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An unmanned vehicle has successfully navigated a forbidding 132-mile section of the Mojave Desert. The next stop for the technology may be Afghanistan or Iraq.
A souped-up VW Touareg, designed by Stanford University, zipped through the course in six hours and 53 minutes Sunday, using only its computer brain and sensors to navigate rough and twisting desert and mountain trails.
The robotic vehicles had to navigate a course designed to mimic driving conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, including winding dirt trails and dry lake beds filled with overhanging brush. Parts of the route forced the robots to zip through three tunnels designed to knock out their GPS signals.
The race is part of the military's effort to fulfill a congressional mandate to cut casualties by having a third of the military's ground vehicles unmanned in 20 years.
The Stanford team — which spent $500,000 on the race, some of which was provided by sponsors — celebrated by popping champagne and pouring it over their mud-covered car called Stanley.
"This car, to me, is really a piece of history," Stanford computer scientist Sebastian Thrun said Sunday after receiving an oversized check for the $2 million prize, funded by taxpayers. He said he did not know how he would spend the money, but jokingly said he needed to buy cat food.
The race, called the Grand Challenge, displayed major technological leaps since last year's inaugural race, when none of the self-driving vehicles crossed the finish line.
In second place was a red Humvee from Carnegie Mellon University called Sandstorm, followed by a customized Hummer called H1ghlander. Coming in fourth was a Ford Escape Hybrid named Kat-5, designed by students in Metairie, La., who lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
The race began Saturday with a field of 23 autonomous vehicles. Eighteen failed to complete the course because of mechanical failures or sensor problems.
It's unclear how the Pentagon plans to harness the technology used in the race for military applications. But Thrun said he wanted to design automated systems to make next-generation cars safer for everyone, not just the military.
"If it was only for the military, I wouldn't be here today," Thrun said.
news.yahoo.com
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Japan's space agency on Monday completed the first successful test of a prototype jet that can fly at twice the speed of sound, three years after an earlier test ended in a fiery wreck in the Australian Outback, an official said.
Kenichi Saito, a spokesman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said Monday's unmanned test flight went "as planned."
"Everything was very good and the aircraft landed ... normally," Saito said in a telephone interview. "We are going to conduct the (data) analysis, but currently we think this flight was a success."
A breakthrough in supersonic flight could help Japan leap ahead in the aerospace field. The country, which manufactures high-tech components for U.S.-based Boeing Co., has only a limited domestic airplane industry.
Saito said the prototype 38-foot-long, arrow-shaped craft, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., was launched on a rocket and reached a flying altitude of 11 miles before floating back to Earth by parachute.
The test follows a three-year hiatus after the first experimental flight of the unmanned aircraft separated prematurely from its booster rocket and crashed into the desert.
Monday's $10 million experiment marked a crucial step in Japan's plans to develop a larger supersonic aircraft that can carry 300 passengers between Tokyo and Los Angeles in about four hours.
It also underpinned a June agreement between Japan and France to jointly research a possible successor to the Concorde over the next three years.
The Concorde first flew in 1969 and became a symbol of French and European industrial prowess. In July 2000, a Concorde crashed in flames after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris, killing 109 people. The sleek but costly planes were retired from commercial service in 2003, never having recouped the billions of tax dollars invested in them.
Japan hopes to have a successor making regular flights by around 2025, Saito said.
news.yahoo.com
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While Ed Forchion remains mired in legal troubles and no closer to seeing himself in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to argue his right to smoke marijuana, things don't look half bad for the New Jersey Weedman. He can now smoke all he wants and test his interpretation of federal laws without the fear of jail time.
Following the Nov. 12 sentencing hearing where he received a year of probation and a $150 fine for drug possession after organizing a series of marijuana smoke-outs at the Liberty Bell, Forchion was worried. "Pencil me in jail," he said, knowing he wouldn't have much luck passing court-ordered drug testing.
Forchion's argument was simple. Since he is Rastafarian, smoking marijuana is a religious sacrament. As such, he was protected to do so on federal property thanks to the 1993 Religious Freedom Act. The judge, however, didn’t see things the same way.
Less than two months later, however, Forchion seems to have caught a break. His motion for a stay of sentence (a plea to the District Court to throw out his punishment while he goes through the appeal process) was granted by U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell earlier this month.
Forchion authored the motion, which cites freedoms provided by the First Amendment, attacks U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Arnold Rapoport (he sentenced Forchion and co-defendant Patrick Duffy), and says he should be exempt from drug testing altogether. In short, the charges and probation conditions represent an unconstitutional religious persecution, maintains Forchion.
In his Jan. 7 order, Dalzell wrote, "because staying Forchion's sentence will not endanger the public or seriously undermine any important public interest, the risk of irreparable injury to Forchion from being subjected to potentially invalid restraints on his liberty requires us to stay his sentence."
For Forchin, this is a massive relief. Though he didn't test positive for marijuana once during his probation, he said there was no way he was going to stop smoking the "sacrament."
"It moves my case to court," says Forchion. "I don't fight it from a jail cell."
The appeals court is likely to rule within two months. Until then, Forchion knows what he'll be doing.
Rock On, NJ Weedman.
City Paper
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I think one of us may care about this at this point. Hell, maybe not.
The New York subway system has been put on high alert, again, over some perceived terrorist attack. Parts of one of Manhattan's main terminals, Penn Station, was closed two days ago following concerns about a soapy, green substance found in a soft drink can. Well god damn, let’s shut down the whole country!
Am I the only one asking where our “perceived” intelligence is coming from? Why would we disrupt the days of decent Americans with threats of this “green soda” danger? I mean, how many people were really inconvenienced by this piece of “intelligence’?
Four-and-a-half million people use the subway every day and most are continuing to do so, despite the terror alert. That’s a lot of people who aren’t afraid of “soapy green substance”. Seriously, are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles poised to attack the US?
Well, if we as the people don’t believe that, the FBI sure does.
A few days ago, authorities issued a public warning saying there was detailed intelligence about terrorists plotting a subway bombing.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to show Americans the subway is safe to ride, by taking the train to work Saturday Morning. No reports of “the lean green ass kicking machine” were reported.
So, it seems it’s safe for the mayor of New York to ride the subways, but, for some reason, not the people of New York? Fair enough, I myself live in Denver, but denied myself the use of all subways this morning, just to be safe, you understand. The fact that we have no subways here in Denver is of no consequence. If it’s not good enough for the FBI, it’s not good enough for this reporter.
I understand our countries intelligence is doing everything it can to protect us. I respect the work they do, but I hope I am not the only one who remembers the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”.
“A soapy, green substance found in a soft drink can”? It’s the secret of the ooze, if we eat it, we can all become ninja turtles. Then, we can all fight crime! As well as terrorism!
I think I said it all.
Boston Globe
