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DARPA’s Autonomous Microdrones Designed to Patrol Inside Houses | Zen Gardner

DARPA’s Autonomous Microdrones Designed to Patrol Inside Houses | Zen Gardner



As drone expert, P.W. Singer said, “At this point, it doesn’t really matter if you are against the technology, because it’s coming.” According to Singer, “The miniaturization of drones is where it really gets interesting. You can use these things anywhere, put them anyplace, and the target will never even know they’re being watched.”

This has been the promise that the Air Force made quite clear in their video early last year about nanodrone tech that you can see below. According to the USAF, Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), combined with the ability to harvest energy, will enable insect-sized drone swarms to be dropped from military aircraft to stay aloft for a prolonged amount of time, offering a host of functions, including assassination.

DARPA is now announcing a new wave of these microdrones under the Fast Lightweight Autonomy program. As the name indicates, they ideally would like humans to be completely removed from the control process.

For now, they clearly state “overseas” as the theater of operation, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see how these microdrones could be applied in the U.S., especially amid an increasingly tense urban environment in the wake of confrontations with domestic police. And, as always, the tantalizing application in disaster relief paves the way for easy introduction.

(My emphasis added in press release)

***

DARPA aims to give small unmanned aerial vehicles advanced perception and autonomy to rapidly search buildings or other cluttered environments without teleoperation.

Military teams patrolling dangerous urban environments overseas and rescue teams responding to disasters such as earthquakes or floods currently rely on remotely piloted unmanned aerial vehicles to provide a bird’s-eye view of the situation and spot threats that can’t be seen from the ground. But to know what’s going on inside an unstable building or a threatening indoor space often requires physical entry, which can put troops or civilian response teams in danger.

To address these challenges, DARPA issued a Broad Agency Announcement solicitation today for the Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program. FLA focuses on creating a new class of algorithms to enable small, unmanned aerial vehicles to quickly navigate a labyrinth of rooms, stairways and corridors or other obstacle-filled environments without a remote pilot. The solicitation is available here: http://go.usa.gov/MGWx

The program aims to develop and demonstrate autonomous UAVs small enough to fit through an open window and able to fly at speeds up to 20 meters per second (45 miles per hour)—while navigating within complex indoor spaces independent of communication with outside operators or sensors and without reliance on GPS waypoints.

“Birds of prey and flying insects exhibit the kinds of capabilities we want for small UAVs,” said Mark Micire, DARPA program manager. “Goshawks, for example, can fly very fast through a dense forest without smacking into a tree. Many insects, too, can dart and hover with incredible speed and precision. The goal of the FLA program is to explore non-traditional perception and autonomy methods that would give small UAVs the capacity to perform in a similar way, including an ability to easily navigate tight spaces at high speed and quickly recognize if it had already been in a room before.

If successful, the algorithms developed in the program could enhance unmanned system capabilities by reducing the amount of processing power, communications, and human intervention needed for low-level tasks, such as navigation around obstacles in a cluttered environment. The initial focus is on UAVs, but advances made through the FLA program could potentially be applied to ground, marine and underwater systems, which could be especially useful in GPS-degraded or denied environments.

“Urban and disaster relief operations would be obvious key beneficiaries, but applications for this technology could extend to a wide variety of missions using small and large unmanned systems linked together with manned platforms as a system of systems,” said Stefanie Tompkins, director of DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. “By enabling unmanned systems to learn ‘muscle memory’ and perception for basic tasks like avoiding obstacles, it would relieve overload and stress on human operators so they can focus on supervising the systems and executing the larger mission.”

Since the focus of the program is improving perception and reducing dependence on external sources—as opposed to designing new small UAVs—DARPA will provide performers selected for the program with the same small UAV testbed as government-furnished equipment.

Source: DARPA
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WWIII - The Calm Before The Storm

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Activist Post: An Important Federal Bitcoin Decision Happened Today

Activist Post: An Important Federal Bitcoin Decision Happened Today

An Important Federal Bitcoin Decision Happened Today

By Luke Rudkowski



Luke Rudkowski covers the sentencing of Charlie Shrem, a well known
bitcoin entrepreneur who received two years in federal prison because
his company BitInstant sold bitcoins to a user who then sold them to
Silk Road users. Apparently this is considered money laundering in the
Bitcoin world. Rudkowski explains why this precedent-setting case is so
important.

Visit WeAreChange.org

Yellen Press Conference Translated from Fedspeak into English - Campaign for Liberty

Yellen Press Conference Translated from Fedspeak into English - Campaign for Liberty


By Megan Stiles on December 18, 2014 in National Blog

Our friend Paul-Martin Foss has a fun article over at the Carl Menger Center for the Study of Money and Banking on Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen’s press conference yesterday:


In case you haven’t gotten enough of Janet Yellen’s press conference today, here’s the transcript translated from Fedspeak into plain English. Any errors in the translation are solely the fault of the Federal Reserve. Enjoy!

QUESTION: How worried are you that Audit the Fed is going to pass in the next Congress, now that Republicans have taken over? Would you fight against the bill, push for a veto maybe?

YELLEN: Congress has assigned us some important tasks in monetary policy and other roles that we perform and I wish they would leave us alone so we could just do what we want to do without having to answer to them. “Independent” central banks have been proven to make effective monetary policy decisions, as long as you ignore all the “independent” central banks who destroyed their currencies and economies through hyperinflation. We’re very accountable to Congress, I go up their twice a year to testify and not answer their questions directly, and I’m firmly committed to transparency, if by transparency you mean Congress never finding out what exactly we’re doing.

QUESTION: Would you push for a veto of Audit the Fed?

YELLEN: Of course I would. Do I look like an idiot? But I can’t say that publicly so I’ll tell you to go ask the President.

The Feds Want to Replace Your Driver’s License with a National ID Card – Feature – Car and Driver | Car and Driver Blog

The Feds Want to Replace Your Driver’s License with a National ID Card – Feature – Car and Driver | Car and Driver Blog.



From the January 2015 issue of Car and Driver

If you live in Arizona, Louisiana, New York, or one of more than a dozen other states, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has bad news for you. Come January 19, your driver’s license will no longer allow you access to certain federal facilities. Unless DHS changes its mind. Again.

In 2005, Congress passed a bill called the Real ID Act, based upon recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. Whether or not you’ve heard of the law depends largely upon how in tune you are with conspiracy theories. Where you live matters, too, because nearly a decade after the law’s passage, only 19 states actually comply with its standards.

Real ID’s stated intent is to ensure that all jurisdictions issuing driver’s licenses and other identification meet federal stand­ards, “which should inhibit terrorists’ ability to evade detection by using fraudulent identification.” Basically, the government is upping the ante on what it will accept as valid forms of ID at federal facilities, nuclear power plants, and—here’s the biggie—federally regulated airline flights (i.e., most of them).

Opponents fear that Real ID will lead to a national identity card like those issued by “totalitarian” governments and that its requirement that states share data from their department of motor vehicle databases is an invasion of privacy. Others object because Congress didn’t offer financial backing to help states implement Real ID. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) contends that the program wastes state resources while doing little to combat terrorism, calling it a “bureaucratic nightmare.”



For its part, Homeland Security promises that Real ID will leave states with control over the look and administration of driver’s licenses, and, more important, over the information they collect to issue them. “There is no federal database of driver information,” the agency says on its website, although the ACLU contends that the law says otherwise. What does non-compliance mean for residents of those states? Most states have been granted extensions, although many have passed legislation that amounts to a promise not to comply.

For most Americans, that flight restriction is the big worry. But DHS says that any state driver’s license will be accepted as a valid ID at airports until at least 2016. And after that, passports and other federal IDs will work. The ACLU doesn’t put much stock in DHS deadlines either way, including the latest one. “We know how it’s going to play out because it’s played out three times already,” says Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU. “They give a deadline, the deadline goes, and then they give an extension. The states know that DHS isn’t going to keep all the residents from non–Real ID states from boarding airplanes.” Which means that those refusing to play along might just achieve the goal of dooming Real ID to failure.
Screen-Plate Club: How License-Plate Scanning Compromises Your Privacy
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Rand Paul wins victory for parents - Campaign for Liberty

Rand Paul wins victory for parents - Campaign for Liberty

By Norm Singleton on December 18, 2014 in National Blog



Newborn
screening for medical disorders is becoming an increasingly common
practice. This seems like a good thing; however, along with the
potential benefits of screening, there are concerns that some states are
not obtaining parental consent before doing the screening. There are
also legitimate concerns that state governments will store the child’s
DNA in a database.



No one should be surprised to learn that
there is a federal program funding newborn screening, and readers of
this blog should not be surprised to learn that legislation extending
this program was rammed into law in the lame duck session of Congress.



However,
Senator Rand Paul was successful in getting a victory for parents’
rights by attaching an amendment to the bill forbidding the use of a
newborn’s blood spots in federally funded medical research without
parental consent.



http://www.worldmag.com/2014/12/expanded_newborn_screening_raises_privacy_concerns



Expanded newborn screening raises privacy concerns
By Daniel James DevinePosted Dec. 16, 2014, 08:30 a.m.



President Barack Obama is expected this week to sign into law a $100 million bill
renewing federal funding for newborn screening. Involving a pinprick to
a baby’s heel and a few drops of blood, newborn screening is intended
to identify serious disorders within a few days of birth. But privacy
advocates worry about the government collection and long-term storage of
newborn DNA.



The federal law, first authorized in 2008, now
includes for the first time an amendment acknowledging privacy concerns
over dried blood spots stored on cards
and kept on file by state governments: For blood spots used in
federally funded research, scientists must obtain a consent form signed
by the parents. (The consent requirement will remain in place for up to
two years, until the Department of Health and Human Services updates
rules governing research on human subjects.)



Citizens’ Council
for Health Freedom, a patient privacy group in St. Paul, Minn., helped
craft the language of the amendment, which was introduced by Sen. Rand
Paul, R-Ky. “Most parents don’t know newborn screening happens,” said
Twila Brase, president of the organization. “Some states have been
keeping the blood, the DNA of the child, indefinitely.” Brase is happy
the amendment was included in the bill but still has concerns about the
screenings’ potential implications for genetic privacy. 



The
Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act, which unanimously
passed the U.S. House on Wednesday, provides funding to support newborn
screening programs already required by law in every state.



Newborn screening
has existed for more than 50 years but has grown more comprehensive in
the past decade. Around 2003, most states only tested for six treatable
disorders. Today, most states require testing for at least 29 disorders,
such as sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, or various vitamin or
protein disorders. Parents may refuse the tests on religious grounds,
but 98 percent of U.S. newborns ultimately are screened.



According to the March of Dimes, 1 in 300 infants has a disorder that
can be identified by screening. It’s important for doctors to find the
disorders within a few days of a child’s birth, since early treatment
may prevent serious harm.



A news investigation last year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found widespread delays
in lab testing of newborn blood samples, sometimes because hospitals
were trying to save on postage costs. The delays resulted in children
going untreated for serious genetic diseases within the first days after
birth, sometimes resulting in disability or death. Following the
investigation, dozens of states made changes to their screening programs
to minimize delays.



The new federal law requires the U.S.
Government Accountability Office to report within two years on the
timeliness of newborn blood testing across the United States.



Brase acknowledged screening is beneficial in allowing early treatment
of certain disorders, but she wants parents to be adequately informed
and to understand how their state handles the blood samples. Some states
retain the samples for just three months, others for 25 years or
longer. Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom keeps a list of state retention policies.



The group is concerned about federal and state involvement in the
screening programs: “The best way that this should be run is that the
hospitals should do it, like every other test that they do on the mother
and child,” Brase said. “The state should be completely out of it.”

Activist Post: This Is What a Currency Collapse Looks Like: Shopping Frenzy in Russia

Activist Post: This Is What a Currency Collapse Looks Like: Shopping Frenzy in Russia
This Is What a Currency Collapse Looks Like: Shopping Frenzy in Russia
Mac Slavo
Activist Post

Russians have seen the writing on the wall and they know that they’re economy and currency are in serious trouble. Though the Russian central bank has pledged to protect and stabilize the Ruble, which has collapsed by nearly 50% versus the dollar in the last several months, people aren’t taking any chances.

It’s a scenario we’ve seen repeated throughout history when a nation’s currency was threatened with destruction and it’s one we may soon witness in America should confidence in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency ever be lost.

This is what a currency collapse looks like:

“It is a real panic,” said Kirill Rogov, an independent political and economic analyst who is often critical of the Putin administration. “The ruble is being devalued by 5 or 6 percent every day, and nobody knows how to stop it.”

The ruble has lost 50 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. Russian consumers afraid of losing their savings, as happened in a financial crisis in 1998, flooded stores, rushing to dump rubles that seemed to shrink in worth by the minute.

Source: New York Times

“I don’t need this car,” he said with a shrug. He already owns two Porsches and a Land Rover. But, he figured the prices will soon go up and the ruble will probably go down. “We are headed for a crisis,” he said.

[…]

Electronics stores were packed late into the evening as shoppers scooped up iPhones and iPads at prices over $100 lower than what they cost in the United States. Apple’s Russian website halted online sales “due to extreme fluctuations in the value of the ruble… while we review pricing.”

[…]

“We came here because we have a problem. We have a lot of rubles which are losing value every second and we were too late to buy dollars at good price. We came here because prices on cars will increase tomorrow,” Katya said.

Source: ABC NewsWhat’s happening in Russia with the collapse of the Ruble is that merchants are being forced to raise their prices on goods every day. If the slide in the Ruble continues that could turn to hourly adjustments as was seen in Zimbabwe when their dollar crashed.

It’s a scenario that closely mimics the Argentine hyperinflation of the early 2000s. As noted by author Fernando “Ferfal” Aguirre in his first-hand account The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving The Economic Collapse, when the country’s currency collapsed citizens had no choice but to spend their money immediately on anything they could get their hands on. Failure to do so would cut their purchasing power in half within a matter of hours.

Ferfal explains:

The banks had closed, and no one knew how much the paper currency was going to be worth tomorrow, or even in the next couple of hours.
I vividly remember being at the local Home Depot (called "Easy" in Argentina), and buying a few tools. The clerks would run around like crazy, replacing the old prices with the new ones, which sometimes changed within the same hour.
It was depressing to see a price and notice that after peeling it off, the old price was still there. There was no time for the clerks to remove them. There would be a five layer sandwich of ever increasing prices that were maybe just a couple of days old.
After a few months, people found that they were in a very delicate position. Many were without a job, and those who had a job were paid in a currency where the value was dropping by the hour. Sometimes you had the problem of reaching the cash register and finding out that the price had already changed.
Excerpted From: The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving The Economic CollapseThis isn’t some theoretical forecast of what might happen during a currency crisis. This is how it was for people in Argentina in 2001-2002.

People didn’t believe it was happening at first and figured their government would save them. Of course, government officials saved themselves and their rich cohorts, but left the people with nothing. Eventually the banks shut down, ATMs ran out of money and cash became scarce. As Ferfal recollects, the economy quickly turned into a barter system where currency became physical assets like gold, silver, food, real estate and cars.

Russia is yet another warning sign of what’s to come for the United States.

The timeline for the collapse of the U.S. dollar is unclear. But that it will happen is an inevitable fact of life. And given the current national debt, long-term liabilities, economic malaise and deteriorating wages, it is only a matter of time.

When that time comes it is in your best interests to already positioned for it. You need to answer the question: What is money when the system collapses?

The answer, when you think about it, is pretty simple. When currency becomes worthless, physical assets will become money.

In her book The Prepper’s Blueprint Tess Pennington outlines some key “assets” that will still have value – both for your use and as barter – should your dollars become worthless.

Things like foods that last a lifetime, precious metals, fuel, clothing, footwear and firearms will be essential. Beyond that are other consumables that we take for granted today but will be worth a great deal should the currency collapse and stores run out of offerings. Cigarettes, alcohol, lighters, hygiene products, over the counter medicines, antibiotics and as Ferfal noted, hardware tools, are all worthwhile investments that will pay off in the future.

While most Americans refuse to even contemplate the possibility of something like this happening in the United States, history has proven that every fiat paper currency ever invented has eventually fallen. We can pretend that this time is different, but we’d only be deluding ourselves.

Confidence is a very fragile thing and given the economic, financial and monetary troubles we face, it wouldn’t take a whole lot to crush the world as we have come to know it. When it starts it will happen fast.

Be prepared for it or face the horrific consequences that will follow.

Related Resources:

Collapse Investing: Money and Wealth Preservation During Times of Uncertainty and Instability
A Free Falling Economy Makes Bartering Go Boom
The Prepper’s Blueprint: Prepare For Any Disaster