FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER DUBBING ITS most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever developed "the Mother of All Bombs (MOAB), the U.S. military finally found an opportunity to test the ordnance on the battlefield. In April 2017, intelligence officials had located a large cell of Islamic State Khorasan, the terrorist group also known as ISIS-K, hiding in a cave complex in Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, to use its official name, had shown promise during demonstrations in testing grounds, such as Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, since its unveiling in 2003. But the Pentagon had never deployed it in actual battle, over concerns about civilian casualties. This cell, however, was believed to be remote enough for a MOAB deployment.
According to the initial assessment by the Afghan Ministry of Defense and local media reports, the surprise blast swept through the caves with ease, causing at least 36 casualties, without harming any known civilians. (The U.S. government never publicly released its own damage assessment.) For the Pentagon, this was more than a strike against terrorists: It served to demonstrate the feasibility of its newly developed weapons systems.
In many ways, Afghanistan was the ideal battleground for trialing new technology. Unlike in Iraq and Syria, much of the fighting took place in rural or mountainous areas with low concentrations of civilians. Using the GBU-43/B near urban centers would constitute a war crime under international law because the force would have been "indiscriminate," causing civilian deaths and the destruction of critical infrastructure.
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Whether We Live in a Simulation - scientist Melvin Vopson, PhD, studies this exact thing- the possibility that the universe might indeed be a digital facsimile. And he claims to have evidence.
In the 1999 film the Matrix, Neo discovers A truth to end all truths-the universe is a simulation. While this premise provides fantastic sci-fi fodder, the idea isn't quite as relegated to the fiction section as one might expect. . In fact, University of Portsmouth scientist Melvin Vopson, PhD, studies this exact thing- the possibility that the universe might indeed be a digital facsimile. And he claims to have evidence.
The Ancient Language of Easter Island - Today, humans inhabit- or have, at the very least, explored- pretty much every corner of the planet. But that immense proliferation of Homo sapiens across the globe was a slow process.
With the first humans leaving Africa between 60,000 and 120,000 years ago, the species slowly spread across the Earth over many millennia. And one of the last places these ancient humans made their way to was the southeastern Pacific island of Rapa Nui, known more broadly as Easter Island.Located 2,360 miles off the coast of Chile, Rapa Nui is one of the most isolated places in the world. Its native people, who are also named the Rapa Nui, first arrived on the island's shores between A.D. 1150 and 1280, and lived in isolation until the arrival of Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen in 1722.
Underwater UFOs - A retired U.S. Navy admiral believes that the government should look to the oceans to help solve a mystery in the skies.
A retired U.S. Navy admiral believes that the government should look to the oceans to help solve a mystery in the skies. Rear Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, former Oceanographer of the U.S. Navy, recently published a paper arguing that unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP, more commonly referred to as UFO) and unidentified submersible objects (USO) are linked, and should be studied further.
Synching Up Our Circadian Rhythms - If you've ever done any kind of long-distance travel, or just woken up feeling under-rested thanks to daylight saving time, you know how important your circadian clock is.
If you've ever done any kind of long-distance travel, or just woken up feeling under-rested thanks to daylight saving time, you know how important your circadian clock is. Like many things in your body, your circadian rhythm is more complicated than it might seem on the surface. Rather than being entirely brain-based, it's actually controlled by a collection of several circadian clocks (central and peripheral) that all work together to keep your gears turning like a well-oiled machine.
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With people moving around so much these days, it's perfectly natural to wonder how an editor can just come along and stick like a barnacle to the hull of Popular Mechanics, lasting for 35 years.
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