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Department of Defense Gadget Show
blackp writes "DefenseLINK has an article about Force Protection Equipment Demonstration IV. This year they had over 2,600 gadget and equipment for defense and government agencies. The list includes kevlar suits, body heat camo, a RoBoCop Suit, even biometric identification. Some pictures are available, although somewhat limited. This show seems perfect for the geek with a big budget." Or the government with a big budget. Still, some neat things on display.
Does that mean the first one will be really good, but the second and third one would be shit?
Fist Sport!
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
Damn, I thought, a RoboCop suit already! Wow! Then I read:
Ugh... yeah. That's cool. Damn impressive even... but ROBOCOP?!? These guys obviously didn't watch the movie... :-)
This year's one day seminar on Integrating Speech Technology in Language Learning has been cancelled. The InSTIL seminar was all that had been left of what was once a funded U.S. research program to use speech recognition to help people learn to read. However, over the past few years the budget of the Interagency Educational Research Initiative has been slashed and the Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnership program has been ZEROED. The IERI and LAAP programs were created to deal with DARPA funding deficencies, but DARPA has not taken up the slack for speech recognition in language instruction. Fewer U.S. polyglots will have a far greater impact on intelligence-gathering efforts than bandaids like Project Babylon or any of the DARPA advanced speech recognition programs can possibly provide. Please join me in asking John Poindexter and his advisory board and NIST to help get this vital funding back in the budget.
Also, the Linguistic Data Consortium sent their catalog update out yesterday. As usual, there are no new corpi of people attempting to read a language as they are acquiring it, at any age.
paging mister gates, blue light special...
Is it just me or does it seem like the same technology year after year. It gets refined a bit but I don't think that we get the fruits of any new ideas.
Brought to you by the Artificial Idea Factory.
Check out the power point presentation:
Pigeons
Pigeons will be available on a first come first served basis in the Hangers.
Plastic sheeting will be available to vendors in the hanger areas.
Shooting of pigeons, even with non-lethal weapons, is not allowed.
and of course...
Marines at the FPED are not an on-site Labor Force. Attempting to use them as such is at your own risk
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
Luckily they're just misusing the term to refer to a bomb squad blast armor that's also a biological/chemical suit. Nothing really new, just the combination of two old technologies.
Now, when they take that same suit, add in hydraulic strength multipliers and an advanced HUD, I'll be worried. Unless I get there first.
...is an ED-209. Sure it has a little problem with stairs, but I'm confident they'll lick that in the next revision. Plus it's got enough firepower to blast a RoboCop into itty bitty pieces! :)
"What about Kenny?"
*shrug* "That's life in the big city."
CowboyNeal writes:
"Some pictures are available, although somewhat limited..."
You could say that. There is one picture of a treaded robot/tank, a picture of a girl with a standard ATM-ish card reader and finally, to really show off the state-of-the-art, a picture of a guy with a dog.
My
Limekiller
2,600 gadgets ? I didn't know there were that many new boxes, phone phreak tools and kiddie scripts out there! I need to get back on IRC and USENET to see what I am missing :(
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
[quote]For example, one company, Med-Eng Systems, Inc., showed off its "RoBoCop"-like suit made of thick layers of Kevlar for protection against heat, flames, blast fragmentation and impact. It weighs about 40 pounds and comes with a special undergarment, boots and gloves to protect wearers against chemical, biological and radiological exposure.
...as far as i can tell it's just really good at taking abuse
"It's an all-in-one," said Danny Crossman, product line manager for blast systems, explained. And another company representative, technical adviser Ray James, added, "It's the only bomb suit in the world that integrates adequate protection against a explosive device with biological and chemical protection." [/quote]
how can they call it a RoboCop suit with a clear conscience, given that this thing kicks absolutely NO ass?
RoboSufferer jacket... RoboMartyr overcoat maybe.
FFS guys, your .mil just took over an entire contry in a month... do you realy think it needs more power?
You have apparently missed Rule 1 of warfare:
There is no such thing as a fair fight.
Well, you missed Rule 2 also:
Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
Well, maybe Rule 3 also:
If the enemy is in shooting range you are too.
(modified by asymetric Artillery advantages and close air support)
Well, Rule 4 too . . .
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Couldn't they just mod an AIBO to do that job? Especially for the Bunker Buster job: Strap some C4 to it, "Woof! Woof! Time to die.. BOOM!" (Okay, I'm joking about the AIBO, but haven't we seen oodles of home robot Slashdot articles in the last couple of months that could probably do the job for less, and be controlled by a cell phone?)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
From the story, in the section on sandbags: ... said, "can be used for flood-fighting, terrorist activities or any type of security situation."
Al Arellanes
Is he supplying terrorists with advanced weapons of mass sandbagging?
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
Those 80's movies were ahead of it's time!!
My company was there this year and a couple years ago (we do risk management software). The show is quite interesting because it's a good mix of technologies, from Jersey barriers to bullet-proof glass to software. It's also not just a cheesy trade show, but some serious display by both commercial companies and Gov't agencies. The site for the show is here.
The coolest technology was a compressed-air powered bullet for training. Police and military can use their service weapons to basically play paintball. It's nice because the feel of the weapon is exactly what it would be in real-life situations instead of them having to use a fake training weapon with different characteristics.
--- witty signature
Oh, yeah... a perfect world with no weapons... and then the first wacko who enjoys destroying and hurting people (and those always get born, it's human nature) goes around and due to total defenselessness of the rest of the environment, at best hurts a LOT of people, or at worst, if he's power hungry, takes over. Oh, and since you can't ban sticks and stones, then if he is physically stronger, he would have the sme advantage over the rest of the people as any armed human over less armed one. GREAT. Scratch that attempt at utopia.
See, humans come in all forms and shapes. Some are born power hungry. Some evil. Some both. Unless you are protected from them, you are the next victim.
The only difference between "pacifists" and "peace-loving people", and those who are "warmongering" and "hawkish", is that the latter are ready to protect themselves and their society from those who would attack it.
The former come in two categories - those who simply don't get the real world and think everyone else is 100% peaceful and harmless as a daisy, and those who aren't that naive, but are cynical enough to let the "hawkish" to protect them and their family while acting all nice and dovish and "better than the warmongers".
-DVK
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
... after you attend, they have to kill you.
-pyrrho
Considering the U.S.'s behaviour, don't you think the so called Department of "Defense" should consider a name change?
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
If ridiculous platitudes were all it took to keep the peace, we wouldn't have anything to worry about, I guess.
Are Murphy's Laws of Combat trite aphorisms? Sure. But that doesn't mean that they don't contain some important nuggets of truth.
For example, the statement that "there's no such thing as a fair fight" is paramount in U.S. warfighting doctrine and has been for some time. The only thing that a soldier, sailor, or airman cares about as much as accomplishing the mission is bringing himself and his unit home as intact as possible. War is by nature a risky business, but the fewer casualties that our soldiers and allied forces incur, the better.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think any sane individual wants to see civilians hurt, but soldiers in the opposing military knew what they were getting into when they decided to mess with Uncle. Besides, the faster and more efficiently we can decimate a country's military command-and-control structure, the faster we can restore peace and stability.
They that would sacrifice their
Funny how nobody ever brings up China or the Soviet Union in these discussions. Or Cuba, which doesn't even need a defense force. These nations routinely spent 40% or more of their entire economies on defense spending, and let their people starve as a result. Oh, but the U.S. spends 4%, and we need to cut it in order to nourish people who hate us. That's just peachy.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
The pigeon slide was a great find. The first item, "Pigeons will be available on a first come first served basis in the Hangers." is great, military humor. Notice it only says you can't shoot them -- even with a stun gun. That's what the plastic sheeting is for. Create a plastic net and "shoo" them out (non-lethal arms merchants) or snare them and make a nice soup.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
so... let's see... if we have HALF of the current US defence budget to spend on feeding people... we could feed... let's see... 4.056 BILLION people...
You mean well, but are naive. We can feed them now, but what about in the decades to come when these 'saved' people have children and so on. Or will the food come with strings attached that require population control and cultural changes? Or will it just be laced with contraceptives? Your proposed solution merely delays things; it sets the stage for an even greater human catastrophe in the not-so-distant future.
Get over the idea that throwing money at a problem will solve it. That's failed many times. Hunger will be with us until people's behaviors and attitudes change (zero or negative population growth in some 'western' nations). Or until people live under repressive regimes that force change (China).
Never get involved in a land war in Asia? Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line?
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
...I know because I've gone to it before. I went while I was stationed at Quantico. They hold every year at the airfield (home to HMX-1, the President's helo pilots and the only experimental helo squadron in the Marine Corps, thus the "X" in their name).
To understand the purpose of the show, you need a little context about what happens at Quantico. It's the home to all Marine Corps doctrine, experimentation, and development. Yes, those may be done in other places, but the commands that control them are all in Quantico. It is also home to the FBI and DEA Academies. Many of the other services have similar setups around the D.C. area. So, Quantico is the ideal location for this sort of thing.
The show's purpose is to let the people who make R&D and purchasing decisions to see what's coming down the pipeline from various companies. Some are things that companies would like to see the military or law enforcement test (and eventually adopt) others are things that are in the military pipeline for deployment and are being showcased. The show let someone see a new product and decide that it is something they'd like to test. They can then acquire some, give them a whirl, and recommend the product if they like it. It also lets you see what's crap. I remeber a Tawainese company that was making a futuristic rifle and had it at the show. The thing looked freaking awesome, until you picked it up. It was heavy as hell & shoddily made ("Should the upper reciever be rattling on this thing?" "Ah yes - that is because our rifle is so flexible!").
In many ways it's very much like a computer trade show. You wander around & hear the sales pitch, try things out, and get lots of free crap. Except instead of getting a hard-on looking at IBM's newest server line, you get the hard-on playing with H&K's newest sidearm.