Is the goverment using small flying surveillance devices on the antiwar movement?

[proud2BlibKansan]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs.

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.

"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."

Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.

"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "

more ...

[babylonsister]

1. Holy shit. Have you ever heard of this before? I haven't. Rec'd. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. No I have not

But my hubby who was in military intelligence said it is very believable.

[bdamomma]

22. geez if I saw those if I could reach them I would probably swat at them.

welcome to bushworld.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Oh how cute ...

Here's the cure:

[BrotherBuzz]

3. I want to take one alive and dissect it

Here's my weapon:

[soothsayer]

6. indeed!

[burrowowl]

10. Once you catch it

how do preserve it, can you pin it to a board, do you put it under glass, please tell us!

[BrotherBuzz]

27. I'm gonna stuff it in a box and sell it on eBay

"batteries not included"

[burrowowl]

30. Wow, I hope you enough

to pay for health insurance!
Cheers!

[hunter]

29. If they don't officially exist, you get to keep it.

But watch out for the poisonous ones with the blow-dart poison stingers.

[bdamomma]

23. exactly!!!!!!

[jgraz]

4. If they aren't now, they will be soon

One of the signs will be to look for dead birds. They'll eat these things and die of an alimentary obstruction.

[NoodleBoy]

5. Threefer Madness!

[cboy4]

7. It must be part of the patriot act

:eyes:

[eagler]

8. A couple years ago I remember reading about such things

in a Mechanics Illustrated (I think it was). The fly on the wall

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Your tax dollars at work. Hmmm.

Maybe nab one and put it in your underwear. "Enjoy the view, boyos!" Hopefully it doesn't have a stinger.

[Quantess]

12. I admit that....

In a way, I think it's cool! :hide:

[lurky]

13. I agree, the technology is really cool.

The fact that they are using it to surveil/intimidate lawful protesters is creepy as hell though.

[Quantess]

15. I know. Sounds like the technology is being wrongfully used, currently..

But think of the possibilities!

[bdamomma]

24. send a infestation of them into a certain house on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I take it you aren't involved in the anti-war movement?

If they were using these to spy on freepers, I might think they are cool too.

[Quantess]

25. Pardon me for being impressed with technology.

:eyes:

[TheMadMonk]

14. Who here know's David Brin's book "Earth"?

Recall the snooper spectacles worn by the elderly? Sunglasses or prescription spectacles with tiny cameras in the rims. Constantly broadcasting back to secure "webstores". Public criminal and antisocial behaviour dropped off precipitously. Streetgangs, their every public action recorded from multiple angles, had to become registered social clubs with mandatory lessons in tribal behaviour. Of course the downside was the black hole someone had accidentally dropped into the Earth's core and a 6m over days rise in sea level as ice sheets in Antarctica slid into the ocean.

Good book.

Why are we afraid of being recorded like this. WE WANT OUR STORY TOLD!

Why isn't our side doing the same? At least one in ten in any crowd/demonstration, recording and transmitting images to unimpeachably bear witness to behaviour on both sides of the aisle. Keep every bastard, theirs AND OURS, honest and peaceable. The authorities jamming those transmissions would speak volumes if it were attempted.

[Stand and Fight]

16. Either you forgot the sarcasm tag or...

Either you forgot the sarcasm tag or your screen name speaks volumes about your intelligence and sanity.

[TheMadMonk]

28. Pray tell why? Like it or lump it the Surveilance State is here to stay.

At least for the foreseeable future. Nancy Pelosi and a good many other Democratics have made that abundantly cleat. Not once, but several times. One practically can not move in Britain without being watched and/or recorded. Australia is rushing to catch up in some places.

Who watches the watchers? We bloody well better. They won't watch themselves. Hell, those who stand next in line to the "throne" don't seem to care. Too busy salivating over what they'll do when it's their turn.

'Twould be nice to imagine a scenario of the incoming Democratic President using those powers to crush the real enemies of the state, before winding them back, but I don't see it happening.

As I see it, the only practicable solution is to watch back. Watch back hard. So hard it is practically impossible FOR ANYONE to commit an excess in public. It would of course be an offense to record/broadcast images of a private space without permission explicitly expressed as a part of that recording/transmission.

And in the middle, certain spaces which may be recorded, but the recording would be embargoed, eg until the completion of a trial; or only available under certain strict conditions, eg to prove an offense.

Really what is the problem with recording what a person sees in the end? Anything seen by that person is going to be remembered, or more likely misremembered, sometimes to the detriment of the innocent.


Just what "interesting" thing is it that you are doing that you don't want known? Your shopping habits? Take off your snoopers when going into Club-XXX, and hope you don't run into "Mrs Grundy" coming out. Given a big enough data space (As "Snooperspace" would be.) the commercially valuable information would be essentially anonymised. And where it isn't, it's value is becoming more and more suspect under a deluge of Spam. Targeted advertising seems like a good idea until you realise that it advertises your intrusion into another's life. If a person buys a big screen TV from Harvey Norman then they might grin and bear it when HN sends you brochures for other audio visual gear. But if K-Mart addresses the same to them by name, they'll probably be feeling a little dark.


Are you worried about random strangers playing voyeur without your knowledge? If you're doing anything interesting, chances are someone already is. Get over it. Busted because as friend of the family "saw" you going into s motel room on someone's public snooper page. tough luck.

Addressing other potential problems: Primary recordings would be "protected free speech". Derivative works would be subject to very restrictive laws.

Ultimately, secrecy for secrecy's sake would be the suspect behaviour. With an entire world of voyeuristic potential, everyone is anonymous unless their behaviour brings them into the limelight.

It's my humble opinion that this sort of thing is considerably more likely to evolve into a public conscience than an oppressor, because the oppressor himself cannot hide his behaviour from scrutiny.

Talibanising or Tailbornising, the advent of such social impositions, would bear sad witness to only the willingness of too many human being willing to don their own chains.

As the world stands today, we rarely know exactly when we are or are not under surveillance in the course of our day. We are learning to fear that "knock on the door", the one that lays the door flat. We are acceding all the advantages of a surveillance society to the enemy. The only answer to being constantly watched is an independent witness to speak to your side of the story.

Who knows? There might even be a resurgence of that currently quaint idea called Good Manners.


PS. My name speaks only to my physical resemblance to "Russia's greatest love machine." And perhaps a smidgen of wishful thinking, that I might suffer the same reputation. :evilgrin:

[krispos42]

17. Hell, let's just use them to watch the cops all the time...

Imagine thousands of mechanical dragonflies flying day and night in Manhattan, trailing police cruisers and foot patrols? Recording their every move?

The police are so hot for public-area CCTV cameras. Think they'd embrace this idea?

[lvx35]

18. I think they have retarded birds.

I've seen them. They are small gliders, with wings in a birdlike shape and feathers, but they don't flap. This was around 2001.

[Tesha]

20. Why would they need these when they have "Jet Rangers"?

...she asks, mostly joking. But seriously, they have
highly-directional microphones, full-sized helicopters,
undercover cops and instigators, and more -- why would
they need this Star Trek stuff?

Tesha

[Ian David]

21. They want it to be discovered. It's the intimidation factor. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. They want to hear us when we whisper those terrorist plots

to each other :)