Drones

In natural and manmade disasters, UAS can be positioned to survey damage, locate stranded and injured victims, and assess ongoing threats without risking the safety of rescue teams and first-responders.

UAS can be used to search for lost children, provide tactical surveillance and suspect tracking, assist in accident investigations, and monitor large crowds.

Inspecting the underside of a bridge or the top of a skyscraper, not to mention the costs and risks. With UAS, scaffolding, cranes, or harnesses are not required. Just deploy the system to assess the structure's condition remotely.

Using a crop management system to observe, measure, and respond to variability in individual plants, farmers can target areas requiring attention. By pinpointing these areas, farmers can provide care only where needed—improving yield, conserving resources, and avoiding waste.

Aerial photography for a news broadcast or a blockbuster film can be efficiently, economically, and safely captured.

Large area screening, remote problems, costly inspection of landmarks, and time management for workers can all be altered by drones. More done with less cost.

Just a thought.

Bears- Part 2

A trip to Yellowstone National Park took a terrifying turn for tourists who were chased by a family of black bears. A black bear and her three cubs surprised the tourists when they appeared on a bridge lined with sightseers earlier this week, sending them running.

In a video released by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, sightseers run as the mother bear, seemingly equally terrified and confused, charges one family as they scramble to get to their car.

"A mama bear with cubs is not something you want to get near to at all. The warm weather of spring brings out more tourists - and more bears.  

"These bears do wake up in warmer weather," Hanna said. "They're thirsty and hungry and they come out. This is their time of year."
 

According to wildlife experts, the best defense against a bear is to keep your distance.

Yellowstone National Park regulations require visitors to "stay at least 100 yards away from bears."
 

"It's a beautiful animal we can all enjoy." Hanna said. "It's their home. Treat them with respect and film them at a a distance, that's all."

Just a scary thought.

Huanglongbing

One of America's most popular food staples is at war against an insect smaller than an apple seed that is spreading an incurable disease.  The nation's orange industry has taken a more than $4 billion hit as dead trees and useless crops recently sent orange harvests to their lowest in two decades. 
                
The disease is called huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening. Producing oranges too bitter for juice and too misshapen and discolored for fresh fruit, the bacteria leaves farmers little choice but to destroy every one of their sick trees.
The crawling culprit facilitating its spread is the Asian citrus psyllid, a plant juice-sucking bug that can easily become airborne and carry the fatal bacteria that destroys oranges, limes, lemons and grapefruits.

Of greatest concern to the government are a group of non-native ants, beetles, moths and flies, and one giant slug. 

Forest resources in the North Atlantic states are under siege. The Asian longhorn beetle is menacing "recreation and forest resources valued at billions of dollars" and has the potential to destroy "millions of acres of America's treasured hardwoods," according to the APHIS.

Just a thought.

Pigs.... huh?

Undercover video by Mercy for Animals captured workers at a now-closed New Mexico dairy whipping, kicking and punching cows. Four men were charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty in that case.

Seaboard Farms has more than 300 pig farms in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Colorado. It has fired five workers and two supervisors following an internal investigation at the Colorado facility near the Nebraska border, spokesman David Eaheart said. Authorities said no criminal charges will be filed, more training and education to be provided to the staff.

In a statement, the company said the abuse, which happened while the pigs were being loaded onto trucks, is "unacceptable and inexcusable" and violates its standards. It said all farm managers will be shown the video to send a message that such handling of animals is not acceptable.

Don't live like a pig, but if you are, you still have rights. Just a thought.

Dig up...Vodka

A New Hampshire woman who told police she dug up her father's grave in search of his "real will" but found only vodka and cigarettes, and no will.

She been sentenced to 1 ½ to three years in prison. She said she dug up the grave "with respect" and her father "would be okay with it."

The 53-year-old Nash was one of four accused in the plan to open Eddie Nash's vault in Colebrook, then rifle through his casket last May in a scene a prosecutor compared to an Edgar Allan Poe story. 

Police said Nash felt she was shorted in her share of the inheritance after her father died in 2004.

The Caledonian Record reports Judge Peter Bornstein noted the smashed concrete vault that housed the coffin of Eddie Nash and the disturbed body found the next morning.

"The patrolman said the gravesite of Eddie Nash did not look right," Bornstein said. "That is the understatement of the century." The remains have since been re-interred at the cemetery.

When 4 people put their heads together, disconnected, they come up with problems. Happens all over.   Just a thought.

Mother Fracker...

Einhorn, founder and president of Greenlight Capital, kicked off the speech by arguing that a handful of leading American oil companies that rely heavily on fracking were “poised for a fall”—even if the price of crude rebounds from its current depressed prices.

“We object to oil fracking because the investment can contaminate portfolio returns,” Einhorn said during his presentation.

Of those short positions, Einhorn described Pioneer Natural Resources PXD as the “mother fracker,” saying its oil production and reserves have not kept up with the company’s increased spending on drilling and developing wells.

“It’s well loved, well located and well run,” Einhorn said as he introduced the company. Still, he added, “A business that burns cash and doesn’t grow isn’t worth anything,” he said. “That’s like using $50 bills to counterfeit $20s.”

Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources dropped immediately as Einhorn detailed his position; more than 3% during.

So rethink your position.    Just a thought.

Old Doc....!

The world's oldest complete copy of the Ten Commandments is going on rare display at Israel's leading museum in an exhibit tracing civilization's most pivotal moments.

The 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scroll, from a collection of the world's most ancient biblical manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, has never before been publicly displayed in Israel and has only been shown in brief exhibits abroad.

The manuscript is so brittle that it will only be on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for two weeks before it is returned to a secure, pitch-black, climate-controlled storage facility there.

It is one of 14 ancient objects displayed in "A Brief History of Humankind," an exhibit of historical objects spanning hundreds of thousands of years.

The exhibit includes tools used in an elephant hunt from 1.5 million years ago, the oldest known remains of a communal bonfire from 800,000 years ago, skulls from the oldest remains of a family burial and the world's oldest complete sickle — a 9,000-year-old object that represents the transition from hunter-gatherers to settled civilization working the land.

A 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian tablet on loan to the museum and 2,700-year-old coins from what is now Turkey, are also on display. An original handwritten manuscript of Albert Einstein's groundbreaking theory of relativity caps the exhibit.

Time to see. Just a thought.

A Mother's forgiveness.

The parents of a slain Pennsylvania State Police trooper said Sunday they have forgiven his alleged killer and are relying on their faith to get them through the loss.

"It doesn't do you any good to hate somebody for whatever they have done to you, because all it does is eat you up.  said Bryon Dickson.

 

"Justice lays behind us at the grave, where my son's body is buried," she said. "And Eric Frein is chained to that place of justice. He has to be held accountable for what he has done."

Addressing the congregation, Darla Dickson recalled the moment that every parent of a police officer or soldier dreads: the knock on the door, when a trooper and chaplain brought word that her son had been killed in the line of duty.

 

"What I experienced was just a disbelief beyond degree,"  "It was very surreal. I just could not even wrap my mind around it."    It hasn't been easy to forgive Frein, who authorities said did not know her son.

 

"There were days when we had to get up, and it was difficult to set one foot in front of the other and face the world," she said.

But the Dicksons said their Christian faith has brought them great comfort and teaches them that just as God has forgiven them, they are to forgive others.

"Not keeping a record of wrongdoing gives you hope for tomorrow, a sense of love that displaces all evil in the world," Darla Dickson said.

 

Their appearance came as the church celebrated "Blue Sunday," paying tribute to law enforcement. The pastor, David Crosby Jr., brought several state police troopers and local police chiefs on stage to cheers and applause from the congregation of hundreds.

Crosby prayed for the safety and protection of law enforcement, as well as for "healing and restoration" in Baltimore. 

 

Darla Dickson told the AP she doesn't think about Frein. Instead, she focuses on her son, a 38-year-old Marine veteran who left behind a wife and two young sons.

"I miss my son. I grieve for him," she said. "But it's not the kind of grief that the rest of the world carries. I have that hope that I will see him again."

 

Just a thought.

Fort Lee-Part 4

David Wildstein was Christie’s enforcer and go-to guy at the Port Authority, which runs the New York City-area airports as well as the bridges and tunnels that connect New York and New Jersey. He shut down two out of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge at the direction of Kelly. Their alleged goal was political payback against the mayor of Fort Lee who would not endorse Christie’s re-election bid.

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," Kelly wrote in an August 2013 email.

New Jersey governor  fired Kelly and cast aside Bill Stepien, the man who ran his political organization.

Prosecutors said that to "maximize the congestion and thus the punitive impact", the trio "caused these lane and toll booth reductions to start on the first day of the school year in Fort Lee, without any advance notice to Mayor, Chief of Police and the residents of Fort Lee."

Wildstein admitted in Newark federal court that the bridge's access lane closures were the result of political retribution. He admitted that Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni chose the first day of school to maximize the punishment and used the traffic study as a "cover story."

What makes one do things like that thinking they wouldn't get caught? 

Just a thought.

Young Haters?

Violence and looting overtook much of West Baltimore. As night fell, looters took to Mondawmin Mall and a Save-A-Lot and Rite Aid in Bolton Hill, loading up cars with stolen goods. "I don't understand how stealing jeans is going to bring justice to Mr. Gray."

About 10 fire crews battled a three-alarm fire at a large senior center under construction, as police officers stood guard with long guns.  Shots were fired at an officer in the area.

Fifteen police officers were injured in the clash with school-age children that began around 3 p.m.    Police arrested 27 people.

The mayor declared a curfew across the city, “thugs” are “destroying our city.”
Police commissioner implored parents to take control of their children who might be taking part in the rioting.  Structures that were being destroyed took great effort to erect in ailing communities that need them. 

What are these young people angry at? Is it the Police, Society, Poverty, Education, or Lack of Family life?

Just a thought.