[Bee] NEW YORK, NY — The entire cast of the all-female talk show ’The View' was forced to get rabies shots this week after Whoopi Goldberg bit all of them.
The incident occurred after Goldberg said on-air that Trump would banish interracial marriage if elected. Following her comments, she then ran around the studio biting all members of the cast and crew, prompting doctors to rush on stage and give everyone a rabies shot.
"He's gonna deport you and put the white guy with someone else!" Goldberg yelled before biting every person in the room, running directly through a plate glass window, and rampaging through the streets of New York City.
"I'm worried she might have had rabies," Doctor Leo Martin told members of the press. "The way she was acting, sort of foaming at the mouth and yelling nonsense; these are classic signs of rabies. We were able to apprehend her in Midtown and subdue her before crating her in isolation for a few days, as is standard procedure."
The cast of ’The View' said they were grateful for the fast action of the medical crew and believed it saved their lives. Animal Control released a statement saying if Goldberg recovers she can be rehomed to a new show at a farm upstate.
[BreakingDefense] The Army is upfitting vehicles with big 24 or 32-inch displays that present multiple sources of data for a full operational picture.
Army formations face threats that extend from kinetics to unmanned ISR drones to electronic warfare, which means much of their situational awareness comes from displays and visualization systems inside vehicles like Bradley infantry fighting vehicles.
We discussed these challenges and how advanced capabilities in visual displays present data for decision making with Neal Toso, director of technical business development for ScioTeq.
Breaking Defense: What are the lessons learned from Ukraine as they relate to rugged visualization solutions for mission and/or safety critical applications?
Toso: Lessons from Ukraine show that if you’re stationary you’re an easy target. Instead of having a fixed shelter for a command post – they’re too easily detected because of electronics and their digital signatures – the military needs to find modern ways to keep command posts mobile. That’s our focus, giving the Army larger-size, qualified display options for mobile command and control.
[BreakingDefense] The troubled OCX ground system to allow users access to the jam-resistant M-Code GPS signal will go into operational tests by the end of the year, and the Space Force also has shaken up its effort to field M-Code radios and receivers, said Cordell DeLaPena, who heads those programs for Space Systems Command.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Expert warns leaving it too late 'could lead to a disaster that would kill not only the astronauts, but also NASA's reputation'.
OR.. they could put one of the large Sierra inflatable space stations docked to the ISS for a new crew quarters and seal up the bad Russian module until the problem is solved. The Sierra module could be launched by Falcon Heavy or Vulcan or Blue Origin near term. Out 1/2 a year they could just doc a starship to the ISS. It has more interior volume than most of the ISS modules in total. Also, an F9 based rocket system is contracted for, already, to de-orbit ISS. I think it's a waste as ISS is Mass in Space that can be repurposed for raw materials.
Nick Pope, a former civil servant who once ran the British Government's UFO project, told MailOnline that the space agency's 'wait-and-see' attitude could have devastating consequences.
'Leaving it too late could lead to a disaster that would kill not only the astronauts, but also NASA's reputation,' he said.
His warning comes as NASA revealed it is tracking 50 'areas of concern' related to a growing leak on the Russian side of the ISS.
American astronauts have been instructed to wait near the escape hatch in case of an emergency evacuation whenever the hatch to the leaky section is open.
NASA has now promoted the leak to a 'top safety risk'.
However, it insists that its astronauts will remain aboard the station.
But as NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscomos, fail to patch or even find the leak there are now growing concerns over the safety of the ISS.
The leak was first detected in 2019 in the Russian Zvezda Service Module Transfer Tunnel which provides station living quarters, life support systems, electrical power distribution and data processing, flight control and propulsion systems.
However, despite the space agencies covering potential cracks with 'a combination of sealant and patches' the leak has only grown faster in recent years.
In February, NASA was forced to hold a press conference on the issue as the amount of air escaping temporarily increased from 0.2 lbs per day (0.09 kg) to 2.4 lbs (1.08 kg) per day.
The leak then hit record rates in April, losing 3.7 lbs (1.68 kg) of air every day according to a report from NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
As the leak continues to grow, the situation was declared a 'top safety risk' this September and escalated to the highest level on NASA's risk scale.
NASA officials say they have reached a deal with Roscomos to only open the hatch to the leaking section when necessary and to keep it sealed during the evenings.
Whenever the hatch is open, NASA has instructed all astronauts to remain on the American side of the station so they can be nearer to their spacecraft in case of an emergency.
However, Mr Pope says that this has put NASA in a 'tight spot'.
He says: 'Evacuating the ISS too soon will increase the gap between NASA and Elon Musk and make NASA look like a declining force, but leaving it too late could lead to a disaster.'
While NASA maintains that the Zvezda module's hatch remains closed as much as possible, if the leaks become severe the station could rapidly lose pressure and oxygen.
In the case of such an emergency, all astronauts would need to climb aboard their assigned 'lifeboats' docked with the station.
The capsules have been stocked with emergency suits, allowing the crew to quickly put on the proper gear as they flee the orbiting laboratory, saving more valuable time.
NASA's Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said that in the event of an emergency, SpaceX's Dragon could be powered up within minutes.
However, the space agency has also admitted that the ISS is not sufficiently prepared for capsule failures which could leave some astronauts stranded.
The OIG report says: 'Due to the high costs and a limited budget, the lack of ready-to-launch vehicles prevent the Agency from having an immediate response capability if crew vehicles encounter significant damage and are no longer safe for crew evacuation.'
In the event of an impact from a micrometeor or piece of space debris, this could lead to a situation in which astronauts have no way of fleeing the damaged station.
NASA says that an impact of this kind could cause 'serious damage or catastrophic failure, and can be a threat to astronauts'.
However, due to the costs of performing upgrades in space, NASA has said it will not provide any additional shielding to protect the station from objects larger than 3cm.
Mr Pope adds: 'Space is inherently dangerous and the space program carries with it a degree of risk. But with lives at stake, a wait-and-see option has higher consequences.'
However, not all experts are convinced that the Zvezda module leak is likely to lead to catastrophic failure.
Dr Simeon Barber, a space scientist at The Open University, told MailOnline: 'Although this is seen as a high priority issue to resolve, it is not putting astronauts in immediate danger.'
By closing the hatch to Zvezda, the leak can be contained no matter how fast it becomes.
'The problem is that if the leak gets too bad, they might have to leave the hatch permanently closed, meaning the docking ports beyond the hatch can’t be used,' says Dr Barber.
Although this would make resupplying the space station more difficult it would ensure that the station can continue functioning.
While this might not be a threat to human life, experts say that this could lead NASA to decommission the station earlier than planned.
[IsraelTimes] As some UAVs from Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies keep evading Israel’s air defenses, tech execs say detection is the first step to remedying this defensive weakness
This month, explosives-laden drones fired by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah have targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea and the dining hall of an IDF training base in the northern town of Binyamina.
The attack on the military base killed four soldiers and wounded dozens. Netanyahu’s home suffered minor damage — the reinforced glass of a bedroom window was cracked — and there were no injuries, as the prime minister and his wife were not home at the time.
Both drones flew undetected by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and triggered no warning sirens, leaving victims completely vulnerable. They are the latest examples of the lethal threat drones pose to military and civilian assets, and expose the IDF’s struggle throughout the ongoing multifront war to effectively identify and detect unmanned aircraft coming from as nearby as Lebanon and Gaza, and as far away as Yemen, Iraq and Iran.
One Israeli startup working on a technological solution to counter this threat is R2 Wireless, a developer of deep signal processing technology designed to improve the detection of deadly drones and UAVs.
Founded by electrical engineer Dr. Yiftach Richter about four years ago, the startup came out of stealth eight months ago with a system that uses machine learning algorithms to detect, classify, geolocate, and track in real time any kind of flying threat that transmits a signal, whether it is airborne or grounded, on land or at sea. The proprietary sensing tech scans for wireless threats and is tailored to detect multiple signal types and protocols that could be coming from a drone, a tactical radio, Bluetooth earphones, a smartwatch, or a cellphone.
Over the past few months, the startup has started to pilot with the Israeli military, its system has been trialed by the UK military, among others, and it has recently participated in an exercise with NATO countries.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” R2 Wireless CEO Onn Fenig told The Times of Israel. “We will continue seeing UAVs that succeed in breaching Israeli air defenses, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone as the current military systems weren’t designed to counter the rapidly evolving threat.”
“The biggest challenge is not in the interception, but in the detection — because if you don’t know what you are looking for and where the threat is, you will not be able to effectively intercept it in time,” he said.
Recognizing that Israel needs better counter-drone systems, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asserted shortly after the deadly drone strike on the IDF dining hall that the army is shifting “significant efforts to developing solutions to address the threat of UAV attacks.”
Despite having one of the world’s best defenses against missiles and rockets, Israel has struggled to deal with the drone threat throughout the current war. It was Hamas drones that first crossed from Gaza into Israel on the morning of October 7, 2023, to disable electronic monitoring systems and pave the way for the massive cross-border onslaught in which terrorists brutally killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip.
Since last October 8, Hezbollah forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the terror group saying it is doing so to support Gaza during the war against Hamas there. Drones launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen have also managed to cause fatalities after evading Israel’s air defenses.
Throughout the yearlong war, some 1,200 drones have been fired at Israel, and 221 have gotten through Israel’s air defense system causing casualties and property damage.
One of the main difficulties in the ongoing drone war is that the Israeli army isn’t prepared for the challenge, according to Fenig.
“The IDF has focused on countering missiles and rockets and didn’t view drones as a strategic threat, as it treated them as something that has minimal destructive capability and they thought that the solutions they have are good enough — but they have been proven wrong,” said Fenig. “It is no secret that there aren’t good enough technologies on the detection side as the IDF system is heavily reliant on radar, which continuously proves to be mostly irrelevant for this threat.”
Fenig emphasized that the ongoing war, especially the recent heightened fighting with Hezbollah, has highlighted how the terror group improved its capabilities from the deployment of surveillance drones that fly over military bases to Iranian-designed explosive drones and so-called first-person-view drones, or FPVs, that are often mistaken for birds.
“The rapid advancement in technology has made them faster, cheaper, and much more difficult to detect,” said Fenig. “They have relatively small radar cross-sections and are made out of cheap composite over-the-counter materials like plastic or wood, which makes them hard to detect and track because they fly at low altitude and are slow-moving compared to high-speed metal objects such as missiles that Israel’s much more expensive Iron Dome and other Israeli aerial defense systems were designed to counter.
“If 10 years ago you could have just flown one, now you can fly a swarm of 100 for the same price. And also in terms of precision and the optical payloads you can put on these UAVs everything has changed, so that has made the usage much more effective and popular — it’s not new, but October 7 demonstrated what drones could do,” he said.
Fenig welcomed a recent exercise held earlier this month by the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D, or MAFAT in Hebrew) to help bolster the military’s counter-drone capabilities, but lamented that it focused solely on scouting for novel technologies to intercept deadly drones and not on detection as well.
“Countering the UAV threat is a critical national priority,” stated Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir. “To date, the Defense Ministry has invested hundreds of millions of shekels in developing, extensively procuring, and deploying defensive capabilities.”
“Our objective is to expedite the development and deployment of new interception systems… These will constitute a more comprehensive defensive strategy with the laser system and other technologies we are advancing.”
The DDR&D conducted what it described as a “first-of-its-kind” operational trial among eight defense tech firms and startups that showcased their solutions to intercept UAVs at various ranges and altitudes. Among the firms participating in the competition were the large incumbents Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and Israel Aerospace Industries, alongside startups Xtend, Airobotics, Smartshooter, and General Robotics.
“Many of the participants were the large defense players, the same companies the IDF has been working with supplying extremely expensive solutions, and that so far haven’t demonstrated a good capability to deal with this threat,” said Fenig.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bee] NEW YORK, NY — The entire cast of the all-female talk show ’The View' was forced to get rabies shots this week after 
