Airborne drones, mimicking gulls, alter wing shape for agility

Filed under Engineering, Research, Sciences on Tuesday, August 23, 2005.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The military’s next generation of airborne drones won’t be just small and silent – they’ll also dive between buildings, zoom under overpasses and land on apartment balconies.

At least, that’s what University of Florida engineers are working toward.

Funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA, UF aerospace engineers have built prototypes of 6-inch- to 2-foot- drones capable of squeezing in and out of tight spots in cities — like tiny urban stunt planes. Their secret: seagull-inspired wings that “morph,” or change shape, dramatically during flight, transforming the planes’ stability and agility at the touch of a button on the operator’s remote control.

“If you fly in the urban canyon, through alleys, around parking garages and between buildings, you need to do sharp turns, spins and dives,” said Rick Lind, a UF assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who heads the project. “That means you need to change the shape of the aircraft during flight.”

via Airborne drones, mimicking gulls, alter wing shape for agility | University of Florida News.

NamingThePakistaniDead.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Sons of Sher Zaman Ashrafkhel (10, 16)
Wife, daughter and two female child
relatives of Abu Hamza Rabia
Noor Aziz (8)
Abdul Wasit (17)
Hayatullah KhaMohammad Tahir (16)
Maulvi Khaleefa
Azizul Wahab (15)
Fazal Wahab (16)
Ziauddin (16)
Mohammad Yunus (16)
Fazal Hakim (19)
Ilyas (13)
Sohail (07)
Asadullah (09)
Yahya Khan (16)
Rahatullah, (17)
Khan (21)
Mohammad Salim (11)
Shahjehan (15)
Gul Sher Khan (15)
Bakht Muneer (14)
Numair (14)
Mashooq Khan (16)
Ihsanullah (16)
Luqman (12)
Jannatullah (13)
Ismail (12)
Taseel Khan (18)
Zaheeruddin (16)
Adnan (16)
Najibullah (13)
Naeemullah (17)
Hizbullah (10)
Kitab Gul (12)
Wilayat Khan (11)
Zabihullah (16)
Shehzad Gul (11)
Shabir (15)
Qari Sharifullah (17)
Shafiullah (16)
Nimatullah (14)
Shakirullah (16)
Talha (08)
Jamroz Khan
Shoaib (08)
Khalilullah (09)
Noor Mohammad (08)
Khalid (12)
Saifullah (09)
Razi Mohammad (16)
Mashooq Jan (15)
Nawab (17)
Sultanat Khan (16)
Ziaur Rahman (13)
Noor Mohammad (15)
Mohammad Yaas Khan (16)
Qari Alamzeb (14)
Ghulam Nabi (21)
Ziaur Rahman (17)
Abdullah (18)
Ikramullah (17)
Inayatur Rahman (16) and Shahbuddin (15)
brothers
Qari Ishaq (19)
Jamshed Khan (14)
Alam Nabi (11), brothers
Qari Abdul Karim (19)
Rahmatullah (14),
Abdus Samad (17)
Siraj (16)
Saeedullah (17)
Abdul Waris (16)
Darvesh (13)
Ameer Said (15)
Shaukat (14)
Inayatur Rahman (17)
Salman (16)
Fazal Wahab (18)
Rahman (13)
Wali-ur-Rahman (17)
Iftikhar (17)
Inayatullah (15)
Nephew
& son of Awaz Khan
Zahidullah
Abdul Ghafoor
Jan Mohammad Mehsud
Dilawar
Bakhan
Noorullah Jan
Ilyas
Jamil
Farman
Imran
Latif
Wife & son of Badr Mansoor
Baseer
Naila (10)
Gulzar
Shamim
Majan
Sarwar
Zamir Gul’s 3 sons & 2 daughters-in-law.
Fatima (child)
Nisar (child)
Naeem Khan (child)
Two wives of Shams Ullah
Saed Kamal,
Amanullah
Sahib Rehman
Sakhi Rehman
Sohrab Khan
2 sons,brother & 3 nephews (one 10) of
Shera Deen
Haris
Taj
Sanaullah Jan (17)
Raza Khan
Jamil
Mustafaa
Noor Gul
Jaffar
Faraz
Musa
Kamal *
Malik Daud Khan
Ismail Khan
Hajji Babat
Khnay Khan
Gul Mohammed and his son
Ismael.
Gul Akbar
Sadar
Bakhtar
Atif (12)
Samad
Jamshed
Daraz
Iqbal
Noor Nawaz
Yousaf
Shahzada
Akram Shah,
Atiq ur Rehman
Irshad Khan
Amar Khan
Shabbir
Kalam
Waqas
Bashir
Bismullah, wife & 2 children
Din Mohammad’s son,nephew & 2
daughters
Yahya
Samin
Niamatullah
Shahzad
Ilyas
Bashir
Wajid
Laiq
Naeem Ullah (10)
Sabir
Riaz
Shaukatullah
Mohammad Sheen
Lewanai
Mir Zaman
Din Mohammad
Malik Tareen
Noor Ali
Zare Jan
Sadiq
Mustaqeem
Khangai
Gulnaware
Faenda Khan
Dindar Khan
Umark Khan
Sadar
Bakhtar
Atif (12)
Samad
Jamshed
Daraz
Iqbal
Noor Nawaz
Yousaf
Shahzada
Akram Shah,
Atiq ur Rehman
Irshad Khan
Amar Khan
Shabbir
Kalam
Waqas
Wali Khan
Abdul Jalil
Maulana Iftiqar
Saeedur Rahman
Khastar Gul
Mamrud Khan
Noorzal Khan
Tariq Aziz
Waheed Khan

Covert War on Terror – the Data: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Here is a data source for deaths from Drone strikes including total killed, civilians killed and children killed plus total reported injured. COuntries reported include Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is an independent not-for-profit organisation. Established in April 2010, the Bureau is the first of its kind in the UK, where philanthropically funded journalism is rare.

One reason we do our Vets Speak Out sessions. To educate the public and to give our volunteer army a chance to speak about thier experiences on thier own terms.

When I tell people I’m a Marine, the next question many ask is: “Did you kill anyone?” To my ears, this sounds like: “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” They don’t realize they’re asking about an intensely private matter.

Many veterans I know are incensed by this question. It reinforces the isolation they feel in a society that doesn’t seem to care about Iraq or Afghanistan. But to me, it speaks to the fact that civilians’ curiosity about war overwhelms their understanding of it. Most Americans have little idea what war means. Our battles are fought with volunteers, making an intimate knowledge of war voluntary as well — and therefore avoidable.

via I killed people in Afghanistan. Was I right or wrong? – The Washington Post.

My long held view that torture under the Bush Administration was largely used to produce propaganda so they could go to war for other reasons (greed, power and personal vanity are what I see as the reasons for invading Iraq) is confirmed by the history Juan Cole describes here.  The question today is what does torture under our present administration bring us?  The idea that it has “gone away” when the system has become so non-transparent as civil liberties are further eroded is highly unlikely. Even if Dick Cheney no longer sits at his desk in the White House bunker waiting for the next graphic report to come in, we still are funding torture with our tax dollars (60% of them in fact go to support our military misadventures).

Al-Qaeda operative Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was captured trying to escape from Afghanistan in late 2001. He was sent to Egypt to be tortured, and under duress alleged that Saddam Hussein was training al-Qaeda agents in chemical weapons techniques. It was a total crock, and alleged solely to escape further pain. Al-Libi disavowed the allegation when he was returned to CIA custody. But Cheney and Condi Rice ran with the single-source, torture-induced assertion and it was inserted by Scooter Libby in Colin Powell’s infamous speech to the United Nations.

If torture can mislead you into launching a war that results in hundreds of thousands of deaths, then it should be avoided, quite apart from the fact that it is illegal and that the United States is signatory to binding treaties specifying its illegality. (It is coming out that Bush-Cheney’s own CIA Inspector-General expressed the view that the Bush-era torture was medically unsound, did not produce the desired results, and contravened the UN Convention against torture.

Here is what Condi Rice told the Lehrer News Hour in 2002, based on the torture-induced statements of the late al-Libi:

‘ “We clearly know that there were in the past and have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of Al Qaeda going back for actually quite a long time,” Rice said. “We know too that several of the [Al Qaeda] detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to Al Qaeda in chemical weapons development.” ‘

via How Torture Misled the US into an Illegal War: What Zero Dark Thirty Really Leaves Out | Informed Comment.

Paying For Torture – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

We will all be paying the costs directly and indirectly for a long time but Andrew is right – our government needs to acknowledge that wrong was done or it will continue as I am sure it is today.

All I can say is how remarkable it is that a contractor is forced to pay damages for torture, while the US government refuses even to acknowledge that it authorized and implemented it, that it tortured at least a score of prisoners to death, that no one – no one – involved in the authorization of these war crimes has faced any legal or professional consequences and that war criminals, like Stanley McChrystal, who presided over one of the worst torture camps in Iraq, Camp Nama, (“Nasty-Ass Military Area”), can go on the Daily Show as if he is just another general. No he isn’t. Under his command some of the worst incidents of torture took place. Why did Jon Stewart not ask him about that? When will these people be publicly challenged to defend their history of crimes against humanity?

If we can hold contractors accountable, why not the public sector which paid them?

 

The fact that Woodward’s far more sensitive leaks have never been the subject of any investigation underscores the clear and obvious point: protection of government secrets is the pretext for these prosecutions. The actual purpose is to intimidate everyone from exposing secret government wrongdoing and to severely punish those who do.But whatever else is true, the theory now being used to depict Bradley Manning not as a whistle-blower or leaker, but as a traitor, is one that can be – and almost certainly will be – just as easily applied to the vast majority of leaks on which investigative journalism has always relied. Perhaps media outlets beyond the Guardian and independent blogs might want to take a serious interest in this fact and marshal opposition to what is being done to Bradley Manning: if not out of concern for the injustices to which he is being subjected, then out of self-interest, to ensure that their reporters and their past and future whistle-blowing sources cannot be similarly persecuted.

via Why are Bob Woodward’s WH sources – or Woodward himself – not on trial next to Bradley Manning? | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.