26 February 2012
U.S. opening up airspace to drones
After more than 40 years of development and extensive use by the military, the United States has set the date when the nation’s airspace will be open for drones. Should you be scared?
Short answer: No, but like any new technology, unmanned aerial vehicles have their dark side.
Legislation passed by Congress last week gives the Federal Aviation Administration until Sept. 30, 2015, to open the nation’s skies to drones.
The first step comes in 90 days when police, firefighters and other civilian first-response agencies can start flying UAVs weighing no more than 4.4 pounds, provided they meet still-to-be-determined requirements, such as having an operator on the ground within line-of-sight of the drone and flying it at least 400 feet above ground.
Currently, UAVs can only fly in restricted airspace zones controlled by the U.S. military.
By May 2013, the next class of drones, those weighing less than 55 pounds, can fly the nation’s skies, according to provisions of the FAA bill passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last week.
The deadline for full integration of drones into U.S. airspace is Sept. 30, 2015.
Rules about where and when drones can fly and who can operate them are still under development. And there are still technical hurdles, such as setting up the bandwidth for secure UAV radio communications and refining collision avoidance systems, said NASA program manager Chuck Johnson of the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif.
But the most pressing issues are privacy concerns and public perceptions.
“Right now, under current U.S. laws there are very few restrictions on our ability to take pictures or videos of individuals outside,” Harley Geiger, a policy attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C., told Discovery News.
“Some of the privacy issues that we see with drones are very different than the sort of surveillance that can be conducted with a helicopter. Drones can quietly watch an entire town without refueling. It can conduct a pervasive and secret surveillance that helicopters cannot match,” Geiger said.
“You can’t avoid it if you’re outside unless you take cover. People don’t want to be on YouTube whenever they go outside,” he added.
That’s not to say that governments, companies and individuals shouldn’t use drones.
“We’re not standing in the way of drone technology. We are saying that there needs to be privacy and transparency rules for its use. Otherwise the American people are going to enter a rather dark period in terms of physical surveillance,” Geiger said.
That could include, for example, having drone operators’ licenses and mission information publicly available online.
Gretchen West, executive vice president with Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade group, says drones will have very specific missions, not widespread surveillance.
“It doesn’t mean these aircraft are flying throughout the nation’s airspace. They’ll be used for law enforcement, to monitor traffic, for search and rescue and to track suspects,” she said.
On the commercial side, drones have a huge benefit for the oil and gas industry, agriculture, environmental monitoring and disaster surveillance, she added.
“It’s not meant to sit over someone’s house and take video,” West told Discovery News.
“The new regulations open up the airspace a little bit so we can start collecting more data,” she said. “Because they’ve been regulated so heavily by the FAA and the military, there’s not a lot of information for the FAA to get to make the regulations.”
SOURCE
But of course it will be used for law enforcement for any reason they deem fit, all in the interests of "Public Protection".
Short answer: No, but like any new technology, unmanned aerial vehicles have their dark side.
Legislation passed by Congress last week gives the Federal Aviation Administration until Sept. 30, 2015, to open the nation’s skies to drones.
The first step comes in 90 days when police, firefighters and other civilian first-response agencies can start flying UAVs weighing no more than 4.4 pounds, provided they meet still-to-be-determined requirements, such as having an operator on the ground within line-of-sight of the drone and flying it at least 400 feet above ground.
Currently, UAVs can only fly in restricted airspace zones controlled by the U.S. military.
By May 2013, the next class of drones, those weighing less than 55 pounds, can fly the nation’s skies, according to provisions of the FAA bill passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama last week.
The deadline for full integration of drones into U.S. airspace is Sept. 30, 2015.
Rules about where and when drones can fly and who can operate them are still under development. And there are still technical hurdles, such as setting up the bandwidth for secure UAV radio communications and refining collision avoidance systems, said NASA program manager Chuck Johnson of the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif.
But the most pressing issues are privacy concerns and public perceptions.
“Right now, under current U.S. laws there are very few restrictions on our ability to take pictures or videos of individuals outside,” Harley Geiger, a policy attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C., told Discovery News.
“Some of the privacy issues that we see with drones are very different than the sort of surveillance that can be conducted with a helicopter. Drones can quietly watch an entire town without refueling. It can conduct a pervasive and secret surveillance that helicopters cannot match,” Geiger said.
“You can’t avoid it if you’re outside unless you take cover. People don’t want to be on YouTube whenever they go outside,” he added.
That’s not to say that governments, companies and individuals shouldn’t use drones.
“We’re not standing in the way of drone technology. We are saying that there needs to be privacy and transparency rules for its use. Otherwise the American people are going to enter a rather dark period in terms of physical surveillance,” Geiger said.
That could include, for example, having drone operators’ licenses and mission information publicly available online.
Gretchen West, executive vice president with Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade group, says drones will have very specific missions, not widespread surveillance.
“It doesn’t mean these aircraft are flying throughout the nation’s airspace. They’ll be used for law enforcement, to monitor traffic, for search and rescue and to track suspects,” she said.
On the commercial side, drones have a huge benefit for the oil and gas industry, agriculture, environmental monitoring and disaster surveillance, she added.
“It’s not meant to sit over someone’s house and take video,” West told Discovery News.
“The new regulations open up the airspace a little bit so we can start collecting more data,” she said. “Because they’ve been regulated so heavily by the FAA and the military, there’s not a lot of information for the FAA to get to make the regulations.”
SOURCE
*****
But of course it will be used for law enforcement for any reason they deem fit, all in the interests of "Public Protection".
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Fucking muslims are outraged again
The cartoon by Sean Delonas was published Friday in the Post and shows the turban-wearing, hook-nosed terrorists preparing bombs and weapons in an apartment, with an NYPD vehicle in the street. One of the terrorists is depicted on the phone with The Associated Press news agency, and says: “Hello, AP Press?. . .I’d like to register a complaint against the N.Y.P.D. for spying on us.”
The cartoonist’s reference is to a series of Associated Press investigative articles exposing the NYPD’s spying on Muslim individuals, students, businesses, and religious institutions — a campaign that has been condemned as unconstitutional by American Muslim and civil liberties groups.
Here we go again.....
(Ynet) — The Pentagon is readying for the possibility of intervention in Syria, aiming to halt Syrian President Bashsar Assad’s violent crackdown on protesters, the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Saturday, citing a US military offical.
According to the official, the intervention scenario calls for the establishment of a buffer zone on the Turkish border, in order to receive Syrian refugees. The Red Cross would then provide the civilians humanitarian aid, before NATO crews would arrive from Turkey and join the efforts.
The measure would pave the way for the US to declare an aerial blockade on Syria.
The intercession is to be modeled after NATO’s efforts in Kosovo, which brought an end to the Serbian control of the region. NATO’s plan of action included prolonged aerial shelling.
More here at Weasel Zippers
According to the official, the intervention scenario calls for the establishment of a buffer zone on the Turkish border, in order to receive Syrian refugees. The Red Cross would then provide the civilians humanitarian aid, before NATO crews would arrive from Turkey and join the efforts.
The measure would pave the way for the US to declare an aerial blockade on Syria.
The intercession is to be modeled after NATO’s efforts in Kosovo, which brought an end to the Serbian control of the region. NATO’s plan of action included prolonged aerial shelling.
More here at Weasel Zippers
Hello? State Farm? You ain't gonna believe this one......
A woman described as "heavyset" and naked except for her shoes was pulled off the J-Church line on Tuesday morning, and while cops and medical personnel were evaluating her near the intersection of 24th and Church in Noe Valley, she threw off a blanket that had been wrapped around her, walked up on the hood of one man's car, and stomped on his windshield. The man, John Knight, described the crazed woman as about 250 pounds, and he had a lot of explaining to do to his insurance company.
“They asked if the car was on the side of a street or in a parking lot,” says Knight. “I told them, ‘No, a naked woman just got on my hood and stomped on it.’ They didn’t really know what to make of it.”
The woman was hospitalized but it does not seem that she was arrested. Knight says he won't press charges because, well, she's unhinged.
“They asked if the car was on the side of a street or in a parking lot,” says Knight. “I told them, ‘No, a naked woman just got on my hood and stomped on it.’ They didn’t really know what to make of it.”
The woman was hospitalized but it does not seem that she was arrested. Knight says he won't press charges because, well, she's unhinged.
*****
Yes, this did take place in California and Mark deserves credit for rubbing my face in it and passing on the link.
All I have to say is that it's a good thing somebody took pictures......
Government provided targets
I saw this today and at first I thought it was a joke, but it isn't. The New York City Police Department now using Obama-approved drones for domestic surveillance.
Last Tuesday the Undocumented President signed a law that forces the FAA to "allow police and first responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds" at an altitude of under 400 feet.
Last Tuesday the Undocumented President signed a law that forces the FAA to "allow police and first responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds" at an altitude of under 400 feet.
I keep asking myself the same question
HOW DOES HE GET AWAY WITH THIS?
I have no doubt whatsoever that public knowledge of the following has to occasionally make Obama nervous and apprehensive, smoking butts like a chimney. Perhaps that’s why he’s rumored to be kept sedated. Xanax, anyone? Prove me wrong.
Obama spends million of tax payer dollars to defend himself against all comers in at least two dozen lawsuits demanding to see his records. So far, no court in America will hear the case on its merits. Prove me wrong.
Like pimps, his handlers keep their money-maker under their control, toe-ing the line with tried and true drugs of choice: ego, power, perks, male lovers, and crack cocaine. Prove me wrong.
The “community organizer” and his “wife” have never had it so good. Vacay, anyone? Taxpayer-underwritten campaign trips? Millions of dollars for Madame Michelle’s entourage of make up artists and courtesans? Private schools for their spawn?
What ever it takes to keep their boy and his beard sweet.
The stick. His handlers know ALL his dirty little secrets. After all, they’re the ones who picked and groomed him for the job. Obama must live every day of his life in a prison of apprehension, knowing they can and will blow his cover and bury him if they want to. Knowing that as long as he does what his Blackberry tells him, he’s home free for another day. And just as added insurance, his putative wife Michelle is paid in perks to hover close by, making sure he doesn’t screw up the deal. You could say agent Michelle’s earning her “compensation” as Obama’s “bodyguard”, his minder. Prove me wrong.
MORE HERE
I have no doubt whatsoever that public knowledge of the following has to occasionally make Obama nervous and apprehensive, smoking butts like a chimney. Perhaps that’s why he’s rumored to be kept sedated. Xanax, anyone? Prove me wrong.
Obama spends million of tax payer dollars to defend himself against all comers in at least two dozen lawsuits demanding to see his records. So far, no court in America will hear the case on its merits. Prove me wrong.
Like pimps, his handlers keep their money-maker under their control, toe-ing the line with tried and true drugs of choice: ego, power, perks, male lovers, and crack cocaine. Prove me wrong.
The “community organizer” and his “wife” have never had it so good. Vacay, anyone? Taxpayer-underwritten campaign trips? Millions of dollars for Madame Michelle’s entourage of make up artists and courtesans? Private schools for their spawn?
What ever it takes to keep their boy and his beard sweet.
The stick. His handlers know ALL his dirty little secrets. After all, they’re the ones who picked and groomed him for the job. Obama must live every day of his life in a prison of apprehension, knowing they can and will blow his cover and bury him if they want to. Knowing that as long as he does what his Blackberry tells him, he’s home free for another day. And just as added insurance, his putative wife Michelle is paid in perks to hover close by, making sure he doesn’t screw up the deal. You could say agent Michelle’s earning her “compensation” as Obama’s “bodyguard”, his minder. Prove me wrong.
MORE HERE
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