Your photo of the day. The watching begins at birth.
My other job as a drone pilot. That’s a lot of your taxpayer money sitting in front of me. #summersojourns
Burning Man or an air reserve base in California? Hint: I used to live in San Francisco and delighted every year in half the city emptying out for Burning Man. In other words, it’s unlikely I’ll ever post a photo here from Burning Man.
Image: U.S. Air Force
“The first time a drone Tases the wrong dude at a Phish concert, you’re going to have problems.” — Patrick Egan, president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, to The New Yorker.
Reporting from Tucson. #summersojourns
“Given that the automatic Kalashnikov was conceived with the intention of shooting 160-pound capitalists, it’s use against 30-ton marine mammals would seem ill-advised. But the rifle at hand is the rifle that gets used. Kalashnikovs are regularly at hand.” — NYT reporter and former grunt C.J. Chivers in “The Gun,” a history of the AK-47.
When Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas Johnson’s Black Hawk helicopter went down during bad weather April 19, killing him and three others, he became the 671st service member from California to die in the combined Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
California continues to lead the nation in fatal sacrifices made to the conflicts, according to an analysis of the most recent Defense Department data available. The figures, which include both hostile and non-hostile casualties, cover three major operations across the two wars: Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn.
Read the rest of my story with a chart and map here.
By now, travelers are all too familiar with the Department of Homeland Security’s most visible advertising campaign. If you see something suspicious, instruct the billboards and public service announcements, say something to authorities.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has made her “See Something, Say Something” campaign a top priority and rarely misses an opportunity to remind citizens about the importance of reporting any questionable behavior that could be linked to terrorism.
But when survey respondents were asked why they still might hesitate to report suspicious activity, 43 percent said they were worried about getting innocent people in trouble. Some of the respondents were uncomfortable judging their fellow citizens, while others worried that ringing up the police could turn out to be a waste of resources. A portion mistrusted law enforcement to begin with.
The findings lay bare a critical question at the core of Napolitano’s initiative: How can anyone be truly certain that his or her neighbor is suspicious enough to notify the government?
Read the rest of my story this week here. It’s a follow-up to our reporting last year with National Public Radio on domestic intelligence and the war on terror.
New documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco through the Freedom of Information Act show that far more agencies in the United States have pursued the use of unmanned aerial vehicles than previously disclosed. Among the cities listed: Herrington, Kansas, and Otter Tail County in Minnesota. Read more from EFF.
These are all over Google headquarters. #summersojourns