weapons

I've been feeling a little crabby this week.

People have been annoying me for seemingly no good reason. But it hasn't yet gotten to that stage where I want to build a nuclear weapon and set it upon them.

I mention this only because, should I reach that demented level, I cannot use iTunes in the manufacture of that weapon.

You see, I have an iTunes account. And, thanks to the diligent Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, I now realize that I have already agreed not to design or produce nuclear weapons with the help of Apple's … Read more

While most of the X-Men have shiny superpowers, it seemed like Wolverine couldn't quite match up to some of the science-fiction abilities found among his peers -- until now.

Engineer James Hobson, who calls himself the "hacksmith," created a homemade upgrade for the comic book slasher by electrifying a pair of claws he created himself. The experiment, inspired by a similarly electrifying Thor's Hammer post on Hackaday, looks radically unsafe (and is definitely not recommended for all you at-home DIYers), as Hobson utilizes a transformer from an old oil furnace and feeds the electrical current into the claws.… Read more

Lockheed Martin's ADAM laser weapon wants to step up its game.

In a series of tests in March and April, the prototype directed-energy system destroyed eight small-caliber rocket targets in flight at a range of approximately 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile), Lockheed said Wednesday. The defense contractor described the targets as "free-flying Qassam-like rockets," making reference to the simple but deadly projectiles developed by the military arm of the Palestinian group Hamas.

You can see a video of one of those test-firings below.

The 2013 tests follow a series of trials in 2012 when the ADAM (… Read more

The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots kicked off its protest against self-powered military machines earlier this week.

CNET caught up with the campaign organizers to hear why they want killer 'bots banned -- play the video above to hear their reasoning and to witness the kinds of death-dealing devices the organization is trying to stop.

One thing I wanted to know is why the campaign is so averse to autonomous robots. As Noel Sharkey, expert roboticist and professor, told me, however, this movement is only about putting the brakes on autonomous killing machines. … Read more

Six cybertools have been designated as weapons by the U.S. Air Force, allowing the programs to better compete for increasingly scarce Pentagon funding, an Air Force official said on Monday.

Lt. Gen. John Hyten, vice commander of Air Force Space Command, told a conference held in conjunction with the National Space Symposium that the new designations would boost the profile of the military's cyberoperations as countries grapple with attacks originating from the Internet.

"This means that the game-changing capability that cyber is, is going to get more attention and the recognition that it deserves," Hyten told … Read more

The U.S. Navy is continuing its flirtation with laser weapons.

The latest tip-toeing move toward a more serious relationship came today with word from the Navy that it plans to deploy a solid-state laser weapon system aboard the USS Ponce in fiscal year 2014. Other than that, though, the announcement was absent any details about the capabilities of the particular laser weapon system or the expectations for its performance, though the Navy talked up the virtues of laser weapons in general as a countermeasure against threats including aerial drones and fast-moving small boats.

The Navy also described the deployment … Read more

When you make your Facebook profile picture that of Action Man (aka the British G.I. Joe), it can be a clue to your fascination with fantasy.

It also suggests that if there's a toy mortar in the background of the picture, that, too, might actually not be entirely real.

Please try telling that to the five carloads of police who raided Ian Driscoll's house in Tewkesbury, England, armed with guns and a search warrant.

"The Action Man looked a bit like me, so I decided to put it as my Facebook picture. I didn't even notice the mortar in the background," 43-year-old Driscoll explained to the Daily Mail.… Read more

North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test this evening, the country's official news agency said, and apparently the blast had a higher explosive yield than the earlier tests.

The 5.1-magnitude artificial tremor (initially measured at magnitude 4.9) struck before noon Tuesday local time in North Hamgyong Province. Initially, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min Seok told Bloomberg it was "likely" a nuclear test, adding that more investigation was necessary. Meanwhile, a U.N. Security Council diplomat said the seismic activity was the result of a nuclear test.

The Korean Central News Agency later … Read more