• Taser-related fatalities raise safety concerns

    As police across the United States increasingly turn to Taser guns as a non-lethal weapon, the device’s safety has come under scrutiny following several recent deaths involving Tasers; last week the Fayetteville police department in North Carolina recalled all of its Taser M26 units following the death of a fifty-six year old political activist who died after being stunned by police

  • Wastewater recycling adds to greenhouse gas emissions

    New research shows that wastewater recycling processes may generate more greenhouse gases than traditional water-treatment processes; still, there are good reasons to continue keep wastewater recycling among the water-resource tools for urban areas

  • Taser death leads to $10 million payout

    The manufacturer of police Tasers recently awarded $10 million to a North Carolina family after a teenager was killed when he was shocked with a stun gun; Darryl Turner, a seventeen year old boy, died in a supermarket after a police officer shot him in the chest with a Taser Model X26 electronic control device in 2008

  • Tough new Alabama immigration law divides community

    A sweeping new Alabama immigration law is generating sharp controversy and unease with many likening it to a return to the state’s brutal Jim Crow laws; among the strict immigration measures passed last month, undocumented immigrants are banned from enrolling in or attending college, applying for work, and landlords are restricted from renting property to illegal aliens; the law even requires school districts to check the immigration status of children; the bill has drawn fierce criticism from immigration advocates, churches, and civil liberties groups.

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  • Strong fabric can be used to protect buildings from explosion

    Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is a fabric that can carry 143,000 pounds of force per square inch; University of Missouri researcher collaborates with the U.S. Army to test a method of retrofitting buildings to protect them in the case of a terrorist attack; to protect a building from an extreme event, CFRP can be used to increase the bending capacity of walls or columns

  • Innovative decontamination cloth reaches market

    A new decontamination cloth, developed for use by soldiers and first responders, is now available in several forms — as preshaped mitts for personal wipedowns if someone is exposed to toxins or chemicals, individual wipe cloths and pads, and in rolls perforated to produces 12-inch by 12-inch sheets, like paper towels in a kitchen

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  • New non-lethal weapon against terrorism: spicy pepper

    Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units (the scientific measurement of a chili’s spiciness), while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville; India’s bhut jolokia has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, and it is accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world’s spiciest chili; the Indian military has now developed a bhut jolokia hand grenade to be used against unruly mobs and to flush out hiding terrorists

  • U.K. police to use tasers on unruly rib-pokers

    Last December, some 180 protesters, most aged between 17 and 25, stood in front of the Royal convoy, and some protesters began to kick, hit, and hurl objects at the Royal car; as the Duchess of Cornwall sat in the vehicle, she was poked in the ribs with a stick through a window slit; demonstrators pursued the envoy, chanting “Off with their heads”; to prevent such occurrences in the future, the U.K .Diplomatic Protection Squad will be supplementing their conventional firearms with stun guns

  • Non-lethal weapons in the wild

    Taser International has unveiled a Taser stun gun designed for use on large animals; it can temporarily incapacitate mammals like bears and moose and is designed to increase the safety of wildlife workers and park rangers; the laser-sighted weapon is based on the company’s most advanced police Taser, the X3, but is optimized to work on large animals with thick hides

  • U.S. kill vehicle missile defense weapon fails test

    The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has suffered another failure in a live test conducted last week over the Pacific; the first part of the test — detecting and tracking the “enemy” missile by the Sea Based X-band Radar — went well; the second part — getting an Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to place itself in the path of the oncoming missile warhead and destroying it — did not work; the Ground Based Interceptor (GBI) triple-stage rocket is the most capable tool in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s armory, but its test record is spotty at best

  • Israel shoots down motorized, unmanned balloon near Dimona nuclear reactor

    Israel Defense Force spokesperson says that Israel Air Force warplane shot down an object — a motorized unmanned balloon — in the south of Israel; the balloon was shot down as it approached the Dimona nuclear reactor; the area is a strict no-fly zone; planes or other objects entering it are shot down first, with questions being asked later; during the 1967 Six Day war, an Israeli surface-to-air missile downed a crippled Israeli fighter-bomber that strayed into the restricted zone while returning from action on the Egyptian front; its pilot was killed

  • Taser shotgun in legal trouble in U.K.

    Taser’s new, powerful eXtended Range Electronic Projectile, or X12, is being evaluated by the U.K. Home Office for possible adoption by U.K. police; before the evaluation has been completed, the British importer of the weapon sold it to the Northumbria police, in the north of England, which used it against fugitive Raoul Moat, who died as a result; the Home Office has now revoked the importer’s license

  • Rayguns to be used in L.A. prisons

    Officials at the Los Angeles County Jail have announced that the U.S. jails will deploy a new laser weapon to break up fights among jail inmates; the raygun, capable of producing a beam of up to 100 ft, will be positioned on the detention center’s ceiling and operated by using a computer monitor and a joystick

  • Recent stun-gun use by police in U.S., U.K. raise questions anew about the device's safety

    Three cases of taser gun use by law enforcement last week bring the issue of taser back to the fore; human rights organizations have raised concerns about the safety of Tasers and consider them to be potentially lethal as well as open to abuse

  • Marines to use autonomous vehicles built by Virginia Tech students

    Virginia Tech engineering students designed an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) which the U.S. Marines Corps will test in a war game in Hawaii; the unmanned vehicles are designed to resupply troops, to reduce the actual loads manually carried by Marines, and to provide an immediate means for the evacuation of any casualties in combat