Model Airplanes

Trying to preempt privacy concerns with the growing technology, the Florida House and Senate are moving forward with bills regulating the use of drones.

The unmanned aircraft have wide-ranging possible uses, including for a same-day delivery plan announced by Amazon.com, storm chasing, search-and-rescue missions and recording overhead video.

It’s this last possibility that has state lawmakers worried: How can personal privacy be protected, especially on private property, while still allowing the technology’s possibilities to be explored?

Committees in both chambers advanced bills (SB 766 and HB 649) Tuesday seeking to answer that question.

“This is a real this is a real issue,” said Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, the sponsor of the Senate bill. “Just within the last month, we had a drone that crashed into the bedroom window of a Hialeah, Fla., residence.”

Hukill’s bill and its House counterpart by Rep. Larry Metz, R-Eustis, would make it illegal to record someone else’s private property using a drone without their consent.

It wouldn’t apply in public places or to the parts of private property that are visible from public places, such as the front of a home.

But some lawmakers have raised questions about the legislation’s reach. 

Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, asked about an exception for reporters gathering news. Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, wondered how Google would be affected if in the coming years the company wanted to do a drone version of its “Street View” function. Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Wellington, said she’d like to see future provisions protecting children in public parks from sexual offenders.

The lone

Article source: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/fretting-privacy-violations-lawmakers-advance-drone-bills/2222659

SEYNE-LES-ALPES, France (AP) — A black box recovered from the scene and pulverized pieces of debris strewn across Alpine mountainsides held clues to what caused a German jetliner to take an unexplained eight-minute dive Tuesday midway through a flight from Spain to Germany, apparently killing all 150 people on board.

Article source: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/french-media-report-plane-crash-in-the-alps-148-aboard/

What were the dangers? 

Cruise: The things we were all very concerned about were particles on the runway and bird strikes. We spent days clearing out the nearby grass of any birds, and they brushed the runway as best they could. My stunt coordinator would poke me if he got reports of bird strikes. The pilot had to be on the lookout for anything in the air that could impact me in any way. 

I also was testing how to keep my eyes open so you have a shot – I can’t have my eyes closed the entire time. The thing that no one else was thinking about, but I was, was the fuel. You have jet fuel coming right out of the back at me because I’m on the wing above the engine. Even when we were taxiing, I was also inhaling the fumes and they were going in my eyes.  

So we came up with this idea of a lens that covered my entire eyeball, so when I opened my eyes, my pupils and retina had protection from any particles and hard air from the runway. I remember one time we were going down the runway and there was just a little particle that just hit me — it was smaller than a finger nail. I was thankful it didn’t hit my hands or face. If it did I’d have a problem, because those parts were exposed, but it still could have broken my ribs.  

Also, there [were concerns about] the

Article source: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/tom-cruise-mission-impossible-plane-stunt-114408491527.html

If you want approval for a new project — purchasing new equipment or computer systems, applying for a patent, building a new store — chances are you need your company’s finance department on board. To get the green light, it helps to understand how finance people think.

Most finance managers in both large and small businesses encounter numerous proposals for capital investments and many of the people proposing these investments don’t have a clear picture of what the return will be. They’re essentially asking the company to take the cash it has generated through its business operations and spend it on something with an uncertain future return.

But finance people like me are skeptical even when the proposals do project a return. Here’s why.

Everyone always wants new equipment — new computers or other hot technologies. Do you think they’re going to do a net present value (NPV) analysis that shows they don’t need that computer? Of course not. They figure out how much the new computer system and software will cost and they compare that with the cash flow generated through efficiencies (assuming they know how to analyze returns based on cash flow). If the numbers show a negative NPV, meaning that the proposed investment isn’t justified, they change the assumptions until the NPV turns up positive.

From our point of view, in other words, most people use ROI analysis as a way to justify something they really want to do anyway. If you understand this, you

Article source: https://hbr.org/2015/03/when-it-pays-to-think-like-a-finance-manager