ASP: In case you missed it …. 9 September 2013

The Electric Warship

David Scneider / IEEE Spectrum

The first of the U.S. Navy’s “21^st century destroyers,” the USS Zumwalt, is near completion.  The new destroyers feature advanced technologies, such as tumblehome hulls to minimize the ships’ radar profile and electric motors.

 

Toshiba Extends Reach of Quantum Encryption

Martin LaMonica / IEEE Spectrum

With the disclosure that the NSA has broken through general commercial encryption, Toshiba researchers developed a more secure, quantum encryption scheme.  The new scheme uses a stream of encoded photons as the key to unlock the encryption and works with a network of up to 64 users.

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This is Not a Horror Story

Gordon Adams / Foreign Policy

A Pentagon memo was leaked to Tony Capaccio at Bloomberg regarding the FY 2014 impact of the sequester on the DoD.  The DoD might cut 6,272 jobs, using a Reduction in Force to eliminate personnel altogether instead of using furloughs.  While this seems like a large number, it is ¾ of a percent of the 800,000 civil service personnel in the Department and follows the DoD’s plans for a post-war drawdown.

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Climate Change May Impact Vital Ocean Chemical Cycles

Zoe Mintz / International Business Times

University of East Anglia has come out with research showing rising ocean temperatures are impacting chemical cycles.  Micro-algae, such as plankton, have been found to produce fewer ribosomes in warmer temperatures, leading to higher ratios of nitrogen and lower rates of phosphorous.

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Bomb Kills 2 Outside School in China

Edward Wong / New York Times

A homemade bomb killed 2 adults and injured 17 outside a school in Guilin, China. This incident, along with previous violence around school, raises questions about security conditions at schools.

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US, EU See New Hope for Iran Nuclear Talks

The Associate Press

The U.S. and EU are hopeful that new nuclear talks will take place in the near future with the change in Iranian leadership.

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Drones offer a low-risk, minimal collateral damage way to target remote terrorist safe havens.-

Chinese Navy Visits Pearl Harbor

Chris P. Cavas / Defense News

The QINGDAO became the first Chinese destroyer to visit the U.S. in six years, docking in Pearl Harbor after a reciprocal visit by the USS Shiloh in Zhanjiang, China in May.

 

Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics

Carmen Nobel / Forbes

The Faculty of Harvard Business School’s Business and Environment Initiative want to shift the climate debate from an ideological question to a managerial one about decision-making under uncertainty.