US military surveillance future: Drones now come in swarms?

A small insect or a mosquito over your ear may now be much more than simply annoying. Those could easily be micro drones which now come in a swarm of bug-sized flying spies.

­In an effort to create a hard-to-detect surveillance drone that will operate with little or no direct human supervision in out of the way and adverse environments, researchers are mimicking nature.

The University of Pennsylvania GRASP Lab showed off a network of 20 nano-quad rotors capable of agile flight, which could swarm and navigate in an environment with obstacles.

This is another step away from bulky heavily armed aerial vehicles or humanoid robots to a much smaller level of tiny remote-control devices. While current drones lack manoeuvrability, can’t hover and move fast enough, these new devices will be able to land precisely and fly off again at speed. One day the military hope they may prove a crucial tactical advantage in wars and could even save lives in disasters. They can also be helpful inside caves and barricaded rooms to send back real-time intelligence about the people and weapons inside.

A report in NetworkWorld online news suggests the research is based on the mechanics of insects, which potentially can be reverse-engineered to design midget machines to scout battlefields and search for victims trapped in rubble.

In an attempt to create such a device, scientists have turned to flying creatures long ago, examining their perfect conditions for flight, which have evolved over millions of years.

Zoologist Richard Bomphrey has told the British Daily Mail newspaper he has conducted research to generate new insight into how insect wings have evolved over the last 350 million years.

“By learning those lessons, our findings will make it possible to aerodynamically engineer a new breed of surveillance vehicles that, because they are as small as insects and also fly like them, completely blend into their surroundings," the newspaper quotes him as saying.

The US Department of Defense has turned its attention to miniature drones, or micro air vehicles long ago.

­As early as in 2007 the US government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies when anti-war protesters in the US saw some flying objects similar to dragonflies or little helicopters hovering above them. No government agency has admitted to developing insect-size spy drones though some official and private organizations have admitted that they were trying.

In 2008, the US Air Force showed off bug-sized spies as "tiny as bumblebees" that would not be detected when flying into buildings to "photograph, record, and even attack insurgents and terrorists."

The same year US government's military research agency (DARPA) conducted a symposium discussing 'bugs, bots, borgs and bio-weapons.'

Around the same time the so-called Ornithopter flying machine based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s designs was unveiled and claimed they would be ready for roll out by 2015

Lockheed Martin's Intelligent Robotics Laboratories unveiled "maple-seed-like" drones called Samarai that also mimic nature. US troops could throw them like a boomerang to see real-time images of what's around the next corner.

The US is not alone in miniaturizing drones that imitate nature: France, the Netherlands and Israel are also developing similar devices.

Iran will use Strait of Hormuz as a lever if it faces danger: commander

TEHRAN – The Iranian Army commander has said that the Islamic Republic will use the Strait of Hormuz as a lever if it faces danger.

“The imposition of new sanctions by the hegemonistic countries will not affect our movement, but if a situation arises that the Iranian nation is exposed to danger, we will use all levers including the Strait of Hormuz… to defend (the country),” Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan told reporters on Sunday when asked if Iran would take advantage of the major oil transit waterway if new sanctions are imposed on the country.

Iranian military officials have said that the country’s armed forces are capable of blocking the strategic waterway if the enemy launches an attack on the country.

On the reports claiming that Iran, Russia, and Syria had planned to hold joint military exercises, Pourdastan said that Iranian armed forces have no official plan to hold joint war games with these countries “but the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran has the capability to have its units take part in such war games if it receives a request from the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the commander said that the Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps have planned to hold more than one round of joint war games during the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 20.

British forces in Syria, Assad presidential compound said under attack

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

Unconfirmed first reports from British, French and Turkish sources say British special operations forces crossed from Turkey into northern Syria Tuesday, May 26, and advanced up to 10 kilometers inside the country. The same sources report heavy fighting around the Presidential Guards compound on the outskirts of Damascus.

debkafile’s military sources note that this compound exists to defend Bashar Assad’s presidential palace on Mount Qaisoun overlooking Damascus.

British and Gulf TV stations are again running interviews with dozens of Syrian soldiers taken prisoner by rebel forces and transferred to Free Syrian Army centers in South Turkey. But this time, they are being aired in conjunction with those two developments, indicating pivotal and coordinated military action inside the embattled country, or even the start of western intervention against the Assad regime.

Later Tuesday, Gulf military sources confirmed the presence of British special forces in Syria.

Our military sources estimate that the British military drive into Syria, if confirmed, is designed to establish the first safe zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, to be followed by more Western military incursions to establish additional zones of safe asylum in other parts of Syria.

This follow-up action would depend substantially on Syrian, Russian and Iranian (+ Hizballah) responses to the initial stage of the operation.

The reported British incursion, if confirmed, occurred at the tail end of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 24-hour visit to Israel Tuesday morning and would have posed a direct challenge to his repeated warning that Moscow would not tolerate Western military intervention in Syria and actively prevent it. Similar warnings have issued from Tehran.

As for the timing, the double military drive against Assad also occurred hours before a NATO “consultation” in Brussels on the shooting down of a Turkish warplane by Syria last Friday, June 22, which Ankara stated Monday “must not go unpunished.”

The two-pronged operation - the reported British incursion and major clash at the front door of Assad’s presidential palace - would appear to be designed to widen the cracks in his regime and speed its final breakup.

Turk - Capital Controls, Panic, The Great Depression & Gold

With tremendous volatility in global markets, today King World News interviewed James Turk out of Europe. Turk told KWN that we are headed into an extraordinarily dangerous time for both the markets and the financial system, that will end in a massive panic. Here is what Turk had to say about what is taking place: “Today was a very important day, Eric, because gold was strong while the stock markets were weak. This is a trend I expect to continue, and one that will baffle many financial analysts, going forward, that don’t understand this type of cycle.”

James Turk continues:

“I was hoping to see more strength in the precious metals at the end of last week, Eric, given the pummeling gold and silver were given. But I guess that was too much to ask for with July option expiry this week.

Having driven the price of gold and silver down to this low level, I assume the paper-shorts will try to keep prices as low as possible, in order to maximize their profit by having calls they sold expire out of the money. We've seen this happen many times over the years....

“But there has not been any change in my thinking. Gold and silver are simply testing the May lows. So far the test has been successful. More importantly, we have to keep foremost in our minds that gold and silver remain in a bull market. I keep being reminded of this fact every time I look at the news, which keeps getting worse over here in Europe.

I think Nigel Farage got it exactly right in his interview with you on Friday. He said that the leaders over here need to resort to financial ‘repression’ to keep the euro project from falling apart. Of course that is not a solution, but simply a stop-gap by panicky leaders, who don't know what to do or who listen to bad advice.

Anyway, after Nigel's interview, the Spanish government announced the imposition of various capital controls, limiting the use of cash by companies and individuals. Expect more capital controls, soon, throughout the eurozone. That will only add to the panic, which is already bubbling just below the surface.

As we know, Eric, government actions like these do nothing to solve the problem. Financial repression is never a solution. Capital controls only buy more time, but you can't do that forever. So money continues to leave the European banks. The bank runs are not disappearing. In fact, they jumped across the Atlantic to South America, where Argentine banks are rapidly losing dollar-denominated deposits.

Bank runs were a focal point of the Great Depression, but they were just part of a bigger 3-step process that has parallels to today. After the 1929 stock market crash, people moved money out of investments and put it into banks. They wanted the liquidity, and, at first, did not fear for the safety of their money on deposit. We went though this step with the Lehman collapse.

As the economy weakened in the 1930s, people started to convert their deposits into cash currency. This was the second part of the crisis, when fear for the safety of one's money became more important than liquidity. We are now at stage two in Europe, and soon will be reaching this stage in the US. The downgrade of the major US banks, last week, is bringing heightened awareness of the fragility of the US banking system, meaning they are extremely very vulnerable to an economic downturn.

Europe's economy is clearly on a downward path, and economic activity in the US is slowing too. So the third step of the process might be closer than we think. That's when, in the 1930's, people moved out of cash, and into gold.

They did so back then because even though the US dollar was still formally tied to gold, people began to understand that there was more paper outstanding than there was gold in the US reserve. They believed that the US government could not possibly keep its promise to redeem $20.67 for one ounce of gold, so they moved out of paper-currency.

Importantly, they were right. President Roosevelt eventually devalued the dollar by 69.4%, dropping the gold content of one US dollar from 23.23 grains to 13.71 grains of fine gold. He adjusted the price of gold from $20.67 an ounce to $35 an ounce.

In the 1930's, if people we lucky enough to get their money out of any of the hundreds of banks that failed, they didn't want to take any more chances, Eric. They soon realized that the paper currency in their hand wasn't much safer than when they had their money on deposit in a bank. The panic to obtain gold or silver marked the bottom of the Great Depression. The solution was a higher gold price, and that is the same solution needed today.

President Roosevelt knew the solution in the 1930s, and lowered the gold content of the dollar, thereby raising the gold price. Central planners don't like that solution because it takes away the power they now have with fiat currencies, backed by nothing but their promises, but a higher gold price is coming nonetheless. It is the only solution.”

Easter Island Mystery Solved? New Theory Says Giant Statues Rocked

Potbellies might help explain how the moai were moved..

By National Geographic staff
National Geographic News

For centuries, scientists have tried to solve the mystery of how the colossal stone statues of Easter Island moved. Now there's a new theory—and it rocks.

The multiton behemoths traveled up to 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the quarry where most of them were carved, without the benefit of wheels, cranes, or even large animals.

Scientists have tested many ideas in the past, figuring that the islanders must have used a combination of log rollers, ropes, and wooden sledges. Now a pair of archaeologists have come up with a new theory: Perhaps the statues, known as moai, were "engineered to move" upright in a rocking motion, using only manpower and rope.

Watch video: Easter Island statues rocking forward



Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii and Carl Lipo of California State University Long Beach have worked closely with archaeologist Sergio Rapu, who's part of the South Pacific island's population of indigenous Rapanui, to develop their idea. They've observed that fat bellies allowed the statues to be tilted forward easily, and heavy, D-shaped bases could have allowed handlers to roll and rock the moai side to side.

Last year, in experiments funded by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council, Hunt and Lipo showed that as few as 18 people could, with three strong ropes and a bit of practice, easily and relatively quickly maneuver a ten-foot (three-meter), five-ton moai replica a few hundred yards (a few hundred meters). No logs were required. (National Geographic News is a division of the Society.)

In previous efforts to solve the mystery, Czech engineer Pavel Pavel worked with Norwegian explorer-adventurer Thor Heyerdahl and a team of 17 helpers to propel an upright, 13-foot (4-meter), nine-ton moai forward with twisting motions, keeping the statue fully upright at all times. That was in 1986. But Pavel's team damaged the moai's base and had to stop. (Related: "Easter Island Settled Later, Depleted Quicker Than Thought?")

A year later U.S. archaeologist Charles Love and a team of 25 erected a 13-foot (4-meter), nine-ton model upright on a wooden sledge and moved it over log rollers, advancing it 148 feet (45 meters) in two minutes.

Meanwhile, for many of Easter Island's 2,000 or so indigenous Rapanui, descended from the original Polynesian settlers, the answer is simple. "We know the truth," says Suri Tuki, 25, a tour guide. "The statues walked."