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Sensor Networks for NBC Threats
Nerdsville writes "Planet Analog have an article describing research into a nationwide sensor network that could provide a real-time early-warning system for chemical, biological and nuclear threats across the US.
Researchers plan to use microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology to create accurate biological and chemical sensors. Linked in an Internet-like peer-to-peer network spanning wireless, wired and satellite links."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Like that godawful Will and Grace show?
A P2P network eh? Now what are the xxAA going to bash, when they can't claim P2P is evil?
we come in peace / shoot to kill
is that Friends will continue for many, many years.
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
Nukes give out a big flash of light which will tell you when they've hit. You should then remember to duck and cover. The mushroom cloud should help to warn those outside the range of the flash.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
I read the headline and thought, "Hmmm... So they're going to sensor CBS and ABC for threats against NBC. Or maybe they'll be sensoring NBC for threats against the others."
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
Wow. CBS and ABC are gonna be all over this one...
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
What about invisible chemical, biological and nuclear threats across Irak? :)
If this "nationwide sensor network" ready for Saddam's furtive weapons?
If it could warn us when NBC is about to put on one of its cheesy shows it would be worth it.
a real-time early-warning system for chemical, biological and nuclear threats
Next time they should order the words the same as in the acronym (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) so those of us who are not terrorism experts can stop wondering why the peacock network poses such a threat to our well being.
I'd like a sensor that sniffs the RIAA and update me via MSN!!
-
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Don't you mean "Planet Analog has an article..."?
I don't care if you Brits sometimes word things like that, it still looks and sounds wrong.
That's like "lift" instead of "elevator"... WTF is up with that??
Must-See threats!
* Please do not read my signature.
it doesn't work. it's more of a powerpoint idea. best and worst thing about government work.. you don't ever have to do anything.
No, Planet Analog has an article
It seems to me that a terrorist could use this system to cause panic without ever using the agents on a large scale. They could just get some agents to deploy a very small amount at different sensors they identified throughout a metro area and that would cause enough panic to disrupt what they want to disrupt.
How do they plan on concealing this?
Terrorist will use use something else that governments aren't looking for. For example the US was ready for an invasion by planes missiles etc... but on Sept. 11, the terrorists used something nobody expected.
I think the different governments should spend more money on trying to understand the causes of terrorism, and try to eliminate it at the source (which one could argue they already do with the war on terrorism).
You'll notice the article only mentions airborne threat... What about water ?
Its called English because it is a language from England. You're the ones who are wrong, so get over it. If your educations system was any better, you'd never have started spelling "through" "Thru" and calling things like lifts the wrong name.
CBRN
t -really-means-afterwards department, aka the LNMUANAAFWIRMA dept.
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear.
From the let's-not-make-up-a-new-acronym-and-forget-what-i
I can see it now: the 10 o'clock news reports that we've had the 3rd false nuclear threat, as sensors read a 69.69% jump in radiation levels at 4:20 this afternoon.... yeah, right!
stuff |
If it could warn us when NBC is about to put on one of its cheesy shows it would be worth it.
That's already done -- the network has agreed to limit crappy shows, they now will only air on days ending in "y"
--
When I first saw this I thought it might having something to do with protecting us from more Reality shows ....
Maybe not.
The Anti-Blog
For some reason, I read the title as Censor NBC Networks for Threat
Like you wanted us to censor the NBC TV network and then blackmail them or something.
It's... News for Nerds! Stuff that Matters! La-de-da-de-da-DE-da!
No shit. As they're ordered now it would be CBN, and then we'd have to weather a storm of jokes about Christian Broadcasting Network instead of the current storm of jokes about National Broadcast Corporation.
From what I've learned a long time ago in the army one of the biggest issues with NBC is that even if you get an alert in a lot of cases you're just in time to let people know they should have put on their suit and masks allready.
So I wonder what a network like that could contribute.
(I say I'm wondering, not that it can't be done... Any suggestions?).
Where will American paranoia stop?
Probably when government funding will.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
I can see it now: thousands of people fleeing the subway when a sensor trips because someone lit up a cigarette underneath one. Now every ignores it when a real NBC attack comes around, just like the tsunami early warning systems in the pacific.
This IS a gov't project, and this one is only getting funding because of people who watch the news too much and are becoming exactly what terrorists want: afraid.
Also, politicians are aching to to jump on the "spend money on homeland security" bandwagon. 2004 is just around the corner . .
-n
i keep hearing about stuff like this since 9/11. has anyone actually seen some interesting new sensors, or is it all hype ?
I know I'm going to start a holy war here (quite literally, too!) but we already know the cause here is radical Islamic fundamentalism.
Now before you all jump down my throats, let's look at the facts.
Radical Islamic fundamentalists believe that anyone who does not worship as they do are infidels, and therefore are legitimate targets of Jihad. A fundamentalist does not distinguish between "civilian" and "military" targets; they see only "enemy".
Say all that you want about American involvement in the Middle East, especially in Israel. It all comes down to the basic belief by these fundamentalists that those who are different from themselves should either convert or die.
I'm not going to pretend to know how to end this destructive mentality. I will submit, however, that the problem has been sufficiently identified.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Would it kill you to explain an abbreviation that most people are unfamiliar with?
That reminds me of the "GSW" (Gun Shot Wound) that doctors use. Guess which one takes longer to say (more syllables)?
Stop clinging to acronyms as esoteric bravado.
Acutally, the alarm will go off when "Friends" actually returns to being a watchable show. Don't worry, it will never happen...
Political correctness is the newest form of slavery.
How much is it going to cost? How many attacks have there been in the US since 9/11? None. Nada. Zip.
While the Federal government spends billions of dollars on anti-terrorism, homeland security, tax-cuts-for-the-rich (TM) and un-necessary wars, ordinary people are losing their jobs, have no decent health care and are suffering for inadequate funding of schools. This is progrsss?
CBN? That'd have to be the CowboyNeal threat.
Gotta watchout for that one.
Why aren't you encrypting your e-mail?
I am no way suggesting that all Muslims believe as these fundamentalists do. This is a relatively small (compared to the number of Muslims worldwide) but very vocal and active group of people I am talking about here.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
No wonder there are so many responses that are joking about the NBC television network. What does NBC mean here? I thought I knew acronyms, but not this one.
While NBC is in the title, it is not in the story description, nor is it in the actual article. I'm guessing it is Nuclear something, but I do not know.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I think you may have more problems than H1B visas buddy, it's "War on Terror" and "terror attacks". Although, I guess every war fought thus far has been a war on terra...
Getting fucked with a strap on. It doesn't involve another man, therefore it's not homosexual which means it's NOT gay. Now with that said, would you like me to clean your cock with my mouth? Now that the sodomy laws have been stricken, it's possible for me to do this in any state without being worried about breaking the law. Yay!!! I can be gay without being illegal! Finally, normal gay sex is legal everywhere! :)
If you're going to freenet troll, why not link to some Vampire Paedophelia?
Sure, create a lot of warning systems and defence systems. Everyone feels safe.
Than continue with stupid foreign policy.
Everybody happy, including the no-brainers in politics.
" Sure, create a lot of warning systems and defence systems. Everyone feels safe."
There are no defence systems in this country, except for de fence who tries to sell you de stolen goods.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I mean, he'd carry in nuclear, bilogical, and chemical weapons in to the studio in his pants every day. When the pants came off, the sensors went wild.
Now, of course he causes problems with the CBS sensors. His Cardiac Bypass Shunt cause all kinds of problems.
Aren't acronyms fun?
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
Not scared? You should be.
If I only had mod points I'd make sure that ALL YOUR "NATIONAL BROADCAST COMPANY" COMMENTS ARE REDUNDANT.
Truth be told, I'm just jealous that I was beaten to the punch.
On /. CBN is CowboyNeal.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
out the analog
...NBC are innofensive compared to MSNBC!
Read this and use your common sense and don't panic.
"George W. Bush: Too stupid to know any better."
He's smart enough to know better than you.
chemical, biological and nuclear
The way they've got it written it acronyms out to CBN threats, which to me reads CowBoy Neal Threats. this is scary stuff man.
As September 11 2000 showed us, the most effective way of killing people is large and obvious amounts of energy (kinetic, potential, chemical). The NBC available to terrorists - dirty rather than fission, agents that can effect only a small area and number of people - are minor in comparison. Their primary effect is to create panic out of proportion to the actual effect.
Sure, release Sarin in a subway station, you'll kill some people. But have a detector that screams "Sarin attack! Sarin attack!" and you'll kill just as many, perhaps more, in the stampede to get out.
And if it turns out that the sensor was triggered by a new type of cologne? Well, we've just done the terrorists' job for them.
As a further thought, how do you field test these things? Test them in the lab with real agents, sure. Test them in the field with harmless agents that produce the same effect (and hope that nobody finds out what those are), but how do you know with any confidence that you can actually detect a genuine attack in the field? False positives in a military situation aren't so bad - all that will happen is that the grunts will turn on the overpressure systems or put on their NBC suits, but in a civilian situation? We've seen what happens when large numbers of people panic in a small area. Deploying these in cities seems to me like a big gamble to take, for little potential reward, when the costs of false positives are so high.
I'm not suggesting that we do nothing, but I am suggesting that reaction (which includes "preemptive strikes" against people that already hate us) isn't the way to go. Perhaps we could devote some of this energy to dealing with the causes of terrorism rather than the symptoms.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Having just seen Terminator 3, this almost gives me the creeps!
While the Federal government spends billions of dollars on..."tax-cuts-for-the-rich (TM)"
First, it should be pointed out that the rich are a minority of those who get fair and proportional tax cuts under the Bush plan.
Second, it is a lie to say that the government has spent any money at all on these tax cuts. It is not the government's money to spend.
Is it "spending" by the mugger if he fails to swipe the $20 you have in your pocket?
While NBC is in the title, it is not in the story description...
Oh, no?
"...chemical, biological and nuclear threats..."
Nuclear
Biological
Chemical
Just because the words are out of order, that completely throws you for a loop? Have you ever returned a bag of M&Ms as "defective" because half of the candies said "W" on them?
If it could warn us when NBC is about to put on one of its cheesy shows it would be worth it.
:)
Agreed. If only there were some kind of publication available at newsstands that could give out this kind of information. *cough*cough*.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Linked in an Internet-like peer-to-peer network
Watch out! The RIAA will undoubtedly try to shut it down.
"No - YOU look at the facts, and history, you little shit. Start with Chomsky."
If you want to know what has happened or is happening, Chomsky is the last place to start (except when it comes to linguistics). His writings on other subject are blissfully fact-free, as he relies on his own bigotry, racism, ignorance, and talent for fiction.
"Come back when you understand why he believes the US is the worlds leading terrorist state."
He believes things that aren't true because he loves to make stuff up. (The US is in fact the leading anti-terrorist state. Chomsky loves genocideal terrorists from Ortega to Pol Pot to Ho, so no wonder he hates the US)
The man is so deluded and out of touch that he can't deal with the fact that hardly anyone believes him, so he writes books and essays making up silly conspiracies which strive to keep him down.
"Why not check out the US funding of Isreal for starters"
You are probably a Nazi like Chomsky who wants the people there wiped out.
" Then perhaps check out it's interventions in central America."
Yes, where the US successfully helped the countries get rid of Soviet invaders.
"Perhaps you could then nip over to Vietnam"
Chomsky is one of those guys who supported the Hanoi regime, and he also supported Pol Pot next door. Call him Professor Killing Fields.
"Next stop - Afghanistan, and the phony cold war against the Russians."
For something that was "phony", it sure had a lot of participants. What next, WW 2 never happened either?
... is to spread terror. I think you are right, it could be used to spread terror and fear, which is exactly the object of terrorism (as I see it)...
I know it's offtopic, but things are running 80% offtopic so far...members of the NBC network. And this is before the recent deregulation that one of the FCC's own condemns. (pdf)
Good job, sir! I am a huge fan, well maybe just a fan with a big ass, any ways I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. You may also include me in any email lists you may run. I will not forward it automatically to deleted items, I promise.
In conclussion, keep up the good work!
Hugs and kisses,
BAS
PS - just realized I had subconsciencely co-opted Juan E.'s sig line up there... oh well, originality is for teh sux!
Proof of the gay-linux conspiracy!
What specifically happened on September 11th in the year 2000?
I know something really big happened one year later on Sept 11 2001, but I'm not aware of what happened in 2000
I hope these devices aren't just sitting out on the internet, but that the government sets up a seperate secure network for all the sensors.
The last thing we need is some [dipshit|terrorist|*] cracking the network and causing mayhem by tricking the system into thinking there are attacks all over the place.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
I work at the Labs, right down the hall from these guys. I play soccer with a man named Panos Datskos. He recently finished building a cantilever based electronic nose that has the potential to detect a single molecule. Datskos is working on a "universal" sensor that shares many of the same processes of a gas chromatograph to identify any substance. As described in the article, it uses very basic technology (a CD laser). It's also very compact, the size and shape of a discman. The coolest thing about the technology is that it functions in the ambient environment. It does not, like most laboratory equipment, require a vacuum, extreme temperatures, or special shock absorbance to reduce vibration. This is the kind of device that they'll be deploying to airports, I believe.
while (!sleep){
sheep++;
}
"I know I'm going to start a holy war here (quite literally, too!) but we already know the cause here is radical Islamic fundamentalism."
Yes, you know what you are talking about.
The cause is not any of the following:
- US support for Israel? These people hate Jews and Americans no matter where they are.
- The poverty of the third world? The terrorists are largely rich. (Osama and the Taliban strove to greatly increase poverty and despair in Afghanistan when they had the chance: no friends of the poor are they).
- US foreign policy? Osama just makes stuff up: at once point he raved about the US having attacked countries with H-bombs.
Yes, the root cause of these problems is a particularly genocidal, intolerant, and imperialist brand of Islam.
Based on this story
right here, this would be illegal since its P2P.
Jerks.
This space for rent.
I agree. However, being fucked with a strap-on BY A MAN is definitively more gay than receiving a blowjob from him.
You are probably a Nazi like Chomsky who wants the people there wiped out.
I'll leave the call of Godwins law to someone else, but this is exactly the sort of attitude which is unhelpful. Criticising Isreal or the U.S support of Isreal is just right out, because that must mean you don't like Jews, and if you don't like Jews you must be a Nazi, and what did the poor Jews ever do to you, you monster? No one can ever have an actual discussion conerning Isreal because of it, and Isreal and the U.S can carry on as they have before.
Disregarding the argument of wether Isreal should or should not exist, whatever. Isreal does exist already, so the point is immaterial. The problem lies in Isreals treatment of Palestinians and the U.S' continued support of Isreal policies which have proved ineffective. Even the U.S is now begining to realise that the current situation cannot go on, and that Isreal needs to get its act together with Palistian; hence The Roadmap. Its a good start, but it isn't going to work if we still have idiots who insist on interupting every debate regarding Isreal with accusations of anti-Semitism.
"Al-Qeada/Hammas/Islamic Jihad/etc... are not killing us to make us afraid. They want their fucking property back."
No, they want to steal property from others.
"I'll leave the call of Godwins law to someone else"
You were the one who brought it on with antisemitic statements. Hatred of Israel and its people is rooted in antisemitism.
"Even the U.S is now begining to realise that the current situation cannot go on, and that Isreal needs to get its act together with Palistian;"
Israel is not the problem, everyone knows that. It was forced to "occupy" these territories after being attacked from them, and there is no way it can leave until the aggression from within them stops.
Go ahead and ignore the rest of the post you are replying to: the facts stand undisputed.
I found some photos of the devices.
--Just the place for a snark!
Two things - first, a decent sensor device made to detect specific things (like sarin, soman, etc, which are all chemically similar) won't be tripping on a cigarette. Pattern won't match.
Second, that's the advantage of having a network - in addition to spacial information, you get redundancy. If there are a few sensors in the area, they can back each other up.
Sensor networks like these are getting better all the time. Unfortunately, too often the scientists/engineers making them spend too much time creating the device and not enough time on the back-end signal processing that provides error correction and greater accuracy, not to mention false-positive protection.
Put it this way - if I made a sensor network, it would not confuse a cigarette for a threat. And hopefully, the people making this one work similarly.
Also, I was interested by something in the article:
The goal for all the government efforts, perhaps three to five years out, is to deploy a highly accurate yet low-cost network of sensors "that in a couple of minutes could tell you if an agent is present, in what concentration and something about the agent. But the technology for that doesn't really exist yet."
Yes it does. We can do it now. :P So it remains to be seen whether what is deployed is really state-of-the-art (or even state of 5 years ago, really).
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Monkeypox, Sars, Nuclear, Biological, Chemical.
False.
From Oh Lucy! - You Gotta Lotta 'Splainin To Do by From the Wilderness From http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/AVE_STE.htmlIt is beyond dispute now that Bush lied when he said the government had no idea this could happen. They had plenty of idea. This kind of idea had been speculated about for years.
Female Prison Rape in NY
Christian Broadcasting Network
Is that the Al Jazeera of the U.S.?
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
You want to know what the next terrorist will be like? Read up about the DC sniper case a few months back. Now imagine 20 snipers armed with rifles, and RPGs fanning out accross the nation. Yeah, eventually they'll be found and shot (martyred), but the terror it would cause both before and after (how do you know there aren't more?) would be immeasurable. How can you prevent it from happening? Well you can't, but that won't stop your leaders from turning the US into a police state because of it.
n.
A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.
A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.
"It is clear to everyone that Isreal must change its policies and start working towards real peace."
The real reason that there is a chance for peace now is that the current Palestinian leadership does not see everything as a means to the extermination of the Israelis. Arafat always did.
Israel has held the same basic line for
Did you know that the the Japanese term "kamikazi" means " divine wind "?
" It is beyond dispute now that Bush lied when he said the government had no idea this could happen."
There is no evidence that he has lied about anything.
Assuming that the material you present from a conspiracy-laden nutjob web site is true (it probably is not: there are many falsifications at ratical.org, such as the one it makes up about the Martin Luther King assassination): this ignores the fact that such warnings have been given frequently all over the place, it is like "Crying Wolf", there was no way to tell which was real.
Sure, the government had such warnings. It has had warnings about this and a wide variety of attacks and incidents that have not happened.
Heh heh, I'm from Ohio and CBN makes me think Canadian Broadcasting Network.
It sounds like a movie I saw:
Censor Networks target CBN threat. Bigger, Longer and Uncut.
(Blame Canada!)
In this country , CBN stands for Christian broadcasting network, you hoser!
Researchers plan to use microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology to create accurate biological and chemical sensors. Linked in an Internet-like peer-to-peer network spanning wireless, wired and satellite links.
Sadly, though. If ever we are attacked the first thing that will happen is that the creators of these "P2P networks" will be sent to jail as these nanobots illegally load data to the P2P networks.
"Wired news has an article about a new bill that would make it a felony to upload a file to a P2P network."
Does this strike anyone else as "Skynet" in the making?
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
This makes me wonder what they have against Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network.
Israel is NOT spelled "Isreal"!
Exactly what is the purprose of the "Flamebait" moderation? Is it to hide posts that are intended simply to get people mad and produce predictable responses? That's already covered by the "Troll" moderation.
So the only conclusion I can come to is that the purpose of the "Flamebait" moderation is to hide posts that moderators simply disagree with. Might I remind you that silencing opinions that differ from the majority is the very difinition of fascism.
Whether you disagree with me or not, I think it's fair to say my post generated a genuinely positive discussion, not simply flame.
I thank those who chose to engage me in an honest debate. To those who anonymously (and cowardly, I might add) sought instead to silence my dissenting opinion, shame on you!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
"Might I remind you that silencing opinions that differ from the majority is the very difinition of fascism."
Might I remind you that Slashdot is the publication of Slashdot's owners and their designated moderators. Anything they do here is an expression of free speech: they are controlling their own publication. It no more fascist for them to express the opinion that something gets modded down than it is for USA-Today to refuse to print a letter from someone who says flouridation is a Communist plot.
If you don't like this, you are free to start your own goldspiderdot.org moderated as you see fit.
Never confuse editorial control of your own publication (the heart of what the First Amendment is supposed to protect) with fascism or censorship.
The little 50's film from "Iron Giant" comes to mind...
Duck and Cover
Duck and Cover
Get under the bed with your sister and your brother
Duck and Cover
Duck and Cover
Kids who don't duck and cover will cease to be around
Of course this means we'll need MEMS to guard the MEMS, and MEMS to guard those MEMS, and MEMS to guard them, plus MEMS to guard those. You get the picture? At some point, somebody will still need to yell "LOOK OUT!"
Because if it's a peer-to-peer network and they upload a file, they'll be federal criminals!
AIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
-Pete
At first I thought this was a real time system to send out bleeps during TV shows. How come we do not have a system to warn us about:
Anthrax Birds Cancer ???
Underpants Panties Noams ??
Congressmen Businessmen Stupidity ??
or crazy rich people from Autrallia: FOX ?
Um... no parts? Kind funny isn't it? I mean considering that with a strap on there really aren't any parts. You know like "private parts". Hehehe... Good one. I wonder how come no one else has ever thought of this. I guess everyone else is too stupid. We're smart. :)
But that's not what the original question asked. It asked if it's more gay to get a blow job from a guy or get fucked in the ass with a strap-on by a woman.
if consciousness is a side effect of networked sensors, memory and processes to enhance functionality.. would it not be safe to assume that this could be an artificial intelligence experiment?
Affiliate "Networks" and "NBC," and read "Sensor" as "Censor," assuming that the government was trying to censor networks like NBC? (And was anyone else... not surprised?)
________________________________________________
suwain_2
.[insert Nanites MST3K reference here]
.[particulary insert Ned the Nanite reference here because he is Kute]
"If they hadn't been there in the first place..."
That's the real problem with you isn't it? That the Jews have been there in the first place, and they've been there for thousands of years. The only solution is the final solution, right?
"the existance of Israel - on land taken from other people - without being anti semitic"
Every country is built on land someone took from someone else long before.
"
" On this point you are incorrect. "
No, you are incorrect. Referring to more recent history, Israel took land which was owned by the distant British empire.
"I'm not interested in your criticisms of him as a person, simply his arguments. "
My criticism of him is of his arguments, which are quite nonfactual and delusional. Personal? He might be good to play tennis against, but who knows.
"but no-one who have done so have ever refuted a single fact."
You can't refute a fact that is not presented. However, it is easy to refute Chomksy's fiction. He lies about just about everything. One of the most disturbing is when he lied about Pol Pot.
It is easy to see why little of what he says makes sense: he twists everything to fit the ideology of Marxist economics/etc, which is itself invalid and is more of a religion than any sort of intellectual discipline.
So, would the feds' use of this network violate the new Conyers-Berman anti-P2P bill?
It might calm some people to know that such a system is in place to detect certain terror-inducing chemical attacks or bioweapons, but it may not actually detect anything.
I'd rather think that Ossama was a strategic master than someone taking all his ideas from the CIA. Some people just take the fun out of everything.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
So what does your system make of mass food poisioning from a popular Taco Bell bad bean batch in Manhatan? Would airborn botulism trigger anything? It would be a bad day to ride the subway, but an evacuation might be overkill.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
In the event of an actual nuclear attack, millions of sensors could cry out at once, "Duck and cover!" Ah yes, I feel better already.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Well if you reorder it as CBN you get the Christian Broadcast Network - and then you are theoretically trying to get early warning of Pat Robertson.
Speaking as someone who got a PhD from making chemical and biosensors, MEMS and nanotechnology are NOT needed for a proposal such as this... in fact they would probably increase the cost significantly.
No THAT's Fox News.
Actually, while we're making fun of CBN and Fox News, I'd like to point out that Al Jazeera is actually acknowledged as being pretty fair. Sure, it shows stories from an Arab, Middle-Eastern perspective, but the don't just lie or make things up, and it's not just a propaganda network. They've often reported truthful things even though it upset the Arab population. In fact, I'd almost say that Al-Jazeera is MORE fair than Fox News.
Fox News is known for being fair and balanced, especially in comparison with the left-wing media that dominates American television and the right-wing media that dominates AM radio.
I am surprised that the CIA, FBI, NSA and SPCA always get upset about NBC weapons. Why should a terrorist who is intent on killing huge amounts of people always have to think like a second rate hollywood scriptwriter? 19 Highjackers killled many people with box cutters, some flight training and a good portion of fanaticism. Timothy McVeigh killed more than a hundred people with a truckload of fertiliser, some easily available bomb manuals and training provided by your friendly US Army, incidentaly putting him in the same boat as Osama and co.
If someone fanatic enough to kill many people wants to do so, he doesn't need exotic weapons. All he needs is some fellow travellers and either readily available chemicals, such as Cyanide or some freely available rifles. If he wanted to bring down an airliner, him and his buddies would only have to take sufficient pot shots at a starting jumbo loaded with people and fuel.
Tackling the source of terrorism, and I don't mean bombing and invading foreign countries, would bring more that spending millions on high tech gadgetry that wouldn't detect any threat until it was too late anyway.
You guys are missing the most damning evidence of all: In 1994, a group of islamic terrorists tried the exact same stunt by attempting to crash an Air France 747 into the eiffel tower! They were only stopped because the pilot managed to persuade them that it was neccesary to stop for fuel, and the plane was stormed on the ground.
More info.
There already exists a (-1, Predictable) moderation in Slash; it's called (-1, Redundant). For more detailed information, please read my guide to moderation "reasons".
Will I retire or break 10K?
You were confused. Therefore, NBC TV has a case. In fact, I read somewhere that NBC had to threaten trademark action against CNN and Fox News in order to get them to switch from the "NBC" abbreviation to "WMD" for "weapons of mass destruction".
Will I retire or break 10K?
Good point, but I would say that the state-of-the-art is a damn sight better that 70's vintage stuff, though spoofing will always be a problem. Also, here we have the advantage of looking for truly foreign substances, like sarin. So people can put a bucket of piss next to the sensor all day, I can still smell sarin. And not many things smell like sarin. ;)
The point is that distributed, coherent, reliable sensor networks are in practice a lot harder to implement than theory would suggest.
Trust me, I know - I'm not dealing with tehory, but with practice. It certainly isn't easy, but by training the thing effectively and using some clever signal-processing techniques, false positives can be greatly reduced. Also, using a variety of very different sensors means that someone would have to spoof all the sensors - meaning that every sensor would have to believe the spoofing agent smelled like the target. For that to occur, they'd have to be almost identical. And there are VERY few nonlethal compounds that smell like sarin, and none of them occur naturally.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
What always amuses me about these fearmongering projects is that they're useless, and demonstrably so to the point of having been demonstrated.
One: these projects won't save lives; if the poison's been deployed, the 'early warning' isn't going to save those in the line of fir^H^H^H the mist. And as soon as those people drop, the authorities will have a clue something's up.
Two: bacteriological and chemical attacks are notoriously ineffective. The gas attacks in WWI show this, as do the acts of that cult in Japan (who tried on numerous occasions to use B/C's , but always failed miserably...except in one case, the subway, but that was an enclosed space) and even what 'Chemical Ali' supposedly did. Fact is that to do damage you need to drench the area and hope the weather helps you a lot. And even then fatalities is severly limited.
So what such a sensor net really is, is an attempt to gain some money from post 9/11 fears. FDR saw it coming when he warned of the military-industrial complex.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
How about a bell that rings any time one of our corporations, or their subsidiary government agencies, gives somebody one more reason to hate the US?
"God, root, what is difference?" - Pitr, userfriendly
You have it backwards: the agencies control the corporations (through a huge number of burdensome regulations, and overtaxation)
Yeah, I am in this business as well, but you can't deny that if you use sensitive enough radiation sensors, like NaI scintillators, that every propane truck that drives by (Radon) or any truck heavily covered with winter road salt (Potassium) will give you several sigmas over background.
Don't forget the medical uptakes. One I131 patient is enough to trip a good flat panel vehicular portal at 60 feet.
I don't know whether there's enough Po-210 in a cigarette to trip a small scintillator were you to smoke underneath it.
I won't even mention the challenges of preconcentration.
I think we will make these a LOT better, but it is going to take some time. A lot of us are working on it.
"One: these projects won't save lives; if the poison's been deployed..."
This may be true for chemical attacks, but for biological attacks such as smallpox, symptoms won't show up for days or weeks. Radiological and chemical detectors may give us advance warning before the bomb goes off.
"Two: bacteriological and chemical attacks are notoriously ineffective. "
To date, yes. However, the problem is essentially a mass transport problem, and rather easily solved in enclosed spaces. As for weaponizing anthrax to deliver via crop duster, we simply don't know what technologies are out there.
I am a researcher developing these bio sensor networks. They are highly sensitive and selective-we can detect single nucleotide mismatch. There are still may technical hurdles to overcome-it's quite difficult to crack an anthrax spore in the microscale. If research programs like this one are successful, sensor networks deployed in strategic locations-such as ventilation systems, etc-could detect pathogens before people were exposed.
Anthrax and smallpox are real threats today. In the future the possiblilty of engineered pathogens is even more daunting. This research is not some crass exploitation of people's 9/11 fears but a critical need within the US. Spare us your arrogance.
there not using W2k3 to run it or we're in big trouble.
"How much longer do I have to wait until you attempt to refute a single one of his facts?"
A very long time: Professor Chomsky hardly ever provides facts to refute when it comes to his writings about world affairs. He does, however, provide many lies which are easily refuted.
"You`ve invoked Godwins Law - I win the argument."
You brought it on first with your directly anti-semitic statements, including the recent implication that the root cause of the problem is the existence of Jews.
Regardless, "winning" an argument has nothing to do with whether or not the Godwin's law is invoked, or who invokes it.
Hitler and Nazi comparisons certainly are not out of place when someone proposes getting rid of huge numbers of Jews.
It's only less full of scum and scams then the Trinity Broadcast Network: "Send us $1000 and we will send you a pamphlet telling you what GOD will personally do to help your financial situation".
That's true, I think my job's a bit easier - when you're dealing with chemical agents, *nothing* will look like sarin to 20 different sensors. On the other hand, you're right, there's no way to distinguish between a real radiation source hundreds of yeards away vs. a cancer patient sitting on the source. Maybe if you have a network you can triangulate? Still tough.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Beware, you've committed a thoughtcrime and will soon be taken up by the Department of HS without notice or warning. Thanks you and remember, Big Brother is your friend.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
Only if it is a biohazard...
" That's because you're a jaded american fallen into the propaganda your gov't feeds you"
First, there is no such thing as "propaganda". It is just information. "Propaganda" is merely a pejorative used for information that some hold in contempt or would like censored.
Second, our government "feeds" us little. Unlike Canada, the UK, and other countries, our government-controlled media outlets are small and weak and watched or listened to by few.
"They just don't make war the focus of their country."
That is because Canada has relied on the United States to defend it, especially in the Cold War and now the war on terror.
"- US foreign policy? Osama just makes stuff up: at once point he raved about the US having attacked countries with H-bombs." You may want to study a little event called WWII"
You are the one who needs to study it. If you did, you will find that there was nothing called the H-Bomb involved in it at all. The H-Bomb was in fact invented in 1948, years after World War II ended.
I see the Usama is not the only guy who has no idea what he is talking about.
Wasn't it Atomic, Bio., Chem. before?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck