Category Archives: Weapons

Orbital ATK to Expand Launch Vehicles Division

Rendering courtesy of new Orbital ATK center.

Aerospace and defense company Orbital ATK is expanding its Chandler, Arizona-based launch vehicles division.

Orbital will establish the 47-acre campus a stone’s throw from the company’s existing Chandler campus, which employs nearly 1,600 people.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Orbital ATK To Expand Its Chandler Footprint

Doctor-Hackers Warn of Medical Device Security Flaws

Image by Lucien Monfils.

Members of the medical and hacker communities are raising concerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities affecting medical records, infrastructure and devices.

Experts have long warned of security flaws in medical devices — insulin pumps that can deliver deadly doses, for example. Many devices include wireless connectivity capability.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Doctor-Hackers Raise Awareness Of Medical Device Vulnerabilities

Genetic Radiation Exposure Test Prepares for FDA Evaluation

Seventy-plus years into the Atomic Age, the United States still lacks a good radiation-dosage test.

But the ASU Radiation Biodosimetry Test (ARad), a device being developed by Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, could soon help doctors triage victims of a nuclear attack by gauging their exposure to ionizing radiation via changes in gene expression.

ARad is one of only a few tests under development that can detect radiation exposure levels. Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:

ASU Radiation Test Uses Genes To Triage Nuclear Attack Victims

The Global Genetic Coronal Phosphorescent Thermohaline Economic Asteroid-Earthquake Singularity War That Will Doom Us All

“The Last Day of Pompeii” by Karl Briullov.

In the real world, disasters aren’t just a matter of scale – they’re a question of preparedness and of a society’s capacity to handle the fallout. Vaccines, rapid-response teams and early-warning systems can move the needle from calamity toward recovery, while poverty, corruption and ignorance slide it toward catastrophe. So, cue announcer: “In a world … where real disasters aren’t single events that arise from simple problems that are solvable in 93 minutes  …”

10 Possible Future Disasters

Coming to Grips with the Impalement Arts

A woman fastened to a spinning wheel has knives thrown at her.
The Wheel of Death: It’s a living. Photo by Ellin Beltz.

No one can say when people first started throwing knives, but I’m willing to bet that it was the result of boredom, desperation or an ill-thought-out dare.  How we got from there to the Wheel of Death involves a journey from Africa, through the Wild West shows and circuses of the 1800s, and finally to our own  backyards.

Knives hardly sail through the air like arrows, but throwing them is not a difficult as it might seem. So grab your weapon of choice and join me as I explain …

How Knife Throwing Works