Laser Turrets: The (Extremely) Hot New War Plane Accessory

After war planes switched out manned guns in favor of missiles, the classic "gun turret" on fighting aircraft was expunged from the design.  Now, Lockheed Martin is making what's old new again, with an awesome twist:  the turrets are housing lasers.

As reported by popsci.com, Lockheed Martin has modified a commercial jet to arm it with lasers, and eight successful flights have been logged with the aircraft already.  The lasers operate out of turrets capable of 360-degree rotation, which when put into action will use the directed-energy weapons to eradicate enemy missiles.

The official term for the all-around-awesome lasers is "Aero-adaptive Aero-optic Beam Control" - "ABC" for short. For nations that do not have the funds to construct and maintain war planes, anti-aircraft missiles have been the preferred choice for thwarting airborne attackers. Now, such offenses will be easily countered and fried to a crisp thanks to the Lockheed lasers.

Lockheed Martin GTO Ray Johnson was enthusiastic about the durability and usefulness of the lasers, telling Popular Science, "[Lasers] can operate with the electrical power that could be generated on an aircraft. You could certainly see it go on bomber-sized aircraft and as the technology develops and size/weight/power are reduced, our notion is to see it get to the point where it can go on fighter-sized aircraft."

Combined with Boeing's new truck-mounted lasers, it seems that war is going to have a blindingly bright future.

"Star Wars" warplane technology is no longer only in a galaxy far, far, away.

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Get Down With The New Deep-Sea-Diving "Exosuit"

It's an intriguing notion that we've explored more of outer space than we have examined of our own Earth's oceans.  The difficulty of water pressure and other dangers of the deep have made seriously submerging humans prohibitively difficult, but a new invention called the Exosuit will allow humans to boldly dive where no one has ventured before.

Beneath the surface at depths of 1,000 feet, humans have yet to make a major mark, though all manner of undiscovered treasures await.  The obvious human-infused elements like shipwrecks and other abandoned items could be explored with ease now thanks to the Exosuit.  Even better, the types of flora and fauna that decorate the depths could be analyzed for any number of uses by dwellers of dry land.

According to industrytap.com, this major advance in solo oceanography is thanks to Phil Nuytten, a scientist/sea diver who has invented an “Atmospheric Diving System” (ADS), a.k.a the Exosuit, which could enable human exploration by dramatically expanding on our current capabilities. Designed specifically to battle the intense cold and pressure a thousand feet or more undersea, the Exosuit also features 1.6 horsepower water thrusters for added mobility, "manipulator" grabber-claws for snagging sea samples, 18 rotary joints for maximum flexibility, LED lights (so you can act like a native bioluminescent creature while dancing with Davy Jones), and a fiber-optic tether for two-way communication to the surface (as well as video feed, in case you need to prove you once punched an anglerfish.)

The suit, created from metal alloys, weighs 530 pounds, costs $500,000, and is operational for up to 10 hours, although it can hold oxygen reserves of "life support" for up to 50 hours. Nuytten has put 25 years of diving technology research and advances into the construction of this seasuit, and it resembles something that wouldn't look out of place in space. What new "alien" life might it discover, right here, buried (well, sunk) in our own oceanic backyard?

Show Cthulhu who's boss in your new Exosuit!

Ethically Hunt For Nudie Booty With New Search Engine "BoodieGo"

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Steal Your Face: The FBI Is Storing Your Dimensions, Fearing Criminal Intentions

If you value your privacy, you may want to stock up on extra Halloween masks this season. The FBI has recently announced its state-of-the-art new facial recognition system, and it is creepier than any macabre mask a citizen can don.

According to gizmodo.com, six years of development and a billion dollars of taxpayer money have led to this biometric facial recognition software system. If you're getting a visa, going to prison, or otherwise being photographed by any grabby arm of the government, your identifying facial dimensions are sure going in there. It's called the Next Generation Identification program, and you are getting forced into this future.

But why stop at the shape of your skull and surrounding tissues? They did spend a BILLION of your dollars, after all! Scars, tattoos, fingerprints and other major identifying characteristics will also be included in your (totally safe and secure, we're sure) recognition profile. This shared database, known as the Interstate Photo System, is only going to get more insidious as ubiquitous surveillance camera resolutions improve.

The FBI, of course, loves their new toy. They were proud to report, "Since phase one was deployed in February 2011, the NGI system has introduced enhanced automated fingerprint and latent search capabilities, mobile fingerprint identification, and electronic image storage, all while adding enhanced processing speed and automation for electronic exchange of fingerprints to more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and other authorized criminal justice partners 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

It wouldn't be surprising if ninja-style outfits of obscurity became fashionable in the next few years...

So by FBI logic, the best masks are now the ones with no facial characteristics whatsoever.

Sink "Fin Fisher": Wikileaks Combats Spy Platforms By Releasing Software To Public

It's no secret now that governments routinely spy on their citizens, for reasons ranging from interest in actual criminal activities to simply wanting to try to intercept naked selfies.  However, now the team at Wikileaks has released the exact software used to spy on you, hoping that once it is more completely understood, it can be more effectively stopped.

As reported by engadget.com, Julian Assange and his colleagues have openly posted the FinSpy PC and Fin Fisher spy platforms in an effort to spur developers to update more thorough privacy measures against them.  The Wikileaks team also hopes to make it more difficult for governments to abuse the technology to root out whom they consider undesirable.  Australia, Italy, Pakistan and other nations have been proven to use the software against "dissidents" on their turf, regardless of what computer platform the suspicious party is running.

Although keylogging and webcam monitoring are among the elements of the revealed software, it is hoped that these will not be abused by the masses and if they are, that a quick antidote will be available soon.  Now we know what weapons the powers-that-be have chosen, we can fight them more intelligently.

Sometimes the surveillance state needs a faceful of e-mace.

Whip Up A New Whip: Launching The World's First 3D Printed Car

Everything about the automotive industry is changing, from manufacturing to fuel to even the required cognizance of the driver (or now, computer) behind the wheel. Recently, a major manufacturing barrier was broken when Arizona's Local Motors company used an oversize 3D printer to craft up a new car, the Strati, from scratch.

One of the highlights of the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014 in Chicago, the 2-seater Strati was printed and assembled in 44 hours. According to techodrom.com, it was built as a single-piece chassis augmented by 39 other parts (dramatically lower than the 20,000-odd bits that comprise conventional automobiles.) The Strati was created from carbon fiber-reinforced black plastic and runs on a battery with a range of 130-150 miles.

"We are the first company to make a 3D-printed car using carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic," Local Motors CEO John Rogers told the Wall Street Journal. "The seats, body, chassis, dash, center console and hood will all be 3D printed."

That leaves a few parts that had to be obtained by conventional means, including the tires, windshield, battery, electric motors, wiring, suspension, and seat cushions. Still, it's a pretty impressive invention, made possible in part thanks to the relatively behemoth 3D printer (made by Cincinnati Inc.) that was able to print at dimensions up to 3 feet by 5 feet by 10 feet.

Local Motors is proud of their product and states on their website they'll be creating more "production-level 3D printed vehicles that will be available to the general public for purchase in the months following the show."  Prices are expected to run around $18,000-$30,000, depending on additional features.  Now, is it possible to 3D print some fuzzy dice?

Do computers dream of fun little 3-D printed joyrides?

Hacked Printer Shows How Lax Security Could "Doom" Your Company

We live in a world of instant gratification and hyper-connectivity. Unfortunately, the connections that bring us easy and immediately pleasant results can turn on us just as quickly as they work for us. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of technology. This was recently illustrated when a Canon office printer, connected to an outside computer server, was hacked to play "Doom."

According to pcgamesn.com, the security flaw was intentionally manifested to prove that the overly-accessible printer proved a threat to office data security. The Canon Pixma printers have a web-accessible interface that required no authentication, enabling Context Information Security analyst Michael Jordon to sneak into the system and run a copy of "Doom" on the Pixma's LED screen. This was a playful but serious reminder than any party with unpleasant intent could create firmware to monitor or manipulate the printer's output, which could be instrumental in corporate espionage or sabotage.

As Jordon explained to The Guardian, “If you can run Doom on a printer, you can do a lot more nasty things...In a corporate environment, it would be a good place to be. Who suspects printers?”

Canon has assured its users that an update, requiring a username and password for the Pixma interface, will solve any rogue infiltration programs in all models that had previously been at risk to be compromised. Who says video games never teach you anything?

There are even worse things than these guys waiting to grab your office intel.  (Image courtesy cdn.bloodydisgusting.com.)