Sandia Labs Engineers Develop New Bullet

From washingtonpost.com -Figuring out how to pack a processor and other electronics into a machine gun bullet has been a challenge for engineers at Sandia National Laboratories, so weapons experts say the miniature guidance system the lab has developed is a breakthrough.  Three years in the making, the bullet prototype represents another step toward a next-generation battlefield that scientists and experts expect to be saturated with technology and information.  In the laboratory, I’m able to make machines so incredibly small it kind of boggles my mind,” said Red Jones, one of the Sandia researchers who helped develop the laser-guided .50-caliber bullet. “Where we’re headed, we’re going to be limited only by our imagination.”  More News New Mexico

Sandia Labs Engineers Develop New Bullet

New autopilot will make another 9/11 impossible

From The Mail Online.com - A hijack-proof piloting system for airliners is being developed to prevent terrorists repeating the 9/11 outrages. The mechanism is designed to make it impossible to crash the aircraft into air or land targets - and enable the plane to be flown by remote control from the ground in the event of an emergency. Scientists at aircraft giant Boeing are testing the tamper-proof autopilot system which uses state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology.It will be activated by the pilot flicking a simple switch or by pressure sensors fitted to the cockpit door that will respond to any excessive force as terrorists try to break into the flight deck. Once triggered, no one on board will be able to deactivate the system. Currently, all autopilots are manually switched on and off at the discretion of pilots. The so-called 'uninterruptible autopilot system' - patented secretly by Boeing in the US last week - will connect ground controllers and security services with the aircraft using radio waves and global satellite positioning systems. After it has been activated, the aircraft will be capable of remote digital control from the ground, enabling operators to fly it like a sophisticated model plane, manoeuvring it vertically and laterally. A threatened airliner could be flown to a secure military base or a commercial airport, where it would touch down using existing landing aids known as 'autoland function'. After it had landed, the aircraft's built-in autobrake would bring the plane safely to a halt on the runway. Read more

New autopilot will make another 9/11 impossible

Los Alamos Rated Nation's "Brainiest" Mid-Sized City

From bizjournals.com -Los Alamos is No. 1 in New Mexico in On Numbers' new rankings of the smartest places with populations between 10,000 and 49,999. The home to Los Alamos National Laboratories came in at No. 48 among 3,012 communities in the category. Almost 38 percent of its residents have earned a graduate and/or professional degree.  More News New Mexico

Los Alamos Rated Nation's "Brainiest" Mid-Sized City

Jobs: Apple's iCloud Taking Shot at PC's

Steve Jobs

Businessweek - Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, by introducing a service that shares files across different Internet-linked devices, takes another step toward sidelining the personal-computer industry he pioneered. Jobs, who helped popularize home computers with the Apple II and the Mac in the 1970s and ‘80s, is counting on the new iCloud product to let users synchronize and access data on Apple devices and Windows PCs running iTunes. Jobs aims to make Apple the center of consumers’ digital lives, further decreasing dependence on Microsoft Corp.’s once- dominant Windows software and Hewlett-Packard Co.’s market- leading PCs.

With iCloud, files will be stored by Apple in remote data centers -- known as the “cloud” in technology parlance -- and automatically synchronize. That means the same content is available from any Apple gadget, without it cluttering up users’ hard drives. “The PC will be the most visible casualty of the cloud revolution,” said Steve Perlman, a former Apple engineer and the CEO of online game company OnLive Inc. “Apple knows it.” Read full story here: News New Mexico

Jobs: Apple's iCloud Taking Shot at PC's