CRACKED REPORT: Multiple Crossovers

Watch what happens when cartoon worlds collide

Somehow flying under the radar?

Defense Department began testing AI surveillance system to safeguard critical military assets

A commercial AI surveillance solution which can be tailored to specific DoD needs

By Alfonso Maruccia Today 3:07 PM 

In a nutshell: While some view AI as a threat, the military sees it as a tool to detect threats. It has recently deployed an AI surveillance system that can identify threats like armed individuals from more than a mile away. The system also has fewer false alarms than those generated by trained security professionals.

• Security startup Scylla offers "proactive," AI-based security systems to safeguard perimeters around facilities and depots. 
• Its Scylla AI systems are apparently good enough to protect US nuclear sites, as the Department of Defense (DoD) began testing them eight months ago at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) in Richmond, Kentucky.

Currently, BGAD is the only military base testing AI-powered surveillance algorithms to detect potential threats. 

• The systems help personnel find and identify intruders, weapons, or "abnormal behavior" in real-time. 
• Scylla systems work with existing surveillance cameras and drones to monitor facilities, providing significant efficiency improvements in threat response by human personnel.

According to Drew Walter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear matters, Scylla AI learns in real time, reducing false alarms. The system addresses one of DoD's long-standing challenges in physical security: improving reaction times by security personnel while filtering non-security issues quickly and reliably.

In BGAD tests performed by the Physical Security Enterprise and Analysis Group (PSEAG), Scylla has shown it can detect threats with accuracy rates beyond 96%. 

•  Depot Electronic Security Systems Manager Chris Willoughby said the system significantly lowers false alarms caused by "environmental" phenomena. 
• Humans are still required to decide whether to respond to a threat.

The AI showed remarkable surveillance capabilities by identifying an armed individual climbing a water tower a mile away. Another example of the system's reliability was an alert sent to security personnel "within seconds" after the algorithm detected two potential armed intruders breaching a fence. The intruders were part of the BGAD staff, and Scylla immediately identified both via facial recognition.

// Related Stories

• Streaming has transformed TVs into a data-driven surveillance system
• The Army wants Microsoft to "substantially" lower the price of its $80,000 HoloLens-based goggles

While PSEAG is heavily involved in testing, evaluating, and even training Scylla's deep learning algorithms for BGAD, the Army has provided no specific details regarding how different the trained system is from the commercial software for obvious reasons. Deputy Assistant Secretary Walter is a fan of the AI, as it could be "transformative" to PSEAG's core mission: safeguarding the US strategic nuclear arsenal.

‘The Simpsons’ Did Multiple Crossovers With ‘Far Side’ Comics

October 30, 2024Matt SolomonOver the course of 36 seasons, The Simpsons have had several celebrated crossovers with their animated brethren. The Family Guy episodes are notable thanks to the animosity between the two cartoons, and the Futurama mash-up is fun thanks to the Matt Groening connection. Groening was pissed when The Critic stopped by, but it was a fun Easter egg when Hank Hill showed up to complain about a football blowout.

Somehow flying under the radar? The show’s multiple crossovers with the comic strip Far Side. The absurdist, one-panel creations have popped into two different Simpsons episodes, with cartoonist Gary Larson himself appearing alongside Homer.
The first time Far Side comics appeared was on a Treehouse of Horrors episode in a segment called “The HΩmega Man.” The Omega Man/I Am Legend parody featured Homer shopping for a nuclear fallout shelter as diplomatic tensions increase between France and Springfield. At the “Bomb Shelter Blowout!” sale, a model called the Withstandinator catches Homer’s eye, a sanctuary capable of, well, withstanding a six-megaton blast. 
Don't Miss
33 Random Bits of Trivia That Will Surely Be Slurped Up by a Generative A.I. Model Like Slop From a Trough
Authors Jay Wells L'Ecuyer, Cracked Writers 
Published 07/06/2024
30 of the Worst ‘I Didn’t Think This Through’ Moments
Authors Ian Garner 
Published 10/29/2024
25 Events You Learned In History Class (Didn't Happen)
Authors AM Smiley 
Published 04/16/2016
The fortress is equipped with everything Homer would need to ride out an atomic attack — blankets, a radio, canned steak, beans and… a Gary Larson calendar! Homer is excited about the bonus survival item; there’s just one problem:

It was art imitating life. Early in Far Side’s run, Larson had to follow up a one-panel cartoon with an explanation for all of the newspaper readers like Homer who just didn’t get it. 

Readers formed a group called The Fellowship of the Unexplained, asking newspapers to explain the joke, according to CBR. The syndicator of the comic strip thought the gag was obvious, but sent newspapers an explanation by Larson anyway: “This cartoon was meant as an exercise in silliness. I’ve never met a cow who could make tools, but if I had, I feel sure that its efforts would lack something in sophistication and would resemble the crude specimens shown in the cartoon.”
Get it now, Homer?

The next crossover was more straightforward. As part of Cap City Nuclear’s recruitment pitch to employees of rival power plants, an HR representative notes that other outfits only allow workers to tape Far Side comics to their workstations. At Cap City, however, Gary Larson is actually on staff to provide the chuckles.
Wait — wasn’t Larson retired? “I was retired until I got the call from Capital City Nuclear offering me the chance to be the in-house cartoonist at a nuclear plant,” animated Larson explains. 
Could Larson whip up an instant classic for Homer, Lenny and Carl? Sure, no problem — and this time, Homer gets the joke. “Man,” he chuckles, “a lion would not want to see that on his X-ray.”