Writing in People’s Daily Online, Li Hongmei argues that the days of the U.S. employing carriers to project power into the western Pacific are numbered. Her article, “Carrier domineering mentality obsolete” suffers a bit in translation, yet offers a window into Chinese strategic thought. The basic point of the story […]
Yearly Archives: 2010
345 posts
On this day, December 30, 1905, former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg opened his garden gate. An explosion shattered the calm and mortally wounded Steunenberg. Steunenberg was targeted for his role in suppressing the violent 1899 miners’ strike in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. The Steunenberg assassination led to a no-holds-barred trial pitting […]
In 1955, a Sears Department store in Colorado Springs, CO misprinted Santa’s phone number so children calling for Santa accidentally reached the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline.” Colonel Harry Shoup, Director of Operations, had his staff track Santa by radar and provide updates to the children who […]
Some interesting new details are emerging on the Stuxnet virus and the damage it did to the Iranian nuclear program: Jerusalem Post – ‘Stuxnet virus set back Iran’s nuclear program by 2 years’ The Atlantic – Stuxnet? Bah, That’s Just the Beginning FoxNews.com – Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled […]
Previously, ÆtherCzar shared the story of the Lightsquared’s Skyterra-1 satellite with the 22m reflector antenna – largest ever deployed in space on a commercial satellite (Orbiting 22m Dish Antenna to Provide 4G Service). Then, the satellite suffered a glitch in which the reflector antenna only deployed 98%. Some sources indicated […]
Gawrker Media, parent of such sites as Gawker.com, Fleshbot [NSFW], Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, io9, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Gawker.tv, and Cityfile, was hacked over the weekend. As a result, their user files were compromised. Although the password file was encrypted, the encryption was particularly weak, and vulnerable to a brute force […]
Previously, ÆtherCzar noted that the effectiveness of full body scanners has been called into question. Liquid explosives and other organic contraband contrast poorly and are said to be difficult to spot. These reports were largely anecdotal, however. Good technical information on the performance of x-ray backscatter full-body scanners has been […]
A century-old concept may be the next big thing in military technology. General Atomics has developed and test fired a rail gun. The rail gun uses a 33 megajoule current impulse to accelerate a projectile at speeds up to Mach 8. Here’s a video of the test. This high-tech concept […]
Armig Kandoian received U.S. Patent 2,368,663 for his invention of the discone antenna in 1945. The basic idea behind a discone antenna is to drive a circular disk against a conical ground. Kandoian was motivated by the problem of trying to mount antennas to aircraft. In alternate embodiments, Kandoian showed […]
Previously, ÆtherCzar passed on the Air Force’s warning to service members to avoid geolocation services. The U.S. Army has the same concern. Here’s why. GPS equipped smart phones and digital cameras can “geotag” photos – embedding GPS coordinates in the image that tell precisely where and when the picture was […]
I’ve joined Joshua Zader, founder of AtlasSphere, as a co-blogger at the Atlas Shrugged Movie Blog. This is an unofficial fan-run web site focusing on news pertaining to Atlas Shrugged Part One, the soon to be released screen adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. I’ll primarily post Atlas Shrugged related […]
Some of the latest happenings in wireless, just in time for Wireless Wednesday: Steven J. Crowley’s always interesting Experimental License Updates. Why broadcasters need FM on cell phones – it’s all about the money. Hat Tip: Steven J. Crowley. Wireless guru Shayan Sanyal has a new blog. Check out the […]
Inertial tracking systems have an unfortunate tendency to slowly drift over time. University of Michigan Professor Johann Borenstein has developed a very effective solution to that problem. First, he places a MEMS sensor in a boot. With every step, the sensor is momentarily stationary, allowing drift to be completely reset. […]
Can you tell which is which at a glance? Even otherwise tech-savvy folks like those at Ars Technica sometimes get it wrong. Once you understand the physics, you can tell which kind of scanner produced which image, at a glance. Millimeter wave scans bounce very short wavelength radar signals off […]
A recruiter working for Raytheon requested that I pass along the following job posting. Interested in being their Chief System Engineer for Electronic Warfare? Then read on…
Still more sad news to pass on from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society… I am very sorry to tell you that we have lost another great person in the IEEE AP-S family. On December 1st, Dr. Carl Baum passed away. The doctors believe that a blood clot started in […]
Passing on some sad news from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society… Dr. Robert E. Collin passed away Monday night after a short fight with lung cancer. The funeral service will be at the DiCicco Funeral Home, 5975 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights, OH 44124, (440) 449-1818. Visitation 5-7pm, service at […]
Springwise reports on “Parksense,” an application created by Paris-based SmartGrains. The system uses networked in-ground sensors to alert drivers to open parking spots.
It’s been a busy month at ÆtherCzar, driven largely by interest in the soon to be released Atlas Shrugged movie and in full-body scanner technology and safety. The month began with a preview of John Aglialoro’s film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Part One of the planned trilogy is […]
In April, University of California, San Francisco scientists wrote Dr. John P. Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, expressing their concerns regarding X-ray backscatter scanners. Last month they received a detailed technical reply, posted on the FDA website November 8. One of the more egregious technical problems […]
Who needs cell phone towers? The largest communications antenna ever placed into orbit, a 22m (72ft) reflector, was launched from Kazahkstan a couple of weeks ago. It will relay signals for a new 4G-LTE mobile phone and data system for North America run by Lightsquared. (BBC News; RedOrbit)
Here’s one just for fun. Unfortunately modern microwaves employ a stirrer or agitator so you don’t see standing waves or resonance patterns. I find it remarkable how uniform the fields are. Hat Tip: Neatorama
Here are a few RTLS and wireless updates: UWB RTLS vendor Ubisense raised £5M to fund expansion. And 50 Ubisense tags are available on eBay with a starting bid of $9.99. Another UWB RTLS vendor, decaWave, was honored for “best technology development” at a tradeshow. It’s Nearly Time for Near-Field […]
Here are a few Thanksgiving day updates on full-body scanners: See My Helical Tryst: TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife for an in depth analysis from a biochemist on the radiation dose from x-ray backscatter scanners. He reiterates the critical point that safety […]