Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.
Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.
Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.
'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'
Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.
The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.
Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.
The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.
Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.
Walking silently is an art that most people have not successfully developed to any degree. With practice, one can improve and master the art of stealth.
Anyway, in today’s news…Google is taking you over. Say goodbye to Microsoft and whatever his name is…Bill…ah it’s not important. The important thing is that you not get left behind in thinking that Microsoft will recover from the death blow that is Google and all of its very own personalized services.
Google is so much of a threat to Microsoft and its monopoly on the computer industry that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, had some pretty harsh words for Google; click here for the story, and its chief executive Eric Schmidt. In fact he gets pretty fired up using language that I wouldn’t even want my parents hearing.
But incase you are totally oblivious to exactly how big Google has gotten over the past few years, let me enlighten you. Google has a market value of $80 Billion…not bad for a company that only celebrated its 10th birthday last year. But let’s break it down in ways that you can see. Google now offers e-mail in their amazing G-Mail service which gives you over 2.5 Gigs of space, this makes Hotmail’s 250mb look puny, and G-Mail’s space continually grows too by the way. Google is also beta testing G-Talk which will rival if not take over MSN for the top Instant Messaging service on the web. Along with Google desktop which delivers many great things such as e-mail and news to a side-bar on your desktop and the fact that they hopped on the blogging band-wagon and bought this site, Blogger.com, are only a few of the things that Google has going for them.
Google is years ahead of Microsoft in offering personalized services because they have been building a database pretty much since they’ve started. That’s right, they have been keeping track of you and me and the places we go on the net, the things that we read…even the weather in our hometowns and have stored it away…somewhere so they can give us personalized info based on our past trends.
Microsoft should be scared and so should you.
To see the depth of Google and where it could end up, watch this video.
