Free Republic

SCIENTISTS at Leeds University are to create new robots and drones to help fix street lights and potholes as part of an ambitious plan to create “self-repairing cities.” Academics are leading a pioneering £4.2m national research project to develop small robots which can identify problems with utility pipes, street lights and roads and fix them.

Richard Hoagland, the acting U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, discussed with Code Pink and anti-Israel activists what he said was classified information, during an October 3 meeting with the groups in Islamabad. Code Pink, a liberal anti-war organization known for disrupting Republican and conservative public events, uploaded a video of the meeting to an Internet video sharing website on Oct. 5. Realizing what he had said, Hoagland told the activist gathering: “I probably just, you know, got into big trouble with what I just said.”

While some homeowners are turning to shotguns to deal with unwanted drones, federal agencies and law enforcement lack the necessary technology to deal with this increasing menace. However, thanks to Battelle Innovations and its new DroneDefender, law enforcement now has an anti-drone system designed to disable a drone without blasting it out the sky.The new DroneDefender uses radio pulses to disable a hostile drone within a 400-meter radius. These pulses interrupt the communications system of the drone, making it think it is out of range. The drone’s safety protocols then kick in, forcing it to either hover, return to its...

The Obama administration is spending $75 million a year arming EPA special agents with drones, night vision goggles, guns and assault ships. The EPA special force was formed to take out US polluters. The Spectator reported: "According to a report released last week by a watchdog group called Open the Books, the EPA has spent millions of dollars recently on guns, ammo, body armor, camouflage equipment, and even night-vision goggles to arm its agents in the war on polluters. The Illinois-based investigative group examined thousands of checks totaling more than $93 billion from 2000 to 2014 by the EPA, and...

Russian fighter jets shadowed U.S. predator drones on at least three separate occasions high above Syria since the start of Russia's air campaign last week, according to two U.S. officials briefed on this latest intelligence from the region. Meanwhile, U.S. Navy Captain Jeff Davis told reporters a U.S. aircraft flying over Syria had to be rerouted to avoid a Russian fighter jet at least once. "We have taken action to maintain safe separation," Davis said, adding that the U.S. aircraft "changed path a little bit." He did not disclose which type of U.S. aircraft was involved. U.S. officials tell Fox...

An Ascension Parish man hunting squirrels on his property Monday shot down a neighbor’s drone that had been flying over his home for several months, making his wife feel as though she was being watched. Aaron Hernandez, the owner of the drone, which was outfitted with a camera, said Tuesday he was flying his $1,200 remote-controlled quadcopter, which he got as a Christmas present last year, at his father’s home in a rural area off La. 936 early Monday evening when his neighbor shot it, disabling it at first, leaving it hovering in the sky.

US Drone Strike Statistics estimate according to the New America Foundation (as of 25 December 2013).] Year Attacks Casualties Militants Civilians Unknown Total 2004 1 3 2 2 7 2005 3 5 6 4 15 2006 2 1 93 0 94 2007 4 51 0 12 63 2008 36 223 28 47 298 477 Bush             2009 54 387 70 92 549 2010 122 788 16 45 849 2011 73 420 62 35 517 2012 48 268 5 33 306 2013 26 145 4 4 153 2,374 Obama

Volvo has a vision about rubbish. They want to replace bin collectors with autonomous robots, and they want to do it by summer 2016. (snip) The drones will accompany a dustcart, itself developed by another partner, the recycling company Renova, with a single driver who would sit, clean and at ease, in his or her cab as the robots do the dirty heavy lifting. The driver would not have direct control over the drones, but would act as their supervisor. (snip) The image that accompanies the announcement of the project shows robots that look like a cross between a Segway...

Russia is building a drone submarine to deliver large-scale nuclear weapons against U.S. harbors and coastal cities, according to Pentagon officials. The developmental unmanned underwater vehicle, or UUV, when deployed, will be equipped with megaton-class warheads capable of blowing up key ports used by U.S. nuclear missile submarines, such as Kings Bay, Ga., and Puget Sound in Washington state. Details of the secret Russian nuclear UUV program remain closely held within the U.S. government. The Pentagon, however, has code-named the drone “Kanyon,” an indication that the weapon is a structured Russian arms program. The nuclear drone submarine is further evidence...

The CIA and JSOC have been quietly sending in the drones against ISIS.

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — A Benedictine monk who works at a private Rhode Island school has discovered that finding solitude is no easy feat, even 175 feet in the air. Brother Joseph Byron was recently relaxing atop the Portsmouth Abbey School’s wind turbine — as he often does — when a drone zoomed in. Video taken by the drone, owned by a Californian on vacation, shows Byron sprawled across the turbine’s flat surface, with views of Narragansett Bay in the background. The footage was posted online this week.

It is now legal for law enforcement in North Dakota to fly drones armed with everything from Tasers to tear gas thanks to a last-minute push by a pro-police lobbyist. With all the concern over the militarization of police in the past year, no one noticed that the state became the first in the union to allow police to equip drones with “less than lethal” weapons. House Bill 1328 wasn’t drafted that way, but then a lobbyist representing law enforcement—tight with a booming drone industry—got his hands on it. The bill’s stated intent was to require police to obtain a...

The two emails on Hillary Rodham Clinton's private server that an auditor deemed "top secret" include a discussion of a news article detailing a US drone operation and a separate conversation that could point back to highly classified material in an improper manner or merely reflect information collected independently, US officials who have reviewed the correspondence told The Associated Press. The sourcing of the information could have significant political implications as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up. Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, agreed this week to turn over to the FBI the private server she used as secretary...

I’ll say this right here at the beginning: Shooting a drone out of the sky is probably a bad idea. But, if you’re dead set on taking down one of those unmanned flying camera copters, Snake River Shooting Products makes a shotgun shell made for that specific purpose. The packaging says, “Prepare for the drone apocalypse!” which is either a joke or a really alarmist thing to make people feel paranoid. The shells are full of #2 steel shot, which is rather big, meaning that hitting a drone from a reasonable range with one of these would likely reduce it...

The last few weeks I've noticed a new fad or trend in the media and that's reporting on the 'dangers' of so-called drones (which are actually just RC helicopters). In each case there's been some sort of breathtaking disaster that *almost* happened or else a disaster was blamed on a drone. Like the fire in California that burned so fast it overtook traffic on an Interstate highway and a bunch of cars were burned. So the fire burned so fast that cars going 70mph couldn't get away but someone had the time to unpack, set up, and fly a drone...

The two “top secret" emails under review from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private server include discussion of an article about a U.S. drone operation, the Associated Press reported Friday. While the U.S. drone program has been widely reported on, the article references classified information and a Clinton adviser follows up "in a way that could possibly be inferred as confirmation," the AP said, citing intelligence officials. Officials offered the AP different accounts of the second email, saying it could improperly acknowledge classified information or merely show that different individuals separately got the same information. Clinton, now a Democratic...

Two airplanes flying near one of the nation's busiest airports each came within 100 feet of a drone on Friday, according to audio from each flight's radio calls. The first, JetBlue Flight 1843, reported spotting a drone at 2:24 p.m. while approaching John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In the audio recording, the cockpit says that the drone passed just below the planes nose when the jet was flying at an altitude of about 800 to 900 feet. Then at about 5 p.m., Delta Flight 407 -- which had 154 people on board -- was...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Hillview man has been arrested after he shot down a drone flying over his property -- but he's not making any apologies for it. It happened Sunday night at a home on Earlywood Way, just south of the intersection between Smith Lane and Mud Lane in Bullitt County, according to an arrest report. Hillview Police say they were called to the home of 47-year-old William H. Merideth after someone complained about a firearm. When they arrived, police say Merideth told them he had shot down a drone that was flying over his house. The drone...

San Bernardino County supervisors unanimously agreed Tuesday to offer $75,000 in rewards for help in tracking down drone operators who interfered with firefighters during three major wildfires this summer.. After the unmanned devices were spotted flying above flames and smoke from the blazes this year — which altogether burned about 36,000 acres — fire crews were forced to ground water-dropping aircraft. Officials said the delays allowed the fires to spread, resulting in devastating property losses. ... And for about 25 minutes, officials had to halt tankers over the July 17 North fire, which jumped Interstate 15 near California 138 and...

Sweat the small stuff. That’s the unofficial motto for this year’s edition of the military exercise Black Dart, a two-week test of tactics and technologies to combat hostile drones that begins Monday on the Point Mugu range at Naval Base Ventura County in California. The military categorizes Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) by size and capability, from Group 5 drones that weigh more than 1,320 pounds and can fly above 18,000 feet like the Reaper, down to Group 1, mini- and micro-drones less than 20 pounds that fly lower than 1,200 feet. Previous Black Darts have covered threats to troops overseas...