Precision Targets: GPS and the Militarization of U.S. Consumer Identity

For most people in the United States, war is almost always elsewhere. Since the Civil War, declared wars have been engaged on terrains at a distance from the continental space of the nation. Until the attacks on the World Trade towers and the Pentagon in September 2001, many people in the United States perceived war to be conflicts between the standing armies of nation-states conducted at least a border—if not oceans and continents—away. Even the attacks of September 11 were localized in such a way as to feel as remote as they were immediate—watching cable news from elsewhere in the country, most U.S. residents were brought close to scenes of destruction and death by the media rather than by direct experience. Thus, in the United States, we could be said to be "consumers" of war, since our gaze is almost always fixed on representations of war that come from places perceived to be remote from the heartland

Lion Battery Museum

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.The idea of space lies at the root of all architecture; architecture is about spatial experience. This thesis is an investigation around the ideas of architectural spatial experience how we experience space and how to construct rich spatial experiences in architecture. The design project revolves around re-imagining the Lion Battery site on the slopes of Signal Hill. The design tests out the theoretical explorations laid out in this document and then incorporates tradtional and parametric approaches in the resolution of the design. The aim of this project is to explore experiential architecture

Military applications of geological engineering

This work examines the premise that military engineering and geological engineering are intellectually paired and overlapped in practice to a significant extent. Geological engineering is an established, albeit young, academic discipline that enjoys wide industry and civil demand and is supported by many professional organizations. In contrast, military engineering is an ancient, empirically derived training or OJT program with practice-based trade-associations that has narrow government-only utility. The premise is formed by decades-long observation of U. S. Army military engineer officers completing a Master of Science degree in geological engineering as a complement to their practice-based training in military engineering at the Captains Career Course of the U.S. Army Engineer School. Almost everywhere has some existing data on the local geology for civil purposes, yet these are ignored, not accessible or not translated to military purposes. A description of the intersection between military and geological engineering is followed by comparison the practice of the geological and military engineer. Research and intellectual development is projected to fill current gaps in military considerations by geological engineers. Finally, steps to share these concepts and convince military engineers to adopt and extend the geological underpinnings of their profession are outlined. This work serves both a personal and professional interest. Previous personal work at the intersection of military scholarship and engineering underlie this premise --Abstract, page iv

A GEOSPATIAL STRATEGY TO DETECT AND IDENTIFY POTENTIAL CLANDESTINE MASS GRAVES IN UKRAINE

This study seeks to improve the understanding of how social media analysis and hyperspectral remote sensing can be applied in a multi-modal target-centric approach to detect and identify clandestine mass graves in Ukraine. Fifteen mass graves have been discovered in central, southern, and eastern Ukraine since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. This geospatial strategy recommends conducting retroactive searches for additional potential clandestine mass graves and prospective searches for suspicious activities that may be indicative of future or ongoing potential clandestine mass grave locations in areas currently under Russian control. This social media collection and analysis will direct targeted hyperspectral imagery collection on areas of interest. The resulting hyperspectral data will be further analyzed using spectral signature libraries, statistical methods, and vegetation indices to identify any vegetation anomalies with unusually high or low Nitrogen concentrations - a proxy signature for clandestine graves. This research will first present background information on the historical use of clandestine mass graves and the targeting of civilians in conflict. Second, it will examine the methodologies presented in this proof-of-concept. Third, it will evaluate the limitations of this geospatial strategy. This thesis provides new insights for detecting and identifying clandestine mass graves in Ukraine and provides potential audiences with another tool to locate and document these atrocities. Primary Reader and Advisor: Jack O’Connor Secondary Reader: Anonymou

The Future of the Internet III

Presents survey results on technology experts' predictions on the Internet's social, political, and economic impact as of 2020, including its effects on integrity and tolerance, intellectual property law, and the division between personal and work lives

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Norforce: Major General Edward Northey and the Nyasaland and North-Eastern Rhodesia Frontier Force, January 1916 to June 1918

The campaign in East and Central Africa during the First World War has received relatively little attention despite the remarkable exploits of Major General Edward Northey and Norforce. In field command for two and a half years, he successfully led a multi-ethnic and polyglot force across some of the most difficult terrain of the war. Exerting strong leadership and overseeing detailed logistical planning, Northey was able to maintain an effective force that was consistently able to march and fight the German Schutztruppe under von Lettow-Vorbeck. In contrast to the main body of the British East African Force, Norforce maintained its combat effectiveness despite high levels of sickness and highly trying climatic conditions. Overall, Northey must be considered the outstanding British general of the East African Campaign while Norforce deserves full credit for its singular achievements.Keywords: East & Central Africa, Edward Northey, Norforce, First World Wa

Study and Development of Cross-Platform Cloogy Mobile Application for VPS – Virtual Power Solutions.

A energia renovável e a conservação de energia tornaram-se tópicos importantes nos últimos anos. As empresas têm realizado esforços para reduzir o consumo de energia através da otimização de dispositivos e da conscientização dos consumidores sobre o seu uso. Para contribuir com este esforço, a Virtual Power Solutions (VPS) fornece uma solução onde os proprietários / utilizadores de edifícios obtêm visibilidade e controle em tempo real dos seus aparelhos elétricos instalados na sua residência. A VPS alcançou com sucesso a gestão de procura, e a tecnologia de automação de edifícios numa única aplicação móvel designada por Cloogy. Esta aplicação fornece aos consumidores de energia e aos seus parceiros a capacidade de verificar e controlar o consumo de energia em tempo real, permitindo reduzir o nível de consumo ao mínimo sem comprometer as operações do dia a dia. Atualmente, a Cloogy tem suas aplicações móveis disponíveis para Android, iOS e Windows Phone com funcionalidades semelhantes. Deste modo, porem cada aplicação requer diferentes linguagens de programação para cada plataforma, o que envolve um custo para manter essas diferentes plataformas. Por esta razão, para a presente tese, a VPS appresentou o objetivo de desenvolver uma aplicação móvel híbrida, que se baseará numa base de código único e terá acesso a todas as APIs da plataforma. Diferentes tipos de ferramentas de desenvolvimento estão disponíveis para construir uma aplicação híbrida. Depois de definir os requisitos funcionais e não-funcionais, um protótipo de aplicação híbrida foi construído usando o Ionic Framework, que consiste numa das Frameworks de código aberto os disponíveis para construir aplicações móveis híbridas. Com a ajuda desta framework, uma aplicação móvel pode ser criada usando um conjunto de tecnologias da web, como JavaScript, HTML e CSS, e implementada o aplicativo em todas as principais plataformas, como Android e iOS. O protótipo construído nos permite-nos aceder a dados de consumo através do nosso smartphone ou tablet a partir de uma localização remota com a ajuda da iEnergy3 API da VPS. As principais características oferecidas pelo protótipo são a monitorização do consumo de energia através de registros e dados em tempo real, e a verificação dos indicadores de consumo como desempenho, média diária, previsões, etc. O protótipo também fornece pegadas ecológicas, conjuntamente com indicadores de consumo, e é capaz de controlar e agendar períodos de consumo de electricidade a partir de um local remoto.N/

Killing, Combat and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry: Legendary Soldiers’ Stories of the First World War – 1914-1918

This study interrogates the stories and legends of six soldiers who served in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry during the First World War, and the ways in which they described their primary occupation as soldiers, killing enemy combatants. It asks a fundamentally important question; how and why do men kill at war? Soldiers tended to narrate their descriptions of killing from the perspective of an innocuous reporter, and downplay their agency in the killing act. They also, often, framed their descriptions of killing in terms of revenge for the loss of comrades, or atrocities committed by the enemy. Alternatively, love for those same men and the love of women was given as the primary motivation for wanting to “stick it” at the front. Talbot Papineau breaks trench warfare down into three categories or “facts:” incidental, defensive, and offensive fighting. Killing existed in each of these categories, on a sliding scale of safety for the individual soldier, with incidental trench warfare being the safest and offensive warfare the most dangerous. Across all of these categories an important factor in triggering hot-blooded killing rage, what Shay called a “berserk state,” was a soldier’s perception of a betrayal of “what is right” or thémis by those who commanded them. When a soldier felt that something truly unfair had happened to him, he was much more likely to seek out contact with the enemy. Cold-blooded killing, that which epitomized the sniper’s role during incidental fighting was presented in terms of familiar civilian pursuits that took on a different meaning during the war. Chief amongst them were hunting, working, and playing the game. The metaphor of the show was also an important way to describe battles with a familiar and innocuous phrase, and it had deep significance to the soldier’s understanding of themselves in battle. First World War soldiers tended to characterize the killing with conspicuous silences and often sought to distance themselves, rhetorically, from the topic. As such the final two case-studies – those of J.W. “Jack” McLaren and V.F. Gianelli – will look at how men could write about their service with the front-line infantry without giving details of their primary occupation. This work attempts to look behind the curtain of soldiers’ stories that have been enshrined in the official narrative of the PPCLI and inquire into what can be known about those parts of their stories that the men avoided telling, elucidating a fuller picture of their experiences and understanding of their legend

Smile and Carry On: Canadian Cavalry on the Western Front, 1914-1918

Although the First World War has been characterized as a formative event in Canadian History, little attention has been paid to a neglected and often forgotten arm of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Cavalry. The vast majority of Great War historians have ignored the presence of mounted troops on the Western Front, or have written off the entire cavalry arm with a single word – ‘obsolete.’ However, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and the Canadian Light Horse remained on the Western Front throughout the Great War because cavalry still had a role to play in modern warfare. This thesis addresses the expected role of Cavalry in the Great War, and the role that Canadian Cavalry was able to play on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918. Cavalry was an arm of exploitation and protection. The primary responsibilities assigned to the mounted arm were reconnaissance, shock, and pursuit. Cavalry was never expected to perform mass charges through entrenchments. Rather, it was expected to use its superior mobility to perform reconnaissance, delaying actions, and pursue the retreating enemy. Cavalry also had several important roles to play in rear areas, such as traffic control, escort duties, mounted police work, and any duties that required the mobility of a mounted force. A thorough examination of the role of cavalry in operations and in reserve reveals that Canadian Cavalry was able to perform as expected on the Western Front according to prewar doctrine. When mobility was possible, Cavalry was tactically effective on a local scale, conducting pursuit, delay, and reconnaissance with great effect. When the Front was stagnant, cavalry was still capable of fulfilling its intended role in rear areas. Cavalry was valuable on the Western Front because of its superior mobility, as mounted troops were capable of arriving at a decisive point of action quickly without exhausting men or resources, and could advance where other vehicles could not. Despite conditions on the modern battlefield, Canadian Cavalry still had a role to play on the Western Front