It's coming from above....
Remember way back when bloggers warned the technology being used overseas would soon be brought to the home front and were dismissed?
Well....
"FAA pressed to allow civilian drone flights in the US; Potential uses raise privacy, safety fears" by Joan Lowy | Associated Press, February 27, 2012
WASHINGTON - Civilian cousins of the military drones that have tracked and killed terrorists abroad are in demand by United States police departments, border patrols, power companies, news organizations, and others wanting a bird’s-eye view that is too impractical or dangerous for conventional planes or helicopters to get.
See: Look, Up in the Sky....
Keep looking, readers. Keep looking....
What a sight, huh?
Along with the enthusiasm for the unmanned aircraft, though, there are qualms. Drones overhead could invade people’s privacy. The government worries they could collide with passenger planes or crash, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.
Whenever I look up at the sky now (or even when I'm outside) I assume they are up there even if I can't see them.
Despite that, pressure is building to give drones the same access as manned aircraft to the sky at home.
“It’s going to be the next big revolution in aviation. It’s coming,’’ said Dan Elwell, the Aerospace Industries Association’s vice president for civil aviation.
Related: Spy Satellite Shit and Rods From God
And that was five years ago!
Some impetus comes from the military, which will bring home drones from Afghanistan and wants room to test and use them....
The Defense Department says the demand for drones and their expanding missions requires routine and unfettered access to domestic airspace, including around airports and cities....
The possibility of armed police drones someday patrolling the sky disturbs Terri Burke, executive director of the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“The Constitution is taking a back seat so that boys can play with their toys,’’ Burke said. “It’s kind of scary that they can use a laptop computer to zap people from the air.’’
In this instance I agree with the ACLU.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which focuses on threats to civil liberties involving new technologies, sued the FAA recently, seeking disclosure of which agencies have been given permission to use drones.
Industry officials said privacy concerns are overblown.
“Today anybody - the paparazzi, anybody - can hire a helicopter or a [small plane] to circle around something that they’re interested in and shoot away with high-powered cameras all they want,’’ said Elwell, the aerospace industry spokesman.
We are not talking about them, are we?
Until recently, FAA officials were saying there were too many unresolved safety issues to give drones greater access. Even now the agency is cautious about describing its plans and avoids discussion of deadlines.
“The thing we care about is doing that in an orderly and safe way and finding the appropriate . . . balance of all the users in the system,’’ Michael Huerta, FAA’s acting administrator, told a recent industry luncheon in Washington.
Drones come in all sizes, from the high-flying Global Hawk with its 116-foot wingspan to a hummingbird-like drone that can perch on a window ledge to record sound and video.
Is that what hit the Pentagon that horrible morning?
Also see: Look Up in the Sky! It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's an... INSECT SPY DRONE?
The Terminator Was NOT a Movie
And that buzzing you hear around your ear may not be a mosquito!
"Radhika Nagpal, an associate professor at Harvard University and a member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, is part of a group working on creating a colony of robotic bees, an effort that received a $10 million economic stimulus grant last year from the National Science Foundation.
The stimuloot took a 2x4 to a Terminator beehive?
The ultimate goal of the project is to create robotic bees that mimic those in nature — a colony that could pollinate crops, emulating bees’ ability to hover, fly from flower to flower, and work with others to scout or forage.
With a LITTLE GOVERNMENT VIDEO CAMERA for a STINGER!
The technology will require scientists to develop tiny, lightweight sensors and advanced computer programming to get a bunch of flying robots to coordinate movement."
Like the robot monkeys in "Great Expectations?"
The aerospace industry forecasts a worldwide deployment of almost 30,000 drones by 2018, with the United States accounting for half of them.
The hungriest market is the nation’s 19,000 law enforcement agencies. Customs and Border Protection has nine Predator drones mostly in use on the border with Mexico, and plans to expand to 24 by 2016. Officials say the aircraft have helped in the seizure of more than 20 tons of illegal drugs and the arrest of 7,500 people since border patrols began six years ago.
Power companies, farmers, and ranchers also have an interest in using drones.
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"As drones spread, privacy issues grow; Inexpensive chips enable a boom" by Marcus Wohlsen | Associated Press, April 02, 2012
BERKELEY, Calif. - Sharp-eyed dog walkers along the San Francisco Bay waterfront may have spotted a strange-looking plane zipping overhead recently that looked strikingly like the US stealth drone captured by Iran in December.
See: U.S. Drones Dropping Out of the Skies Like Flies
A few key differences: The flying wing seen above Berkeley is a fraction of the size of the CIA’s waylaid aircraft. And it is made of plastic foam. But in some ways it is just like a real spy plane....
Thousands of hobbyists are taking part in what has become a global do-it-yourself drone subculture, a pastime that is thriving as the Federal Aviation Administration seeks to make the skies friendlier to unmanned aircraft of all sizes.
Related: Alphabet Agency: It's Fun Working For the FAA
Yes, the only ones not having fun on the flight these days is you passengers!
The use of drones in the United States by law enforcement and other government agencies has privacy advocates on edge.
At the same time, some DIY drone flyers believe the ease of sending cheap pilotless planes and choppers airborne gives citizens a powerful tool for keeping public servants on the ground honest.
The tools of tyranny are a double-edged sword.
Drones are the signature weapon of US wars in the 21st century....
Exhibit A in the war crimes trials.
Among the groups seeking to take advantage of the steep drop in price of drone technology are journalists who want to attach cameras to aircraft the size of small pizzas and that cost as much to buy - about $400 - as a one-hour helicopter rental for a photographer.
In the San Francisco Bay area, Occupy Wall Street activists built a so-called Occucopter to monitor police action against protesters from the sky.
In Idaho, wildlife biologists started using a drone for counting fish nets after a helicopter crash killed two colleagues and a pilot.
And researchers are developing techniques to use drones equipped with infrared sensors to detect patches of dry ground in orchards.
Yeah, tyranny from the air is a good thing.
Hobbyists say drone prices have been driven down sharply even in the past two or three years primarily by the surge in popularity of smartphones....
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Also see:
Pakistan Post in a New Format
Sunday Globe Specials: Up and Down Drones
Hit or Mis(take) in Pakistan
AmeriKan Missiles Keep Things All in the Family in Yemen
Somalia Makes the List
So did Iraq and Libya.
Yeah, about those war crimes I was mentioning:
"White House takes lead in deciding target list for drones" Associated Press, May 22, 2012
WASHINGTON - White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan has assumed responsibility for choosing which suspects could be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for military and CIA targets.
The effort concentrates power over the use of lethal US force outside war zones within one small team at the White House.
The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan’s staff consults with the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the target list, making the Pentagon’s role less relevant, according to two current and three former US officials aware of the evolution in how the government goes after suspected terrorists....
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Related: Obama Campaign Springs a Leak
Then he is responsible for them, isn't he?
"US government challenged on drone tactics" by Frank Jordans | Associated Press, June 21, 2012
GENEVA — A UN human rights specialist accused the US government Wednesday of sidestepping his questions on its use of armed drones to carry out targeted killings overseas.
Christof Heyns, the UN’s independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, had asked the United States to lay out the legal basis and accountability procedures for the use of armed drones.
He also wants the United States to publish figures on the number of civilians killed in drone strikes against suspected terror leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
After a two-day ‘‘interactive dialogue’’ with US officials at the United Nations in Geneva, Heyns said he was still waiting for a satisfactory reply....
I wouldn't hold your breath.
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Just wondering why the Globe website lopped this off of my printed version:
"The use of armed drones has provoked anger abroad, particularly in Pakistan, where human rights groups say innocent people have been among the victims of the strikes. The American Civil Liberties Union told the U.N. rights body Wednesday that “the United States has cobbled together its own legal framework for targeted killing.”
I can't imagine why my war paper would want to give that the axe.
Btw, YOUR GOVERNMENT is an OUTLAW, Americans!
