You’d probably think that intelligence would be an asset in the modern battlefield, and hence the smart soldiers would be the ones to survive, right?
Well, as logical as that sounds it may not be the case: a study of records from Scottish army units from WW2 and from the education system about a decade before suggests that the average IQ of those who survived the war was lower than those who lost their lives.
As someone who has opportunity to observe the hapless and Byzantine bureaucracy of the Royal Navy in action at fairly close range, I’m both unsurprised and vaguely terrified to find that their latest batch of nuclear submarines have been fully kitted out with a specially developed version of the Windows XP operating system, and that the RN is so pleased with the speedy installation that they’ll be using the same software in a forthcoming class of destroyers. [via SlashDot]
The potential punchlines to this news pretty much write themselves.
‘Tis the season for receiving tacky promotional items from companies with whom you do business. Here at Futurismic Towers we’ve received a few nice emails from publishers, writers and readers (thanks, folks!), but our undisguised envy is saved for the guys and gals at Wired’s Danger Room blog, who are evidently on far classier mailing lists than we’ll ever be. Some day, maybe we too will receive warbot manufacturer Qinetiq’s super-tasteful promotional calendar…
More delightful robocheesecake over at Danger Room. Yes, it is a slow news week.
I’m not sure whether to be amused or baffled by the news that – just as almost every other big organisation has given up on Second Life being anything more than a virtual playground – the United States Army is going to set up a recruitment station there. Is there a suitable military acronym for the sensation of having missed the boat… or (perhaps more aptly) having missed the point?
The US National Intelligence Council has published their quadrennial Global Trends Review, from The Guardian:
While emerging economies like China, India and Brazil are likely to grow in influence at America’s expense, the same cannot be said of the European Union. The NIC appears relatively certain the EU will be “losing clout” by 2025. Internal bickering and a “democracy gap” separating Brussels from European voters will leave the EU “a hobbled giant”, unable to translate its economic clout into global influence.
There’s some other interesting stuff in there. The Guardian points out that the tone is different from the last time the NIC report was published in 2004:
It was called Mapping the Global Future, and looked forward as far as 2020 when it projected “continued US dominance, positing that most major powers have forsaken the idea of balancing the US”.
That confidence is entirely lacking from this far more sober assessment. Also gone is the belief that oil and gas supplies “in the ground” were “sufficient to meet global demand”.
It’s interesting how quickly perspectives can change – and reaffirms how difficult it is to create near future science fiction.