The Future of Flight: VR Fighter Pilot Training

The latest breeds of military aircraft are naturally smarter, faster, and more stealthy than their predecessors. Known as Fifth Generation craft, they are designed to incorporate numerous technological advances – like Low Probability of Intercept Radar (LPIR), supersonically launched guided missiles, a wealth of sensors, highly-integrated computer systems that provide full situational awareness, and automated targeting.

The problem is, these planes are too powerful to be trusted to the untrained. This creates a paradoxical situation where recruits have to learn how to fly them before they can be allowed to fly them. This is especially so during Red Flag training, where pilots take part in advanced aerial combat exercises intended to prepare roughly 27,000 pilots and engineers for warfare every year.

The solution, according to General Mike Hostage, is to train pilots in virtual reality in every facet of fifth generation fighter jet technology. It’s what is known as “Live Virtual Constructive” (LVC) training, which the military is increasingly turning to because it is a major cost saver. Every branch is feeling the financial squeeze, and simulated training is a popular idea since it cuts down on the time it takes to get a pilot airborne and the cost of launching a jet.

As Hostage explained during an Air Force Association speech back in July:

The fifth generation brought us capabilities and lethalities that are straining my abilities at Red Flag to produce that same realistic combat environment. I can’t turn on every bell and whistle on my new fifth-generation platforms because a) they’re too destructive, and b) I don’t want the bad guys to know what I’m able to do… I will still do Red Flags, I will still do live training in live platform. But the place where I will be able to take the gloves off, the place where I can turn on all the bells and whistles and get full capability is going to be in the virtual constructive arena.

In addition to the cost-saving benefits, the US Air Force has embraces the technology thanks in no small part to the new head of the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS), where much of the research into virtual reality training is being done. Colonel Franz Plescha, who was instituted as the agency’s new commander back in July, is a committed futurist who believes there is great potential in warfighting simulation technology.

A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy in 1987, Plescha’s most recent assignment (from July 2010 to June 2013) was as the Commander of the Warrior Preparation Center of the Einsiedlerhof Air Station in Germany. Here, he became intimately familiar with the kind of software and simulations that are designed to help commanders simulate the conduct of combat operations without ever having to put lives in danger.

As he made clear, upon taking the helm at AFAMS, he refuses to waste any time on making the integration happen:

I personally believe the differences between live and simulation will continue to blur. Live or simulation? What’s the difference? What we call simulation today will become so real, it may actually influence our enemies in the future. Just imagine how that could change combat in the future.

But of course, one has to wonder if this vision is not already here, since digitally-assisted situational awareness, unmanned drones and cyber warfare are already present in militaries the world over. And as all other aspects of combat training become increasingly digitized, the distinction between simulation and warfare are themselves likely to become increasingly blurred.

Sources: motherboard.vice.com, afams.af.mil, teamorlando.org

Cyberwars: DHS Hack and “Largest Data Breach” Ever

My apologies folks for my stingy presence in the ether as of late. Been busy with house-sitting, writing, and a slew of other distractions. But now that I’m home again at the tail end of summer vacay, you can expect to hear more from me before school starts. And there are a number of stories that I have backlogged over the past few weeks and wish to write about. Not the least of which was a series of developments in this ongoing feud we call cyberwarfare.

First up, there was the major cyberattack that occurred in early August against one of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) biggest contractors. Known as the US Investigations Services – which performs government background checks – the breach involved the hacking of their computer systems, apparently for the sake of stealing personal information on a number of DHS employees.

As the US Investigations Services said on their website:

Experts who have reviewed the facts gathered to-date believe it has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack. We will support the authorities in the investigation and any prosecution of those determined to be responsible for this criminal attack.

The scope of the breach is unclear, but to be on the safe side, the DHS has temporarily suspended working with this contractor. What’s more, USIS indicated that the extent and nature of the hacking “has all the markings of a state-sponsored attack.” If true, this would be the latest in a long-series of suspected state-sponsored cyberattacks that have targeted US government services and employees.

As recent as March of this year, officials within the US government claimed that hackers linked to the Chinese military – the infamous PLA Unit 61398 – had infiltrated government servers in an attempt to steal information on thousands of federal employees with top-secret clearance. This was just the latest round in an ongoing game of blame and counter-blame, with the US and Chinese governments discovering breaches and pointing the finger at each other.

Meanwhile, the DHS and FBI are busily trying to determine what information may have been compromised and who, amongst its many employees, could have been effected. As DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard said in a recent interview with the Washington Post:

Our forensic analysis has concluded that some DHS personnel may have been affected, and DHS has notified its entire workforce. We are committed to ensuring our employees’ privacy and are taking steps to protect it.

On their own, cyber-intrusions and data breaches have a way of making people nervous. But when the combatants are major governments, and the victims number in the thousands, its an especially disconcerting situation. Add to that the fact that the victims are the very people responsible for ensuring the protection of citizens, and you have a trifecta of concern. Alas, this was not the only time this sort of thing took place during the month of August…

In what is being labelled as the biggest “the largest data breach known to date”, the Russian criminal hacker organization known as Cybervor committed a cyberattack that covers an enormous number of records. According to the New York Times report, these include some 1.2 billion username and password combinations, anf 542 million unique email accounts lifted from 420,000 compromised domains.

Alex Holden, founder of Hold Security (the company that uncovered the heist), said in a statement on the company’s blog:

In the latest development, Hold Security’s Deep Web Monitoring practice in conjunction with our Credential Integrity Services discovered what could be arguably the largest data breach known to date.

And while the numbers alone make this sound like a very scary development, the security experts who gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Black Hat hacker conference earlier this month went on record to say that there was little cause for concern. Their advice, put simply, was “don’t panic”. Or, as CrowdStrike president and chief security officer Shawn Henry put it, “There’s nothing to see here, move along.”

A former executive assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with extensive experience in the world of cyberattacks and geopolitics, Henry added that he was surprised that people were shocked by the news. Apparently, the breach does not represents a single, concerted attack, but rather an “aggregate of lots of breaches, an example of fragility of the online world in which we operate.”

In that respect, Henry does have a point. As recent revelations about the OpenSSL bug (aka. Heartbleed) and the NIST SP800-90 Dual Ec Prng cryptographic program showed, internet security protocols and encryption codes are often vulnerable due to the fact that they have “backdoors” and flaws that can be exploited by those with the right kind of knowledge.

Research analyst Andrew Conway, who works for the Web and messaging security analysis firm CloudMark, also expressed skepticism at the perceived severity of the report. As he put it:

My take is that everything in the story is true. It was presented in the most alarmist possible way. The big misconception is comparing this with something like the Target breach. There’s no evidence that any financial data was involved.

A bigger concern to Conway is that SQL injection attacks are still being used at all. SQL injection attacks occur when a short, malicious script is inserted into a database that feeds information to the Web site. And these are one of the easiest coding vulnerabilities to fix, which leads many to conclude that website and domain owners are being far too lax when it comes to security practices.

Interestingly enough, there has also been speculation that this data heist is somehow connected to the ongoing conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. This remains unconfirmed, however, on-the-ground conflicts have been known to contribute to cyberattacks because law enforcement agencies – the traditional enforcers of anti-cybercrime law – are often reluctant to get involved when there are armies involved.

CrowdStrike’s Shawn Henry said that these kinds of cyberattacks, whether simple SQL injections or more advanced attacks, will continue until Russia starts taking cybercrime seriously:

If we had a host government, Russia in this case, that was actively and aggressively pursuing adversaries who are engaged in illegal activity, we’d be in a stronger place… This is not a US problem, this is a global problem [that requires] economic, diplomatic, and civil actions. This is a long term problem with no short term solution.

In the meantime, the best advice is to change your passwords. In fact, until such time as the internet has a single security agency overseeing it, staffed by an international cadre of programmers and cryptographers who are experts in their field, we might want to all consider doing that on a regular basis!

Sources: cnet.com, (2), (3), washingtonpost.com, nytimes.com

Oscar Mike – Chapter Three

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

-Charles Darwin

The room was flush with the aroma of metal filings and machine grease. And the acrid smell of burnt metal was also there, the telltale signs of forgers at work. The few open windows in the factory shop had managed to keep the air quality bearable, but it did nothing to remedy the heat situation. Whether it was the result of an unseasonably hot summer, or of melting down steel and nickel to make castings, the entire floor was predestined to feel like the eight ring of hell.

Braun’s obsessive face wiping could attest to that. His wet, clingy shirt and the way his khakis were sticking to his legs were another indication. He couldn’t imagine how anyone on the floor could stand the aprons, gloves and protective goggles they were forced to wear. Were it not for the hot metal components they were required to handle, he was sure they would all have stripped down to their skivvies a long time ago.

As they walked between stations on the assembly line, the foreman – the venerable Art Mitchell – showed him the fruits of their operation. Between wiping his face, Braun made entries in his notebook, noting the numbers and models produced.

“Our total haul for this past week was one-hundred and eighteen SMGs, eighty-nine service pistols, and two-hundred bayonets. Our intakes accounted for roughly two tons of recycled slag, a mix of steel, iron, nickel, tin and copper. And we managed to get just enough zinc from you people to fashion the firing pins.”

Braun nodded, making a note of it. He knew an appeal when he heard one, and would have to run that by the higher ups. Ever since they had set up shop, Mitchell and his workers had become the sole source of weapons and munitions for the town militias. His designs were seen on just about every city block now, the proliferation of weapons models that were well-dated, but ideally suited to modern needs.

But as always, expanded production meant that more resources would need to be obtained. The slag heaps and waste materials generated by the war could expect to keep producing plenty of iron and steel for the time being, but rare minerals and chemicals like zinc and chromium were quickly running out. Which meant resource extraction, in the old fashioned sense, would once again need to resume.

There were departmental rumors that some Smithsonite mines was being contemplated south of the capitol. Apparently, it was part a larger scheme to rebuild Socorro now that it too had been repopulated. But he could not say with any confidence that it was true, or assure Mitchell and his people that these proposed mines would become a ready source of zinc compounds, or even that they had a group of chemical engineers on hand that could extract it for him.

Such was the nature of things in his new role. He had learned to become a cog in an apparatus that was simply trying to get things done and see to a rising tide of production and manufacturing needs. At the center of it all was the rapidly expanding population of the region, people who had been fleeing the undead hordes and looking for a safe place to set down. Beyond simple shelter, food and water, all anyone had wanted back then was to know they could go to sleep at night and not spend their days in constant fear.

But now, with the cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque resettled and rezoned, and dozens of townships besides, the more intricate matter of how to meet the less basic needs of their inhabitants was always on everyone’s mind. Beyond food, shelter and water, people were once again in need of basic comforts, and had to be organized to produce and distribute them. Braun heard much from each and every group he was tasked with listening to – the Agro Co-Op, Utilities, Weapons, and Materials – and knew much about their problems. But proposing solutions was beyond his pay grade. Gathering relevant information and making recommendations to those who actually had the power to do things, that was what he was he was tasked with. And according to those he reported to, it was a very important task.

Which reminded him – another thing in his job description was to investigate complaints made by other groups and see if he couldn’t find out what the source of the problem was. In this case, it was the people who kept track of weapons distribution that had asked him to inquire.

“I understand you experienced a drop in production back in early April.”

“Ah, yes,” said Mitchell, suddenly sounding grave.

“Okay. Any reason why that would be?”

“It’s simple, really. Our smelters and production lines run on electricity. And when the electrical grid is intermittent, our equipment stops working.”

“Right…”

Mitchell continued, still sounding and looking very much irate. “You may have heard about the brownouts we periodically deal with in town here? I know it’s not as common up north where you were from, but down here, it’s a way of life.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll make a note of – ” he stopped short as his mind backtracked to the one nugget that stuck out in that last complaint. “How’d you know I was from up north?”

“Are you kidding?” Mitchell ran his hand up and down the length of Braun’s profile. “The buzz cut hair, the khaki pants, the way you walk… everything about you screams infantry, son. And people do talk.”

Braun frowned. “People have been talking about me?”

“Yeah. A lot of my workers were happy as hell to know that they were reporting to a former grunt now. They figured having someone who actually understood the nature their work, instead of some pencil-pushing bureaucrat, would make life easier.” The way Mitchell punctuated this with a grunt told him exactly what he thought of the end result.

“Well, as I said, I am new to this.”

“We all are, son. I guess we just do the best we can.”

Braun didn’t reply. Putting his pen to the pad again, he made the note, as promised. If he was going to avoid any such mistakes in the future, he needed to let his superiors know that they needed to do a better job of communicating with other departmental superiors. Otherwise, guys like him were going to wind up looking stupid in front of guys like Mitchell. He was sure to spell it in all uppercase letters and underline it twice.

BETTER INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION.

“Anyway,” Mitchell said, sounding suddenly uncertain. “What happened to get you stuck with us down here?”

“Long story,” Braun said hesitantly.

Mitchell chuckled. “Piss off the wrong person, huh?”

Again, Braun didn’t reply. Eventually, Mitchell nodded and let it drop.

“Shall I show you some of the fruits of our labor?”

Braun shook his head and tapped his pen against the notebook. “No, I think I got all the information I need right here.”

“I meant, would you like to see the firing range. We set one up so we could test fire every weapon that rolled off the line.”
Braun felt suddenly piqued. He hadn’t been expecting a hands-on demonstration. “That would be… lovely.”

A few minutes later, and Braun found himself in a large storage room on the buildings ground floor. The air was much cooler, and the smell immensely improved. Instead of the tangy odor of grease, filings and molten metal, there was the familiar smell of cordite.

They stood together, Mitchell and he, looking down range from a series targets – which in this case consisted of standing two by fours that held up sheets of foam insulation cut into the profile of men. Directly in front of them was a long counter covered with guns and open cases of ammunition. Braun recognized the three models: a short stock semi-auto rifle, a submachine gun that resembled an old STEN, and a Colt automatic.

The sum total of everything Mitchell and his crew had been working on since they first set up shop. Mitchell motioned to the nearest weapon, which happened to be a copy of their standard submachine gun. Braun stepped forward and took hold of the weapon. He noticed an inscription carved on the side.

Freak Killer 2.0

He raised the weapon to his shoulder, tested the sights and the weight.

“You recognize what that is, don’t you?” said Mitchell.

Braun nodded, lowered the weapon to get a better look at the assembly. In essence, the weapon was just a single, long tube of metal, a wiry metal stock, and a magazine sticking at right angles to it. The front end was especially long, thanks to the addition of the built-in suppressor.

“A venerable old design. How did you know how to recreate it so exactly?”

Mitchell crossed his arms. His tone became that of a proud father. “I had a set of the old blueprints at home. Metal working has always been my vocation, and old firearms my passion.”

“No wonder the Council saw fit to put you to work here.”

Mitchell laughed. “Well, the way they saw it, someone needed to be making sure we had a supply or replacement bullets. And no offense to your friends there, but most of our guns didn’t take five-five-six or nine millimeter ammo. Once they formed a militia, it just made more sense to create a standardized set of weapons and ammunition.”

“Hence the Freak Killer?”

Mitchell began speaking in proud tones again. “I was hard-pressed to come up with a model that was both easy enough to produce but reliable in the field, and simple enough to strip down and reassemble that someone could do it with a bare minimum of training. STENs were the perfect concept – designed with simplicity and a minimal number of components in mind.”

“Not to mention minimal expenditure of materials,” said Braun.

“Well observed. Perfectly suited to our purposes, wouldn’t you say?”

Braun raised the weapon again and chambered a round. He aimed at the nearest target, and squeezed. The weapon let off a metallic clack, and a small thunk sounded in the target down range. He took in, and let out, a small breath as he lowered the weapon, an old habit.

“Not bad,” he said. “And quiet too.”

“Stealth is another thing we non-military types take seriously. Loud gunshots have a way of drawing the infected to towards you. Don’t imagine you grunts ever worried about that, huh?”

Braun shrugged. “No. Drawing them in was kind of what we wanted to do. Easier to kill that way.”

Mitchell shook his head. “Well… you’re in our world now. Try to adapt.”

Oscar Mike – Prologue

The king who is situated anywhere immediately on the circumference of the conqueror’s territory is termed the enemy. The king who is likewise situated close to the enemy, but separated from the conqueror only by the enemy, is termed the friend.

-Kautilya, Arthasastra: Book IV

The sound was like a gentle beating in his ears. An intermittent thrum that kept reverberating in the dark. His eyes went in and out of focus, watching as the hard, graceful wings looped endlessly in an unending dance. He blinked many times, his mind moving in and out of the darkness. And all the while, a strange sensation was building in the back of him, like a burning light that was slowly became brighter.

The thrum was getting stronger too, and it was soon interrupted by a high-pitched whine and a loud voice…

“On your feet!”

A deafening roar sounded and he has hit by something hard. His skin prickled at the feel of terrible heat, and he realized he was awash in it. His mind went dark again for a moment, then came back to the light as he felt a sharp sting against his face. When his eyes opened, they saw the face of a familiar-looking man, and heard the same voice calling to him again.

“Get up! Get up!”

He drew in breath and felt another sharp sting. His body had been shocked into wakefulness again, and all at once, the landscape became a very noisy, very ugly place.

“Get up! We gotta move, sir!”

The face pulled away and a hand descended onto his chest, pulling at his uniform. The next thing he knew, he was on his feet and being shoved from behind. Close by, he saw the burning wreck of what had once been the beating wings, the body of their evac chopper. He could barely stand, barely move his body. And yet somehow, he knew to turn his back to it and run.

“C’mon! We got to get to the treeline before another -”

Another high-pitched whine and another roar followed, bringing with it another burst of heat and another powerful wave. This one sent him low; and above, the sound of several more terrible whines were coming in. He closed his eyes and just kept running. Surely, these ones would miss him if he could just block them out. Or, one might find him, and turn the world black forever…

“Sir! Sir! Look at me!”

The voice was coming from beside him this time. Bellard looked to it and instantly recognized who it was. He quickly sat up, but several deep breaths were needed before he could speak.

“Marcel,” he said, wiping his face. He noted the generous amount of sweat there, despite how cold he felt. “What happened?”

“You were having a nightmare, sir,” said Marcel, offering him his canteen. “And you instructed me to wake you when we found the path again.”

Bellard drank deeply from the canteen, his mouth accepting the cool water gratefully. He noted the brackish taste, and the unmistakable tang of iodine tablets. When he was finished, he processed what the Corporal was telling him and quickly remembered.

“Ah, yes. How far is it?”

“About a klick or so up ahead. Tree cover’s good. And no sign of ghouls.”

“Good.” Bellard wiped his face again. He immediately became aware of the thick stubble on his face, his sweat-soaked hair and the state of his clothes. For some reason, this made him think of the rest of the crew, who were still sleeping behind him. Lying in the recesses of some tree roots, each of them had made a pillow from their backpacks and a blanket from their uniform tops. He lamented the idea of waking them again after what felt like such a restless sleep, but they had to keep moving.

Raising himself up on one knee and then planting his boot solidly on the ground, he got a sharp spasm of pain that went from his back to his toes. He tried to talk over the pain to avoid moaning too loudly.

“Gather the others. We need to get moving before nightfall.”

“Yes, sir.” Marcel hurried past and began rallying the rest. The sounds of groaning and muttering from them followed, a familiar sound after days of forced marching.

Getting up the rest of the way proved difficult for Bellard, as his legs proving to be weaker than he had given them credit for. His head was also noticeably heavy, and the ground seemed to spin a little when he tried to straighten up.
And then the pain in his back returned, firing in his lower back and running the length of his leg. It was much worse this time, and he almost fell over from the shock of it. Luckily, he caught himself on one knee; and when up again, he saw Marcel standing beside him. One hand was resting on his shoulder, the other firmly grasping at his weapon.

“Can you walk, sir?”

“Yes…” he uttered. “Pinched nerve. I’ll be okay.”

“You sure? Don’t want you losing the use of your legs there.”

Bellard sensed the gentle mockery in his tone. At another time, he might have laughed. But at the moment, he prayed It wouldn’t come to that.

“I’m fine,” he said with false confidence. He looked back at the others and promptly changed the subject. “How are they doing?”

Marcel’s smile faded. “They said they wanted to talk to you first.”

Bellard knew instantly what to expect, but nodded just the same. For days now, his colleagues had been griping about the same thing: what was the plan? What were they to do for supplies? And what did they hope to do about the morass they were in? He had become rather well practiced at addressing their concerns by now.

“Assemble your squad. We move together in five mikes.”

Marcel issued a salute and took off. Habits of the grunts, they saluted the rank and not the man. Even now, when Bellard and the others were little more than dead weight, they still trusted in the silver bars he carried on his shoulders to see them through to safety. He suspected they might feel differently if they had a chance to sit in on one of his conversations with his associates…

He hobbled over and sidled up to Penn. Taggart and Drake took a knee nearby and moaned unhappily. He noted the shaking in their hands and the pallor in their faces. It was worse than usual. Between fatigue and water discipline, they were beginning to fade. He anticipated a had conversation.

“Alright, what’s the problem now, specialists?”

Penn was the first to speak, and it was quite the effort for him to get all the words out without becoming winded. “What are we even doing here, Ted? What’s our end game?”

“We’ve been over this, George,” he replied. “We’re going to get to the high ground. We’re going to keep moving until we are above the tree line, and away from the ghouls and all the fighting.”

“Yeah, and then what?”

It was Drake asking this. Bellard paused for a second as he considered that question. In the past few days, no one had asked what they planned to do once they reached their destination.

“What do you mean?”

“What he means is,” Taggart interjected, “what are we supposed to do when we get up into the hills? It’s not like anyone’s waiting for us up there. We’re running out of food and water, and there’s no guarantee anyone’s going to be able to rescue us.”

“I know, Beth. But what choice do we have?” He motioned to the east. It only took a few seconds before the noise of the carnage that was still going on down there reached them. The sounds of small arms fire and the occasional din of something heavier exploding. He summarized it for them as best he could. “People in uniform are still killing each other, and the ghouls are likely to overrun all of them eventually. We can’t stay in the valley. We have to get higher.”

“But what’s waiting for us up there?” asked Penn. “Sun, exposure, and whole lot of fucking rocks?”
Bellard grumbled. “I repeat… what choice do we have? At least up there there’s the possibility of safety. The rest… we can deal with that once we get there.”

Taggart and Penn grumbled right back at him. Only Drake seemed to be able to maintain a modicum of tact at the moment.

“It just sounds like we’re trading one shot at certain death for another. And we haven’t even addressed the larger issue of what’s on its way.”

Bellard looked over his shoulder to see if Marcel or any other of the grunts were nearby. He spotted PFC Rickard, one of the riflemen from the 29th that had made it out with them. The rest were moving up ahead, stepping through the wall of foliage the lined their clearing and fanning out to watch for ghouls. Only Rickard was within earshot, and he was concerned that any mention of what they knew would elicit suspicion.

They had agreed some time ago that no mention was to be made of the “larger issue”. They were having a hard enough time maintaining their own morale. They did not need their escort falling to pieces and questioning the nature of what they were doing too. And without their equipment handy, there really was no way of telling how far off it really was.

He raised his hands to them for quiet. “Look, if what we learned before is true, then it is all the more important to get to somewhere secure. The high ground in this region is our best bet of that. There’s simply no other place we can go. Not unless we can find ourselves a chopper and fly the hell out of here.”

“In that case…” said Taggart. “We might want to discuss what will happen if we get spotted up there.”

“You mean… if an enemy spotter goes flying by?”

She nodded. Drake once again had his tactful two cents to offer. “If we’re talking about survival at all costs here, and the enemy actually prevails down there, then it might be best to raise the white flag if they see us.”

Bellard sighed and looked at his feet. All this talk was beginning to take its toll and he could feel his back beginning to cramp up again. And the thought of allowing for their capture by the enemy; somehow, that seemed to make him feel worse. But they were right. It was obvious to anyone who had been there that General Montag and his task force had been beaten. Their grip on the valley had been tenuous during that last day, and the counter-attack had left no doubt as to who was going to win.

That’s when the ghouls came, like a terrible wall of wild animals from the northern mountains. There was no telling how the Rebels would fare against that, but if they came through, they would be the only ones left in the region that could give Marcell and his colleagues food, shelter and aid. Besides, they had a right to know as well. Rebels or not, they didn’t deserve to be overrun.

“Yes… that might be the best course of action,” he conceded. “I just hope our escort there prove to be as understanding.”
The others emitted some chortled sounds that almost sounded like laughter. They all knew it wouldn’t be as easy as that. As hardened grunts, they would not simply lay down there arms because a bunch of specialists told them to. Whatever respect they held for Bellard’s rank would most likely disappear at that point. But that was another die and another crisis. And there was no telling Marcel and his friends would even make it that far. And if their ranks were thinned, perhaps they would need less in the way of convincing…

“Alright. We’ll deal with that when the time comes. In the meantime, let’s get moving. We need to get out this valley as soon as possible. Otherwise, we might find ourselves -”

A yell came from the other direction. Every head in their group spun around to look for the source. All they saw was Rickard crouching low with his weapon raised. Slowly, he moved forward, trying to catch sight of his companions in the thick brush.

“Corporal?” he whispered loudly. “Manning? Paige? Sound off!”

Bellard and the others were crouched low too. In spite of the shooting pains that were going through his knees and back, he sat low, breathing quietly and straining to hear.

“Corporal? Marcel? What happened?” Rickard said louder. Weapon raised, he took a more few steps and pierced the foliage wall. His last step coincided with the tip of an arrowhead sticking out through the back of his neck, the metallic point slick with blood. He emitted a short, choking noise, and then fell.

Taggart yelled out. “Private!”

Penn quickly wrapped his hand around her mouth and dove to the ground. “Down, everyone!”
Bellard and Drake followed. All together, they lay in the dirt now, hugging the moist earth and waiting for something to happen. It was several seconds before they heard anything; and surprisingly, it wasn’t the sound of an arrow zipping overhead.

It was rustling, and it was coming from the bushes. Worst yet, it was coming from all around them, and getting closer. Then, it was the sound of boots coming to rest in the dirt, and someone clearing their throat…

“On your feet,” said a male voice. Slowly, Bellard raised his hands and painfully got on his knees. He hoped his position would be seen as a sign of cooperation, because at the moment it was the best he could do.

“Rest of you too,” the man said. Around him, the others began to oblige and got up with their hands raised.

Bellard slowly looked over and caught sight of the man’s face. The head was largely obscured by a hood, and the eyes covered by a set of goggles. But he did notice the thick stubble and the black paint rubbed across his cheeks.

He looked to the man’s companions next, all of whom carried hunting bows or machetes. Each wore what looked like a piece of green canvas that had been altered to carry a hood. Whoever they were, they weren’t part of the 200th.

“You armed?” the man asked.

Bellard looked at the others and then replied. As ranking officer, it seemed to fall on him to negotiate their surrender. Or whatever this was.

“No. We left our weapons behind. We’re completely unarmed.”

“Good.” The man nodded, and his companions began to close around them. One by one, the canvas-wearing hunters pulled them to their feet and began pushing them forward.

“What are you doing? What do you want with us?” Bellard said as he was himself was pulled up.

“You’re our prisoners,” the man said, his mouth forming a crooked smile beneath the goggles. “I thought that part was obvious.”

The Future is Here: Morphable Skins

Tomorrow’s cars could have a feature that will reduce wind drag and allow them to go faster: smart, morphing skins that form dimples or go smooth on command. It is all part of a growing field of mechanics that seeks to make surfaces “smart”, and it is being considered for everything from increasing aerodynamics to reducing the damage caused by hurricanes and high winds.

The research comes from MIT, where engineers have developed a smart curved surface that can morph at will to reduce drag. Known as a “smorph” (short for smart morphable surface), they were able to get their creation to wrinkle into a dimpled pattern similar to a golf ball’s, with similar aerodynamic properties. In short, when the smorph wrinkles, it is able to travel faster than if it were smooth.

smorph Scientists and golfers alike have long known that the dimples on the surface of a golf ball allow it to drastically reduce drag and travel much farther than would otherwise be possible. This happens because the small dents hold the airflow near the surface of ball for a longer time. This reduces the size of the wake, or zone of turbulence, as the ball takes off. However, the mechanics employed here are a bit more complex.

In recent years, in-depth aerodynamic studies have shown that the dimples reduce drag only at lower speeds. As you move toward faster speeds, the advantage of irregularities disappears and a smooth surface becomes the best way to minimize the wake. Now, researchers at MIT have married the best of both worlds by developing a surface that can it’s smoothness on the fly to maximize aerodynamic efficiency at all speeds.

The smorph manages to change its shape by changing the balance between its materials. Basically, an empty core is surrounded by two different polymers. One is thick and squishy, while the outermost layer is stiff skin. As the volume of a the inner layer is reduced by sucking air out of its hollow core, the core shrinks. The squishy layer is soft enough to contract smoothly, but the skin is forced to wrinkle. The trick is controlling exactly how a smorph wrinkles.

Because the dimples look so much like those on a golf ball’s surface, the researchers were inspired to test their creation in a wind tunnel. Sure enough, when the researchers tested the smorph in a wind tunnel, they found that it was about twice as aerodynamically efficient when dimpled. But the sheath of vortices only form at relatively low speeds, and then convert back to a smooth surface at higher speeds in order to maintain aerodynamic velocity.

This is where smorphs could offer a huge advantage. By being able to morph to control drag, they could be especially useful in building structures that won’t collapse or incur significant damage when facing very high winds – one example being the so-called radomes, the spherical, weatherproof domes that enclose radar antennas. The researchers also say that the materials could also be used to minimize drag in cars in order to maximize fuel efficiency.

Earlier this year, Reis won an NSF grant to keep developing smorphs, which he hopes to someday scale up to use on cars, aircraft, and even buildings. There are some issues to overcome before this happens though, such as the fact that hexagonal dimples are unstable on flat surfaces. So far smorphs have only been used on a round, ball shape, but Reis and his co-authors believe they can figure out how to reproduce the pattern on slightly curved surfaces.

Alongside such concepts as morphing wings and self-adjusting and reconfigurable robots, the creation of surfaces that can change shape in order to better accommodate airflow, or be optimal for different tasks, is part of the manufacturing revolution that seeks to replace rigid structures and products with something that can adapt, flow and transform depending on what is being asked of it.

And be sure to check out this video from MIT of the smorph in action:

Sources: wired.com, gizmag.com

News from Mars: Laser-Blasting and Soil Sampling

As the exploration of Mars goes on, the small army of robotic rovers, satellites and orbiters continue to provide us with information, photographs and discoveries that remind us of how great a mystery the Red Planet truly is. For instance, in the past month, two major stories have been announced concerning the nature of Martian soil, its ancient history, and some of the more exciting moments in it’s exploration.

For example, Curiosity made news as its high resolution camera caught an image of sparks being generated as it zapped a Martian rock. In it’s lifetime, the rover has used its million watt Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser to zap over 600 rock or soil targets as part of its mission. However, this was the first time that the rover team was able to get the arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to capture the action as it occurred.

The ChemCam laser is used to determine the composition of Martian rocks and soils at a distance of up to 8 meters (25 feet). By hitting targets with several high-energy pulses, it is able to yield preliminary data for the scientists and engineers back at Earth to help them decide if a target warrants a closer investigation and, in rare cases, sampling and drilling activities.

ChemCam works through a process called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. The laser hits a target with pulses to generate sparks, whose spectra provide information about which chemical elements are in the target. Successive laser shots are fired in sequence to gradually blast away thin layers of material. Each shot exposes a slightly deeper layer for examination by the ChemCam spectrometer.

As Curiosity fired deeper into the target rock – named “Nova” – it showed an increasing concentration of aluminum as the sequential laser blasts penetrated through the uninteresting dust on the rock’s surface. Silicon and sodium were also detected. As Sylvestre Maurice, ChemCam’s Deputy Principal Investigator at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology, said in a statement:

This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000 times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that is created… Each time the laser hits a target, the plasma light is caught and analyzed by ChemCam’s spectrometers. What the new images add is confirmation that the size and shape of the spark are what we anticipated under Martian conditions.

During it’s first year on Mars, Curiosity has already accomplished its primary objective of discovering a habitable zone on Mars that contains the minerals necessary to support microbial life billions of years ago when Mars was wetter and warmer. Currently, the rover is driving swiftly to the base of Mount Sharp at the center of Gale Crater, where it hopes to find more.

In that same vein, according to new geological information obtained by Curiosty’s images and soil examinations, samples that were pulled out of a crater that is estimated to be some 3.7 billion years old contain more evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter. These findings were announced in a recent paper published in the online edition of Geology by University of Oregon geologist Gregory Retallack.

Unlike Earth, the Martian landscape is littered with loose rocks from impacts or layered by catastrophic floods. However, recent images from Curiosity from the Gale Crater reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces lined with sulfate, ellipsoidal hollows and concentrations of sulfate comparable with soils in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys and Chile’s Atacama Desert.

Retallack, the paper’s lone author, studied mineral and chemical data published by researchers closely tied with the Curiosity mission. As a professor of geological sciences and co-director of paleontology research at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, he internationally known as an expert on the recognition of paleosols – ancient fossilized soils contained in rocks.

As he explains in the paper:

The pictures were the first clue, but then all the data really nailed it. The key to this discovery has been the superb chemical and mineral analytical capability of the Curiosity Rover, which is an order of magnitude improvement over earlier generations of rovers. The new data show clear chemical weathering trends, and clay accumulation at the expense of the mineral olivine, as expected in soils on Earth. Phosphorus depletion within the profiles is especially tantalizing, because it attributed to microbial activity on Earth.

The ancient soils do not prove that Mars once contained life, but they do add to growing evidence that an early, wetter and warmer Mars was more habitable than the planet has been in the past 3 billion years. Surface cracks in the deeply buried soils suggest typical soil clods. Vesicular hollows, or rounded holes, and sulfate concentrations, he said, are both features of desert soils on Earth.

Since Curiosity is currently on its way to Mount Sharp, future missions will be needed to fully explore these features. But as Retallack explained, the parallels with Earth are quite exciting:

None of these features is seen in younger surface soils of Mars. The exploration of Mars, like that of other planetary bodies, commonly turns up unexpected discoveries, but it is equally unexpected to discover such familiar ground.

The newly discovered soils indicate that more benign and habitable soil condition existed on Mars than previously expected. What’s more, their dating to 3.7 billion years ago places them within a transition period when the planet went from an early, benign water cycle to the acidic and arid Mars of today. This is especially important since major changes were taking place on Earth at around the same time.

Roughly 3.5 billion years ago, life on Earth is believed to have emerged and began diversifying. But some scientists have theorized that potential evidence that might indicate that life existed on Earth earlier may have been destroyed by tectonic activity, which did not occur on Mars. Basically, it may offer some credence to the theory that while flourished on Earth, it originated on Mars.

One person who supports this theory is Steven Benner of the Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Florida. In the past, he has speculated that life is more likely to have originated on a soil planet like Mars than a water planet like Earth. In an email interview with Science Daily, Benner wrote that Retallack’s paper:

[S]hows not only soils that might be direct products of an early Martian life, but also the wet-dry cycles that many models require for the emergence of life.

So in addition to shedding light on the mysteries of Mars, Curiosity has also been pivotal in addressing some major questions which only increase the mystery of our own existence. Did life as we know it originate on Mars but flourish on Earth? Are there still some remnants of this microbial “Eden” being preserved deep within the soil and rocks? And could life exist there again some day?

All good questions that will no doubt keep robotic rovers, orbiters, landers, and even manned missions busy for many decades to come! In the meantime, check out the video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Curiosity’s spark-generating laser blast being caught on tape:

Sources: universetoday.com, sciencedaily.com

The Future is Here: Memory Prosthetics

Developing implants that can restore damaged neural tissue – either by restoring the connections between damaged memory synapses or restoring cognitive function – is seen as the next great leap in prosthetic medicine. In recent years, steps have been taken in both areas, offering patients and willing subjects the option of restoring or hacking their neurology.

For example, last year, researchers working at the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania successfully managed to design and implement a brain implant that acted as a bypass for damaged brain tissue. This neural prosthesis successfully restored brain function in rats, demonstrating that the closed-loop brain-machine-brain interface could one day perform the same function in brain-damaged humans.

And as with many such projects, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) soon became involved, taking up the reins to fund the research and development of the technology. As part of the DARPA Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program, the device is currently being developed with the hope of restoring memory function in veterans who have suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Currently, over 270,000 military service members since 2000 and an estimated 1.7 million civilians in the US are affected by TBI, which often manifests as an inability to retrieve memories formed before being injured and an impaired ability to form new memories. Currently, there are also no effective treatments available, and beyond veterans, there are countless people around the world who suffer from the same condition as a result of accidents.

brainscans The teams will first develop computer models that describe how neurons code memories, as well as analyzing neural signals in order to understand how targeted stimulation might help restore the brain’s ability to form memories. The UCLA team will use data collected from epilepsy patients that already have electrodes implanted in their brains to develop a model of the hippocampal-entorhinal system – known to be involved in learning and memory.

Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania team will study neurosurgical patients with implanted brain electrodes, recording data as they play computer-based memory games in order to gain an understanding of how successful memory function works. All patients will be volunteers, and the teams then plan to integrate these models into implantable closed-loop systems.

Like the research on rats, the implant will pick up neural signals from an undamaged section of the brain and route it around the damaged portion, effectively forming a new neural link that functions as well as the undamaged brain. And this is not the only research that aims to help assist in memory function when it comes to veterans and those suffering from TBI.

At Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL), for example, efforts are being made to create a new type of “memory bridge”. This research builds upon similar efforts from USC, where researcher Ted Berger developed the first implantable memory device (coincidentally, also as part of DARPA’s RAM program) where limited electrodes were applied to the hippocampal regions of the brain to assist in recall and memory formation.

However, until now, no research lab has had any real clue as to what kinds of “codes” are involved when applying electrical stimulus to the brain. The LLNL group, which previously contributed to the groundbreaking Argus II retinal prosthesis is now taking a more integrated approach. With the recent announcement of ample federal BRAIN Initiative funding, they aim to build multifunction electro-optical-chemical neural sensor-effectors.

On the electrical end, LLNL’s new wafer technology will use fairly high electrode counts (perhaps 500-1000 spots). Compared to the usual higher density 11,000-electrode chips that have been used in the past, these chips will have more sparsely distributed electrode locations. Integrated light guides will provide conduits for optogenetic manipulations, and as an added bonus bi-directional fluid channels for any number of chemical exchanges are also etched in.

And like their California/Penn colleagues, the LLNL has teamed up with DARPA to get the funding they need to make this project a reality. So far, DARPA funders have brought in the implant heavyweight Medtronic, which made news last year with the development of its own closed-loop stimulators, to lend its expertise. In their case, the stimulators merged Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) with Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) to treat Parkinson’s.

Unfortunately, while immense progress in being made at the hardware end of things, there is still the matter of cracking the brains code first. In other words, where the device needs to be placed and which neurons need to be precisely controlled remain a mystery. Not all neurons are the same, and control hierarchies and preferred activation paths will inevitably emerge.

DeepBrain-New1 Ultimately, what is needed in order to make precisely-targeted deep brain stimulation (DBS) possible is a real 3D model of the regions of the brain involved. Multiple efforts are underway, not the least of which are the work of Michele Tagliati’s group from the Movement Disorders Program in the department of neurology at Cedars-Sinai, or the Human Brain Project in Luasanne, Switzerland.

In these and other cases, the use of MRIs and brain scans to create a working map of the human brain – so that attempts to create biomimetic prosthetics that can enhance or assist in it’s functions – is the ultimate goal. And once researchers have a better idea of what the brain’s layout is, and what kinds of control hierarchies and paths are involved, we can expect to see brain implants becoming a regular feature of medicine.

And as always, devices that can restore function also open the way for the possibility of enhancement. So we can also expect that bionics prosthetics that restore memory and cognitive function will give way to ones that boost these as well. The dream of Homo Superior, the post-human, or transhumanism – whatever you choose to call it – is looking to be increasingly within our grasp.

And be sure to check out this video from LLNL showcasing how their new neural implant works:

Sources: cnet.com, extremetech.com, darpa.mil

News from Space: First Couple to go to Mars!

Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum are a pretty interesting couple. Like most, they plan trips together to new and exciting destinations. But unlike most, they plan to go to Mars, and they just might see their dream come true. Twenty years ago, they founded the private space company Paragon Space Development Corporation, with the aim of finding the most feasible way to send two people on a round-trip flyby of the Red Planet.

And now, after many years of planning, they may finally get to see it come to fruition. The only problem is, the window for this launch – in 2021 when planet Earth and Mars will be in alignment – is fast approaching. And a number of technical and logistical issues (i.e. how to shield themselves against deadly radiation, how to store their waste, how much food, water, and air to bring) still need to be resolved.

Inspiration_Mars (2) The mission – called Inspiration Mars and spearheaded by millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito – is the most ambitious of Paragon’s many projects. The company is also one of the country’s leading designers of life support systems and body suits for extreme environments, and they are currently developing a vehicle for commercial balloon trips to the stratosphere and technology for private moon landings.

But they have the most grandiose hopes for Mars. They believe that sending the first humans into the orbit of another planet could ignite a 21st century “Apollo moment” that will propel American students back into the sciences and inspire young innovators. Beyond that, and in advance of NASA’s proposed 2030 manned mission to Mars, it might just inspire a full-scale colonization effort.

Photograph by John de Dios The couple’s drive to explore space was born in a giant glass dome near Tuscon, Arizona called Biosphere 2 in the early 90s. For two years (between 1991 and 1993), eight people – including Poynter and MacCallum – lived inside this dome as part of a prototype space colony. The eccentric, privately funded science experiment contained miniature biomes that mimicked Earth’s environments.

This included a jungle, desert, marshland, savannah and an ocean all crammed into an area no larger than two and a half football fields. The crew subsisted on a quarter-acre agricultural plot and went about their lives while medical doctors and ecologists observed from outside. All went relatively smoothly until, 16 months into the experiment, crew members began suffering from severe fatigue and sleep apnea.

They discovered that the dome’s oxygen content had substantially dropped and, when one member fell into a state of confusion in which he could not add simple numbers, decided to refill the dome with oxygen, breaking the simulation of space-colony self-sufficiency. The project was deemed a failure by many, with Time Magazine going as far as to name it one of the 100 worst ideas of the century.

But the crew persisted for their full two-year trial and, if nothing else, emerged intimately aware of the mental traumas of prolonged isolation—crucial wisdom for anyone seriously considering traveling to another planet. As Poynter described it, the challenges were numerous and varied:

Some of the easier ones to get your head around are things like depression and mood swings—that’s kind of obvious. Weird things are things like food stealing and hoarding.

The more severe symptoms were similar to the delusions reported by early 20th century explorers who hallucinated while trekking for months through the featureless white expanse of Antarctica. She describes one instance in which she was standing in the sweet potato field about to harvest greens to feed the Biosphere 2 goats when she suddenly felt as if she had stepped through a time machine:

I came out the other side and was embroiled in a very fervent argument with my much older brother. And what was so disconcerting about it was that it really was hallucinatory. It was like I could smell it, feel it. It was very weird.

Six months into Biosphere 2, the couple began to think about life after the experiment and channeled their waning energy into a business plan. They wanted to build on the skills and ecological knowledge they were accruing during the experiment, while also playing off Biosphere 2’s space-oriented goals, and finally landed on building life support systems for an eventual trip to Mars.

Earth_&_Mir_(STS-71) MacCallum blogged about these plans while still living inside the dome, and managed to sign up Lockheed Martin aerospace engineer Grant Anderson as a co-founder, and signed legal papers with Poynter to incorporate Paragon. After Biosphere 2 project, both began working with a group from NASA to test an ecological experiment on the Russian Space Station MIR.

Then in December 2012, Paragon teamed up with another commercial space flight company named Golden Spike to build a space suit, thermal control, and life support technologies for commercial trips to the Moon aimed to launch in 2020. In December 2013, they named former astronaut and personal friend Mark Kelly as the director of flight crew operations on World View, an effort to bring tourists on a balloon ride to the middle of the stratosphere by 2016.

In short, Poynter and MacCallum have their fingers in just about every commercial space venture currently on the table outside of SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, of course. Over the past two decades, their company has grown to employ about 70 engineers and scientists and is still growing today. Their focus is on creative teamwork, hoping to foster the kind of innovative spirit needed to make space missions possible.

Still, despite Paragon’s best efforts and accomplishments, many do not believe their ambitions to send a human couple to Mars by the 2020s will pan out. Former NASA astronaut Thomas Jones is one such person, who said in an interview with WIRED that he thinks that humans won’t reach Mars orbit until the 2030s, and will struggle to do so without the financial and infrastructural support of NASA.

mars-mission1 Originally, Dennis Tito hoped to finance the project entirely independently, using crowd-sourced funds and philanthropy. The original goal was also to get the project off the ground by 2017, when Earth and Mars would align in such a way that a rocket could slingshot to and from Mars in just 501 days. But with further analysis, Tito and Paragon realized they did not have the resources or money to pull off the mission by 2017.

They identified another planetary alignment in 2021 that would allow for a slightly-longer 580-day trip, but they still doubt they can achieve this without a bit of government support. According to McCallum:

There was really no way that we could find to practically use existing commercial rockets. We were hoping we could pull together a mission using existing hardware, but you just don’t get to go to Mars that easy.

During recent hearings with NASA, Tito explained that he would need roughly $1 billion over the next four or five years to develop the space launch system and other aspects of the mission. NASA was not readily willing to agree to this and they put the issue on hold. But regardless of whether Inspiration Mars is successful in 2021, Jones believes these commercial space efforts will help stir momentum and public interest in space.

All of this would be great for NASA, which is beholden to public opinion and still looking to Congress to allocate the money needed to new infrastructure and fund future missions. Ergo, Paragon’s involvement in an array of different space endeavors that embed space in the American consciousness could improve their chances of getting Inspiration Mars off the ground. Or as he put it:

I think it is going to lead to an explosion of ideas of how we can use space to make a buck, and that’s all to the good. And so if these companies can develop a track record of success, and people have greater confidence that they can personally experience space, then it may become more relevant to our society and country, and then the U.S. may have a broader base of support for funding for NASA.

At the end of last year, the team successfully completed the major components of the life support system for Inspiration Mars and did a full test of all the major systems together in the lab. They recycled urine, made oxygen, and removed carbon dioxide from the system – all the things they would need to do to keep a crew alive for an Inspiration Mars mission.

Poynter_MacCallum_Portrait-330 And MacCallum believes a trip to Mars that would use these life support systems could inspire the next great generation of innovators, much as the Apollo missions inspired the current generation of innovators and astronauts. McCallum turned five on July 20th, 1969 – the day that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and credits that historic event for inspiring him to take an interest in space and enter the Biosphere 2 project.

And though they hadn’t originally intended to be the couple that would take part in the Inspiration Mars mission, they have indicated that they would be willing to throw their hats into the ring. After all, they meet the basic requirements for the mission, being a physically fit middle-aged couple, and the Biosphere 2 project lent them some experience living in isolation.

But most important to the couple is the idea of being able to call back to students on Earth and describe the experience. As he described it, watching footage of the Pale Blue Dot drift away and the Red Planet’s drift closer would be the most amazing thing ever for a child to behold:

That would have completely blown my mind as a middle schooler. And we would have 500 days to have these conversations with students all around the world.

Of that, I have little doubt. And even if Inspiration Mars does not get off the ground (metaphorically or literally), it has hardly the only private space venture currently in the works. For example, Elon Musk and his commercial space firm SpaceX has made incredibly progress with the development of the reusable-rocket system. And Mars One, another crowdfunded venture, is still in the works and aiming to send volunteers on a one-way trip by 2024.

No telling how and when the first human beings will walk on the Red Planet. But at this juncture, it seems like a foregone conclusion that not only will it be happening, but within our lifetimes. And while we’re waiting, be sure to check out the Inspiration Mars video below. I can attest to it being quite… inspiring 😉

Source: wired.com, paragonsdc.com, inspirationmars.org

Happy 147th Birthday Canada!

Hello all, and happy Canada Day to you! Today is the national holiday that marks the day that Confederation took place. For those not familiar, this historic event took place on July 1, 1867, when the three colonies of British North America came together to become the four provinces – Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick – of the Dominion of Canada. Thereafter, July 1st became known as “Dominion Day” – until 1982 when the Canadian constitution was patriated, at which point it was renamed Canada Day.

Growing up in Ottawa – the nation’s capitol – Canada Day was always a special time. As a kid, it usually involved having a barbeque at home and proceeding to head downtown to see the crowds gather on Parliament Hill. At sundown, the fireworks display would begin, and we’d watch as from Major’s Hill Park (just across the canal from Parliament Hill) as thousands of them would go off above the clock tower (pictured above).

As I got older, the ritual remained the same, only it began to involve myself and my closest friends doing it instead. We’d start out at a friend’s house (more often than not, Luke would be the host). After some burgers or some other barbequed meal, washed down generously with beer or some other spirituous beverage, we’d proceed downtown. Once there, we’d get lost in the festivities, which would be pretty damn raucous and overwhelming!

To describe it, imagine 100,000 people crowded into the space of about 3 square kms. That’s where Parliament Hill, the downtown area, the Rideau Center, the old Bytown area, the War Memorial, the entrance to the Rideau Canal, and a slew of other major attractions are located. Vendors and buskers are out and about, people have their faces painted and sport flags, and the festive spirit just gets inside you and makes you want to party.

And of course, there is the televised concert taking place on the Hill, which features bands from all over Canada leading people in celebration. It was one of my fondest memories of living in Ottawa, and something I truly miss now that I live out here on the West Coast. Of course, Victoria puts on a might fine celebration as well, which has all the same high points. But since this is not the town I grew up in, it’s never quite had the same meaning for me.

So here’s to Canada, and here’s hoping that everybody out there has a day that holds special meaning to them too, and that they get to enjoy it this year without incident, stress or worry. And to all my American compatriots (including my sister and brother-in-law) happy soon-to-be Fourth of July!

Curiosity Rover’s First Martian Anniversary

Happy (Martian) Birthday Curiosity!

J. C. Conway

A Martian year is 687 Earth days long. Accordingly, NASA’s Curiosity Rover reaches its one-year Martian Anniversary on June 24, 2014 (Earth Calendar), 687 days after its mission began.

Curiosity has already accomplished the mission’s main goal of determining whether Mars once offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. One of Curiosity’s first major findings after landing on the Red Planet in August 2012 was an ancient riverbed at its landing site. Nearby, at an area known as Yellowknife Bay, the mission met its main goal of determining whether the Martian Gale Crater ever was habitable for simple life forms. The answer, a historic “yes,” came from two mudstone slabs that the rover sampled with its drill. Analysis of these samples revealed the site was once a lakebed with mild water, the essential elemental ingredients for life, and a type of chemical energy source used by some microbes on Earth. If…

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Stories by Williams

Classic sci-fi books, reviews, and the best of from a dedicated fan and author!

Category: Uncategorized

The Future of Flight: VR Fighter Pilot Training

Cyberwars: DHS Hack and “Largest Data Breach” Ever

Oscar Mike – Chapter Three

Oscar Mike – Prologue

The Future is Here: Morphable Skins

News from Mars: Laser-Blasting and Soil Sampling

The Future is Here: Memory Prosthetics

News from Space: First Couple to go to Mars!

Happy 147th Birthday Canada!

Curiosity Rover’s First Martian Anniversary

Classic sci-fi books, reviews, and the best of from a dedicated fan and author!

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