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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."
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.
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.
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 ?
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!
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?).
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 enlisted in the U.S. Army just before the 1st Gulf War and because of that had to go through more NBC training than most recruits. We learned how to donn our protective gear, decontaminate ourselves (including how to decontaminate your buddie's ass after he uses the latrine), and give ourselves injections against neurotoxins. But, privately, the Sergeants doing the training would tell you that NBC weapons are like lightning. You're either hit or you're not, and there's not a whole helluva lot you can do if you are, except kiss your ass goodbye. If you're going into an area that's been affected, then your MOPP gear does some good. Otherwise, they said, it's mostly there to give you courage and keep you from sneaking out the back way. And that's what this news is about. If you hear the sirens go off, you're okay. If you don't hear the sirens go off, you're either okay, or you're dead. So the information doesn't do you much good. It doesn't do the civil authorities a lot of good either. When the dead people start piling up and nobody can get anybody to answer a phone in NYC, it will eventually dawn on people what happened. Like so much post-911 action, this is like a doctor giving you a placebo to hide the fact that he either doesn't have a clue what's wrong or that he knows but can't fix it and doesn't want to fess up. Or maybe he's worried that you'll think the cure is worse than the disease.
CBN? That'd have to be the CowboyNeal threat.
Gotta watchout for that one.
Why aren't you encrypting your e-mail?
I have to post this as AC because the american audience here will murder my karma! American christian fundamentalists have the same insane beliefs, and bloodlust for infidels. As do Israeli Jewish fundamentalists. The only difference is that Islamic militaries are considered terrorists by americans, and american and israeli terrorists are considered millitaries by americans. It is all perspective. And yes Israeli soldiers and American soldiers quite often kill civillians without apology. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not defending terrorist actions(on any side) , I am quite against all these warlard puritans and zealots.
Funny that you don't see attacks against other countries who have similar beliefs to America, i.e. Canada.
A lot of recent terrorist activities have been targetted at one country and one country alone. The United States. What is so different about their beliefs from those of others that has put them under the proverbial microscope?
In C++, friends can touch each others private parts.
The worst and third worst terrorist attacks in recent American history were carried out by radical Islamic fundamentalists, yes. The second and fourth worst ... well, I don't think Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph had spent much time listening to the imams. Pretty much all fundamentalism is bad, mmmkay?
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
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++;
}
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
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.
I didn't realize that abortion clinic bombings were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists. Did they also organize the Oklahoma City bombing?
Terrorists come in all shapes, sizes, and colors (the purple ones are tasty). Unless that is recognized and dealt with this so called "War on Terrorism" is going to be just another buzzword-laden travesty of what it should be, much like the "War on Drugs".
It is very important to understand the cause of the problem so that in trying to solve it, we dont create a larger one. My gut feeling based on my reading is that, unfortunately, the seeds of a larger problem have already been planted.