The holiday season may be the most wonderful time of the year for many of us, but it's also one of our most wasteful. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of waste produced by households in the United States can increase by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. Further analysis conducted by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2021 backs up those numbers, estimating that Americans create 5.8 million tons more waste in December than other months. That's equivalent to the weight of 28,713 Boeing 747 airplanes. It's not just the US, though. Look up the stats for many other countries and they tell similar stories'in fact Canada and the UK fare a little worse. The good news is there are things that can be done, and as much as 80 percent of this waste can be reused, repurposed, or recycled. Whatever you wrap your presents in, it's probably getting tossed, so this is a big source of waste. The easiest rule to follow for gift bags and wrapping paper is that simple is better. That means no glitter and no foil. Wrapping paper that's recyclable should be labeled as such these days, but the 'crumple test' will help if you're unsure. Crush the paper into a ball, and if it stays crumpled when you let go, it's likely recyclable. If it bounces back, it's made of mixed materials and probably can't be recycled....
Some of this recent increase in activity may be related to a September 2023 change in U.S. Federal Aviation Administration regulations that now allow drone operators to fly at night. But most of the sightings are likely airplanes or helicopters rather than drones. I am an engineer who studies defense systems. I see radio frequency sensors as a promising approach to detecting, tracking and identifying drones, not least because drone detectors based on the technology are already available. But I also see challenges to using the detectors to comprehensively spot drones flying over American communities. Operators communicate with drones from a distance using radio frequency signals. Radio frequency signals are widely used in everyday life such as in garage door openers, car key fobs and, of course, radios. Because the radio spectrum is used for so many different purposes, it is carefully regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Drone communications are only allowed in narrow bands around specific frequencies such as at 5 gigahertz. Each make and model of a drone uses unique communication protocols coded within the radio frequency signals to interpret instructions from an operator and to send data back to them. In this way, a drone pilot can instruct the drone to execute a flight maneuver, and the drone can inform the pilot where it is and how fast it is flying....
The Department of Homeland Security issued warnings to state and local law enforcement agencies this summer regarding the 'growing illicit use' of commercial drones, internal documents show. Among the recommended steps was to conduct 'exercises to test and prepare response capabilities.' A DHS memo from August, which has not been previously reported, paints US cities as woefully underprepared for the 'rising' threat of weaponized drones. The capabilities of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are 'progressing faster' than available countermeasures offered under 'federal prevention frameworks,' the memo says, adding that it's common for state and local authorities to observe 'nefarious' and 'noncompliant' flights but still lack the authority to intervene. The memo states that violent extremists in the US are increasingly searching for ways to modify 'off-the-shelf' drones to ferry dangerous payloads, including 'explosives, conductive materials, and chemicals,' with major advancements in the area being propelled largely by rampant experimentation on foreign battlefields, including those in Ukraine....
Recent mysterious sightings in our night sky cannot be written off as hallucinations, mass delusions, or hoaxes. Something is indeed happening. But what' For weeks, objects that appear to be drones have been spotted up and down the East Coast, primarily in New Jersey but also in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Nearly every morning brings new photographic and video evidence of odd occurrences, in addition to fresh eyewitness testimony. Here are the facts in their simplest form: Night after night, people are reportedly seeing large aerial machines moving slowly across the sky. Some of these aircraft appear to be as big as cars. Often, they fly solo; other times, they glide in pairs or in groups. They have reportedly hovered for up to six hours at a time. They also frequently fly at lower altitudes than small airplanes. Many videos appear to show a rhythmic, steady blinking'white, red, and green flashes. And then, just like that, the lights may vanish'especially if detected....
