Bomb squads compete at Sandia Labs’ Robot Rodeo

Bomb squads compete at Sandia Labs’ Robot Rodeo

Published 15 May 2015

 

Robots are life-saving tools for the nation’s hazardous device teams, providing a buffer between danger and first responders. Beginning this past Monday, Sandia Lab hosted its ninth annual Western National Robot Rodeo and Capability Exercise at Sandia National Laboratories. The five-day event – 11-15 May — offers a challenging platform for civilian and military bomb squad teams to practice defusing dangerous situations with robots’ help. 

Bomb squads from across the country saddled up their robots have been duking it out at the ninth annual Western National Robot Rodeo and Capability Exercise at Sandia National Laboratories. The five-day event – 11-15 May — offers a challenging platform for civilian and military bomb squad teams to practice defusing dangerous situations with robots’ help.
A Sandia Lab release reports that the rodeo, which began Monday, is designed with elaborate props to model the atmosphere of real-life emergencies in a low-risk, competitive environment. Robots are life-saving tools for the nation’s hazardous device teams, providing a buffer between danger and first responders.
“Our underlying goal is that we want to make good robot operators into great robot operators,” said Jake Deuel, a Robot Rodeo coordinator and Sandia manager. “We design problems and scenarios that take our state and local bomb squad teams way outside their comfort zones, outside the known techniques and procedures to see how they can handle it.”
UAVs introduced at Robot Rodeo
Sandia notes that this year, Sandia is introducing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the competition. Sandia’s David Novick, a pilot and robotics engineer, flew the UAVs at the event.
“It’s exciting to be able to show off a new technology to this group,” Novick said. “This technology is a game changer. It’s a stable, highly intelligent vehicle with controls similar to an airplane. Emergency responders can use these small, portable vehicles to get a bird’s eye view of a situation to help them get out of a tight spot.”
Scenarios at the rodeo change every year and grow in difficulty, which brings competitors back. The event prepares officers for the types of situations they may face on the job.
“The only time we get to simulate the level of complexity that we face in real life is at the Robot Rodeo,” said Albuquerque Police Sgt. Carlos Gallegos. “Robots are saving officers’ lives and have been critical to our SWAT teams.”
Past events in the competition have included managing suicide bombers, operating in smoke-filled buildings, responding to roadside bombs, rescuing first responders and removing bombs from inside an aircraft.
Sandia partners with Los Alamos National Laboratory on the annual event, which lets nine teams practice emergency scenarios where robots are life-saving tools.
Teams participating this year include the Albuquerque Police Department, Kirtland Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, Holloman Air Force Base Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team, Los Alamos Police Department, Doña Ana County Sherriff’s Office, Riverside County Sheriff’s Office from California, two U.S. Army Teams from Fort Carson, Colorado, and a team from the British army.

Researchers hack a teleoperated surgical robot, revealing security flaws

Researchers hack a teleoperated surgical robot, revealing security flaws

Published 15 May 2015

Real-world teleoperated robots, which are controlled by a human who may be in another physical location, are expected to become more commonplace as the technology evolves. They are ideal for situations which are dangerous for people: fighting fires in chemical plants, diffusing explosive devices or extricating earthquake victims from collapsed buildings. Researchers conducted a series of experiments in which they hacked a next generation teleoperated surgical robot — one used only for research purposes — to test how easily a malicious attack could hijack remotely controlled operations in the future and to make those systems more secure.

To make cars as safe as possible, we crash them into walls to pinpoint weaknesses and better protect people who use them.
This is the idea behind a series of experiments conducted by a University of Washington engineering team who hacked a next generation teleoperated surgical robot — one used only for research purposes — to test how easily a malicious attack could hijack remotely controlled operations in the future and to make those systems more secure.
Real-world teleoperated robots, which are controlled by a human who may be in another physical location, are expected to become more commonplace as the technology evolves. They are ideal for situations which are dangerous for people: fighting fires in chemical plants, diffusing explosive devices or extricating earthquake victims from collapsed buildings.
Outside of a handful of experimental surgeries conducted remotely, doctors typically use surgical robots today to operate on a patient in the same room using a secure, hardwired connection. But telerobots may one day routinely provide medical treatment in underdeveloped rural areas, battlefield scenarios, Ebola wards or catastrophic disasters happening half a world away.
A UW release reports that in two recent papers, UW BioRobotics Lab researchers demonstrated that next generation teleoperated robots using nonprivate networks — which may be the only option in disasters or in remote locations — can be easily disrupted or derailed by common forms of cyberattacks. Incorporating security measures to foil those attacks, the authors argue, will be critical to their safe adoption and use.
“We want to make the next generation of telerobots resilient to some of the threats we’ve detected without putting an operator or patient or any other person in the physical world in danger,” said lead author Tamara Bonaci, a UW doctoral candidate in electrical engineering.
To expose vulnerabilities, the UW team mounted common types of cyberattacks as study participants used a teleoperated surgical robot developed at the UW for research purposes to move rubber blocks between pegs on a pegboard.
By mounting “man in the middle” attacks, which alter the commands flowing between the operator and robot, the team was able to maliciously disrupt a wide range of the robot’s functions — making it hard to grasp objects with the robot’s arms — and even to completely override command inputs. During denial-of-service attacks, in which the attacking machine flooded the system with useless data, the robots became jerky and harder to use.
In some cases, the human operators were eventually able to compensate for those disruptions, given the relatively simple task of moving blocks. In situations where precise movements can mean the difference between life and death — such as surgery or a search and rescue extrication — these types of cyberattacks could have more serious consequences, the researchers believe.
With a single packet of bad data, for instance, the team was able to maliciously trigger the robot’s emergency stop mechanism, rendering it useless.
The tests were conducted with the Raven II, an open source teleoperated robotic system developed by UW electrical engineering professor Blake Hannaford and former UW professor Jacob Rosen, along with their students. Raven II, currently manufactured and sold by Seattle-based Applied Dexterity Inc., a UW spin-out, is a next generation teleoperated robotic system designed to support research in advanced techniques of robotic-assisted surgery. The system is not currently in clinical use and is not approved by the FDA.
The surgical robots that are FDA-approved for clinical use today, which typically allow a surgeon to remove tumors, repair heart valves or perform other procedures in a less invasive way, use a different communication channel and typically do not rely on publicly available networks, which would make the cyberattacks the UW team tested much harder to mount.
But if teleoperated robots will be used in locations with no secure alternative to networks or other communication channels that are easy to hack, it’s important to begin designing and incorporating additional security features now, the researchers argue.
“If there’s been a disaster, the network has probably been damaged too. So you might have to fly a drone and put a router on it and send signals up to it,” said Howard Chizeck, UW professor of electrical engineering and co-director of the UW BioRobotics Lab.
“In an ideal world, you’d always have a private network and everything could be controlled, but that’s not always going to be the case. We need to design for and test additional security measures now, before the next generation of telerobots are deployed.”
Encrypting data packets that flow between the robot and human operator would help prevent certain types of cyberattacks. But it is not effective against denial-of-service attacks that bog down the system with extraneous data. With video, encryption also runs the risk of causing unacceptable delays in delicate operations.
The release notes that the UW team is also developing the concept of “operator signatures,” which leverage the ways in which a particular surgeon or other teleoperator interacts with a robot to create a unique biometric signature.
By tracking the forces and torques that a particular operator applies to the console instruments and his or her interactions with the robot’s tools, the researchers have developed a novel way to validate that person’s identity and authenticate that the operator is the person he or she claims to be.
Moreover, monitoring those actions and reactions during a telerobotic procedure could give early warning that someone else has hijacked that process.
“Just as everyone signs something a little bit differently and you can identify people from the way they write different letters, different surgeons move the robotic system differently,” Chizeck said. “This would allow us to detect and raise the alarm if all of a sudden someone who doesn’t seem to be operator A is maliciously controlling or interfering with the procedure.”
Co-authors on the three telerobotic security papers include UW electrical engineering graduate students Junjie Yan and Jeffrey Herron, Tadayoshi Kohno of the UW computer science and engineering department, former UW computer science and engineering undergraduate Tariq Yusuf, Ryan Calo of the UW School of Law, and law student Aaron Alva.

U.K. high-tech industry wants more skilled immigrants to be allowed into Britain

U.K. high-tech industry wants more skilled immigrants to be allowed into Britain

Published 15 May 2015

 

The British tech industry is pushing for immigration reform that will help startups reach up to 500 million European Union customers and allow U.K. firms to attract a global talent pool. The tech industry is worth £100 billion to the U.K. economy, but companies are increasingly unable to find sufficient talent to fill vacancies.To help tackle the skills gap, British officials are investing in STEM education with the introduction of a new computing curriculum to schools and a pledge to train 17,500 math and physics teachers in the next five years, but industry insidersstress that immigration must be addressed if the U.K. tech and start-up scene is ever going to develop a firm the size of Google or Facebook.

The British tech industry is pushing for immigration reform that will help startups reach up to 500 million European Union customers and allow U.K. firms to attract a global talent pool. “The position on immigration needs to be smart and at the moment you could argue it’s dumb,” said Julian David CEO Julian David of techUK, an industry trade group. “We’re not talking about numbers here, we’re talking about getting the right skills needed to grow the economy, be they plumbers or be they tech entrepreneurs or be they experienced large company people.”
The tech industry is worth £100 billion to the U.K. economy, according to Tech City UK, but companies are increasingly unable to find sufficient talent to fill vacancies. Recruiter Robert Waltersreports that 72 percent of U.K. businesses are affected by a shortage of talent. A recent CompTIA survey showed 44 percent of 1,500 IT workers believe staff productivity is suffering because of the skills gap, with another 26 percent blaming it for a lack of innovation.
According to IT Pro, to help tackle the skills gap, British officials are investing in STEM education with the introduction of a new computing curriculum to schools and a pledge to train 17,500 math and physics teachers in the next five years. David still stresses that immigration must be addressed if the U.K. tech and start-up scene is ever going to develop a firm the size of Google or Facebook. “We need people with experience of growing a company fast, people who know how to do this — (which is) something that’s lacking in the U.K.,” he said. “It’s a good argument for more flexible immigration to attract those skills that exist in the U.S., for instance - we could bring them in here.”
The Home Office offers visas aimed at entrepreneurs, people with “exceptional talent,” and graduate entrepreneurs. Immigrants on an entrepreneur visa can stay in the country for a maximum five years, a graduate entrepreneur visa grants a one year stay, while exceptional talent visa holders may stay up to ten years. Additionally, immigrants seeking an entrepreneur visa must have £50,000 in investment funding. The Home Office has defended its policies and claimed sponsored visa applications for skilled workers rose 14 percent in 2014. Many of these workers were employed in the information and communication, professional, scientific and technical activities, and finance and insurance industries.
Recommendation from the government’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to add four IT job roles- senior developers, product managers, network security specialists, and data scientists- to the Shortage Occupation List in February has been accepted by the Home Office.
Another issue that worries the U.K. tech sector is the possibility that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union, as conservative politicians have promised a referendum on European Union membership by 2017. The industry fears such a move would be bad for business, but David argues that “We live in a democracy, it’s up to the government and people to decide if they want a referendum so we’re not arguing with that. If you take the position of the government, which is that they’re looking for reform, then this could be a positive.” Removing the United Kingdom from the European Union, however, would reduce the country’s exposure to a market of up to 500 million people.
“There’s a 500 million-person market right on our doorstep which people don’t take advantage of to grow,” David said. “If you look at the impact of the US market on the ability and speed with which US companies can scale, it doesn’t happen here because the single market doesn’t actually operate at home yet.”

DHS implements new deportation scheme to replace Secure Communities

DHS implements new deportation scheme to replace Secure Communities

Published 15 May 2015

 

After months of working to improve Secure Communities, the Obama administration recently announced the Priority Enforcement Program, under which jails will be asked to notify ICE agents when a deportable immigrant will be released — so agents can be waiting — instead of holding him or her in jail until ICE agents arrive. This new approach is a response to criticism of Secure Communities from local law enforcement units that said the program strained local budgets as jails became overbooked with nonviolent criminals.

Last November, DHS chief Jeh Johnson halted Secure Communities, a federal program meant to focus deportation efforts on immigrants who broke laws after they entered the United States. The program began under the George W. Bush administration to coordinate enforcement of federal immigration laws with local communities. The FBI collects the fingerprints of individuals arrested by local and state police, to identify fugitives or individuals wanted in other jurisdictions. With Secure Communities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials reviewed the fingerprints against immigration databases to see whether arrested individuals are deportable. Johnson referred to Secure Communities last year saying “its very name has become a symbol for general hostility toward the enforcement of our immigration laws.”
A Baltimore Sun analysis found that more than 40 percent of the immigrants deported from Maryland under Secure Communities had no prior criminal record. This led then-Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to restrict the state’s cooperation with ICE on immigration detainers- requests that local jails hold illegal immigrants until ICE agents can pick them up. Around 250 jurisdictions now have limited cooperation with ICE’s requests. This has made it difficult for ICE agents to implement Secure Communities. “That was getting to be a bigger and bigger problem in terms of our ability to get at the criminals,” Johnson said last month, saying he was in the midst of a “road show” to sell mayors and governors on the new approach.
“The new enforcement program takes two to dance,” Johnson said.
After months of working to improve Secure Communities, the Obama administration recently announced the Priority Enforcement Program, under which jails will be asked to notify ICE agents when a deportable immigrant will be released — so agents can be waiting — instead of holding him or her in jail until ICE agents arrive. This new approach is a response to criticism of Secure Communities from local law enforcement units that said the program strained local budgets as jails became overbooked with nonviolent criminals.
DHS officials are touring the country to convince local law enforcement agencies to participate in the new program, but they are already facing backlash. “They presented it as a kinder and gentler way for ICE collaborate with local police,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who met last week with ICE Director Sarah Saldana and Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy DHS secretary. “I told them it’s not kinder or gentler enough.”
Chris Newman, Legal Director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told the Sun that the root of the problem is that ICE continues to “mine the criminal justice system” to meet deportation targets. As ICE tries to meet those goals, Newman said, the agency will likely deport people convicted of less-serious offenses because many of the most serious criminals are serving long jail terms.
Since last October, local authorities have received 58,500 detainer requests from ICE. Most of the people targeted in those requests have not been convicted of serious crimes or aggravated felonies; according to ICE figures, only 16,384 of them have serious convictions, nearly 14,000 have been convicted only of misdemeanors, and more than 20,746 do not meet ICE’s definition of priority deportation. An agency spokeswoman has said some of the people who have not been convicted of serious crimes, have been accused of them. This, nevertheless, contradicts ICE’s assurance to communities that it aims to target only undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records.

New oil trains safety rules short on preparedness, training regs: Critics

New oil trains safety rules short on preparedness, training regs: Critics

Published 15 May 2015

 

New federal safety measures for oil trains announced earlier this month are being criticized by emergency responders who say the measures fail to address the issue of preparedness.The new rules, which go into effect next year, do not require railroads to notify state officials of Bakken crude oil shipments, and fire departments seeking that information will have to contact the railroads directly. Firefighter groups say 65 percent of fire departments involved in responding to hazardous materials incidents still have no formal training in that area.

New federal safety measures for oil trains announced earlier this month are being criticized by emergency responders who say the measures fail to address the issue of preparedness. Under an emergency order the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued last May, railroads are required to report large shipments of Bakken crude oil to state emergency response commissions, which then disseminated that information to local fire departments. The new rules, which go into effect next year, do not require railroads to notify state officials of Bakken crude oil shipments, and fire departments seeking that information will have to contact the railroads directly.
“These new rules fall short of requiring rail operators to provide the information fire departments need to respond effectively when the call arrives,” said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
“We need to be prepared for it, and we’re willing to be prepared for it,” said Elizabeth Harman, the IAFF contact for Grants Administration and HazMat/WMD Training Division. She added that firefighters need more training on responding to hazardous materials incidents, but the new rules fail to address that issue. “The training that’s needed has been developed,” she said. “This is the first step that needs to be funded and expanded for all first responders.”
McClatchy D.C. reports that the number of oil trains transporting crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region to East Coast refineries has increased in recent years. The rail industry and federal government have funded new training for emergency responders as a result of the increased risk. According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the rail industry trains 2,000 firefighters a year in communities across the country. Since last year, the industry has also sent hundreds of firefighters to an advanced firefighting academy in Pueblo, Colorado, designed for responding to oil train fires.
Firefighter groups have praised the rail industry’s efforts, but 65 percent of fire departments involved in responding to hazardous materials incidents still have no formal training in that area, according to a 2010 survey by the National Fire Protection Association.
DOT spokeswoman Susan Lagana said last Friday that the department was reviewing feedback from emergency responders. She also said the new rules would expand the amount of information available to first responders and noted that for now, last year’s emergency order remains in place.
Ed Greenberg, a spokesman for AAR, said the industry is developing a mobile application called AskRail that would give emergency responders immediate access to information about a train’s cargo. “Freight railroads have ongoing dialogue with first responders, residents and local civic officials on rail operations and emergency planning,” he said.
Last month, fire chiefs in Washington state met with representatives from BNSF regarding receiving more information about routing information, worst-case derailment scenarios, response planning, and insurance coverage. “I think both sides learned a little bit about the other group’s point of view,” said Wayne Senter, the executive director of the Washington Fire Chiefs. “I was pretty positive by the end of the meeting the information we asked for in our letter was either available or will soon be available either directly or indirectly.”

Why is oil and gas activity causing earthquakes? And can we reduce the risk?

Why is oil and gas activity causing earthquakes? And can we reduce the risk?

By Matthew Hornbach

Published 13 May 2015

 

If you’ve been following the news lately, chances are you’ve heard about — or even felt — earthquakes in the central United States. During the past five years, there has been an unprecedented increase in earthquakes in the North American mid-continent, a region previously considered one of the most stable on Earth. Oklahoma has gone from experiencing fewer than two magnitude-three earthquakes per year to greater than two per day, the report found. Similarly, Texas has experienced a near 10-fold increase in magnitude-three earthquakes or greater in the past five years. Many studies indicate that human activities, including activities related to oil and gas extraction, are beginning to play a significant role in triggering earthquakes in the central United States. History dictates that the advent of new technology often leads to new and unforeseen challenges. The printing press, the automobile, and splitting the atom have provided incalculable benefits to humanity but also incredible responsibility. What is recognized as the Texas-led “Shale Revolution,” arguably one of the most significant innovations of the modern era, is no different.

If you’ve been following the news lately, chances are you’ve heard about — or even felt — earthquakes in the central United States. During the past five years, there has been an unprecedented increase in earthquakes in the North American mid-continent, a region previously considered one of the most stable on Earth.
According to a recent report by the Oklahoma Geological Survey, Oklahoma alone has seen seismicity rates increase 600 times compared to historic levels.
The state has gone from experiencing fewer than two magnitude-three earthquakes per year to greater than two per day, the report found. Similarly, my home state of Texas has experienced a near 10-fold increase in magnitude-three earthquakes or greater in the past five years.
The recent uptick in earthquakes in Texas, Oklahoma and several other central U.S. states raises an obvious question: What is causing all of this seismicity?
Earthquake causes
Several factors can promote the occurrence of earthquakes. There are natural changes caused by the shifting of Earth’s plates, the advance and retreat of glaciers, the addition or removal of surface water or ground water, and the injection or removal of fluids due to industrial activity.
Studies including two reports issued in April, indicate that human activities, including activities related to oil and gas extraction, are beginning to play a significant role in triggering earthquakes in the central United States.
Extracting oil and gas from shale rock involves cracking, or fracturing, a layer of underground rock with a high-pressure mix of water, sand, and chemicals. As the oil and gas are released, those injection fluids and briny water also come up. That wastewater is later disposed of in what are called injection wells, or sometimes disposal wells.
It is important to note that it is not the fracking process itself that usually causes these earthquakes; it is the rapid injection of fluid during wastewater disposal that sometimes pumps hundreds of millions of gallons of brine deep into the earth each year.
Hundreds of studies
So do injection wells cause earthquakes?
A recent peer-reviewed scientific study I co-authored concludes human-activities, specifically water production and wastewater injection, represent the most likely cause of earthquakes in the Azle/Reno, Texas region, where significant gas production and wastewater injection began five years ago.
But this is not a fundamentally new discovery. For nearly a century, industry and academic researchers have recognized that human activities can and do sometimes trigger earthquakes.
Indeed, entire books — including many standard texts used in advanced petroleum geology, geomechanics, and petroleum engineering classes — are dedicated to understanding fault reactivation, rock mechanics, and the ways humans can facilitate these processes for the betterment of humanity.
Additionally, multiple studies and reports, including hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies – and independent studies conducted by the National Research Council of the United States National Academy of Science and Engineering — confirm that the injection or removal of fluids can and indeed do trigger earthquakes.
What is unique and exciting about our Azle/Reno study is the unprecedented support and cooperation of the energy industry, which in many instances provided mission-critical data, technical support, and constructive scientific reviews to allow scientists to better assess, model, and understand earthquakes in the Azle/Reno area and across Texas.
In our instance, industry researchers went far beyond state regulatory requirements by providing insight into the location and orientation of regional faults, injection reservoir pressures, and subsurface flow.
The Azle/Reno study highlights how cooperation, transparency, and mutual respect between, industry, academia, and regulators can improve our understanding of seismicity, and help mitigate risk for all parties working, living, and conducting business in Texas.
Can this risk be mitigated?
Human-triggered earthquakes often involve the rapid removal or injection of large volumes of liquids from the surface, or subsurface.
As our study, and many studies — including those conducted by industry — suggest, the key to understanding and mitigating earthquake hazards in Texas and elsewhere is high-quality data, especially data that monitor and assess subsurface pressures, fluid injection volumes, fluid extraction volumes, and regional seismicity with time.
A recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report indicates the seismic hazard in some areas of Texas is now comparable to areas of Oklahoma and California due in part to wastewater injection.
That said, it is equally important to note that thousands of injection wells exist across Texas (and other states) that have no associated felt seismicity. Indeed, at this time, only a tiny minority of injection wells in Texas have been plausibly linked to earthquakes.
Although the rate of seismicity in Texas has clearly accelerated in the past five years, it is still very low across much of the state. This is also generally true for Arkansas, Ohio, Colorado, and Kansas, where links have been suggested between disposal wells and earthquakes.
In short, now is not a time to panic, but a time to take stock of the resources available to make well-informed science-based decisions that allow states to understand, prepare, and mitigate risk associated with earthquake hazards.
Indeed, scientists are actively researching how to better understand and ultimately reduce human-triggered earthquakes.
There have been studies to develop a general hazard model for injection wells as well as specific strategies on how to reduce risk during and prior to the injection process. These strategies generally include the early detection and location of potentially weak faults, choosing appropriate injection reservoirs that minimize the risk of increasing underground pressure, and adjusting wastewater injection practices to reduce or minimize seismicity.
Scientists can also collect more detailed brine production and injection data, underground pressure data, and regional seismic data to better predict how subsurface pressures and associated seismicity might evolve with time. These techniques are already being implementing at known induced seismicity sites with success.
History dictates that the advent of new technology often leads to new and unforeseen challenges. The printing press, the automobile, and splitting the atom have provided incalculable benefits to humanity but also incredible responsibility.
What is recognized as the Texas-led “Shale Revolution,” arguably one of the most significant innovations of the modern era, is no different.
Our society is blessed with some of the finest scientists and engineers in all of industry and academia. Working together, with support from regulatory agencies, we believe the same scientific prowess, ingenuity, and entrepreneurial spirit that advanced the hydrocarbon industry in the United States this past decade can also help address the new challenges and responsibilities emerging.
Matthew Hornbach is Associate Professor of Geophysics at Southern Methodist University. This story is published courtesy of The Conversation (under Creative Commons-Attribution/No derivatives.

LA to require seismic standards for new cellphone towers

LA to require seismic standards for new cellphone towers

Published 13 May 2015

 

Last Friday Los Angeles became the first U.S. city to approve seismic standards for new cellphone towers, part of an effort to reduce communications vulnerabilities in case a large earthquake should strike. The Los Angeles plan requires new freestanding cellphone towers to be built to the same seismic standards as public safety facilities. Cellphone towers are currently built only strong enough not to collapse during a major earthquake. There are not required to be strong enough to continue working.

Last Friday Los Angeles became the first U.S. city to approve seismic standards for new cellphone towers, part of an effort to reduce communications vulnerabilities in case a large earthquake should strike. The last major earthquake in Los Angeles was the 1994 Northridge quake, before cellphones and WiFi ruled the communications landscape.
According to U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones, who advises Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti on seismic matters, the 2008 magnitude 7.9 earthquake in the Chinese province of Sichuan, offers insight on how current cellphone signals will hold in the aftermath of a large quake because Sichuan used similar building standards for cellphone towers as the United States. In the Sichuan case, more than 2,000 cellphone towers were disabled, leaving communications gaps that lasted weeks.
The Los Angeles plan requires new freestanding cellphone towers to be built to the same seismic standards as public safety facilities. Cellphone towers are currently built only strong enough not to collapse during a major earthquake. There are not required to be strong enough to continue working. “This is about earthquake functionality. It’s about getting us back on our feet,” said Jones. “This is really sort of a first time that, looking forward, we said the government’s role goes beyond just saving lives, and has a role in making sure that our economy is up and functioning after a disaster,” she added.
Public safety officials became aware of the communications vulnerabilities of cellphone towers during the magnitude 5.5 Chino Hills earthquake in 2008, when some mobile providers reported up to an 800 percent increase in calls, overwhelming the networks.
The Los Angeles Times notes that the new seismic standards will not require a retrofit of existing cellphone towers, as that would be just as expensive as building new ones. Building cellphone towers that meet new seismic standards will increase construction costs by up to 20 percent. The standards will not apply to new towers attached to buildings, which currently make up about 60 percent of cellphone transmitters in Los Angeles. The new standards will not guarantee that cellphone towers will be in operation under widespread power failure. Many cellphone towers have a battery supply that lasts as little as four hours. City leaders considered requiring larger backup batteries for cellphone towers but the options would have faced opposition from network providers. Cellphone transmitters require air conditioning to work properly, and adding backup generators to supply cooling would be costly. “We’re not trying to solve all the problems,” Jones said. “We are trying to reduce the problems … so that we reduce the chances we’re going to damage the economy.”
Network providers, who worked with the mayor’s office on the standards, have welcomed them. “The issue of network resiliency as a whole is a monumentally important one for the company,” said Alexandra Krasov, spokeswoman for AT&T. The company has already developed portable, makeshift cell towers that can be sent to locations that need additional coverage support. The towers are used for major concerts and sporting events.
The cellphone tower law is one of many major earthquake safety improvements Los Angeles officials are exploring. Garcetti has proposed an agreement with network providers to share network and wireless Internet access with customers of other networks during an emergency.

U.S. chemical plants vulnerable to terrorist attacks, putting millions of Americans at risk

U.S. chemical plants vulnerable to terrorist attacks, putting millions of Americans at risk

Published 13 May 2015

 

The chemical sector is a vital part of the U.S. economy, representing almost 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and is the nation’s greatest exporter. The prominence and importance of the chemical industry as well as the proximity of its facilities to densely populated areas make it a particularly vulnerable target for terrorist attacks, hence the DHS interest and safety rules. The slow implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) as part of homeland security and anti-terrorism measures is leaving chemical plants vulnerable and putting at risk the safety of American citizens, according to research.

The slow implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in the United States as part of homeland security and anti-terrorism measures is leaving chemical plants vulnerable and putting at risk the safety of American citizens, according to research published in the International Journal of Critical Infrastructures.
Maria Rooijakkers and Abdul-Akeem Sadiq of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, at Indiana University-Purdue University, in Indianapolis, explain that post-9/11 efforts to safeguard the chemical sector gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the authority to regulate the safety and security of U.S. chemical facilities. In April 2007 DHS added an interim final rule, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), but the latest information suggests that very few chemical facilities have completed the necessary implementations.
Inderscience Publishers notes that the team suggests that the chemical industry and DHS must now work more closely together before it is too late to ensure the safety and security of the U.S. population. They also add that communities should not wait for CFATS to be implemented before developing their own preparedness and response plans in anticipation of possible chemical disasters in the future, whether caused by terrorism or accident.
The chemical sector is a vital part of the U.S. economy, the team says, based on 2009 data it represents almost 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and is the nation’s greatest exporter. The industry also contributes materials to a vast array of other industries from automotive and aeronautics to agriculture and healthcare. The chemical industry employs almost one million people directly and sustains an additional 5.5 million jobs in other sectors. Moreover, it is officially considered to be part of the U.S. critical infrastructure as stated in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) of 2009 being essential to sustenance of the economy and government itself.
The prominence and importance of the chemical industry as well as the proximity of its facilities to densely populated areas make it a particularly vulnerable target for terrorist attacks, hence the DHS interest and rules. Indeed, four of the fifteen National Planning Scenarios are related to chemical attacks, the team points out. Of the 3,468 chemical facilities given their final tier designations under CFATS in 2007, however, a mere forty had had their plans approved by 2013, and the pace of adoption and implement is yet to pick up.
— Read more in Maria Rooijakkers, Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, “Critical infrastructure, terrorism, and the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards: the need for collaboration,” International Journal of Critical Infrastructures 11, no. 2 (2015): 167-82 (DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2015.068615)

FEMA considering overhauling the National Flood Insurance Program

FEMA considering overhauling the National Flood Insurance Program

Published 13 May 2015

Federal legislators and officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are trying to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program which relies on eighty-three companies to sell policies, collection premiums, and calculate damages after disasters. The program covers roughly 5.2 million homes and businesses nationwide. The move comes just as FEMA is in talks to settle almost 1,800 lawsuits filed by homeowners claiming they were underpaid on flood insurance claims after Superstorm Sandy. The flood insurance program was launched in 1968 after private insurers increased their coverage prices due to newer risk assessments, leaving most homeowners unable to afford them.

Federal legislators and officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are trying to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program which relies on eighty-three companies to sell policies, collection premiums, and calculate damages after disasters. The move comes just as FEMA is in talks to settle almost 1,800 lawsuits filed by homeowners claiming they were underpaid on flood insurance claims after Superstorm Sandy.
In addition, reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have accused the flood insurance program of exerting little oversight over the companies it contracts, while paying them large fees and bonuses. Federal lawmakers also claim that some Sandy-affected homeowners and businesses were denied claims by private insurers who were overly focused on reducing the number of payouts instead of ensuring storm victims received fair settlements.
FEMA, which insures via the national flood program, roughly 5.2 million homes and businesses nationwide, is getting ready to reopen claims for about 142,000 policyholders flooded during Sandy.
Newsday reports thatFEMA has asked Democratic New York senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) for recommendations on overhauling the flood insurance program. The lawmakers have yet to propose an alternative to the current system, saying they want to ensure Sandy victims are properly paid before focusing on long-term reforms.
Insurance industry professionals say it would be devastating to terminate the flood insurance program’s partnerships with private companies. The consequences for consumers would be fewer options, said Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute.
The flood insurance program was launched in 1968 after private insurers increased their coverage prices due to newer risk assessments, leaving most homeowners unable to afford them. The federal government then offered policies at subsidized rates and instead of hiring insurance staff, outsourced the work to the private sector. By 1977, the federal government concluded that the 132 companies managing flood policies were overcharging the government and underpaying homeowners.
The program’s director, J. Robert Hunter, cut ties with the companies and issued a contract to bid winner Electronic Data Systems, to manage every flood insurance policy covered by the federal government. The arrangement, however, was temporary. A federal audit found that Electronic Data Systems “neglected fundamental accounting responsibilities” and issued reports that contained errors. In 1983, the flood program launched into its current form.
Interviewed this week by Newsday, Hunter said the move to a single company saved the flood program millions of dollars and it made it easier for government oversight. It is time to rethink the program’s current system, said Hunter, now the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America.

The FBI violated its own rules in surveillance of anti-Keystone XL pipeline activists

The FBI violated its own rules in surveillance of anti-Keystone XL pipeline activists

Published 13 May 2015

More than eighty pages of internal FBI documents dated from November 2012 to June 2014, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the FBI breached its own investigation rules when it spied on protesters opposing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. Agents in the FBI’s Houston field office failed to get approval before they cultivated informants and opened files on pipeline protesters — a violation of guidelines designed to prevent the agency from becoming excessively involved in sensitive political issues.

More than eighty pages of internal FBI documents dated from November 2012 to June 2014, obtained by the Guardian and Earth Island Journal after a request under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the FBI breached its own investigation rules when it spied on protesters opposing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The rules, detailed in the agency’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, dictate that special care should be taken over sensitive investigations such as those targeting elected officials, journalists, and political organizations. FBI work on “sensitive investigative matters” requires prior approval of the chief division counsel (CDC) and the special agent in charge (SAC), both of whom are supposed to consider the severity of the threat and the consequences of “adverse impact on civil liberties and public confidence” should the investigation be made public.
Agents in the FBI’s Houston field office failed to get approval before they cultivated informants and opened files on pipeline protesters — a violation of guidelines designed to prevent the agency from becoming excessively involved in sensitive political issues.
The Keystone XL pipeline was devised to transport tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf coast. Three phases of the project are in operation, and the fourth is awaiting approval from the Obama administration.
Environmental groups have spent years opposing the pipeline; some have held nonviolent civil disobedience protests, which have been monitored by federal law enforcement agencies. One FBI memo describes the rationale for investigating protest groups in the Houston area by touting the economic advantages of the pipeline while labeling its opponents “environmental extremists.” “Many of these extremists believe the debates over pollution, protection of wildlife, safety, and property rights have been overshadowed by the promise of jobs and cheaper oil prices,” the FBI document reads. “The Keystone pipeline, as part of the oil and natural gas industry, is vital to the security and economy of the United States.”
The FBI investigation, which included at least one informant, targeted Tar Sands Blockade, a direct action group that was at the time protesting in southern Texas. Ron Seifert, an organizer with the group said dozens of campaigners were arrested in Texas for protest-related activity, but not one of them was accused of violent crime or property destruction. The group focused its campaigns in the Houston neighborhood of Manchester, where the Valero Energy Corporation has a large refinery capable of processing heavy crude oil.
The FBI acknowledged that it did not obtain proper approval before opening its investigation on pipeline protesters, but the investigation continued for eleven months. “While the FBI approval levels required by internal policy were not initially obtained, once discovered, corrective action was taken, non-compliance was remedied, and the oversight was properly reported through the FBI’s internal oversight mechanism,” according to an agency statement. The FBI also noted that the investigation was warranted because it had to “take the initiative to secure and protect activities and entities which may be targeted for terrorism or espionage.”
FBI documents suggest that the Houston investigation was one branch of a wider set of investigations into pipeline protesters around the country. Mike German, a former FBI agent and now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, said the FBI opened its investigation on protesters under a category known as an “assessment.” Assessments were introduced as part of an expansion of FBI powers after 9/11 to allow agents to open investigations into individuals or groups, even if they have no reason to believe a crime has been committed. TheGuardian notes that the Houston branch opened its investigation on pipeline protesters in early 2013, several months after a high-level strategy meeting between the agency and TransCanada, the company building the pipeline. “It is clearly troubling that these documents suggest the FBI interprets its national security mandate as protecting private industry from political criticism,” German said.

Using UV light to separate rare earth metals

Using UV light to separate rare earth metals

Published 12 May 2015

Europium and yttrium are two rare earth metals that are commonly used in sustainable technology and high-tech applications. As these rare earth metals are difficult to mine, there is a great interest in recycling them. Researchers have discovered a method to separate europium and yttrium with UV light instead of with traditional solvents. Their findings offer new opportunities for the recycling of fluorescent lamps and low-energy light bulbs.

Researchers from the KU Leuven Department of Chemical Engineering have discovered a method to separate two rare earth elements — europium and yttrium — with UV light instead of with traditional solvents. Their findings, which were published in Green Chemistry, offer new opportunities for the recycling of fluorescent lamps and low-energy light bulbs.
Europium and yttrium are two rare earth metals that are commonly used in sustainable technology and high-tech applications. As these rare earth metals are difficult to mine, there is a great interest in recycling them. Europium and yttrium can be recovered from red lamp phosphor, a powder that is used in fluorescent lamps such as neon tubes.

Seismic safety of nuclear power plants in Scandinavia to improve

Seismic safety of nuclear power plants in Scandinavia to improve

Published 12 May 2015

 

Since the Fukushima accident, Nordic nuclear power plant areas have given greater priority to understanding the safety implications of seismic events. The Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) and various Nordic players are co-developing new methods of making seismic hazard estimates of anticipated earthquakes in Fennoscandia — the region comprising the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

Since the Fukushima accident, Nordic nuclear power plant areas have given greater priority to understanding the safety implications of seismic events. The Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT) and various Nordic players are co-developing new methods of making seismic hazard estimates of anticipated earthquakes in Fennoscandia — the region comprising the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
Little source modelling-based measurement data is available on earthquakes in stable continental areas. A VTT release reports that on 8 May 2015, VTT organized a workshop aimed at identifying and sharing the relevant Nordic data.
An upcoming four-year project will also involve updating existing earthquake source modelling techniques and developing new ground motion simulation models for stable continental regions, particularly the Fennoscandian Shield.
A thorough empirical analysis has been conducted, but a lack of empirical observations of ground motion close to actual, high-magnitude earthquakes in Fennoscandia has impeded our understanding of the seismic load caused by a potential earthquake close to a nuclear power plant. Recent developments in calculation methods are enabling the formation of calculation models that generate realistic estimates of earthquake loads.
VTT notes that the project’s network of experts will focus on areas at low risk of seismic activity in the Nordic countries and further strengthen cooperation between VTT and Uppsala University in seismic source modelling.
In this project, the partners of VTT will be Aalto University, the University of Helsinki, Uppsala University, GEUS Geological Survey of Denmark and the Nordic leader in technical consulting, ÅF. The project will be funded by NKS Nordic Nuclear Safety Research.
The project’s long-term goal will be to expand cooperation of this kind to cover the Baltic countries.
The project results will not only provide the background information required for the safety assessment of nuclear power plants, but will also be important with regard to final disposal repositories for nuclear waste. In addition, the results will be useful for the National Nuclear Power Plant Safety Research (SAFIR2018) program’s NEST project.

Tests with Sandia’s Davis gun aid B61-12 life extension effort

Tests with Sandia’s Davis gun aid B61-12 life extension effort

Published 12 May 2015

Three years of design, planning and preparation came down to a split second, a loud boom and an enormous splash in a successful impact test of hardware in the nose assembly of an unarmed, mock B61-12 nuclear bomb. The Sandia National Laboratories test also captured data that will allow analysts to validate computer models of the bomb, part of Sandia’s decade-long effort in the B61-12 Life Extension Program (LEP). An LEP is a way to extend the life of an aging weapon without adding new military capability. The B61-12 LEP is an $8.1 billion National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) program coordinated across the nation’s nuclear security enterprise.

Three years of design, planning and preparation came down to a split second, a loud boom and an enormous splash in a successful impact test of hardware in the nose assembly of an unarmed, mock B61-12 nuclear bomb.

The Sandia National Laboratories test also captured data that will allow analysts to validate computer models of the bomb, part of Sandia’s decade-long effort in the B61-12 Life Extension Program (LEP). An LEP is a way to extend the life of an aging weapon without adding new military capability. The B61-12 LEP is an $8.1 billion National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) program coordinated across the nation’s nuclear security enterprise.
A Sandia Lab release reports that Sandia is working with the NNSA, the program lead, and five NNSA partner sites, industry partners and the U.S. Air Force, the B61-12 customer.
The test, the first of three with Sandia’s cannon-like Davis gun, shot the assembly and its diagnostics into an 8-foot-deep steel-reinforced concrete water tank with a soil-filled bunker underneath to capture the hardware. The packed-dirt bunker makes it easier for engineers to recover data recorders and reusable parts and ensures that a test piece isn’t damaged.
The tests were designed to validate a systems requirement for the B61-12 and represented a worst-case scenario: a slow velocity into a soft target, in this case, 10,500 gallons of water. Shots were set for a prescribed velocity and angle to validate the impact sensor response for ground fuzing and to help understand the design margin, said Tyler Keil, lead engineer for the B61-12 Davis gun test series.
Keil and more than a dozen colleagues who worked on the test watched the 28 January shot from a hill a half-mile from the mobile Davis gun, stationed at New Mexico Tech’s Energetic Materials Research & Testing Center (EMRTC) in the hills west of the Socorro campus.
“Awesome” test highlighted years of work
“It was awesome,” Keil said after the shot. Keil, who worked toward the test for more than three years, brought team members to EMRTC so they could watch a highlight of their work: shooting a mock bomb out of the gun. Waning sunlight meant waiting until the next day to recover test data, and Keil joked he had “determine how happy I really am” after seeing that data.
The Davis gun series marked the end of testing for the nose design, and by the end of the week, Keil knew the test had captured what the team needed. “Our team will assess these data, make note of any findings we see where improvements are needed to meet requirements, brainstorm ideas to address the findings and incorporate them into the next design,” Keil said. “We’ll then repeat the tests on the new design to verify that the changes were successful.”
Manager Doug Dederman, whose department conducted the test, explained how the gun works: Imagine the barrel as a straw, open at both ends, with an explosive charge sandwiched between the test nose assembly and a 2,000-pound steel slug, called the reaction mass. The test component and reaction mass are simultaneously blown out opposite ends of the barrel, the test piece slamming into the water of the adjacent pool and underlying bunker, and the reaction mass arcing to land behind a small hill. Using a reaction mass eliminates the recoil load in the gun chassis during firing.
Crews from Sandia and EMRTC spent most of two days in final test preparations. On test day, the nose assembly, mounted on an aluminum tube to replicate the B61-12 body, sat in a stand about 200 yards from the pool. There it waited until time to load it into the 40-foot long, 16-inch diameter barrel of the white Davis gun, stark against the backdrop of blue sky and a red jagged volcanic hill.
It took more than twenty minutes to move the projectile with the attached nose assembly from the stand to the gun. The crew removed the assembly stand brackets, then suspended the projectile from the tines of a forklift equipped with a long hydraulic boom. They steadied the projectile with tag lines as the forklift driver maneuvered up a dirt ramp to the Davis gun. There, it was bracketed into another stand to hold and roll it under the barrel where it was attached to a threaded rod and drawn up into the vertical barrel. The gun’s dual-sheave hoisting system minimized rotation as the projectile was lifted into position in the barrel.
Capturing footage from the test
High-speed cameras positioned at three levels in window ports in a hut on one side of the pool and flash bulbs in a hut on the other side were synchronized with the gun’s explosive charge to catch the action underwater.
The release notes that as the arming and firing crew finished final preparations, everyone else evacuated to the viewing area for safety. The gun — which can be set at any angle — was tilted to firing position, the end with the nose piece pointed toward the pool. The crew at the gun finished local arming preparations and drove to the remote gun firing trailer below the hill at the viewing area. A roll call assured that everyone was accounted for and away from the test site. The gunner announced “Charged,” counted down “five, four, three, two, one” and fired the gun just before 4 p.m.
Water splashed into the air as the nose assembly hit the pool and a cloud of smoke drifted from the raised end as the reaction mass flew behind a hill well away from the action and the observers. “The reaction mass landed just where we expected it to, a first indication that we are close to the velocity we wanted,” Keil said.
Once the firing crew gave the all-clear, onlookers returned to the site and climbed onto the steel platform around the pool. Water had splashed a large radius of the dirt clearing around the pool, and the rest drained into a ramp leading down to the bunker. A large plastic tube dropped into the ramp with an attached fireman’s hose siphoned the remaining water toward a nearby arroyo while a member of the crew shoveled mud out of the bunker to locate the test piece for the next day’s excavation.
About an hour after the firing, a small convoy of vans and pickups drove back across a winding dirt road through the hills to EMRTC headquarters. Some of the crew would be back the next day to recover the data recorders so engineering analysts could begin their work. Analysts will spend the next year using the data to calibrate their models, then explore impact scenarios that weren’t tested to evaluate the impact sensor’s performance.
“The B61-12 LEP has performed several impact tests of various target types and velocities over the last year to verify its ground fuzing performance,” Keil said. “The Davis gun test series specifically tests the B61-12 ground fuzing performance during a water impact. All of the impact testing contributes to how reliably the B61-12 will fuze upon a ground impact.”

 

U.S. funding has supported Mexican government bodies accused of murders, crimes, abuses

U.S. funding has supported Mexican government bodies accused of murders, crimes, abuses

Published 12 May 2015

Over the past year, Mexican authorities have been implicated in cases involving the deaths of hundreds of civilians whose bodies were later found in mass graves. Most of these authorities work for local law enforcement and federal security agencies, which might have received funding from U.S. government programs created to combat Mexico’s illegal drug trade. In 2013, 98.3 percent of crimes in Mexico went unpunished, according to Mexican government statistics. Of the hundreds of mass graves discovered in Mexico in recent years, federal prosecutors have reported opening just fifteen investigations between 2011 and April 2015.

Over the past year, Mexican authorities have been implicated in cases involving the deaths of hundreds of civilians whose bodies were later found in mass graves. Most of these authorities work for local law enforcement and federal security agencies, which might have received funding from U.S. government programs created to combat Mexico’s illegal drug trade.
U.S. government documents obtained by the National Security Archive through Freedom of Information Act requests reveal that the Obama administration is aware that its funding could have supported Mexican authorities connected to abuses, yet, with few exceptions, the money continues to reach Mexico.
Last September, forty-three male students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers’ College of Ayotzinapa in the Mexican city of Iguala were kidnapped. The Mexican government has sought to portray the kidnapping as the work of local government officials and their drug cartel accomplices, but evidence has led residents to believe that state officials had a part to play.
The search for the students has led to twenty-eight bodies found in nearby mass graves. None of the bodies matched the missing Ayotzinapa students, but an October 2014 internal report from the U.S. Army’s Northern Command noted that the graves raised “alarming questions about the widespread nature of cartel violence in the region and the level of government complicity.”
According to theIntercept, the Northern Command also responded to the case of a Mexican army officer and seven soldiers who had recently been arrested for killing twenty-two people last June in Tlatlaya, in the state of Mexico. The commander of the military zone overseeing the battalion responsible for the Tlatlaya killings was put under investigation by the Mexican military, and if he were to be implicated in “a gross human rights violation,” the Northern Command report noted, “the entire military zone and 10,000 personnel will be ineligible for U.S. security cooperation assistance.”
The Leahy Law, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) prohibits U.S. assistance to foreign security forces credibly believed to have committed a gross human rights violation.
Since fiscal year 2008, the U.S. government has spent roughly $2.3 billion on security aid to Mexico, largely through the Mérida Initiative, a counter-drug strategy modeled on Plan Colombia, through which the United States spent billions of dollars to combat that country’s drug war. U.S. security aid to Mexico comes in addition to direct sales of arms and other equipment, which totaled over $1.15 billion in 2014 alone.
The Obama administration has shifted the emphasis of Mérida funds from military hardware to programs focused on institutional reform, including training local law enforcement, but even with all the financial assistance and training from the United States, the Mexican government has done a poor job of investigating and punishing the perpetrators of recent crimes. In 2013, 98.3 percent of crimes in Mexico went unpunished, according to Mexican government statistics. Of the hundreds of mass graves discovered in Mexico in recent years, federal prosecutors have reported opening just fifteen investigations between 2011 and April 2015, according to Article 19, a human rights organization.
The State Department has condemned the Iguala kidnappings, along with other crimes connected to Mexican law enforcement agencies, but the United States continue to support Mexico with security aid. TheIntercept asked the State Department for a list of all Mexican agencies that have been cut off from U.S. funding due to human rights violations since the start of the Mérida Initiative, but the department said such a list was not yet available.
“It’s incomprehensible that they don’t already have that list,” wrote Laura Carlsen, Mexico City-based director of the Americas Program, in an e-mail to theIntercept. “The bigger picture is that this aid does go to human rights violators. U.S. taxpayer dollars are supporting a drug war that emboldens abusive government forces that are executing and disappearing Mexican citizens. No amount of withholding or (human right) conditioning will change that,” Carlsen added.

Terrorists’ personality traits indistinguishable from traits of the general population: Experts

Terrorists’ personality traits indistinguishable from traits of the general population: Experts

Published 12 May 2015

Social scientists and psychologists have not found a personality trait that visibly marks a potential for violent extremism, making it difficult to identify members of a group who may take up arms in support of a common cause. “As of now, there is no specific terrorist profile,” said one expert, who studies violent radicalization. “They come in all shapes and sizes.”Another experts writes that“There are no psychological characteristics or psychopathology that separate terrorists from the general population.”

Social scientists and psychologists have not found a personality trait that visibly marks a potential for violent extremism, making it difficult to identify members of a group who may take up arms in support of a common cause.
“As of now, there is no specific terrorist profile,” said Jocelyn Bélanger, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Quebec at Montreal who studies violent radicalization. “They come in all shapes and sizes.” Research on violent extremism, including interviews with current and former radicals, provide broad lessons on why and how some individuals might become violent radicals.
The Dallas Morning News points out that violent extremism occurs throughout an different communities, and is not limited to religious or political movements. For many individuals who feel humiliated or oppressed, or who seek rewards through heroism or martyrdom, radical movements offer “the highway to significance,” Bélanger said. Mental illness plays almost no part in political or religious terrorism, and while extremists might convince themselves that their actions are justified, research shows that they are not psychotic.
“There is little evidence of major psychoses being implicated, except in a minority of instances,” said Dr. Kamaldeep Bhui, a psychiatrist at Queen Mary University of London who studies violent extremism and is also editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry. In a recent research paper, Bhui and two colleagues wrote that “terrorists are generally well-integrated, ‘normal’ individuals,” not angry, social outcasts like many school shooters.
Psychiatrist Jerrold M. Post, who founded and directed the CIA’s Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior during twenty-one years with the agency, and now a professor at George Washington University, echoed that view in a report published last month. “There are no psychological characteristics or psychopathology that separate terrorists from the general population,” wrote Post. “Rather, it is group dynamics, with a particular emphasis on collective identity that helps explain terrorist psychology.” Post added that the Internet can let isolated individuals feel like an important member of “the virtual community of hatred.”
Pete Simi, a criminologist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is not surprised at the normality of violent extremists. Simi and colleagues studied forty-four members of radical American white-supremacist groups. All but four of the study subjects had personally committed acts of politically or racially motivated violence. The research uncovered that many of the study subjects had a high prevalence of childhood trauma, but Simi cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from his study. Childhood background might be a factor in embracing violent ideology, but it is not automatic.
Many people are abused as children, but not all grow up to become abusers. “What is clear is that most people in the general population who experience these conditions do not become violent, let alone violent extremists,” Simi said.

U.S. Navy successfully demonstrates autonomous, swarming UAVs

U.S. Navy successfully demonstrates autonomous, swarming UAVs

Published 11 May 2015

 

A new era in autonomy and unmanned systems for naval operations is on the horizon, as U.S. Navy officials last month announced recent technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — part of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program. LOCUST can launch swarming UAVs to autonomously overwhelm an adversary.

A new era in autonomy and unmanned systems for naval operations is on the horizon, as officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) last month announced recent technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — part of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program.
LOCUST can launch swarming UAVs to autonomously overwhelm an adversary. The deployment of UAV swarms will provide sailors and Marines a decisive tactical advantage (watch LOCUST video).
“The recent demonstrations are an important step on the way to the 2016 ship-based demonstration of thirty rapidly launched autonomous, swarming UAVs,” said ONR program manager Lee Mastroianni.
ONR says that the LOCUST program includes a tube-based launcher that can send UAVs into the air in rapid succession. The breakthrough technology then utilizes information-sharing between the UAVs, enabling autonomous collaborative behavior in either defensive or offensive missions. Since the launcher and the UAVs themselves have a small footprint, the technology enables swarms of compact UAVs to take off from ships, tactical vehicles, aircraft, or other unmanned platforms.
The ONR demonstrations, which took place during March in multiple locations, included the launch of Coyote UAVs capable of carrying varying payloads for different missions. Another technology demonstration of nine UAVs accomplished completely autonomous UAV synchronization and formation flight.
ONR officials note that while the LOCUST autonomy is cutting edge compared to remote-controlled UAVs, there will always be a human monitoring the mission, able to step in and take control as desired.
“This level of autonomous swarming flight has never been done before,” said Mastroianni. “UAVs that are expendable and reconfigurable will free manned aircraft and traditional weapon systems to do more, and essentially multiply combat power at decreased risk to the warfighter.”
UAVs reduce hazards and free personnel to perform more complex tasks, as well as requiring fewer people to do multiple missions.
Lowering costs is a major benefit of UAVs as well. Even hundreds of small autonomous UAVs cost less than a single tactical aircraft — and, officials note, having this capability will force adversaries to focus on UAV swarm response.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert’s Sailing Directions to the fleet note that over the next ten to fifteen years, the Navy will evolve and remain the preeminent maritime force. It directs: “Unmanned systems in the air and water will employ greater autonomy and be fully integrated with their manned counterparts.”

Final prototype of tool for spotting buried victims now commercially available

Final prototype of tool for spotting buried victims now commercially available

Published 11 May 2015

 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, last week announced the transition of the final prototype of the Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) technology to the commercial market. The technology proved successful during its first real-world operational use when it was deployed to Nepal following the 25 April earthquake to support international search and rescue efforts in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, last week announced the transition of the final prototype of the Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) technology to the commercial market. FINDER is a radar technology designed to detect heartbeats of victims trapped in wreckage. Two commercial partners have been licensed to manufacture the device: R4 Inc. of Eatontown, New Jersey and SpecOps Group Inc. of Sarasota, Florida.
Last Thursday, S&T and NASA demonstrated its newest capabilities at the Virginia Task Force One (VA-TF1) Training Facility in Lorton, Virginia, finding “survivors” in a simulated disaster. This is thanks to the new locator feature, which can help pinpoint the location of the victim to within about five feet — depending on the type of rubble. This key change saves rescuers time, increasing chances for locating survivors.
S&T says that the technology proved successful during its first real-world operational use when it was deployed to Nepal following the 25 April earthquake to support international search and rescue efforts in the country. David Lewis, president of one of S&T’s commercial partners, R4 Inc., arrived in Nepal with two prototype FINDER devices on 29 April to assist in the rescue efforts. He joined a contingent of international rescuers from China, the Netherlands, Belgium, and members of the Nepali Army in Northern Nepal. Using FINDER, they were able to detect two heartbeats beneath each of two different collapsed structures, allowing the rescue workers to find and save the men. The four men had been trapped beneath the rubble for days in the hard-hit village of Chautara.
“I stopped at every decimated village and used FINDER there,” Lewis explained of his actions in Nepal, crediting the Nepali people with providing invaluable support. “On two separate occasions, FINDER found two heartbeats. Family members were desperate to find trapped people. I am just happy we could be there with FINDER; I am very privileged to be part of the team and effort.”
FINDER’s human-finding abilities were demonstrated through multiple test searches over the past two years with urban search and rescue (US&R) teams in Virginia, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Jersey, Georgia, California, and Illinois.
“The latest operational assessments demonstrated FINDER was successful in locating a VATF-1 member buried in thirty feet of mixed concrete, rebar, and gravel rubble from a distance of over 30 feet,” said John Price, S&T program manager for FINDER. “This capability will complement the current Urban Search and Rescue tools such as canines, listening devices, and video cameras to detect the presence of living victims in rubble.”
“There is no one magic tool that can find everyone. We use FINDER as one of our tools: canines, Delsar listening devices, cameras,” explained VATF-1Captain Randy Bittinger. “FINDER is the only tool that can identify an unconscious, unresponsive individual just by their heartbeat. We don’t have any other tool like it. I want any tool that will help us find any people anywhere in the world.”
In disaster scenarios, such as earthquakes and tornadoes, the wreckage is made up of twisted and shattered materials. Radar signals bounce back so signals are complex.
“Because the victim’s hearts are beating, that signal changes a very small amount,” said Jim Lux, JPL’s FINDER task manager. “So what FINDER can do, is look for those very small changes, determine if they’re from a human heartbeat and it they are, a message will display for the user indicating there is somebody in there.”
S&T notes that it and and R4 Inc. are also evaluating FINDER for additional search and rescue applications such as detecting people in burning buildings.