And the Paranoid Truthers and Conspiracy Theorists Have a New "Fear"
Cute little "bugger" isn't it? Looks like something I could create with my beads and wear for a Halloween decoration.
Anti-war protestors are seeing these little guys all over the place lately--from Vanessa Alarcon (a college senior) at a rally in Lafayette Square to Bernard Crane (a Washington attorney) to various anonymous sources.
No one is claiming a working "robobug" yet, but there are many agencies working on them. And, significant problems remain in working out the "bugs" for "robobugs"...the experimental ones still use tethers. They can be blown around by cross winds, they can be swallowed by birds, they can get caught in spider webs.
They are in the works, however. There is an excellent article at the Washington Post here, and while it's 3 pages long, it's definitely worth the read.
Of course, with people not bothering to read or understand the wiretapping issues and the protections needed during a time of war, they're bound to become paranoid about something like this, and that shows in the article as well.
And:At the same time, he added, some details do not make sense. Three people at the D.C. event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies -- an accoutrement that Louton could not explain. And all reported seeing at least three maneuvering in unison.
"Dragonflies never fly in a pack," he said.
Go read the article--it's actually pretty fascinating, even if the technology is a decade or two away. It could potentially be an exciting technology, keeping humans out of harm's way or finding people and animals in disasters. It could also be used in surveillance, again keeping humans out of harm's way yet still finding ways to get the information we need to protect this country.So what was seen by Crane, Alarcon and a handful of others at the D.C. march -- and as far back as 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York, when one observant but perhaps paranoid peace-march participant described on the Web "a jet-black dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th avenue . . . watching us"?
They probably saw dragonflies, said Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Washington is home to some large, spectacularly adorned dragonflies that "can knock your socks off," he said.
Just don't get paranoid about it--use your brains and smarts and not your emotions. Think of positives, not negatives.
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