Marines New Classified Weapon

via aviationweek.com

The U.S. Marine Corps has chosen a classified weapon to arm the AAI RQ-7B Shadow tactical unmanned aerial system (UAS) for a field evaluation in Afghanistan.

“The weapon is classified. It’s a high-TRL [technology readiness level] system,” says Lt. Col. Scott Anderson, product manager for Shadow in the Army’s UAS program office, which is supporting the Marine Corps’ plan to weaponize the aircraft to meet an urgent operational need.

The Marines are working to have the unidentified weapon declassified to make it easier to test and deploy the armed Shadow.

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If Patents Are Weapons, These Companies Are Armed To The Teeth

via businessinsider.com

Former Yahoo engineer Andy Baio is "embarrassed" by the patents filed in his name.

Writing in Wired, he said "I thought I was giving them a shield, but turns out I gave them a missile with my name permanently engraved on it."

That got us wondering. If patents really are weapons, who's got the biggest, baddest army in the tech world?

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Here's The Secret Weapon Twitter Got From Posterous

via businessinsider.com

Posterous isn't shutting down, but it's becoming more apparent that talent was a key factor behind Twitter buying the light-blogging company.

That's particularly because of former Apple engineer Adam Huda, the former director of mobile engineering at Posterous, who joined Twitter as part of the acquisition.

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Yes, You Can Play Angry Birds With a Real Slingshot

via gizmodo.com

Unless it was created by master builder Joerg Sprave, it's rare for a slingshot to be of any real interest. But even though we're pretty sick of hearing about Angry Birds, this slingshot controller for the game is kind of neat.

It's built around an mbed microcontroller which translates the angle of the slingshot and the force on the elastic to mouse movements. So pinching on the sling and pulling it back is like clicking on the slingshot in the game and dragging your mouse's cursor back.

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Russia's Designing a Deadlier AK-47

via gizmodo.com

The AK-47 has been one of the most widely-used weapons in the world since its inception in 1940. However, as the battlefield of the 21st century demands ever-greater degrees of accuracy, the Kalashnikov's 350m range is no longer effective. That's why Russia is giving the "world's most dangerous weapon" a deadly new makeover.

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The Military's Super Shipwrecking Railgun Just Got Really Real

via gizmodo.com

It fires a 40-pound metal slug up to 5,600 miles per hour from New York to Philadelphia, slamming into its target with 32 times the force of a "1-ton car being thrust at 100 mph." Railguns aren't sci-fi anymore.

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How to Make a Smoke Bomb

via io9.com

Sometimes you just have to escape from a sticky situation. And when that happens, you need some kind of diversion to confuse people so they won't come after you. That's why Batman (and various stage magicians) have given us the wonder of smoke bombs. But how do you make them yourself?

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There's a New Mystery Strike Weapon Coming to the US Arsenal

via gizmodo.com

This is Boeing's next big destructive bad boy. "Boeing is in production on at least one "proprietary" strike weapon system" says Shelley Lavender, VP and general manager of Boeing's global strike systems. Nobody knows anything about it.

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NASA developing comet hunting space harpoon

via digitaltrends.com

NASA wants to spear itself a hunk of comet with a new ballista powered harpoon in development.

NASA wants to shoot for the stars, or at the very least, comets will do. Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland are currently developing a space harpoon in order to siphon samples off of wayward comets.

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Here Comes Facebook's Pre-IPO Secret Weapon

via businessinsider.com

Facebook will roll out its first mobile advertising campaigns by the end of March, Bloomberg reports.

Facebook currently makes money from side-bar advertisements on its website, but has been notably absent from the mobile advertising scene.

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Army test of hypersonic weapon 'flawless'

via msnbc.msn.com

The U.S. Army hypersonic weapon prototype streaked across the Pacific Ocean at several times the speed of sound Thursday in a flawless maiden test flight. The success could pave the way for a new military capability to strike targets anywhere on Earth in as little as an hour.

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The Top 10 Most Badass Government Technologies

via businessinsider.com

As American citizens, we pay taxes that go to any one of a number of places.
The DMV needs new carpet, a pothole needs repair, and our senators need to be paid.
But every once in a while, our money is used for some pretty badass projects.
We've gathered some awesome things you never realized you helped fund!

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