Directed energy combat lasers and microwave weapons brings the dawn of an entirely new era in defense

Lasers, microwaves and other directed energy weapons will be used more widely by the U.S. military. U.S. military, top armed forces officials described weapons that are in various stages of development and testing by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army, but said more work was needed to develop tactics for their use …

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China shows large amphibious hovercrafts and a new 50 ton seaplane will support South China Sea operations

A new Chinese-built seaplane could help seal Beijing’s control over its claims in the South China Sea (SCS), say military specialists on China. The Jiaolong (Water Dragon) AG600, under construction by China Aviation Industry General Aircraft (CAIGA), will be China’s largest operational seaplane. The aircraft is powered by four turboprop WJ-6 engines and has a …

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130 million person Beijing – Tianjin – Hebei megacity needs a lot of infrastructure, tax reform and government overhaul

Nextbigfuture covered Chinese President Xi’s Jing-Jin-ji plan to integrate Beijing with surrounding cities to create a 130 million person megacity in 2014. President Xi Jinping has a signature project to link 130 million people across Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province into a single megalopolis, the so-called Jing-Jin-Ji region. Xi has held out the model as …

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Star Trek Axanar has an indiegogo fundraiser and a 3-4 minute teaser with a new Vulcan scene

Axanar is the first fully-professional, independent Star Trek film. While some may call it a “fan film” as we are not licensed by CBS, Axanar has professionals working in front and behind the camera, with a fully-professional crew–many of whom have worked on Star Trek itself–who ensure Axanar will be the quality of Star Trek …

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Cold War 2.0 with talks to preposition tanks in Balkans and expand NATO with Finland, Macedonia and Montenegro

The Pentagon is considering positioning heavy weaponry and equipment in Baltic states and Eastern Europe to support training with regional allies, officials said Saturday, a move that could heighten tensions with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. The proposal, if approved, would put equipment such as Humvees or Bradley fighting vehicles at sites in countries …

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Targeting Zettawatt pulses to explore novel physics such as Dark Matter and Dark Energy

The intense laser technology can drive the quest for fundamental physics research in a novel fashion. The International Center for Zetta- and Exawatt Science and Technology (IZEST) was created with the mission to study the possibility to produce intensities even higher than the ones predicted for ELI (0.2 Exawatt). In the time domain, extremely short …

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Three Dimensional Holograms that can be touched and felt are bit more advanced than the ones in Japan in 2009

New research, using ultrasound, has developed a virtual 3D haptic shape that can be seen and felt. The method uses ultrasound, which is focused onto hands above the device and that can be felt. By focusing complex patterns of ultrasound, the air disturbances can be seen as floating 3D shapes. Visually, the researchers have demonstrated …

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IARPA funding the scaling of superconducting computing for energy efficient exaflop computing

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) invests in high-risk, high-payoff research programs to tackle some of the most difficult challenges of the agencies and disciplines in the Intelligence Community (IC). IARPA is investing in breakthrough superconducting computing to enable energy efficient exaflop supercomputers. They could make an exaflop supercomputer that use 2 megawatts or …

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The Elite 0.01% will be flying supersonic again in 2019

The supersonic Concorde passenger jet had its last flight in November, 2003. The Aerion supersonic businessjet could lead the re-emergence of supersonic commercial aviation. New technology will make the planes a lot more fuel efficient and there has been work to reduce the sonic booms. The Aerion AS2 is a Mach 1.6 supersonic business jet …

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Will 2015 see the emergence of a Diamond Age of Microelectronics ?

AKHAN has exclusive rights to a suite of breakthrough diamond-based semiconductor inventions developed by nanoscientist Ani Sumant of Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. With the licensing agreement, AKHAN will be able to exclusively expand the capabilities of the diamond semiconductor platform, allowing for improved performance and thermal efficiency …

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How much US Emissions Improvements were from natural gas, nuclear, renewables and efficiency

US greenhouse gas emissions have gone down to below the level they were at in 1997 which met the Kyoto agreement. This happened even though the US did not sign the Kyoto agreement. Energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is widely believed to contribute to global warming, have fallen 12% between 2005 …

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