PETA seeking drone to monitor hunters
It’s not just government and police drones that might be stalking you.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is actively shopping for a drone that would “stalk hunters,” the organization said in an early April press release.
The anti-hunting, animal rights group says it will “soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun down deer and doves” and that it is “shopping for one or more drone aircraft with which to monitor those who are out in the woods with death on their minds.” Fortunately, PETA said it will not weaponize the drones, but will use them to film potentially illegal hunting activity and turn it over to law enforcement.
They are currently considering purchasing the CineStar Octocopter, which is capable of carrying a DSLR camera for up to 5 minutes. With smaller cameras, the drone can fly for about 20 minutes. The group says it also hopes to fly drones over factory farms, fishing spots and “other venues where animals routinely suffer and die.” In order to legally operate the drone, it will likely need a certificate of authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, a process which can take several months.
The group may want to carefully monitor its drone—last year, another animal rights group drone was shot down while it was attempting to monitor pigeon hunters in South Carolina, according to news reports.
Anti-drone hoodie may beat spies in the sky
Unmanned surveillance drones are a global concern—no matter whose drones are watching, but designer Adam Harvey in Britain has concocted an outlandish solution, according to The Guardian newspaper in the UK.
Harvey showed his design, a silver hoodie that stops just below the nipples, and has wide square shoulders and zips up right to the tip of my nose.
It’s designed to hide someone from the thermal imaging systems of unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles—drones.
According to Harvey, the material in the anti-drone clothing is made of silver, which is reflective to heat and makes the wearer invisible to thermal imaging.
The “anti-drone hoodie” was the central attraction of Harvey’s Stealth Wear exhibition held in London earlier this year, that was billed as a showcase for “counter-surveillance fashions.” Harvey’s not new to the field. He previously designed an anti-paparazzi handbag that responds to the unwanted camera flashes with a counter-flash of its own, replacing the photograph’s intended subject with a fuzzy orb of bright white light.
Later came his CV Dazzle, a mix of bold makeup and hairstyling based on military camouflage techniques, designed to flummox computer face-recognition software.
Reality, to be fair, is not so far behind. Over the next 15 years the US Federal Aviation Administration anticipates more than 20,000 new drones will appear in American skies, owned not just by law enforcement agencies and the military, but also public health bodies and private companies.
In the UK, several police forces are already experimenting with drones, and not just for thermal imaging; they can and do trace cell phones, too.
70-year-old man batters home intruder
Seventy-year-old Michael Salame in Gardner, MA, has eight heart stents, nerve damage and apparently quite a right hook, as an alleged home invader found out, according to CBS News and WBZ radio.
It was about 3 a.m. on a May Saturday when Salame was at home with his girlfriend and heard something outside. He didn’t realize the intruder, identified as 24-year-old Timothy Adams, had already shattered a window and climbed inside; but early proof the burglar wasn’t on the ball came when he walked right through a door across from the window— putting him right back outside again.
So when Salame spotted the man outside stumbling over his trash barrels, he called 911. By then, Adams was back in the house and the two were face-to-face in the foyer.
Salame said he was in no mood for visitors. He said he grabbed the intruder by the throat and slammed him down on the floor. When Adams got up again, Salame decked him with “three good rights.” It’s not like Salame’s some retired boxer, he’s got all kinds of medical conditions.
When Adams went down, Salame said the would-be thief offered him $100,000 to let him go.
“Luckily he didn’t have a knife or a gun and Mike reacted so quick,” said Elaine Smith, Salame’s girlfriend.
“He was so doped up,” Salame said. “If he was sober or something it could have gone the other way but because he was so messed up, I grabbed him before he even knew what hit him. I thank God no one got hurt, besides him.” It turns out that Adams lives just up the street. His mother told WBZ that he was virtually blacked-out drunk that night and doesn’t remember anything but waking up in jail..
Found in the June, 2013 edition of the The Gun Mag
