Watch out above

Image from www.hydriod.com I consider myself an aviation person.  My head turns when an unmanned aerial system (UAS), airplane or helicopter passes over.  I've been that way since I had ears and eyes. That's why I became a professional pilot, shaking my eyes out of focus and losing my hearing bouncing around in rotary-wing anythings.  Now, another type of robot is peaking my interest: autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs.   The world beneath the ocean remains an undiscovered sea of unfathomable tales, and well fish too.  Some say that the Garden of Eden is no longer above ground naked in the sun but covered by the northern, sandy shoreline of the Persian Gulf veiled by millions of gallons of water pushing and pulling sentiment over human-kind's origin.  Whether you believe in the Garden of Eden or not, there are untold numbers of mysterious underwater puzzles, clues and treasures that can still be discovered... with a little help. A few weeks ago, I read about

While researching journal articles related to unmanned systems and their predicted impacts on society, I discovered a vein of anti-drone research which accuses the United States of "Orientalism."  This word refers to the presumed intense and purposeful branding of Arabs by Western cultures as being perverse, violent and extremist (AANM, 2014). Maria Espinoza is one such author. Having published her article State Terrorism: Orientalism and the drone programme in 2018, the writer asserts that the entire U.S. military drone program is based on racism and hatred for Arab nations and people. It was a difficult task to read past the introduction as I always prefer to read objective scientific materials which present arguments in a logical order, leaving it to the reader to weigh the outcome of the argument.  The more one screams about how "right" they are the less I am inclined to listen.  But, like most educated readers, I can read and decide on my own. It is imp