September Clues: ) http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/108.html
http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdw/jdw080725_1_n.shtml
The asymmetric nature of current military operations has seen the demand for - and subsequent collection of - vast amounts of actionable intelligence on a previously unimaginable scale.The battlefield commander's information requirements have changed dramatically in recent years - a trend fuelled by the continued drive towards a measure of network-centric operations and the resultant reduced decision cycles, linking of battlefield entities and sharing of information among all players.
With some 65 per cent of all information on the battlefield in some way geo-referenced, geographic information systems (GIS) have started to become a prime conduit for the sharing of actionable data.
Speaking at the WBR Defence Geospatial Intelligence conference in London in January, retired brigadier Nick Rigby, former director of intelligence, collection strategy and plans for the UK Ministry of Defence, said that the geospatial intelligence discipline had become a key enabler in network- or information-centric operations.
"First of all, what do I mean by the term 'geospatial intelligence'? For me it is the melding of geospatial information [that of data and products] across the spectrum of the -ologies and -ographies with the intelligence disciplines to deliver a capability greater than the sum of the constituent parts - a means of visualising the instance, situation or forecasting the same," said Rigby, who is now a non-executive director with ESRI UK.
Rigby said that, while geographic information served as the foundation, true geospatial intelligence took a wider focus and melded information from the land, sea and air environments with the intelligence disciplines of human intelligence, imagery intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence.
"Simplified, it is all about situational awareness via a recognised environmental picture - but it is also more than that. Geospatial intelligence provides the foundation for the JOP [joint operations picture] or the COP [common operating picture]; it is not just geographic information," Rigby told Jane's.
The advantages provided by modern geographic information systems are clear. With the irregular, asymmetric threat of the current focus of military planners and operations increasingly in the urban environment, GIS applications help reduce decision cycles and speed up response times and precision.
"In the US this is increasingly referred to as 'human terrain' - the mapping of the social, cultural and temporal aspects of a society. This causes a demand for more non-traditional data for use in geospatial analysis, leading to the routing of convoys to avoid schools and mosques, for example," said Rigby.
This requires a means to analyse and quickly disseminate the vast amounts of data collected by the intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance assets that are now available in theatre to operational commanders. In Afghanistan, for example, UK forces currently operate the Hermes 450 tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the Desert Hawk tactical UAV and the Reaper medium-altitude long-endurance UAV in a three-tiered model.
To avoid being drowned in the resultant information, a premium has been placed on systems with sophisticated data storage, data mining and recovery techniques that allow staff to be fed only the information that is relevant to their current mission without depriving them of key facts.
Lake County tests its ability to deliver in bioterror drill
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=223280&src=3
'It could save a lot of lives'
200 'victims' participate in bioterrorism drill (IL)
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1074115,5_1_WA25_HAZARDDRIL_S1.article
Benton High School NJROTC students Andrea Broyles (left)and Jon Langston, both seniors, and Battalion Chief Larry Swieca with the Buffalo Grove Fire Department, try to figure out what medications the students, posing as victims, need during the drill. Registered nurses Carol Swieca of Buffalo Grove (left), Marg McKee of Grayslake, and Bonnie Quirke of Libertyville assist them.First responders, emergency crews and health officials are waiting to distribute medicines to thousands of infected residents before it is too late.
That was the scenario the Lake County Health Department and emergency agencies were faced with Thursday during a bioterrorism drill at St. Peter's United Church of Christ in Lake Zurich.
"The purpose of the exercise is to test the county's ability to respond to a local bioterrorism incident," said Health Department spokesman Leslie Piotrowski.
As part of the drill, more than 200 volunteers simulated the delivery and distribution of the national stockpile of antibiotics to some 700,000 residents at various polling sites, which are designated mass dispensing sites. Lake Zurich's goal was to serve 200 people in an hour....
Army's effort to rush technology to troops boosts defense firms
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2008/07/25/20080725biz-combat0725.html
A recent decision by the U.S. Army to speed delivery of advanced missiles, robots and unmanned aircraft to infantry units in Iraq and Afghanistan could be a boon to Arizona defense contractors.Among the products being pushed into production earlier than planned are "missiles in a box" made by Raytheon Co. in Tucson and the beer-keg-shaped Micro Air Vehicle produced by Phoenix-based Honeywell Aerospace.
A reprioritizing of the Army's sweeping $160 billion Future Combat Systems modernization program also resurrects the Land Warrior individual communications system developed by Scottsdale's General Dynamics C4 Systems.
The $3 billion Land Warrior program was scrapped by the Pentagon last year, but it has been brought back as a new component of Future Combat Systems called the Ground Soldier System.
The Army's program restructuring pushes up deployment of much of the Future Combat Systems technology to 2011 from 2015 and initially distributes it to the infantry instead of the armored-brigade combat teams, as initially planned.
"It gives us the opportunity to produce more of the systems sooner and get them in the hands of those they can benefit," said Vaughn Fulton, manager of Honeywell's unmanned air-vehicle program.
Tom Moody of Raytheon called the Army's restructuring of its Future Combat Systems program good news......
Artificial Intelligence System - 100 Billion Neurons and Beyond
http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/10763.html
Toronto, Ontario, Jul. 25, 2008 - Intelligence Realm Inc. has recently completed a simulation of 100 billion neurons, the estimated size of the human brain. The simulation used distributed computing and involved over 4000 computers, 3000 volunteers, 10000 processors, 180 TB of data and lasted for a couple of months.This was the first simulation that bypassed the 100 billion level and used database files to store the data.The simulation is one of the first steps in a long-term project that is aiming to build a large-scale artificial intelligence by reverse engineering the brain.Ovidiu Anghelidi, the project leader said: "The simulation also proves that computing power is no longer a stumbling block in achieving artificial intelligence. The computational requirements for running large-scale biophysical neural networks at the cellular level can be found in distributed computing.
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