Solomon Asch Center

Correlates of radical localism across American counties April 15, 2024 Juan MerizaldeChristopher Linebargera Independent Researcher, Arlington, VA, USAb School of Criminology, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA
Examining the counterinsurgency-counterterrorism tradeoff: the effects of targeted strikes on militant attacks February 26, 2024 Brittnee CarterThomas GuarrieriDaniel S. Smitha Department of Political Science, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USAb National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USAc Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USADr. Brittnee Carter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kansas.Dr. Thomas Guarrieri is an Associate Research Scientist at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Global Terrorism Studies Minor at the University of Maryland.Daniel S. Smith is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University.
Keeping up appearances: US domestic extremist organizations and the effects of membership on domestic terrorism perpetrators February 13, 2024 Andrew VitekDepartment of Political Science, Penn State University, University Park, USA
International kidnapping by non-state actors: Exploring the relationship between political predictors and the selection of victims January 26, 2024 Kathryn M. LambertDepartment of National Security, American Military University Online, USA
Foreign fighters from the far right and extreme left in the Russia–Ukraine conflict January 23, 2024 Nicola GuerraItalian Studies, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Yemen’s New Ways of Protesting Drone Strikes: Graffiti and Poetry

Drones have become a major issue in Yemen, as their artistic pursuits are reflecting. Based on the article’s main image, the predator drone is becoming strongly symbolic in the region.

Amazon Drones: The Rebuttal

Since Jeff Bezos made headlines with his plan for drone deliveries, many have offered their opinions on proposal. Many have declared it impractical or contrary to Amazon’s business plan, or just plain absurd.

Amazon Is Experimenting With Autonomous Flying Delivery Drones

In Amazon’s constant quest for efficiency, CEO Jeff Bezos is hoping drones can bring the gap between payment and delivery down to thirty minutes. So far, this plan is nothing more than a good press release, as the FAA has yet to finalize the rules for flying drones. However, Bezos seems confident that the drones will be implemented in 2015.

Coming Soon, a Night Watchman With Wheels?

This prototype illustrates just how far the field of robotics has come. With half a dozen kinds of sensors and some level of autonomy, this device still has an expected effective cost of just $6.25/h. Needless to say, privacy is a concern. As it is designed to be networked, perhaps security should also be a concern – a hacked security robot could be a major problem, even if it is unarmed as this model is.

Army Scores a Super-Stealthy Drone That Looks Like a Bird

In the U.S. military’s ongoing battle against insurgents and terrorists, radar stealth is less important than invisibility – or, in this case, disguise. Designed to look like a circling bird from a distance, this small drone model is designed to provide short-range surveillance without alerting the subjects.

Drone crew caught attempting to deliver smokes to prison inmates

As the article suggests, it’s only a matter of time before drones are a standard tool in the arsenal of criminals and terrorists. Perhaps building off the occasional success of helicopter prison breakouts, some would be smugglers in Georgia attempted to supply a prison with tobacco.

This 6-Foot, 330-Pound Robot May One Day Save Your Life

This humanoid robot is designed to have the same mobility as a human. While it lacks hands capable of truly grasping objects, this design still shows promise for search and rescue missions, as the title implies. The robot’s builder, Boston Dynamics, has previously achieved fame for its surprisingly stable, adaptive and rather creepy BigDog robots, but this one is currently unprogrammed. A DARPA competition next month will hopefully provide some working code for it.

Which drone future will Americans choose?

This commentary attempts to look at drones in the context of nuclear proliferation. While drones certainly are more focused than a nuclear bomb, they are also far cheaper to obtain. While the fears stated may be exaggerated, privacy and proliferation will continue to be major concerns. The Asch Center also agrees with the author that a terrorist attack using drones is an eventual inevitability.

Drones in Culture: Blondie

The Blondie Comic strip for 24 Nov. 2013 has a hapless employee under constant monitoring by a miniature Predator drone. While the Predator design is clearly artistic license, this strip taps into a common worry about surveillance, lack of privacy, and the damping of free speech.

Chinese Stealth Drone Makes First Flight

China has been working towards this project since at least 2006, when the ‘Dark Sword’ project became public knowledge. The ‘Sharp Sword’ drone mentioned in this article appears designed as a mid- to long-range unmanned stealth bomber. Unlike the U.S. Reapers and Predators, the Sharp Sword is clearly designed for symmetric conflict.

Published by the University of Texas Press the book features 100 of Hyman's photographs and six critical essays that depict and discuss the emotional aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks -- a time when people from all walks of life created and encountered memorials to those who were murdered. Vernacular art appeared almost everywhere—on walls, trees, playgrounds, vehicles, houses, tombstones, and even on bodies. This outpouring of grief and other acts of remembrance impelled photographer Jonathan Hyman to document and preserve these largely impermanent, spontaneous expressions. This book, a unique archive of 9/11 public memory, is the result of his compiling a collection of 20,000 photographs, along with field notes and personal interviews. For more information about the book or to purchase it, visit the book's page at Amazon or Facebook.

Sramana Majumdar

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