Author Archive
Commandos Now Play Digital Brain Games as War Prep
The military’s latest commando training program will rely on a virtual-reality system already employed by pro sports teams.
Oxford Docs: We Can Prevent PTSD … With Tetris
In recent years, the military’s top brass have funded some truly bizarre approaches — from neck injections to Reiki — in an effort to treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress afflicting today’s soldiers. Turns out, they could’ve just equipped troops with Game Boys.
New Navy Uniform Could Monitor Sailors’ Pee for Signs of Nuclear Attack
The Office of Naval Research is asking for uniforms to be capable of measuring a soldier’s vital signs, detecting the location and severity of their bullet wounds and even transmitting their location to medical personnel via GPS sensors implanted into clothing fabric.
Army Wants PTSD Clinicians to Stop Screening for Fakers
In a big reversal, the Army has issued a stern new set of guidelines to doctors tasked with diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among returning soldiers. Stop spending so much time trying to spot patients who are faking symptoms, the new guidelines instruct. Chances are, they’re actually ailing.
USA Today: Online Pentagon Payback Campaign Targeted Us
The U.S. military’s propaganda activities — known formally and euphemistically as “information operations” — has this week faced serious accusations of targeting Americans, a major infraction. According to USA Today, military personnel (or contractors) apparently took to the web to unleash a vitriolic, and embarrassingly transparent, smear campaign against two of the paper’s staff members. Why? Because they published a damning investigation of the military’s dubious propaganda campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.