3D Printed Weapons Discussion Misses the Target

Over the past two years, there’s been much commotion about Defense Distributed and the 3D printed firearms schematics they develop. The proliferation of 3D printing offers complex manufacturing capabilities to anyone with a few hundred dollars and a bit of computer savvy. While the benefits range from mere parts replacement to affordable prosthetics, the ability to print weapons has some critics arguing for regulation.

Regulation of what, exactly? The underground industry of homemade weapons manufacturing has flourished for as long as restrictions have existed; printed weapons are merely a new spin on an old idea. Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson is often quoted as arguing for total second amendment freedoms, but the real issue is more fundamental: freedom of information access. Is it possible to regulate knowledge? Unlikely. If it were possible, what other repercussions could we experience?

Our real challenge as a global society is the understanding and acceptance of the vast possibilities afforded by the Internet, what physicist Michio Kaku calls, “a type 1 [civilization] telephone system“. As a species in evolutionary transition, there is no facet of order that can be isolated apart from the big picture.

Before addressing the issues of gun control and freedom of knowledge, we must first determine the type of civilization we aspire to become.

China’s LFTR Development Continues

We have been following the development of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor technology for over a year since it began to make a resurgence in popular discussion. It’s a stable energy source developed by the U.S. with an abundant supply, although it was abandoned in the 60’s by Nixon in favor of breeder reactors.

China is the only world power actively pursuing LFTR energy as the New York Times reports.

Back in February 2012, we gave an overview of the various nuclear reactor designs, noting that the type used predominantly is the result of the Cold War requirement for weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

Now that atom bombs are generally viewed as a bad idea, maybe we can revise our nuclear energy policies.

Infographic: World Public Opinion on Drone Use

Courtesy of the good folks at GOOD, this infographic shows public opinion on drone policy, especially US drone strikes. It seems like Americans have the same opinion that other do (they don’t want drones used on themselves), although everyone should probably just get used to it. Drones are here to stay, and they usually make sense to have anyway. They save lives, and costs. However, there still needs to be a serious dialogue among the public about what this could mean for our personal liberties and relationships to government. So far, this hasn’t happened yet. Similarly, we’re still waiting for a real discussion of cybersecurity – something the average person is completely ignorant of.

Birth Control Contaminates Britain’s Water Supply, Will Cost 30Bn to Clean

What many people don’t know is that not all birth control hormones ingested actually get utilized by the body, and much of it gets excreted through urine.  Most water treatment facilities aren’t equipped to filter out substances like hormones, and so they go right back into the water cycle. Synthetic hormone ethinyl estradiol (EE2) is responsible for the feminization of a huge portion of the freshwater fish, reptile, and amphibian population found in developed countries. This of course doesn’t account for endocrine-disruptor chemicals (EDCs) found in pollutants in the undeveloped world as well.

As The Guardian writes:

More than 2.5 million women take birth control pills in the UK. Their EE2 content is excreted and washed into sewage systems and rivers. Even at very low concentrations, this chemical has harmful effects on fish. Males suffer reduced sperm production, with severe effects on populations. In one recent trial, in a Canadian lake, researchers added EE2 until levels in the water reached five parts per trillion (ppt), a minute concentration. Yet fish populations suffered severe problems with one species, the fathead minnow, collapsing completely.

Another huge concern is the effect upon humans. To address this, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) issued a statement in 2011:

The effect of estrogenic compounds in the water supply from industry, agriculture, and other sources raises concerns about human health and deserves scrutiny. Estrogenic compounds are part of a larger category of chemicals known as endocrine-disruptors (EDCs), chemicals that can alter the hormonal and homeostatic systems enabling an organism—like a human being or other animal—to communicate with and respond to its environment.⁷ Given the demonstrated effects of EDCs on human reproductive health, it is important to examine the role played by EE2 in contributing to the presence of estrogenic compounds in our water.⁷ The good news is this: contrary to what has been stated or implied by media reports and anti-contraception advocates, synthetic estrogen from birth control pills is not the sole or primary source of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in water.⁸

Oh, what good news.

Drones Becoming Popular In Both Domestic and State Use

Since the Obama Administration officially encouraged the FAA to write guidelines governing the use of drones in civilian airspace (including weaponized versions), a lot of noise was made. This act will help strengthen domestic policing and weapons contractors, which has caused many Americans great concern for the future of civil liberties. However, there is  also a rumbling among the industrious U.S. DIY community of developers, who see this as a possible boon to technology innovation (the Arduino chip is a big component of this). Amateur resources like DIY Drones have grown a large following, and are instrumental in spreading open source designs.

Sarah Childress of Frontline writes an excellent analysis of the present climate:

In part because of the current FAA restrictions, the civil market for drones in the U.S. is still small. The civil market value in the U.S. is only about $131 million in 2012, out of a total $2.53 billion spent by the U.S., said Philip Finnegan, the director of corporate analysis at the Teal Group, a defense-consulting agency. Its market forecast put the total amount spent worldwide on UAV production at $3.55 billion.

But the market is expected to expand in the next few years, especially as drone manufacturers seek new customers now that the U.S. military demand has ebbed in the wake of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Several drone manufacturers — including Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell and Raytheon — sit on the FAA’s rulemaking committee, helping the agency determine how to integrate drones into domestic airspace. [emphasis added]

Not surprisingly, the largest weapons contractors in the world are at the helm of this legislative proposal.

Read the article here.

Federal Judge Strikes Down NDAA, Sides With “Freedom Seven”

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest just struck down NDAA, the highly protested law recently signed by Obama that contains a small paragraph allowing for the indefinite detention of persons regardless of citizenship simply based on the military’s suspicion of collusion with al Qaeda, and without requirement of any proof whatsoever. This carte blanche ends when “hostilities” end, or whenever the military would deem it so.

This shocking overriding of the first and fifth amendments was challenged almost immediately by a group of activists including Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky. The group calls themselves “Freedom Seven”.

Read the full story here on Courthouse News Service.

Pentagon Poised to Blow 1.5 Trillion on Jet Fighter Program

As Winslow Wheeler of ForeignPolicy.com writes, the Pentagon is moving forward with an overdue and underestimated joint strike fighter program: the F-35 jet. Dubbed “The Flying Piano“, its design goals read like an engineering nightmare, with proposed attributes of air-to-air fighting, bombing, vertical take-off and supersonic speed capacities. All these factors oppose each other in function, and the tradeoffs result is a lackluster fighter that cannot perform well in any particular application. Furthermore, the fighter becomes so complex that it cannot be easily maintained:

A final note on expense: The F-35 will actually cost multiples of the $395.7 billion cited above. That is the current estimate only to acquire it, not the full life-cycle cost to operate it. The current appraisal for operations and support is $1.1 trillion — making for a grand total of $1.5 trillion, or more than the annual GDP of Spain. And that estimate is wildly optimistic: It assumes the F-35 will only be 42 percent more expensive to operate than an F-16, but the F-35 is much more complex. The only other “fifth generation” aircraft, the F-22 from the same manufacturer, is in some respects less complex than the F-35, but in 2010, it cost 300 percent more to operate per hour than the F-16. To be very conservative, expect the F-35 to be twice the operating and support cost of the F-16.

This swiss-army knife of a jet serves only to (poorly) fulfill a military fantasy, and to leach more revenue from the U.S. government.

Following 9/11, spending on military equipment exploded following a decrease by nearly 50% from fifteen years prior. Having realized the farce of the Iraq Invasion and Afghan War, it’s surprising that the public can’t put two and two together. Recently the American public have been keen to decry the banking sector, but have yet failed to recognize the even greater threat posed by the military complex.

Practical, no?

The Growing Crisis of Electronic Surveillance

Since the inception of the US Department of Homeland Security following the events of 9/11, the government has been rapidly militarizing municipal police forces and heavily monitoring US citizens through electronic correspondence as well as extensive GPS tracking.

The NSA has long been compiling a database on American communications (despite its illegality), and have even recently begun construction on a massive facility to store all that information. While this doesn’t pose a concern to most Americans (“I have nothing to hide”), the fact remains that this information is still used to harass and track citizens with little oversight or discretion. Often, this abuse is directed at civil liberties activists and free speech advocates, seen as a “threat” to state security (control).

Over the past nine months, US Congress has pushed several internet policing bills under the flimsy mandates of copyright enforcement, child pornography elimination, and general anti-terror policies. The most recent of these is CISPA, which requires internet service providers to store your internet traffic information for law enforcement to request at will, even without a warrant. A petition on Avaaz.org has garnered over 700,000 signatures, but it’s not nearly enough.

Jacob Appelbaum, cyber-activist, hacker, and security expert has given an inspiring talk in Melbourne at “War on the Internet” conference, January 2012.

Terraculture: Farming for An Entire Planet

University of Minnesota scientist Jon Foley give a frightening talk on the state of agriculture in the world today. Frightening, but informative.

MiniDoc On the Fukushima Rebuild: “We Are All Radioactive”

Documentarian Lisa Katayama has crowdfunded a series of short clips on the cleanup effort around the Fukushima province, and the lives of the individuals who call it home. A really excellent, human perspective on the ground-level action there.