Gadzooki

Google Maps Borders and the Senkaku Islands

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Small islands are often the source of dispute among countries near them. Several countries have been in conflict owing to their claims of ownership of islands with rich marine resources and great potential for gas and oil reserve.

In Asia alone, the Philippines, Vietnam and China are claiming some areas as theirs and this remains unsettled up to now. In fact, this has prompted the U.S. to make its stand amid the tension among the nations involved.

Scarborough Shoal

scarborough shoal

The Philippines and China are both in territorial disputes over the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. The Philippines has called for international support amid this ongoing row. While the country has sent its troops to the shoal, China has also sent vessels to the area and word is out that the Chinese may be building an airstrip in the disputed reef. Philippine Navy members have arrested Chinese fishermen in the area several times for gathering marine species protected by the government. [Read more…]

Famous Cars Through History: The Humvee

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You may be used to seeing Hummer SUVs in the street, but some people may not know that there is a rich history behind this vehicle outside of its civilian use and street cred among the upper crust. The Hummer is actually based on the military Humvee, or the M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (the military can be creative with acronyms, huh?).

humvee.jpg

Plans for an HMMWV were conceptualized by the US military in the late 1970s, with the need to replace militarized civilian trucks and jeeps they had been using then. By 1979, a final design was already in place and prototypes had been created by the American Motors Corporation by 1980. The military granted AMC a contract for delivery of 55,000 by 1985, and the Humvee first saw action in the 1989 US invasion of Panama. They are still being used by the military for land ops to date.

The Humvee was not designed for heavy combat, but instead for personnel and light cargo transport behind the front lines. There are at least 17 variants of the Humvee in service, and these include being retrofitted as weapons platforms, missile launchers, and ambulances. The Humvee could also ford up to five feet of water (with an optional deep water fording kit installed), and could tow or carry up to 6,000 lbs of weight or supplemental armor. Some variants can also be mounted with MK 19 grenade launchers, M2 heavy machine guns, M240G/B machine guns, and M249 surface-to-air missiles. The Humvee could also run on flat tires for up to 20 kilometres.

In the Second Gulf War in Iraq, one of the criticisms of the US military was the use of standard-issue Humvees without the additional heavy armor kits, which were in limited production runs. This meant that the Humvee was vulnerable to high caliber weaponry and explosives.

With the “up armor” kits, though, the Humvee would be fitted with ballistic windshields and reinforced steel doors, which could withstand attacks by assault rifles (such as the AK-47) and even incendiary explosive devices. However, the Humvee would still be vulnerable to land mines and other explosive attacks from underneath.

The military is currently developing potential replacements for the Humvee. But for now, the Humvee has earned its place in history by being an omnipresent figure whenever there are armed conflicts or peacekeeping missions (so this can be taken in both a good and bad light). And of course we civilians can still dream of buying ourselves a Hummer or two!

Active Denial Systems – Is It a Moral Use of Technology?

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You’re minding your own business – albeit in a war torn country. You are on your way to work when you hear gunfire, so you naturally duck and try to find cover. Suddenly, you’re hit with incredible searing pain. You stumble back, and suddenly the pain is gone. This is now the reality – Raytheon (a US based defence company) has built a weapon that fills the gap between ‘shout and shoot’.

Whilst this technology is pretty cutting edge, there’s been some discussion about it for some time. Silent Guardian (one of a range of products for non-leathal defence) projects a beam of microwave energy at a frequency of up to 94GHz up to a range of 250 metres. Testing shows that it can penetrate even tiny cracks in clothing/barriers to ensure that it hits the target.

Raytheon states there is no comparison between the defence products it manufactures and that of microwaves and their radiation – and in fact to receive a burn one would have to be in the ‘firing line’ for over 4 minutes – a long time of agony by anyone’s estimation. The weapon works by stimulating the nerves in the first layer of skin of 0.4mm, even if you’re right up to the source of the beam.

[Read more…]

Radical Innovation: Self-Healing Material

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self-healing materialAt Gadzooki, the thing that drives us the most is excitement about future technology. Sure gadgets are nice, and we love our tech, but deep down, we love innovation and thinking about the future.

Just the other day I encountered one of those few stories that bring me to say “Hey, that just might change our future in radical ways.”

NewScientist reports on a self-healing material that is able to identify the exact location of damage with exquisitely high-resolution. The material uses epoxy sealant to make any minor repairs – think about small cuts on your skin (as opposed to gashes to your tendons). One could imagine this material being used to immediately repair things as diverse as the tires on your car, the pipes in your house or even leaks in the roof.

The epoxy in this self-healing material is located just below the outer polymer surface (the equivalent of a machine’s epidermis). When the polymer surface is penetrated, the epoxy flows into any damage that might occur.

What makes this material even more amazing is the fact that is has embedded circuitry that allows human beings to pinpoint damage that the automated epoxy system can’t fix. Thing about how useful that could be. Say that there is a leak somewhere in your home piping system that no one can locate: a piping system designed with this material would be able to help identify the precise location.

And that just scratches the surface.

Tough Love (Laptop Love, That Is)

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panasonic_toughbook.jpgIf you’ve watched any spy thriller movies and action-oriented television shows lately, you would notice the thick, rubber-padded, ruggedized laptops that either the baddies or the good guys tote with them to take care of their high tech needs. Take Mission Impossible, for instance. I distinctly remember scenes in MI2 and M:I:III where I spotted ruggedized laptops. I suppose they survived explosions–or at least the data inside them on hard discs did.

Of course, there are plenty of applications for tough laptops in real life, and yes, they do include scenarios depicted on film. So spies, policemen, firemen and even sailors do get to use rugged laptops in the course of doing their jobs.

Rugged laptops were specifically designed to withstand an inordinate amount of stress. From the dusty heat of the summer desert to the crashing waves of a stormy sea, these extreme machines offer high-performance usability every time. Water resistant, dust/sand resistant and shockproof, rugged laptops are utilized by the military under virtually all environmental conditions. Their ability to maintain peak performance at temperatures of -10 degrees Fahrenheit to +140 degrees Fahrenheit, in addition to their durability when dropped or struck, makes these devices all but invincible. – laptopical

[Read more…]

Military Defense Gadgets

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With the recent North Korean missile tests reported at Trump Today News, I suspect that we’ll see more and more military gadgets pop up over the next decade. The prime candidates? Anti-missile defense systems.

Here’s an image of the Phalanx CIWS ship defense gun, a rapid fire, last measure defense gun for incoming anti-ship missiles. The thing basically operates by firing up to 4,500 rounds per minute in an effort to disable the incoming missile by means of brute force.

Phalanx Military Defense Gadget
The Phalanx is a cruder form of missile defense and is only intended as a last resort. The more sophisticated missile defense systems are intended to intercept missiles early in flight, when they are not yet near their target. Such systems are immensely difficult to engineer as they require pinpoint accuracy across both space and time and must deal with unpredictable variables in the atmosphere. The US anti-missile defense system is still not even close to perfect, despite billions of dollars in investment and the resources of America’s brightest minds.

Missile Defense
With the recent test provocations by North Korea, expect for the US to push its defense systems development into hyperdrive. Technological advance is often ushered in by the force of necessity, and nothing spells necessity like a luny-bin dictator with nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.