KEYTLaw's Blog

Drone Policy Abuzz in Washington

Roll Call: “An army of small drones are heading for the national airspace this holiday season . . . . The flood of new aircraft — and new pilots — is expected as federal officials are preparing to tighten their grip on drone fliers. The Federal Aviation Administration said in October it would require registration of drones . . . . Federal rules already require commercial users to register to fly drones, also known as unmanned aircraft systems. But officials, as well as representatives of the aviation industry, are worried that recreational drone users, including the pajama-clad pilots who might take their drone for a virgin flight on Christmas Day, might not understand the rules behind launching into U.S. airspace.”

Georgia Tech Prof Expelled from Global Warming Fraternity for Asking Questions

The Spectator: “For engaging with skeptics, and discussing uncertainties in projections frankly, this Georgia professor

[Judith Curry] is branded a heretic. It is safe to predict that when 20,000 world leaders, officials, green activists and hangers-on convene in Paris next week for the 21st United Nations climate conference, one person you will not see much quoted is Professor Judith Curry. This is a pity. Her record of peer-reviewed publication in the best climate-science journals is second to none, and in America she has become a public intellectual. But on this side of the Atlantic, apparently, she is too ‘challenging’. What is troubling about her pariah status is that her trenchant critique of the supposed consensus on global warming is not derived from warped ideology, let alone funding by fossil-fuel firms, but from solid data and analysis. Some consider her a heretic. According to Professor Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, a vociferous advocate of extreme measures to prevent a climatic Armageddon, she is ‘anti-science’. Curry isn’t fazed by the slur.”

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Climate Change Will Not Be Dangerous for a Long Time

Scientific American: “The climate change debate has been polarized into a simple dichotomy. Either global warming is ‘real, man-made and dangerous,’ as Pres. Barack Obama thinks, or it’s a ‘hoax,’ as Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe thinks. But there is a third possibility: that it is real, man-made and not dangerous, at least not for a long time. This ‘lukewarm’ option has been boosted by recent climate research, and if it is right, current policies may do more harm than good.”

97% of Americans Aren’t Worried about Global Warming

The Daily Caller: “While 97 percent of scientists may agree mankind is driving global warming, 97 percent of Americans don’t seem to care about the issue when stacked up against other concerns such as terrorism or the economy, according to a recent Fox News poll. A November Fox News poll of more than 1,000 registered voters found that only 3 percent listed “climate change” as the most important issue facing the country today, down from 5 percent in August. Americans were much more worried about terrorism, the economy and immigration than global warming.”

Cops Bust Mahjong Game Played by Elderly Women

CBS Tampa Bay: “Police in Florida busted a game of mahjong in Florida at a condominium clubhouse. The group accused of the crime: four women between the ages of 87 and 95.