Sramana Majumdar

"Violence, Identity and Self-determination: Narratives of conflict from the Kashmir Valley" 4:15 PM, Monday 18 Nov Room 239, BYC Bryn Mawr College

Exposure Index

Tired of paper and pencil questionnaires about integration and intergroup contact? Try the new and improved EXPOSURE INDEX (click tab above on this page).

Colbert Report: Domino’s Pizza Drone

The subject is barely introduced before missile-carrying military drones are referenced, again showing the extent to which the Air Force has defined UAVs in popular culture.

Drones a safety and privacy headache

In this article from Australia, safety and privacy concerns figure largely. Private, commercial, and government operators are all noted, though the dangers of “the issue of children flying model drone aircraft” is probably far less than the more capable government and commercial types.

Smartphones and drones: Nokia Lumia 1020 to get airborne

While still expensive ($7000+), the use of a smartphone as the computational core of this UAV brings drones far closer to the general public and low-budget hobbyists.

DARPA Hydra, here comes the mothership designed to deploy drones

The goal of the project is an unmanned submarine capable of deploying smaller unmanned underwater and/or aerial vehicles. Unlike the Air Force, the Navy appears less culturally against unmanned vehicle, having tested long range autonomous vehicles for years, quietly implementing them for mapping and surveillance. This perhaps comes from decades of autonomous torpedo development. Deployable […]

Air Force aims to land more top guns amid pilot shortage

Part of the shortage is from expectation of eventually being replaced by drones – which paradoxically leads to a greater need for pilot-replacements.

Germans Play for Time in the Debate on Drones

This article comments on the current anti-drone backlash in Germany. It suggests that public opinion fails to differentiate between armed and surveillance drones. The article further suggests that opinion of drones as a whole has suffered from the criticisms of recent U.S. drone policy.

RAF Waddington drones protesters face trial

An interesting facet of this case is that the RAF base did not launch drones – it merely held the facilities that remotely controlled them. This part of the war can be managed from thousands of miles away. Distinctions between deployed abroad and at home may well be blurring.

Age of drones: Israeli Air Force now flying more unmanned than manned sorties

While Israel may be the first to reach this level of drone saturation, it is unlikely to be the last.

FAA warns shooting at drone could result in prosecution similar to shooting at manned airplane

This is the official response to this article from the Guardian, published and posted on this website three days previously.

Judge Challenges White House Claims on Authority in Drone Killings

The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki and his son was a controversial action given both were U.S. citizens. While al-Awlaki was a major figure in al-Qaeda, his son was not. The Judge in this article is particularly disturbed by apparent attempt to bypass the judicial check on executive power. This continues the conflict over control and […]