Tag: WAR

Apple and Intel have both decided to stop using conflict minerals to manufacture products, as part of the Conflict-Free Smelter program. Conflict minerals include valuable commodities such as gold, titanium, tungsten and tin, which generate massive revenues used to fund wars in Central Africa, and, more specifically, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Beginning next year, all U.S. ...

A high-tech form of miniaturized radar capable of detecting incoming fire will be added to some soldiers' arsenals starting later this month. The Army just announced plans to ship 13,000 of the card-deck-sized Individual Gunshot Detectors to troops in Afghanistan. Four sensors detect soundwaves emitted by distant gunfire, while a monitor transmits information on its origins to the soldier. ...

These photos play on another trend in war coverage over the past few years, which is the transformation of the soldier and killing agents (the gun notwithstanding) into innocent man-child. 'The boys sleeping' has been a popular motif. Often, these photos have a homo-erotic resonance to them, although it's much more comfortable thinking: 'puppies.'BagNews considers whether or not the use of the ...

U.S. security officials are asking that the rhetoric surrounding the potential for "cyber-war" be tempered in favor of a rational discussion on how to distinguish an actual cyber-war between nations from cyber-attacks that use war-like tactics. It's a blurry line, but White House cyber-security czar Howard Schmidt, who spoke at the RSA computer security conference in San Fransisco, said using the ...

British scientists are developing an active camouflage system for tanks that uses electronic ink to project images of the surrounding terrain onto the armored vehicle's shell. According to The Telegraph, electronic sensors would be placed on the tank's exterior. These sensors scan the environment, and use the e-ink to project colors, lines and shapes onto the tank's hull -- turning the vehicle ...

If you're a spectacularly average guy looking for love on Facebook, you could spend some time meticulously crafting your profile with Photoshopped self-shots, or quirky interests, in an attempt to make yourself seem more handsome and/or interesting than you really are. Or, if you have absolutely no soul whatsoever, you could just pretend that you're a dead soldier, and use someone else's heroism ...

A 2005 peace deal may have put an official end to Sudan's brutal, 21-year civil war, but George Clooney, Google and several human rights organizations want to make sure that the country doesn't erupt in further violence during a crucial moment in its history. Yesterday, Clooney and his colleagues announced the launch of the Satellite Sentinel Project, a new initiative that combines real-time ...

Blogs didn't exist during the Civil War, but the New York Times certainly did -- and its extensive archives capture just about every phase of the five-year conflict. Now, nearly 150 years after the war broke out, the paper has begun covering the war once again in "real time," on a new blog called 'Disunion.' Each post on the new forum focuses on what was going on in the U.S. on that particular ...

Yesterday, Wikileaks published its long awaited 'Iraq War Logs,' a collection of nearly 400,000 classified military documents covering the controversial war in Iraq. According to the Guardian, the logs consist of verified first-hand accounts from coalition soldiers on the ground, and give a chilling "glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to ...

When the newest version of 'Medal of Honor' hits living rooms on October 12th, users will still be able to spend hours of their lives shooting at each other in a hostile, virtual rendering of Afghanistan. One thing they won't be able to do, though, is play for the Taliban, as producer Electronic Arts, has now decided to pull the highly controversial option from the game's multi-player feature. ...

In an effort to exert greater control over militant groups in Afghanistan, several governmental ministries, in conjunction with NATO forces, are now hoping to issue biometric ID cards to over 1.65 million Afghan citizens by May. Local and foreign forces have already begun compiling biometric files on policemen, criminals, insurgents and normal citizens, and are currently collecting information ...

With the release of its Afghan War Diary, Wikileaks has just perpetrated what many are calling one of the largest leaks in military history. Comprising nearly 92,000 classified reports from Afghanistan, the Diary sheds new light on the challenges that the U.S. and coalition forces face on the ground, exposing the conflict as more dire than most may have imagined. The documents reveal, among other ...

Just last month, the Pentagon confirmed that its 'pain ray' weapon had been sent to Afghanistan. However, nobody would say whether or not the non-lethal device, also known as the Active Denial System, had been tested or deployed. Now, according to BBC News, Raytheon's 'pain ray,' which uses a focused invisible beam to generate an intolerable burning sensation, is being carried by U.S. troops in ...

Well, it looks like the gloves are officially off. In a full-page ad that ran in the New York Times on June 30th, Motorola not only managed to laud the Droid X's sparkling new features, but also to take a cheap shot at the iPhone's well documented reception issues. As Engadget reports, Motorola threw down the gauntlet in just two sentences, which read: "It comes with a double antenna design. The ...

Thanks to Apple's rabid PR push and to media coverage, almost every little detail of the iPhone 4 has been documented -- except for one minor factoid, that is. The phone, like several other luxury electronics on the market, may contain minerals supplied by bloodthirsty Congolese paramilitary groups. Most of us should recall the controversy over the origins of so-called "blood diamonds," or ...