All posts tagged: weapon

US Military Alarmed by Russian Nuclear Weapon Platform in Orbit

US Military Alarmed by Russian Nuclear Weapon Platform in Orbit

Published by José

This is some freaky stuff. Dumb War A Russian spacecraft launched higher than most satellites has long had the Pentagon worried — and new revelations about what it contains have made those concerns all the greater. Launched in February 2022 just a few weeks before Ukraine was invaded, Russia’s Cosmos 2553 spacecraft is nominally built to test out “newly developed onboard instruments and systems.” According to new reporting from the New York Times, however, the mysterious satellite system contains a “dummy warhead” — a precursor of what could come should the Russians decide to arm the craft for real. As scary as the concept of a space nuke sounds, it wouldn’t necessarily harm life on Earth — unless you consider eliminating all satellites in its vicinity harm, in which case the people down on the planet below would be seriously screwed. ASAT Stats Back in 1962, the US military actually did detonate a nuclear weapon in space, though the damage from the electromagnetic pulse it emanated seems mostly to have been limited to streetlights dimming in …

China Working on Energy Weapon That Converges Multiple Beams

China Working on Energy Weapon That Converges Multiple Beams

Published by José

Where have we heard this one before? Jim Beam China’s military is working on an experimental weapon system that converges multiple streams of microwaves into a powerful energy beam, the South China Morning Post reports. In other words, it’s not entirely unlike the Death Star from the “Star Wars” franchise, albeit on a much smaller scale. According to the report, scientists claim they’ve “completed experimental trials on its potential military use.” However, whether their efforts will ever culminate in a weapon capable enough to destroy a planet like in “Star Wars,” let alone destroy much smaller targets, remains to be seen. Shooting at Alderaan Places For one, accumulating sufficient electromagnetic waves in the same location remains incredibly difficult. According to the SCMP, scientists calculated that they needed to achieve a positional accuracy of mere millimeters, and time synchronization of 170 trillionths of a second — more precise than an atomic clock. Nonenthless, scientists claim to have achieved this level of accuracy during recent experiments. While it won’t be blowing up adversary targets, the researchers found …

Suspected Trump Gunman Was Once Charged With Possession of a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Suspected Trump Gunman Was Once Charged With Possession of a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Published by skeptic

Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspected gunman involved in an apparent assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida on Sunday, was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction over 20 years ago. “I figured he was either dead or in prison by now,” Tracy Fulk, the charging officer in the case, tells WIRED. “I had no clue that he had moved on and was continuing his escapades.” According to court records from the Guilford District Court in North Carolina obtained by WIRED, Routh was arrested by the Greensboro Police Department on December 16, 2002. Local reporting from Greensboro News and Record in 2002 states that Routh was pulled over by police during a traffic stop. Routh then drove to the business United Roofing, where he proceeded to barricade himself for three hours, the police said at the time. Fulk says he was well known in the area, and that police would get alerts about him allegedly related to, as she remembers, weapons and explosives. “One night …

How Not to Hand Populists a Weapon

How Not to Hand Populists a Weapon

Published by skeptic

The ugly right-wing riots that broke out across the United Kingdom over the past week have put Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a difficult position: He and his new Labour government must address the widespread concern about immigration that helped drive the unrest—not because of what the rioters have done and said, but in spite of it. The lawlessness on display in recent days doesn’t change the fact that the British government has been mishandling immigration for years. It allowed in record numbers of migrants entering legally and illegally, year after year, in the teeth of popular opposition, and then introduced flawed schemes, such as the aborted effort to fly them to Rwanda for processing. The number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats—some of them drowning in the attempt—continues to rise and is a source of shame and anguish across the political spectrum. Starmer, who arrived at 10 Downing Street a month ago, can’t be blamed for any of this. But if he doesn’t find ways to manage Channel crossings and perceived …

When Therapy-Speak Is a Weapon

When Therapy-Speak Is a Weapon

Published by skeptic

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration. Over the past several years, thanks in large part to social media, therapy lingo has seeped into the vernacular and is now a normal part of everyday speech. Selfish people are “narcissists.” Ungenerous behavior is a “red flag.” Calming down is “self-regulation.” Pathologizing others tends to be a way of enforcing unwritten social codes. Pathologizing yourself can be a way to exempt your own behavior from judgment (you’re not being mean; you’re drawing boundaries). Therapy-speak has taken over a group of Millennials living in the midwestern college town of X, the setting of Halle Butler’s Banal Nightmare. The novel lives up to its name in a variety of ways, none of which make for a very pleasant reading experience—though that’s never seemed to be Butler’s goal. Over the course of her two earlier novels she established herself as the Millennial skewerer in chief: She’s here to chronicle and cackle at all the ways members of her generation have learned to psychologically chase their own …

USA Swimming Has a Secret Weapon: Linear Algebra

USA Swimming Has a Secret Weapon: Linear Algebra

Published by skeptic

This article was originally published by Quanta Magazine. In the fall of 2014, Andrew Wilson took a front-row seat in Ken Ono’s number-theory class at Emory University, in Atlanta. Wilson was not only double-majoring in applied math and physics; he was also a walk-on member of Emory’s swim team. Ono took an interest in Wilson’s ambitions. “We thought that, together, maybe we could use our interest in mathematics to help him improve as a swimmer,” Ono says. Ono, who typically studies abstract patterns in numbers and special functions called “modular forms,” began collecting and analyzing acceleration data from Wilson and other Emory swimmers to identify and quantify their weaknesses. “It got to the point where I could just see what an athlete was doing without actually watching them swim,” he says. Within two years, Wilson had won national collegiate championships; he would go on to earn a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. By then, Ono was at the University of Virginia, where he worked alongside Todd DeSorbo—the head coach for both UVA swimming …

Fusion reactors could create ingredients for a nuclear weapon in weeks

Fusion reactors could create ingredients for a nuclear weapon in weeks

Published by skeptic

A nuclear test on 3 July 1970 at Fangataufa atoll, French Polynesia Science History Images / Alamy A nuclear test on 3 July 1970 at Fangataufa atoll, French PolynesiaFusion reactors could allow a country to accelerate its development of nuclear weapons, producing the necessary radioactive ingredients in as little as a few weeks. Nuclear weapons need specific radioactive isotopes, normally uranium-235 or plutonium-239, that can be easily split and start a chain reaction. This so-called fissile material is rare in nature, but can be produced artificially by a source that produces a lot of neutrons, such… Source link

Putin orders tactical nuclear weapon drills to deter the West

Putin orders tactical nuclear weapon drills to deter the West

Published by skeptic

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during а meeting of the Federal Assembly’s Council of Legislators in Saint Petersburg, Russia, April 26, 2024. Alexey Danichev | Via Reuters Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia has repeatedly warned of rising nuclear risks – warnings which the United States says it has to take seriously though U.S. officials say they have seen no change in Russia’s nuclear posture Russia says the United States and its European allies are pushing the world to the brink of confrontation between nuclear powers by supporting Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars of weapons, some of which are being used against Russian territory. Russia’s defense ministry said it would hold military drills including practice for the preparation and deployment for use of non-strategic nuclear weapons. It said the exercises were ordered by President Vladimir Putin. “During …

Russia to practice tactical nuclear weapon scenario in drills to deter West

Russia to practice tactical nuclear weapon scenario in drills to deter West

Published by skeptic

NUCLEAR RISKS Since the war began, Russia has repeatedly warned of rising nuclear risks – warnings which the United States says it has to take seriously though US officials say they have seen no change in Russia’s nuclear posture. Putin has faced calls inside Russia from some hardliners to change Russia’s nuclear doctrine, which sets out the conditions under which Russia would use a nuclear weapon, though Putin said last year he saw no need to change the doctrine. Broadly, the doctrine says such a weapon would be used in response to an attack using nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, or the use of conventional weapons against Russia “when the very existence of the state is put under threat”. Putin warned the West in March that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario. Russia and the United States are by far the world’s biggest nuclear powers, holding more than …

US accuses Russia of using a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces

US accuses Russia of using a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces

Published by Sam

The US State Department accused Russia Wednesday of having used a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, while also announcing fresh sanctions against Moscow. Issued on: 02/05/2024 – 02:36 2 min In addition to the chemical agent chloropicrin, Russia also used “riot control agents (tear gas) as a method of warfare in Ukraine, also in violation of the CWC,” the department said in a factsheet. “The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident, and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the State Department said. Meanwhile the US Treasury Department announced sweeping sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s military and industrial capabilities — including targeting nearly 300 entities in Russia, China and other countries accused of supporting President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The sanctions are meant to punish companies that help Moscow acquire weapons for its war in Ukraine. They also target Russian government entities and companies involved in the country’s chemical and biological weapons …