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Dutch flood-protection may be suitable for New York, other East Coast cities
Megastorms and disasters are not going to continue to be once in a lifetime storms, but instead become more of an annual occurrence; experts say that the combination of more frequent megastorms and rising sea levels across the east coast would forcemany cities to get serious about flood protection
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U.K. govt. awards £37.1 million for civilian nuclear research
The U.K. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has announced an award of 37.1 million pounds to the University of Sheffield’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (Nuclear AMRC), which are working in partnership with Rolls-Royce as the lead company for the U.K. nuclear supply chain
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Manufacturers: sequestration specter already a drag on economic growth
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) says that the United States is already struggling due to Washington’s failure to address the pending fiscal cliff; a new NAM report indicates that there will be a 0.6 percent loss in GDP growth by the end of 2012
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CHAMP, Boeing’s non-kinetic alternative to traditional explosive, in first operational test
CHAMP, Boeing’s counter-electronics weapon system, uses high-powered microwaves to degrade or destroy electronic targets without collateral damage; it was recently successfully passed its first operational test at the Utah desert
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Carbon-negative fuel at projected cost of less than $1.50 per gallon
Cool Planet Energy Systems the other day announced a major breakthrough in the commercialization and affordability of biofuels from non-food biomass that can run in any vehicle on the road today; a successful field testing was conducted at Google Campus
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Kaspersky Lab working on a secure operating system for critical infrastructure
Antivirus firmKaspersky Lab is set to make a major contribution to the security of critical infrastructure systems by developing an operating system specifically designed for such systems; the new operating system will protect information used in infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, transportation control facilities, gas and electrical systems,and other facilities “criticallyimportant” to the economy and well-being of industrialized societies
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New app uses scattered public information to put together a digital footprint of individuals, organizations
A new app application can collect scattered online clues to provide a picture of individuals or organizations; the application draws on public data sources in order to put together a graphical digital footprint
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New solution helps thwart “smash-and-grab” credential theft
Of the data breaches investigated in 2011, servers were among the primary target assets in 64 percent of investigations and those accounted for 94 percent of compromised records; a new solution from RSA scrambles, randomizes, and splits authentication credentials across multiple servers, data centers, and the cloud
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U.S. Navy tests the second of two railgun prototypes
The EM Railgun launcher is a long-range naval weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of traditional gun propellants such as explosive chemicals; magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500-5,600 mph; the Office of Naval Research’s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program is evaluating the second of two industry railgun prototype launchers at a facility in Dahlgren, Virginia
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New launch and recovery system for the Scan Eagle UAV
A shipboard-capable system designed to support both the launch and recovery of the Scan Eagle UAV successfully completed final demonstration flight testing on 27 September at a testing range in eastern Oregon
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Motorola Solutions invests in SST, provider of ShotSpotter gunfire location and analysis technology
Motorola Solutions Venture Capital joins major existing investors in a $12 million new investment round in SST, Inc., developer of the ShotSpotter acoustic gunfire location and analysis system; the strategic investment aims to help expand the usage of ShotSpotter by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and globally in advancing next-generation 911 (NG911) capabilities and initiatives
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New mobile app could save lives in earthquakes
A new iPhone app called has been developed to locate loved ones in the world’s earthquake zones during the event of an earthquake; the app, once downloaded, prompts users to enter their own details and those of four friends or family members in order to become their “Buddies”; in the event of an earthquake registering above 5.5, the user’s buddies will instantaneously receive an e-mail displaying a Google map of the user’s location
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Boarding gate with built-in explosives detection speeds up airport security checks
Japanese researchers have developed a boarding gate with built-in explosives detection equipment; the gate collects minute particles which have affixed themselves to IC cards or portable devices used as boarding passes, and can detect within one or two seconds the presence of explosive compounds using internalized equipment; the developers say the gate allows the inspection of 1,200 passengers per hour
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The Western hemisphere’s largest seawater desalination plant to be built in California
The San Diego County Water Authority announced plans to build the Western hemisphere’s largest seawater desalination plant; the plant will produce fifty million gallons of fresh water per day, enough to supply about 7 percent of the San Diego region in 2020
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Law enforcement can store, identify millions of voice samples using new software
Everyone this day can be identified by a fingerprint, DNA, or even a picture. Now, with the help of a Russian company, the FBI will soon be using voice recognition to identify people; the FBI says voice biometrics will be a “reliable and consistent means of identification for use in remote recognition”
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