MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry, couldn't resist, but Wapo runs a story that is guaranteed encourage the paranoia on the left, especially 9/11 Truthers and anti-war protesters Even though this is a story that isn't new by any means..
Here is the latest.
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?' "
That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.
No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.
The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.
The technical challenges of creating robotic insects are daunting, and most experts doubt that fully working models exist yet.
Go read the 3 page story.
I have to say, those little things look so cool!! I want a few.
Back to that guaranteed paranoia.
I present exhibit number one, although Libby admits to thinking they would be kind of cool:
Now I know you all are going to think I'm just being paranoid again but I found the description really interesting because last month I saw a huge black dragonfly three or four times over a couple of days and that was exactly what I thought when I saw it.
The first time it almost flew right into me, which I thought was weird at the time. They're not normally aggressive. The other times I saw it was flying parallel with my second floor deck and on the last time it flew off, it almost ran into the huge light fixture on the side of the building that abuts the deck. I remember being struck by how awkwardly it flew and by the odd wing flapping. It really did look more like a little helicopter than a dragonfly. I haven't seen it since but, have I mentioned lately that Blackwater's main facility is practically in my backyard?
That sooooooo gave me a case of the giggles.
Exhibit two, comment #2 at Corrente:
Submitted by Woody--Tokin Librul on Tue, 2007-10-09 13:33.
I bet a buck if you brought one of the damned things down...
“cops” (’fraid they’ll always be ’pigs’ to me—if you weren’t hassled by ’em, rousted by ’em, gassed by ’em, mebbe you can respect ’em; not me) would be on you in a dirty minute…
Now don't get me wrong, as the article shows we are working on all different types of technology including the cute little robobugs, it isn't really "new" news. The paranoia though over the mere thought of it, even by people who think it would be "cool", is kinda funny.
January 24, 2007:
If you feel something crawling on your neck, it might be a wasp or a bee. Or it might be something much more dangerous.
Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that.
British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The $3,000 WASP is operated with a Gameboy-style controller and is nearly silent, so it can get very close without being detected. A new development will reportedly see the WASP fitted with a C4 explosive warhead for kamikaze attacks on snipers. One newspaper dubbed it "The Talibanator."
Fred Davis, technical director of the Assessment and Demonstrations Division of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, confirmed that the United States has ambitious plans for future micro-munitions, which he says will be pocket-sized with mission-specific payloads.
Back in April a UK site did their own story on them.
Tiny robot insects that mimic flying bugs are being developed by US defence chiefs to spy on enemies, it was revealed on Wednesday.
The Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency has sanctioned work on four 'robobugs' weighing less than 10g (0.3oz) each, and with a 7.5cm (3in) wingspan.
It is hoped to have prototypes flying in 2008.
The aim is for the bugs to carry tiny spy cameras. The bugs should be far more manoeuvrable than micro-sized conventional aircraft.
But mimicking an insect's figure-of-eight wing beat – to give optimum mid-air agility – is proving tough, New Scientist reports.
All in all, cool technology that seems that is comes right out of a science fiction movie but it is our future.
We will have cooler and cooler little gadgets as the years go on.
I seriously doubt that the Government is going to spend that kind of money on creating them so that they can fly outside you house or watching you while your sleeping.........
Or will they?
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Tracked back by:
And the Paranoid Truthers and Conspiracy Theorists from Miss Beth's Victory Dance...
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