Those crazy scientists that gave us modern conveniences like the Internet, GPS and stealth technology are at it again. One new point of research lies in a contract with Boeing to develop an aircraft capable of sustained flight at 60,000 feet for five years without coming down. Such a craft would of course be invaluable for providing battlefield intelligence or carry communications packages. It's designed under the VULTURE program to be an ultralight, solar powered vehicle capable of remaining on target providing resources at significant cost savings over a dedicated satellite.

If you've seen the movie Minority Report than you're familiar with what DARPA is attempting to do with their ADAMS project (pdf). By using reams of available data through email, social networking, etc, DARPA wants their Anomaly Detection At Multiple Scales system to predict crimes before they happen, specifically in the case of counter-intelligence. Naturally, privacy and security pundits fear the creation of an autonomous police-state capable of snooping on your behaviors without a proven metric for eliminating false positives.