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Google Just Got Approval to Deliver Packages Using Drones and Their First Launch Could Happen This Year
Google triumphed over the massive hurdle of getting Federal Aviation Administration approval to begin delivering packages via drone.
Wing, an offshoot of Google X, has been certified by the FAA as an airline. The company released a statement elaborating on what this certification will allow going forward:
Drone deliveries are shaping up to be the future of shipping, so naturally the race is on to see which service can most quickly utilize this relatively new technology to create more seamless and efficient delivery experiences.
It looks like we might have a winner.
Mysterious Drones Have Completely Shut Down The U.K.'s Second-Largest Airport, and People Have Questions
At a time when travelers are embarking on journeys home for the holidays, the second largest airport in the United Kingdom—Gatwick Airport—has shut down due to sightings of drones flying overhead.
The drones have resulted in chaos affecting over 110,000 passengers, not to mention the diversion of numerous flights that were scheduled to land at Gatwick before the sightings. Those flights have diverted their landings to London's Heathrow airport while some were forced to land other places in Europe. The airport isn't expected to reopen until Thursday afternoon.
The world burns or cuts down about 15 billion trees a year through mining, logging, and urban development. However, no nations, organizations, or individuals “have been able to plant enough trees to make up for that loss,” according to National Geographic, which results in not nearly enough trees being seeded to combat deforestation.
With big implications for climate change, an increase in mass deforestation threatens the survival of millions of animal and plant species. But as ecological initiatives push to regrow forests and farms like, technology startups may finally have an answer: drones.
"I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers ... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation."
-William Tecumseh Sherman
Someone Recently Attacked Russian Forces With a Swarm of Homemade Armed Drones and, Well, That's Terrifying
On December 31, 2017, a warning shot went across the bow for both Russia and the world when 13 armed homemade drones penetrated Russia’s Hmeimim Air Force Base and Tartus naval supply ship in Syria.
To date, the attacks have gone unclaimed, despite Putin’s initial assertion that Turkey played a hand in the attack. The Kremlin now claims to know who attacked both locations and that the drones were, in fact, far more sophisticated than countless photos and news reports would have you believe.
[DIGEST: Neopress, WIRED, BioCarbon Engineering]
Hobby drones are often seen as status symbols of the tech elite. The spendy toys have been blamed for invading sensitive airspace and private property, as well as for more egregious activities, such as smuggling drugs into prisons, colliding into skyscrapers and airplanes, and interfering with firefighters’ efforts to combat wildfires.