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Tomorrow’s Terrorist

So, too, can we expect that the terrorists of tomorrow will likely mix the best of what works today with a new generation of off-the-shelf weaponry and tactics that will empower them like never before. The result is that both terrorist and insurgent groups, be they the groups of today that fight on or new ones that emerge driven by new causes, as well as individual “lone wolves”—whether they are homegrown extremists like Dylann Storm Roof or inspired by abroad like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev—will be able to carry out new forms of attacks and maybe even elude old police tactics for catching them.

The below is an imagining of some of the tools that a terrorist or insurgent of the future might use, all drawn from the real world.

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NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars

New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons, and then fade in cooler seasons. They appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 Celsius), and disappear at colder times.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

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Intelligent machines: Making AI work in the real world — By Eric Schmidt | BBC News


“As part of the BBC’s Intelligent Machines season, Google’s Eric Schmidt has penned an exclusive article on how he sees artificial intelligence developing, why it is experiencing such a renaissance and where it will go next.”

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