It's been 45 days since my last post on spy drones. That's when I started saving links for this post. Want to guess how many links I saved in 45 days?
45.
The good news: People are trying to get the word out.
The bad news: Talk is cheap.
When we last left our exciting spy drone story, the airliner you were flying to Denver in had just run into an off-course traffic drone whose guidance system had just been fried by solar radiation and you ended up in a molten pile of burning aluminum and plastic.
Easy come, easy go.
Drone operations over Somalia pose danger to air traffic, U.N. report says
U.N. officials describe several narrowly averted disasters in which drones crashed into a refugee camp, flew dangerously close to a fuel dump and almost collided with a large passenger plane over Mogadishu, the capital.
That'll be the real wake-up call. A 747 hits one just entering New York City air space. 293 dead including the crew, 187 on the ground.
And the nightmare of links below the fold?
Actually, I'd suggest you skip it. Why ruin a perfectly good day?
The real story in this post isn't the content of the articles, but the volume of them. As noted, on average there's been one a day for the past month and a half.
And they're divided into four fairly distinct camps.
First are the fawning acolytes and drooling sycophants working for the MSM who daren't utter a discouraging word because, after all, a Democrat is in the White House.
At America's Biggest Drone Show, the Focus Shifts Toward Domestic Skies
Nonmilitary drones take to the skies in larger numbers
Court Upholds Domestic Drone Use in Arrest of American Citizen
Television Stations Could Start Using Drones To Cover News Stories
Drone makers urge U.S. to let them sell more overseas
Pentagon OK with selling US drones to 66 countries
FAA chief says drones will force change at agency
FAA Has Authorized 106 Government ‘Entities’ to Fly Domestic Drones
And while we've discussed alternate forms of spy platforms, such as underwater drones and miniaturized models, let's not leave out...
US Army's 'spy blimp' makes first successful flight test above New Jersey
U.S. Army's New Battle Blimp Takes Flight
Police Department Wants Blimp To Spy On "Suspicious Activity"
Yeah, I'll be they do.
And then there are those naysayers who seem to think being watched 24 hours a day somehow infringes upon our right to privacy.
NSA whistleblowers: Government spying on every single American
Gazillions -- that's the number of times our government has spied on Americans since 9/11
The drones are coming
Drone warfare: a new generation of deadly unmanned weapons
The emerging ‘drone’ culture
Drone Aircraft Hijacked by Students in Test; Could Iran Do It?
High anxiety on the Hill about civilian drone use
Bill would clip wings of private drone use
Big Brother’s enablers
Did I say 'watched'. Excuse me, I meant monitored.
Is Your Car Being Tracked by a License-Plate Scanner?
'Black box' standards coming for cars
Added to the RFID chip in your shoe, the GPS tracking device in your cellphone and the DNA scanner at the airport and I'd say monitored was a pretty good word.
And then there are those upbeat types who see a rosy future in the hands of our drone overlords. I'll let the first one speak for all.
Nonmilitary drones take to the skies in larger numbers
But FAA officials say they expect the number of commercial and scientific UAVs to rise as the agency develops new rules to integrate drones into civilian airspace by 2015.
That’s good news to environmental researchers such as David Schmale, an associate professor in Virginia Tech’s plant pathology department. Schmale and his colleagues are using drones to sample air currents in their study of a fungus that has been devastating crops and fruit orchards.
Insitu’s ScanEagle UAV...has been used to study migration of wildlife in Alaska, floods in North Dakota and the spread of invasive weeds in Australia.
"We have a lot of educating to do as an industry to make sure that people know that these things do not pose a threat or any kind of additional imposition relative to privacy," McDuffee said.
Being watched 24 hours a day is just an imposition, you see.
Drones to be become storm chasers, hurricane hunters
The Moral Case for Drones
Drone makers pledge to respect privacy
Police chiefs adopt drone code of conduct
Drone U. rides flight boom
Drone industry eager to road-test science fiction
Good ol' drones — humanity's new best friend.
And then there's that rosy future we mentioned. Got your seat belt fastened?
Boeing Demonstrates Drones That Perform Like ‘Swarm Of Insects’
Are Olympics a Trojan horse for Big Brother?
FBI begins installation of $1 billion face recognition system across America
Just a face in a crowd? Scans pick up ID, personal data
Nowhere to hide from NYPD's new computer system
Your iris may soon be the target of identity thieves
DHS Prepares for Civil Unrest as Obama Poised to Destroy 2nd Amendment
In all honesty, I've seen rosier scenarios.
Some makers cringe to hear word ‘drone’
Yeah, I'll bet they do.
