is possible that these severely ill patients represent the tip of the
iceberg,” wrote Dr. Timothy Uyeki and Dr. Nancy Cox, both of the
influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in
a perspective piece accompanying the article.
The
reports chronicle the early days of an outbreak of a new influenza A
virus, H7N9, which has never before been seen in humans. So far, it has
infected at least 43 people in four Chinese provinces and killed 11 in
the past two months, Chinese authorities said.
The
patients included two men, ages 87 and 27, both from Shanghai, and a
35-year-old woman from Anhui. All had preexisting health conditions and
two had been exposed to chickens at live poultry markets in the previous
week. They became ill between Feb. 18 and March 13 and died between
March 4 and April 9 of severe complications, the report said.
The
virus, which has been traced to a reassortment of genes from wild birds
in east Asia and chickens in east China, “raises many urgent questions
and global public health concerns,” the U.S. researchers wrote.
It’s
particularly concerning because the virus clearly has the potential to
cause severe disease, it has genetic characteristics that suggest that
it might be better adapted than other bird flu strains to infect mammals
-- including humans -- and people have no resistance to it, the U.S.
scientists reported.
The virus doesn’t make birds sick, so it may spread widely and remain undetected until people become ill.
In
addition, previous vaccines developed to fight other H7 strains did not
invoke strong immune responses in humans, the U.S. scientists wrote.
Even so, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
said they received an isolate of the virus from China on Thursday and
were continuing to rush efforts to create a vaccine, a process that
could take several months.
Scientists
are expected to start growing more of the virus to share for use in
several ways, including not only developing a vaccine, but also creating
a blood test that can detect previous human immune system protection
against the virus, and testing to see whether the virus remains
susceptible to antiviral drugs.
CDC
officials also will use it to create a diagnostic test that could be
used to detect infection in travelers who return to the U.S. from China
with symptoms of flu, or those who’ve been in contact with someone who’s
been sick.
Officials
with CDC and the Food and Drug Administration are working to quickly
expedite approval and manufacture of the kits, said Mike Shaw, associate
director of laboratory science for the CDC's flu division. About 400
diagnostic kits, which each can perform 1,000 tests, may be complete by
Monday, he said. They could be shipped as early as next week to public
health labs across the country.
The
CDC has urged local public health officials to watch for signs of sick
travelers from China. So far, about 10 people who recently traveled from
China to the U.S. have been tested for the H7N9 virus because of
suspicious symptoms, officials said.
"So far, everyone that has been tested in the U.S. has been negative," Shaw told NBC News.
The
virus remains contained to China and there is no evidence of sustained
person-to-person transmission, both good signs, scientists said.
But as the U.S. researchers concluded, vigilance remains high.
“We cannot rest our guard,” they wrote.
|
The
next frontier for the robotics industry is to build machines that think
like humans. Scientists have pursued that elusive goal for decades, and
they believe they are now just inches away from the finish line.
A
Pentagon-funded team of researchers has constructed a tiny machine that
would allow robots to act independently. Unlike traditional artificial
intelligence systems that rely on conventional computer programming,
this one “looks and ‘thinks’ like a human brain,” said James K.
Gimzewski, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Gimsewski
is a member of the team that has been working under sponsorship of the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on a program called “physical
intelligence.” This technology could be the secret to making robots that
are truly autonomous, Gimzewski said during a conference call hosted by
Technolink, a Los Angeles-based industry group.
This
project does not use standard robot hardware with integrated circuitry,
he said. The device that his team constructed is capable, without being
programmed like a traditional robot, of performing actions similar to
humans, Gimzewski said.
Participants in this project include Malibu-based HRL
(formerly Hughes Research Laborary) and the University of California at
Berkeley’s Freeman Laboratory for Nonlinear Neurodynamics. The latter is
named after Walter J. Freeman, who has been working for 50 years on a
mathematical model of the brain that is based on electroencephalography
data. EEG is the recording of electrical activity in the brain.
What
sets this new device apart from any others is that it has nano-scale
interconnected wires that perform billions of connections like a human
brain, and is capable of remembering information, Gimzewski said. Each
connection is a synthetic synapse. A synapse is what allows a neuron to
pass an electric or chemical signal to another cell. Because its
structure is so complex, most artificial intelligence projects so far
have been unable to replicate it.
A “physical intelligence” device would not require a human
controller the way a robot does, said Gimzewski. The applications of
this technology for the military would be far reaching, he said. An
aircraft, for example, would be able to learn and explore the terrain
and work its way through the environment without human intervention, he
said. These machines would be able to process information in ways that
would be unimaginable with current computers.
Artificial intelligence research over the past five decades
has not been able to generate human-like reasoning or cognitive
functions, said Gimzewski. DARPA’s program is the most ambitious he has
seen to date. “It’s an off-the-wall approach,” he added.
Studies of the brain have shown that one of its key traits is
self-organization. “That seems to be a prerequisite for autonomous
behavior,” he said. “Rather than move information from memory to
processor, like conventional computers, this device processes
information in a totally new way.” This could represent a revolutionary
breakthrough in robotic systems, said Gimzewski.
It is not clear, however, that the Pentagon is ready to adopt
this technology for weapon systems. The Obama administration’s use of
drones in “targeted killings” of terrorist suspects has provoked a
backlash and prompted the Pentagon to issue new rules for the use of
robotic weapons. “Autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems shall be
designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate
levels of human judgment over the use of force,” said a Nov. 2012
Defense Department policy statement. Autonomous weapons, the document
said, must “complete engagements in a timeframe consistent with
commander and operator intentions and, if unable to do so, [must]
terminate engagements or seek additional human operator input before
continuing the engagement.” |
No
longer the fantasy weapon of tomorrow, the U.S. Navy is set to field a
powerful laser that can protect its ships by blasting targets with
high-intensity light beams.
Early
next year the Navy will place a laser weapon aboard a ship in the
Persian Gulf where it could be used to fend off approaching unmanned
aerial vehicles or speedboats.
The
Navy calls its futuristic weapon LAWS, which stands for the Laser
Weapon System. What looks like a small telescope is actually a weapon
that can track a moving target and fire a steady laser beam strong
enough to burn a hole through steel.
A
Navy video of testing conducted last summer off the coast of California
shows how a laser beam fired from a Navy destroyer was able to set
aflame an approaching UAV or drone, sending it crashing into the ocean.
"There
was not a single miss" during the testing, said Rear Admiral Matthew
Klunder, chief of Naval Research. The laser was three for three in
bringing down an approaching unmanned aerial vehicle and 12 for 12 when
previous tests are factored in.
But
don't expect in that video to see the firing of colored laser bursts
that Hollywood has used for its futuristic laser guns. The Navy's laser
ray is not visible to the naked eye because it is in the infrared
spectrum.
Many
of the details about how the laser works remain secret, such as how far
its beam can travel, how powerful it is or how much power is used to
generate it.
But
Navy officials have provided a few unclassified details. For example,
the laser is designed to be a "plug and play" system that integrates
into a ship's existing targeting technologies and power grids. Those
factors make it a surprisingly cheap weapon.
Klunder
says each pulse of energy from the laser "costs under a dollar" and it
can be used against weapons systems that are significantly more
expensive. The Navy says it has spent about $40 million over the past six years in developing the weapon.
Rear
Admiral Thomas Eccles, Navy Sea Systems Command, says the beam can be
turned on instantly and that ultimately "the generation of power is
essentially your magazine. It's the clip we have" instead of bullets.
"We deliver precision with essentially an endless supply of rounds."
Some
new technological fixes, what Klunder calls "a secret sauce," have been
developed to improve the degrading of lasers over distance as well as
maintaining a lock on a target from a moving ship.
The
strength of the beam is flexible enough that at a lower intensity level
it can be used to warn approaching ships and UAV's not to get too close
to a Navy ship. Instead of using machine guns to fire non-lethal
warning shots as Navy ships do now, the laser can be aimed to "dazzle"
the viewing sensors aboard the craft. That light effect warns the pilot
of a small water craft or at the controls of a UAV that they are being
targeted by a laser and to turn away. If they don't, the laser's power
can be boosted to destroy the approaching craft.
Based
on earlier testing the Navy is confident the laser is ready for
real-world testing aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. The ship
was selected because of its mission to be an enduring presence in the
Gulf to counter Iranian maritime threats in the region. Coincidentally
Iran uses small fast boats to harass American warships in the waters of
the Persian Gulf.
How
might Iran feel about the new weapon? "Frankly I hope it sends a
message to some of our potentially threatening adversaries out there to
know that we mean business," said Klunder. "This is a system where if
you try to harm our vessels that I hope you will take a very, very
serious moment of pause to think about that before you do it because
this system will destroy your vessel or will destroy your UAV."
The Navy wants the ship's crew to use the same techniques and methods they use with their other defensive weapons systems.
While
for now the laser will be used primarily against slow-moving UAV's and
fast boats cruising at speeds of 50 knots, the Navy sees the system's
capabilities expanding over time to target faster weapons.
"There's
absolutely every intention that with the development of this system and
follow-on upgraded systems we will eventually be able to take higher
speeds in-bound," said Klunder.
|
|
Bioengineers
at Stanford University have created the first biological transistor
made from genetic materials: DNA and RNA. Dubbed the “transcriptor,”
this biological transistor is the final component required to build
biological computers that operate inside living cells. We are now
tantalizingly close to biological computers that can detect changes in a
cell’s environment, store a record of that change in memory made of
DNA, and then trigger some kind of response — say, commanding a cell to
stop producing insulin, or to self-destruct if cancer is detected.
Stanford’s
transcriptor is essentially the biological analog of the digital
transistor. Where transistors control the flow of electricity,
transcriptors control the flow of RNA polymerase as it travels along a
strand of DNA. The transcriptors do this by using special combinations
of enzymes (integrases) that control the RNA’s movement along the strand
of DNA. “The choice of enzymes is important,” says Jerome Bonnet, who
worked on the project. “We have been careful to select enzymes that
function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers
can be engineered within a variety of organisms.”
Like
a transistor, which enables a small current to turn on a larger one,
one of the key functions of transcriptors is signal amplification. A
tiny change in the enzyme’s activity (the transcriptor’s gate) can cause
a very large change in the two connected genes (the channel). By
combining multiple transcriptors, the Stanford researchers have created a
full suite of Boolean Integrase Logic (BIL) gates — the biological
equivalent of AND, NAND, OR, XOR, NOR, and XNOR logic gates. With these
BIL gates (pun possibly intended), a biological computer could perform
almost computation inside a living cell.
You
need more than just BIL gates to make a computer, though. You also need
somewhere to store data (memory, RAM), and some way to connect all of
the transcriptors and memory together (a bus). Fortunately, as
we’ve covered a few times before, numerous research groups have
successfully stored data in DNA — and Stanford has already developed an
ingenious method of using the M13 virus to transmit strands of DNA
between cells. (See: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram.) In short, all of the building blocks of a biological computer are now in place.
This
isn’t to say that highly functional biological computers will arrive in
short order, but we should certainly begin to see simple biological
sensors that measure and record changes in a cell’s environment.
Stanford has contributed the BIL gate design to the public domain, which
should allow other research institutes, such as Harvard’s Wyss
Institute, to also begin work on the first biological computer. (See: The quest for the $1000 genome.)
Moving
forward, though, the potential for real biological computers is
immense. We are essentially talking about fully-functional computers
that can sense their surroundings, and then manipulate their host cells
into doing just about anything. Biological computers might be used as an
early-warning system for disease, or simply as a diagnostic tool (has
the patient consumed excess amounts of sugar, even after the doctor told
them not to?) Biological computers could tell their host cells to stop
producing insulin, to pump out more adrenaline, to reproduce some
healthy cells to combat disease, or to stop reproducing if cancer is
detected. Biological computers will probably obviate the use of many
pharmaceutical drugs.
|
NYC Mayor Bloomberg: Government has right to 'infringe on your freedom'
New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Sunday: Sometimes government
does know best. And in those cases, Americans should just cede their
rights.
"I
do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom,"
Mr. Bloomberg said, during an appearance on NBC. He made the statement
during discussion of his soda ban — just shot down by the courts — and
insistence that his fight to control sugary drink portion sizes in the
city would go forth.
"We
think the judge was just clearly wrong on this," he said, on NBC. "Our
Department of Health has the legal ability to do this. ... [They're] not
banning anything."
Mr.
Bloomberg's remaining months in office have included a firestorm of
regulations and policy pushes on wide range of issues. Aside from the
soda size ban and a well-publicized call for tighter gun control,
another contentious policy he pushed: Nudging hospitals to lock up baby
formula to force mothers to breast-feed newborns.
|
A
lot of parents worry when their kids first start taking the school bus
by themselves. What if they’re snatched from the bus stop? What if they
get off at the wrong stop? What if the bus is hijacked? Well,
while the Kidtrack system can’t keep any of those things from happening,
it can at least keep track of which children are on which buses, and
where.
Kidtrack
was developed through a collaboration between Fujitsu Frontech North
America, and IT/logistics company T&W Operations.
When kids board or depart a Kidtrack-equipped bus, they take one second to scan their palm across one of Fujitsu’s biometric PalmSecure
readers. The urethane-sealed device is “about the size of an ice cube,”
and uses infrared light to image the unique vein pattern of their palm.
It then establishes their identity by cross-referencing that pattern
against a secure database of pre-registered users’ patterns. The
illumination of a green or red LED lets the driver and passenger know
whether or not the scan worked.
Initial
registration reportedly takes less than one minute, and none of the
scans require users to actually touch the device – so there’s no chance
of getting cooties.
Once
a boarding or departing rider’s palm has been scanned, that data is
sent to a cloud-based server. Should that child go missing, authorized
administrators can check the Kicktrack website to see when, where and if
they did indeed catch the bus, where the bus is at the moment, along
with when and where they got off. If the bus is in an accident, the
system can be used to instantly provide a list of all passengers aboard
at the time.
Data is also stored locally with the reader, in case it can’t access the cloud – a definite possibility in rural areas.
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment